The Phoenix Center for the Arts is looking for volunteers for the V-Week events, from Feb 4th – 10th, as well as help with their front desk.

40 hours of volunteer work will earn you one free class of your choice.

For the V-Week events, the Center is looking for help for various shifts and tasks. V-Week events will lead up to presentations of the Vagina Monologues in both English and Spanish.

The events will be held at the Center’s downtown Phoenix campus at 1202 N Third Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

This second annual event seeks to delve deeper into conversations and movements that society has largely avoided or suppressed in the past.

For the front desk volunteer, the Center asks for:
– Minimum 2 month commitment
– Completion of front desk volunteer form
– Age 18+

Front desk volunteers are the primary support system for our Patron Services department and, therefore, are required to posses a certain basic skill set which includes computer proficiency, telephone/communications skills, and customer service procedures. 

If you are interested in volunteering for this position, please contact Kelly Fitzharris with any questions: 
k.fitzharris@phoenixcenterforthearts.org
or 602-254-3100 x309

Because we are active in the community, we get a lot of questions from people who want to know how they can volunteer, how they can plug in.

For most people, it is hard to know where to start. Folks feel easily over-whelmed by the number of organizations out there. We completely understand that. We’ve all been there.

I recommend a simple, three-step process:

1. Sit down and write a list of the top five issues that inspire you, that get your heart pumping. That could be homelessness (which is on our minds a lot recently), sustainability, childhood obesity, the list goes on.
2. Do a quick Google search on those terms in Phoenix and see who is out there. Simply attend a meeting or volunteer in the office. One phone call and almost any group would love to have your help.
3. If you are not inspired by how the group operates, just move on to the next.

Give yourself three to six months to settle down on a group that you really like. It is more like dating that you might thing –but without the terrible dating apps and websites.

To that end, here is a really handy list of organizations that are in need of volunteers. Thanks to Local First Arizona for putting this together. I’m kinda bummed we didn’t think of this.

Another well-known and trusted resource is Hands On Greater Phoenix. At this site you can find a calendar of events for the entire valley.

The Get Your PHX Team does it’s best to give back to the community through our Charity Referral Network, plus we donate our time to organizations as well.

Through the Charity Referral Network, we will contribute to your favorite charity if you refer a friend to us and once that friend closes on either a sale or a purchase of a home.

To learn more, call us at 602-456-9388.

Who knew 9 years ago, when we first started Phoestivus, that it would get this big? This year we had over 170 vendors and over 4,000 people on Night One and about 5,400 on Night Two. We raised over $20,000 for the farmer’s market.

We’ve grown, we’ve changed, we’ve even lost friends along the way (we miss you Monika Woolsey).

Our goal was always to support the Phoenix farmer’s market in an area of town that was a food desert to many, while supporting locally-owned businesses and the local farmers who supply it.

The stories that inspire most are those of people who use the market to launch their successful businesses. Look at Strawberry Hedgehog’s Tracy Perkins, who’s vegan-friendly soap business is now in Whole Foods.

The weekly market director, Sara Matlin, took the market to a whole new level. She makes the trains run on time. Were it not for her, we would not have grown so seamlessly.

In creating the market, I had one goal: that the market would be here for so long that nobody would know who started it. If we do it right, none of us will know if we reach that goal. But, we seem to be on the right track.

Our second goal was to focus on supporting locally-owned businesses. We believe that franchises and multi-national businesses, while sometimes great for their employees, can’t match the job creating power of locally-owned businesses. Local First Arizona will tell you that for every one dollar spent at a locally-owned business, 30% more stays in the state to create more jobs and support police, fire fighters and schools.

Last, but not least, we wanted to have fun –we mean the nerdy, goofy fun that you see in the Pheats of Strength, the Phoestivus Pole and the Airing of Grievances (Thank you Phoenix Storyteller’s Project for taking that to the next level). And who would forget Phreddy the Yeti and the ever-popular Hipster Santa.

