Today, like many other days, Jeannette chooses to walk home by way of San Francisco Street. The more direct route is heading west along the railroad tracks, through the hole in the chain link fence and over the tracks – keeping an eye out for oncoming trains. After a long day at work, a stroll in the sun and a little window shopping helps her relax and find joy in her day.
Heading east toward San Francisco Street, Jeannette passes the train station – beautifully restored and now the home of the Flagstaff Visitor Center – and admires the historic logging wheels, modest lawn and landscaping and antique baggage carts on display. Tourists are seen taking pictures under the Route 66. Just before rounding the corner, she looks further east and recalls that when she first came to Flagstaff, there was no Flagstaff Urban Trail System (FUTS) and no landscaping, just billboards and a weedy lowland space up to the railroad tracks.
Turning south onto San Francisco Street, Jeannette pauses at a pipe hoop with decorative scrollwork and a little sign to remind her (and the people next to her) to look out for trains crossing. Across the tracks is the old lumberyard, abandoned for years and now repurposed into a fine microbrewery and eatery. Passing Phoenix Avenue, she looks west, wishing its history as the original Route 66 was more celebrated. Then she notices scaffolding and two people with curious hats on – fuzzy mouse hats with little ears sticking up. Lo and behold, they’re muralists, the Mural Mice, painting a history of Flagstaff’s early Route 66 on the south wall of the lumberyard.
Even crossing the street is different than it used to be. The sidewalks are now wider so cars go slower and the crossing is a little shorter. She pauses to put a candy wrapper in the new trashcan. Continuing on, the street is lined with trees and benches, with banners on the streetlights showcasing upcoming events and festivals. There are crowds of people – tourists walking up and down the street, students going to and from the university, and people shopping and drinking coffee. A once overgrown weed patch is replaced by a lively garden and protected with a wrought iron fence – a perfect place to enjoy friends and libations beneath a marvelous old sandstone wall. All along the street, even including the old adult bar, nearly abandoned space gave way to reopened storefronts with new restaurants, bike shops and other locally owned stores.
Halfway down the street, Jeannette stops at a home decoration shop and admires a painting for sale there. She decides to buy it for $75 and leaves quite happy, knowing her apartment will feel a bit more “homey.”
At Butler Avenue, Jeannette waits by the bike rack shaped like a curly bugle and considers the street crossing. It is two lanes each way plus a turn lane. Even with the light, people must hustle to get across while cars are moving fast and turning every which way. Workers are in the process of installing medians and landscaping along this stretch of Butler, so she’s hoping it will get better. Just west of the busy intersection, new medians and landscaping slowed down the cars, gave the street some human interest and character, and created a refuge at the median, making crossing the busy street much more reasonable. On her walks in the fall, Jeannette will enjoy this place as much as the past few blocks once all the work wraps up.
As she concludes her walk heading west, she enjoys the landscaping along Butler Avenue – a pocket park with benches and a community gateway garden. All in all, it’s a pleasant way to get home after a busy day.
The whole of Jeannette’s experience walking home was enhanced by beautification, economic development, parks and recreation, public art and tourism funding from the City’s Bed, Board, and Beverage (BBB) Tax. This tax provides funding that is restricted to only paying for these services. Approximately 25 percent of the tax is paid by Flagstaff residents, with the remainder paid by tourists and other visitors to Flagstaff. As with tourism, the City’s beautification and public art efforts (significant contributors to her experience) receive no other City funding.
Consider this: Flagstaff’s beautification efforts make up about one quarter of one percent of the City’s total budget. If Jeannette makes $30,000 per year, her new painting cost one quarter of one percent of her budget. And by comparison, if BBB revenues were used to purchase the painting, tourists would have paid more than $55 of the cost of the painting. In addition, many of Flagstaff’s beautification projects are leveraged even further by the use of grants. For example, 95 percent of the recent landscaping work on Woodlands and Beulah Boulevards was paid for by grants. This means Flagstaff residents paid just over one penny for every dollar of cost.
Where do you want to live, work and play? Does our home include revitalizing neighborhoods, expanding successful businesses and creating a vibrant tourism industry? FBN
By Karl Eberhard, Community Design and Redevelopment Manager