Downtown Voices Coalition
Working for a sustainable Phoenix for everyone ~ para todos

[Source: Jahna Berry, Arizona Republic] — Phoenix City Council members and their top aides may have to tell a court whether they had improper talks with the developer of a proposed $200 million W Hotel project.  Last week, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered a trial to sort through conflicting accounts about how the [...]

On the evening of March 5, 2006 Sam Chu Lin collapsed after landing at the Burbank  Airport and did not recover.  Cause of death is pending an autopsy.  Sam was one of the first and most well-known broadcast journalists of Chinese heritage. His tenure at CBS was successful and long (including a stint as anchor [...]

[Article and photo by Angela Cara Pancrazio, Arizona Republic, Phoenix Section, Page 2] – Former State Rep. Barry Wong is deeply involved in trying to stop developers from building an 11-story condo and mixed-use tower on the top of the Sun Mercantile Building, the last reminder of Phoenix’s lost Chinatown.  As chairman of the Save [...]

U.S. Representative Mike Honda (D-California) visited with 50-some members of the Arizona Asian American Association (AAAA) outside the Sun Mercantile Building on Saturday, January 21, 2006.  AAAA President Arif Kazmi (right) and Save SunMerc Coalition Chair Barry Wong (left) welcomed Rep. Honda to Phoenix.
Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Rep. Honda spoke on [...]

Phoenix City Council at its December 14, 2005 hearing sided primarily with the real estate developer and ignored most of the pleas of the Chinese- and Asian-American and historic preservation communities to preserve the historic 1920s Chinatown Sun Mercantile Building and set aside 4,500 square feet of space for a history museum.  The council allowed [...]

Thanks to Ed Sharpe of the Glendale Daily Planet, the Phoenix City Council meeting of December 14, 2005 was filmed (apparently city government doesn’t film regular council meetings for later broadcast on Channel 11; only policy sessions). 
Click here to access the unedited footage and photos from the public rally and hearing where the fate of [...]