Grand Ave. is quirky; so is its Festival logo. And yes, you can get it on a T-shirt.
It’s been awhile since I could share a straight-up Change of Venue Friday. For new readers, that’s when I post on a non-law topic, but one that may be of interest to the many other parts of our brains.
Today I have the opportunity, so I urge you to take a Saturday trip to downtown Phoenix and attend the 2013 Grand Avenue Festival.
As a fellow history buff, you may recall that Grand Avenue is notable for a few reasons. Yes, it’s the only diagonal street in our gridded city. But it’s also the urban portion of the U.S. 60, the road that back in the day took travelers from Phoenix to Las Vegas—and beyond.
That history is everywhere on the street, which is dotted with historic warehouses, now transformed into businesses, artist studios and gallery spaces. And the festival includes art, music and food. But it also includes a “Re-Dapt Historic Commercial Building Tour.” So cool.
Organizers posted the complete event program here. But, almost as if they know how busy you are, they also provided a “Short Guide to the Festival” here.
Finally, if you like a little law mixed in with your Change of Venue: Note that Grand Avenue business owners, area residents and the City of Phoenix recently were awarded a greening grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The amount from the EPA–$80,000—wasn’t huge, but it allowed street improvements that will slow the racecourse-speed traffic, improve lighting and street parking, and install some of the most innovative crosswalks and bike lanes I’ve seen (in Phoenix anyway). I’ve posted a few images below of the crosswalks and bike lanes being hand-painted; click to make them larger.
The crosswalk design was the result of a call-for-ideas. The winning design is a combination of traditional interstate highway badges that include the words Grand Ave. Congratulations to Bob Graham of Motley Design Group (sited on Grand Ave.) for the cool idea.
Have a Grand weekend.
AZ Attorney 
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