Personally, I look forward to Phoestivus more than I do any other nights of the year. People are walking around, happy to see each other, warm in the glow of that feeling of community and connection that you only ever see in movies about the holidays. I feel like we are doing it here, while still being inclusive to all.

As we prepare for our tenth year, we want more of those ideas. We want more community participation. So, please drop a note to me through our contact page here, and let us know what you’d like to see in the future.

Again, thank you all and thanks again to all of our many sponsors! Please see below

Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about what came before us. We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar@hotmail.com.

Morin House on the move

I became intrigued by the idea of moving a house from one spot to another when I learned that my childhood house had been moved three blocks by my great-grandfather. Apparently it was quite common to move houses based on newspaper ads and the number of movers listed in city directories. Still, I wondered how it was done; but it was only a few years ago that I actually had the opportunity to witness one moved.

Most often houses are moved because the owners value the land more than the old building. Occasionally you can find a house for “free” provided you can move it. Of course, that requires money, and an empty lot neither of which make the moving process any easier.

Heritage Square

The most recent Phoenix house moving was the Wurth House which only traveled from the north side of Roosevelt and Third Street to the south side.  But the house was saved. The move was not real dramatic, but was still difficult. Perhaps you saw it propped up as the foundation was being reconstructed. When restored, the Wurth House will once again become a valued property of Roosevelt Row.

Frank Thomas House

Significant moved houses in Phoenix include the Smurthwaite House transported from 7^th Street and Fillmore to Jefferson and 14^th Avenue in 1994 where it now serves as the offices for the Pioneer Cemetery. The city also moved the Burgess Carriage in the mid 1970s from 130 E. Taylor to Heritage Square where it is now the ticket office and gift shop for the Rosson House. In 1985, the city moved the Frank Thomas House to the expanding Heritage Square. You may know this as Bar Bianco.

Burgess Carriage House

But I found it most enlightening watching the Edward Morin House move from 1115 N. 2^nd Street to 621 N. 5^th Avenue in 2007. Imagine, a two-story brick house weighing 170,000 pounds lumbering along on a flat-bed truck in the middle of the night. People tagged along on the street and sidewalks gawking as APS crews lifted power lines. The journey was carefully plotted to include the wider streets so the truck could more easily turn. But maneuvering the house onto the lot on 5^th Avenue while backing in was truly a work of art. Some of you may know how tricky it can be to back a trailer into a slot and get it exactly right. We recommend you see the house and try to picture its move, the last to cross Central Avenue before the completion of light rail.

Burgess Carriage House Restored

For those of you new to seeing policy analysis in this otherwise community and real estate newsletter, here’s the deal. Since your’s truly (Ken) is a policy nerd who believes that the real estate market is directly impacted by public policy, I’m going to choose topics of general interest having to do with policy once per month for a deeper dive.

Full disclosure: I was in favor of Prop127, which would have increased the utilities required installation of renewable energy to 50% by 2030. APS and its allies were the biggest opponents.

I don’t know if the Arizona Association of Realtors threw in any money in, but I hope they did not. After all, it is our fiduciary responsibility to our clients to be responsible with the fragile energy/water nexus that allows us to survive in the desert. After all, what value will your house have in 20 years if our resource planning has been so poor that it makes Arizona an unattractive place to live?

Well, I’m gonna throw some energy analysis charts at you. I know that not everybody geeks out on this stuff like I do, but I put the following in layman’s terms and I think you will find this eye-opening.

To start, there were many claims on both sides in this last election that did not stand up to scrutiny.

The proponents of Prop127 downplayed that we will have to spend money to update our electricity transmission to account for the fact that renewable energy is “intermittent”, meaning that is on when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing, but then it shuts off quickly when all goes quiet and dark. Let’s be clear, we will have to adapt our current systems to handle these load shifts.

Having said that, the APS claim that each rate-payer would have to pay about $2,000 more per year for energy is complete balderdash. It was a shame that the proponents of Prop127 could not find a way to fight this claim more effectively.

