How to save the places you love in Phoenix, Arizona, or anywhere

The Chuckbox in 1972, Tempe, Arizona

I collect old photos of Phoenix, and I share them on the internet, and one of the most common things that I see is that people regret the loss of something, like their favorite restaurant. And then I see people wondering who to protest to, or whether they should click "like" or something, or forward a Facebook post. And sometimes, well, there's just nothing to be done. Times change, and things go away. But you can do something that will make a difference.

I think about the places that are precious to me, like the Chuckbox in Tempe. And I try do something - I go there as often as I can. I tell my friends to go there (and take me with them!). Because it's all about money.

Of course, just going to my favorite places won't be enough if someone wants to buy that block and put in something else. I know that, I get it. But most businesses around here aren't in any kind of danger like that. They're just in danger of dying from neglect.

I'm an old Marketing guy, and I know that people vote for what they want with their money. If they want to watch the Super Bowl, they vote with a LOT of money. And that's how they show support for what's important to them. They invest in what they consider valuable.

I've lived in this neighborhood for over twenty years and I pride myself on supporting every local business (except the tattoo place, I can't bring myself to get a tattoo). And I hope that the places that I love will be around the next time I want to go there. This isn't charity, this is investment, in my community, my city, my world.

So, please put away the rants, and the blame that it's all some big conspiracy, man. It's not. Mostly it's simple - people invest in their business, and stay there if they make money. If you love a place, then go there and help support them, with money. There's no guarantee that your support will mean that that place will be there in the future, but it's the best thing you can do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more