By Allison Barnett
If there is one thing that is certain, it is change. We are so fortunate to have City and County officials that seek to continue to improve our community through effecting positive change by creating partnerships as well as initiatives to continue to evolve the North 32nd corridor.
While there are certainly still some challenges to overcome in terms of absentee commercial property owners seeking top-market values for lackluster properties, we have a created a community that reinvests where they live and/or work on a daily basis.
Many of our newest business owners are also homeowners in North 32nd. This is a huge win for all of us as people who work where they live are more likely to continue to reinvest in the improvement of their community through supporting initiatives with other local business owners.
We have been lucky enough to see this manifest several times over with Wright in the Garden’s work, with Desert Voices as well as the Young Mind Community Center. And to be honest, it really starts with our kiddos. We are lucky to have both strong public and charter schools in our areas and active parent communities.
Enchanted Chapters, one of our newest local businesses, has been equally invested in creating an environment for people to gather together for special reading events of all ages as well as creating another space with their community room to be able to host even more events.
The best way to effect positive change is to work together. There are a few street corners that come up regularly on social media and we have our eyes on those. The best way to continue to create positive change is to visualize what we would like to see in our community and make forward progress.
At a little community costume party five years ago, we put out a notepad where we asked our community to write down what they would appreciate seeing in our community. A plethora of ideas came from the North 32nd community, and we are so lucky that some of these ideas have already come to fruition in our neighborhood, like a new coffee shop (hello Press), and an ice cream shop, Gelato Spot. We have continued to expand on this list by bringing it to our Facebook page, where the imagination continued to flow. It is incredible to see the transformation in those five years.
Recently, the corner of 32nd St. and Cactus (which has one of the largest vacancies in the area) came up in our Facebook group as an area of concern. Again, we asked our community to visualize how we may continue to transform that corner. We were so lucky that Rebecca Golden, formerly of 32 Shea and now LoveCraft, chose to open her newest outpost at one of the areas that so many would like to see revitalized.
In 2020, we look forward to continuing our transformation and coming together to continue to build a stronger and more robust community as we welcome both new residents and businesses.
What would you like to see next in North 32nd?
Where can you find more information?
Facebook Page: Facebook.com/North32nd
Facebook Community Group: Facebook.com/Groups/North32nd
Instagram: @north32ndstreet
Website: North32nd.com
Email: [email protected]
Allison Barnett is the managing partner of North 32nd, Inc. which is bringing revitalization of the community thru strategic partnerships with the City of Phoenix as well as local businesses. Allison is also a licensed associate broker with Realty ONE. AllisonJBarnett.com