There are two reasons that this claim is deeply untrue and sinister in its application.

First, the cost of renewable energy has gone down dramatically in just the last 9 years –to the point that it is competitive with both coal and natural gas. This trend will continue well past the term proposed by Prop 127.

This data, by the way, comes from a Lazard study that comes out annually and compares different energy costs. It’s called the Lazard Levelized Cost of Energy Study, and they do it annually.

Lazard is a banking and investment firm that has been around since 1840. This is no lefty, pinko green energy cheerleader. They are well-regarded across the political spectrum.

But, it’s not just the cost of energy that has gone down, it’s the cost of current production of coal or natural gas against the cost of the entire renewable energy project. In other words, when you see the chart below, just know that it is a comparison of what it costs to produce current coal vs and entire 30 years of a renewable energy project.

Why is that important? Well, because we don’t know what the cost of coal or natural gas will be ten years from now. But if we get a loan to build a huge solar plant, the cost is basically the same year end and year out. It’s much simpler.

I was speaking with one of the ASU professors who got himself elected to the SRP board, Dr. Paul Hirt. He told me that, with the help of the new pro-solar board members, SRP is building a 100 MW solar panels for the new Intel plant at about $3/kWh. In English, that is about the same cost of purchasing energy from a natural gas plant —NOT the cost of building the plant.

With renewables, we pay for the plant up front and average the cost of the loan, plus maintenance. With traditional energy, we have to pay to build the plant and then hope that the cost of the fuel does not change too much.

Second, what APS did not tell you is that the cost of energy storage is coming down dramatically, too. We use the new technology of energy storage to make that intermittency less harmful to the system. For example, if a bunch of solar panels are putting out more energy than we need at the middle of the afternoon, then all stop producing energy at 6pm, could we have stored a lot of that excess energy during the day so that we can use it when the sun goes down? The answer, of course, is “yes.”

Have a look at the tables below, in which you will see that even the cost of storage is expected to continue downward over the next five years.

There are many types of storage, from batteries on your wall at your house, which pull from your solar panels, to pumps that move water back up over a dam with the help of solar panels or wind turbines.

So, having thrown all of these tables and numbers at you, we are left with an important question: what is the future of renewable energy in Arizona? Certainly APS has been emboldened by their defeat of Prop127. They submitted a “resource plan” to the Corporation Commission –the plan of where they want to get energy for the next five year– and it included no new renewable energy. So, these guys are doubling down on dumb in a country and a world in which the cost of renewables and storage are dropping to meet the market.

Remember the comment I made at the top of this article? How attractive will Arizona be 20 years from now if we don’t take care of our resource planning now? How much will your house be worth?

I think about that a lot.

The answer is that we could be in a really great place if we only move away from traditional power plants (which are the second largest user of water, behind agriculture) and toward more energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Unfortunately, you need to power through dense data like this in order to make the case for renewables. APS has much more success by just telling us all that your poor grandmother would pay $2,000 more pre year for energy.

If you are in to experimental music then this four-day music festival at the end of January might be right for you.

This year is the sixth year of the Oh My Ears (OME) festival, organized by Elizabeth Kennedy Bayer. OME seeks to give space and opportunities for composers, performers, and ensembles from all backgrounds who present works by living composers. 

The event features an award-winning guest composer, Sarah Gibson.

Gibson is a composer/pianist who has been called “a serious talent to watch” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). Her works have received honors such as the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, Victor Herbert Ascap Award, NFMC Marion Richter American Music Composition Award, and first place in the Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. Her left-hand piano concerto was selected as a winner of the University of Southern California’s new music for orchestra competition and was premiered with Sarah at the keyboard. She has received commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Summer Music Festival And School, L.A. Signal Lab, the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, Soprano Lindsay Kesselman, among others.

Festival schedule on the OME website here or on their Facebook page. 

For those of you new to seeing policy analysis in this otherwise community and real estate newsletter, here’s the deal. Since your’s truly (Ken) is a policy nerd who believes that the real estate market is directly impacted by public policy, I’m going to choose topics of general interest having to do with policy once per month for a deeper dive.

