Forget about New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and the pride people who live there feel. For Kimber Lanning, Phoenix, a city that has long sought its own identity, is the only city that matters.
“Maybe I’m just an optimist, maybe I’m a fighter, maybe I’m a strategist, but I just know that’s who I am and I just get up and do it every day,” Lanning said. “It’s irrelevant to me that people say it can’t be done. To me that’s just an excuse to lay on the couch and get fat. Get out of my way is all I can say.”
Lanning was 19 when she opened her first Stinkweeds record store in 1987 simply because she wanted to own her own business, liked music and saw a need for one in Phoenix. From that point on, Lanning grew into one of the biggest figures in the downtown Phoenix community.
“She owned the record store at which employees of other record stores shopped,” said Russ Baurichter, who works with Lanning on Local First Arizona, a nonprofit organization which supports local businesses across the state. “So that right there made her a fairly prominent figure in my mind.”
Lanning also created the art gallery, Modified Arts, which has housed local musicians, photographers and artists for more than 10 years. In September, Lanning announced her departure from the gallery, handing off management to a husband-and-wife team.
Lanning’s attention has shifted to her position as the executive director of Local First Arizona. Lanning established the organization in 2003 to promote and encourage Arizonans to shop at local and independent businesses instead of national chains.
“We are growing up as a city and a state,” she said. “We’re that gangly, pimply-faced teenager who’s going, ‘Wait a minute, I’m starting to think for myself. You guys have bankrupted us and I’m going to choose to support the hometown guys.’ As quickly as the (national) chains grow, I think it’s even faster that they are going to fall.”
Lanning said she committed herself to expanding downtown Phoenix’s local art scene and businesses after hearing “one person too many” talk about how great Chicago was, yet felt disconnected after coming to Arizona because of how many national chains like “Applebee’s and McDonald’s” outnumbered independent eateries and shops.
Lanning said Local First Arizona has gained a lot of momentum and has become her life’s work.
“I want to build a city where we’re not constantly having a mass hemorrhaging of all our brightest young people,” she said. “I want them to grow up in Chandler and Mesa and feel good about moving to downtown Phoenix.”
The local art community, once generally ignored, gained the attention of legislatures last December when Phoenix was coined “Arizona’s Urban Heart,” to give downtown Phoenix a new identity. However, Lanning said a name doesn’t mean everything will simply fall into place.
“I’m a proponent of organic and just because we create a fancy name and some banners for (downtown Phoenix) doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen,” she said. “I think that the urban heart concept not only includes new, but includes old also. It’s important that we acknowledge that every great city has new and old side-by-side.”
Students are already realizing the impact of Lanning’s work with events like First Fridays that are becoming weekend staples for downtown students.
“The Downtown campus lacks some of the things that Tempe and other large college campuses are able to give to students,” junior Janette Diaz said. “But with things like First Friday, students downtown are able to experience things exclusive to a metropolitan city.”
Stacy Bertinelli, a board member of Local First Arizona, believes Lanning is a big reason the city has started to embrace its own culture.
“Through Local First Arizona, Kimber has shown that Phoenix has a lot of soul,” Bertinelli said. We have vibrant, bright, young entrepreneurs who are blazing their own paths and creating a diverse, rich landscape of funky shops, creative restaurants and unique ideas that could not be born any place else.”
Despite her efforts, Lanning said only the citizens of Phoenix and Arizona can collectively foster the culture and environment they want to live in.
“I think it’s important to recognize that if this city sucks, it’s because we suck,” Lanning said. “Period. It’s not like there’s some mysterious thing pulling these strings. We elected these people and if they are making bad policies, then we need to change that.”
“There is no other way to build a great city,” she said.
Contact the reporter at matthew.gullickson@asu.edu
