HEY SHEA! WHERE'S THE SHADE?

Will the finished corridor become somewhere people, and new businesses, actually want to come?

The morning after a rainstorm is about as forgiving as Phoenix gets.

Clouds were still hanging over us when we went out to look at the construction between Cheryl Drive and Cholla Street. Crews were planting new, young trees. Those controversial bright pink public-art pieces were already impossible to miss.

There is clearly money, planning and effort going into this stretch of road.

But when you stand there for a few minutes, another question becomes hard to ignore:

This isn’t a story about Phoenix doing nothing.

The 32nd Street project has a real list of improvements:

Before the 51, this was one of the main north-south routes through this part of Phoenix. The city’s North 32nd plan says the continual decline in traffic is part of what eventually made Phoenix rethink how 32nd Street should work.

And let’s be honest: it needs the makeover.

Near the 51 entrance, North Village Center is a pretty good snapshot of the older commercial pattern. Dated one-story storefronts wrap around a broad asphalt parking lot. There is a crowded, old tenant monument sign out front, with very little curb appeal beyond the businesses themselves.

There are versions of that pattern up and down 32nd Street.

That’s not a knock on the local businesses and tenants in those centers. But the lack of updates is part of the reason the city has been talking about revitalizing this corridor for more than a decade.

We want to be fair here: Phoenix did think about shade.

The project includes newly planted trees and one dedicated shade structure as part of its public-art package.

The trees are getting planted, but they also need time to get established.

Our photos show rows of newly planted trees (appearing to be young Desert Willow and Palo Verde) that provide almost no usable canopy today.

Using native and desert-adapted trees is still the right move, but those newly planted trees can take around three years to establish.

Then there’s the shade structure.

On paper, “shade structure” sounds substantial. In person, set your expectations closer to an artistic bus stop than a community pavilion.

It provides some shade, though right now, the structure makes a stronger visual statement than a practical one.

Look, nobody is expecting families to picnic on the sidewalk near Cholla. But what will this updated corridor feel like to travel through each day?

When you drive or walk through the mature, tree-lined stretch of Central Avenue, you understand what a mature, shaded canopy feels like. People choose those streets for morning and evening walks because the environment itself feels more comfortable and established.

We’re not there yet. And that’s okay.

We want more local businesses. More walkability. More safe places where neighbors run into each other, families can spend time and people have a reason to stay.

Call some of them “third places”. For us, that could mean:

Phoenix has spent decades building the opposite.

Parking lot. Go inside. Get back in the car. Drive somewhere else.

And in a city where the temperature can make an unshaded sidewalk practically unusable for part of the year, shade is not a decorative bonus.

It’s what makes new “third places” possible.

A few miles away, the redevelopment of Paradise Valley Mall gives us a small glimpse of what we mean.

The new PV area is still a major commercial development. There’s a wonderful new Whole Foods, luxurious apartment living, restaurants, and retail.

The important pieces are closer together. There is a central green space. You can park once, walk between restaurants and shops, let the kids run around on the grass, grab dinner and stay awhile.

We have a separate story coming soon on that redevelopment because there is a lot more happening there to get excited about!

Maybe this is the first step.

Maybe an improved street helps bring in new businesses. New businesses can give property owners more reason to renovate or rebuild aging centers. And maybe the next round of investment creates more places where people can actually walk, gather and stay.

That’s what we hope.

For whatever development upgrade comes next, please:

Put more shade Around Shea!