Those of you who follow me know that I have fought against dark money for years, along with people like Terry Goddard and a whole bi-partisan list of folks. You can learn more here, where they like to use the term “dirty money”.

First, what is dark money? Its money that is spent for or against candidates for office or ballot measures where the public does not know where the money is coming from. Some people use the term incorrectly to refer to all campaign spending, but that is misleading (sometimes intentionally).

Dark money has a specific definition and it is insidious. Why? Because if we don’t know who is trying to influence our elections, we don’t get a full picture of what their interests are in trying to change our laws. As Supreme Court Justice Scalia once said “For my part, I do not look forward to a society which, thanks to the Supreme Court, campaigns anonymously . . . hidden from public scrutiny and protected from the accountability of criticism. This does not resemble the Home of the Brave.”

Second, why does a realtor care? Simple, if our laws in Arizona are written such that people outside of the state or outside of the country can use money to pull the levers of our democracy, then how can you be certain that the long-term planning and policies which affect your biggest personal investment are made for the greater good? For example, out-of-country investors are buying up water rights and may be able to use hidden dark money to get people elected to water district boards or the legislature to protect their interests rather than ours. If our water is wasted, how can you know that your home will have value 20 years from now?

Third, the problem: campaign finance law is really complex, meaty and frankly a little boring for people who don’t nerd-out on the topic, like me. Heck. Just look at how long this blog post is, and that’s just to give you the basic background so I can tell you this…

…the Superior Court in Maricopa struck a blow this week against a 2016 law put in place by the Arizona Legislature that re-wrote our entire campaign finance statute in a way that specifically allowed more dark money to flow in to our elections. That law is commonly known as Senate Bill 1516.

I won’t get in to the meaty details about what arguments were used to over-turn many parts of the law. But I want to summarize two things for you.

Former Attorney General and anti-Dark Money hero Terry Goddard

First, the only body in the state now that has a strong record of attempting to require disclosure of dark money is the Clean Elections Commission. This was put in place in 1998 by a ballot measure put forward by voters to try to fight the corrupting influence of campaign contributions.

In short, SB1516 re-wrote campaign finance law in such a way as to do an end-run around the Clean Elections Commission. The court today said that major parts of SB1516 cannot stand because the violated what is called the Prop105 provisions of the constitution –specifically that the legislature cannot undo the will of the voters.

Second, the part of the act that I found the most egregious has been ruled against by this judge. SB1516 basically allowed dark money from individuals, unions or corporations to be given to the political parties and then specifically designated to be spent in support of party candidates.

Why is this a problem?

Well, it used to be called “earmarking” and leads to candidates doing favors for people or groups that we can’t see. Under SB1516 we can no longer prohibit this or ask where the money is coming from. Because of this ruling, the Clean Elections Commission has some ability to try to disclose this.

So, are we in the clear? No, and for two reasons. First, this case will now go to the Arizona Supreme Court, which has a habit of siding against the right of the people on elections matters. Second, the legislature passed Prop306 which goes a long way to undermine the Clean Elections Commission via other means.

Alright, what can you do about it? I’d say first, follow and support the efforts of the Outlaw Dirty Money Effort. Second, pledge only to vote for candidates to will fight to outlaw dark money and who will stand up and reject when it is spent on their behalf.

First Avenue looking north from Washington (1941)

Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about what came before us. We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar@hotmail.com.

By the time December rolls around, it has generally turned “cold” in Phoenix. And that cold seems to foretell the coming of WINTER and the various holidays so many of us enjoy.

As a child, my family looked forward to a trip to San Francisco and seeing the decorated tree looming up inside the center of the City of Paris Department Store and all the other store decorations.

As a confirmed resident of Arizona, and Phoenix in particular, I look forward to how our array of cultures have chosen to celebrate their special winter holidays.

