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The Grand Avenue Merchants Association cut the ribbon on new, green bike lanes, conveniently completed in time for the Grand Avenue Festival this past weekend.
In addition to the new bike lanes, which run northwest along Grand from Seventh Avenue to 15th Avenue, Grand Avenue received a more substantial facelift, with new LED street lighting, desert landscaping, decorative crosswalks designed by Bob Graham, and new bike racks to accommodate an expected increase in bike traffic.
See also: Best Bike Advocacy Group – 2013: Phoenix Spokes People
Yet another much-needed addition to the area was 24-hour on-street parking — a particularly unique accomplishment considering Grand Avenue is actually U.S. Route 60 and parking is not normally permitted on U.S. Highways.
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Tim Sprague of Habitat Metro, LLC, was the master of ceremonies for the occasion, welcoming speakers from the City of Phoenix, Grand Avenue Merchants Association as well as PLAN*et, a multi-disciplinary land use and community planning business, to shed light up on the process everyone went through to “make pigs fly,” as Sprague said.
See Also: Grand Avenue Festival 2013 in Downtown Phoenix
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton also made an appearance and praised the improvements being made in downtown Phoenix. Mayor Stanton presented an award from the American Planning Association, Arizona Chapter, to Leslie Dornfeld who accepted the award on behalf of PLAN*et.
Slowly but surely, downtown Phoenix is chipping away at becoming a progressive and welcoming community to be a part of.
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