Orange blinking lights line the lanes of Grand Avenue. Traffic is instructed to slow down and drive with caution. Construction vehicles and workers occupy the lanes cut off from traffic, painting roadside parking spaces and bike lanes.
Grand Avenue between Seventh and 15th avenues is restricted due to a $12.7 million street-improvement project. Improvements will include planters, pavement improvements and new sidewalks. The project will also try to make Grand Avenue more pedestrian-friendly by installing bike lanes and reducing the number of lanes for cars.
Grand Avenue has experienced a revival with multiple galleries and restaurants opening in recent years, but many street-savvy shoppers have had trouble safely and easily accessing Grand Avenue.
Preston Baucom, who co-owns {9} The Gallery with Laura Dragon, shared the difficulties of being located on Grand Avenue. Tenants of the street’s buildings have a difficult time keeping regular hours, as Grand Avenue currently sees little foot traffic.
“It’s really hard to create foot traffic,” Baucom said. “Grand Avenue doesn’t seem like Roosevelt. You can have nothing specific to do and go to Roosevelt and find something to do. It’s a destination. Whereas Grand, you go, you do something, you leave.”
Baucom said he likes that the city is reducing the number of lanes on Grand Avenue. He said he regularly sees drivers “going about 90,” and hopes the project will encourage drivers to slow down and see what the street has to offer.
Kayla Blakeley, assistant property manager of the Oasis on Grand apartment community, said she looks forward to offering residents the safety provided by bike lanes.
“A lot of our residents walk the sidewalks, and we have a lot who ride, and they kind of crash into each other on the sidewalk,” Blakeley said.
Blakeley said she is also excited for more traffic to come to Grand Avenue on First Fridays. Oasis has the potential to draw crowds because it offers a community gallery for residents to display their work. Many residents also choose to open their apartments to the public as small galleries on First Fridays.
Liam Murtagh, who co-owns Bragg’s Factory Diner with his wife Emily Spetrino-Murtagh and pastry chef Dana Stern, has seen good business since Bragg’s opened in March.
“We opened in the spring, which is literally the worst time to open a restaurant in Phoenix,” Murtagh said. “Despite that, we’ve been growing and getting better and better, even through the summer.”
Murtagh and Spetrino-Murtagh once owned a store selling candy and records on Grand Avenue, and Murtagh said he saw Grand Avenue begin to flourish even then.
Murtagh believes that large changes could soon be coming to Grand Avenue now that the city is investing. He also thinks other areas of Phoenix could benefit from improvements like those Grand Avenue is receiving.
Baucom, Blakeley and Murtagh hope the bike lanes and street parking will be completed by Oct. 19, in time for the fifth annual Grand Avenue Festival.
Contact the reporter at alacasse@asu.edu