First there is all the baking which fills homes with tantalizing aromas. Stollen, gingerbread houses, potato latkes, fruitcakes, plum puddings, sugared nuts, fudge, and other assorted candies. And then the cookies. Dozens and dozens of Hanukkah cookies, decorated gingerbread people, and holiday specific shaped cookies.

Bill Sims Studebaker Window Display (1940)

My daughter learned from her German host family that it was not Christmas unless you made at least SEVEN different varieties of cookies. But we must not forget the various main courses of brisket, ham, turkey, goose, lamb, pheasant, or perhaps fish. Whatever your preference, someone is cooking it on that special day.

Yet, what would a holiday be without the decorations? Dreidels, menorahs, big and little, fancy and basic wreaths, trees, garlands, lights, luminaria, and oodles of scented candles. What one might decorate may depend on the holiday being celebrated or the available bush or cacti in one’s yard. The Phoenix Zoo has its annual Zoolights. Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, other communities across the valley have their own special evening of light displays. Your neighbors may go simple or all out on their homes.

Of course there is music in Latin, Spanish, English, German, Russian, and dozens of other languages. Many get into the spirit by seeing “The Nutcracker,” attending a “Messiah” sing-a-long or watching old movies.

Cacti lit in front of the Arizona Packing Company (1952)

To add a bit of warmth, December is the time to start the fire indoors and out.  Of course, those Maricopa County no burn days often place a damper on the fun of many “pyromaniacs.”

Yes, December is a time to gather with friends and family. To share the highs and lows of the year. To remember those who have passed in the preceding months. But most of all, December is the final month of the year where we can celebrate the joy of all the holidays with others.

Donna Reiner is the co-author of three books on Phoenix history.

The Rialto Theatre (1943)

In my capacity as state representative for this district and along with my seat-mate Lela Alston, we were thrilled to nominate one of our favorite local retailers (and regular Phoestivus vendor) Practical Art (owner Lisa Olson) for the Retailer of the Year award from the Arizona Retailer’s Association.

Lisa has been a great asset to the community. Practical Art focuses on featuring the work of local Arizona artists.

I first met Lisa almost 10 years ago when we hosted one of our monthly Get Your PHX events at Practical Art Those events were designed to introduce folks to attractions, spaces and businesses that they might not have ever seen before. We wanted to support local businesses at a time when the economy was in the dumps, while giving folks in the community an insider’s view of these folks.

Lisa and Practical Art also gives back to the community by hosting Pie Nights and special exhibitions, which raise more than $10,000 per year for local charities.

At a time when people gravitate to purchasing gifts on line, Rep. Alston and I felt that it was crucial to support a business that really supports our community.

I made a point at the award ceremony, sponsored by Walmart, to make mention that every dollar you spend at a local business results in 30% more of your money going to the local economy and tax base. What can I say, we are proud members of Local First Arizona and I could not help myself!

The story behind how Lisa came to own Practical Art is particularly touching, as well. But I’d like to encourage you to read about that here and here.

Congratulations Lisa!

News alert: Phoestivus vendor list announced! With over 150 vendors, the event continues to grow every year. Its gonna be big, so we need volunteers! See the entire list here.

Every year we need volunteers to make Phoestivus happen. Please follow this link to volunteer.

In fact, we can’t do it without them. We need folks to help sell raffle tickets, to direct patrons, to help with the various features at the event.

We need folks to help with set-up and break-down.

We need folks to even help people figure out which receptacle is for trash and which is for recycling. Yep, people STILL don’t know.

So, what we are saying here is that we need your help. Are you picking up what we’re puttin’ down?

If you can give us an hour or three hours. It all helps.

Here’s who it really helps. Volunteers help us raise money for Community Food Connections, the organization that runs the weekly farmer’s market downtown. That’s huge, because we still have a bit of a food desert downtown –not to mention the need for locally-sources whole foods.

If you are willing to volunteer, contact us directly at 605-456-9388. If you are with a company or organization who can supply many volunteers then you be certain that we are going to praise your good works from proverbial rooftops.