[Source: Steve Weiss, No Festival Required]
Mayor Phil Gordon and RED Development promised a replacement for the original Patriots Square Park in downtown Phoenix. This film shows what we as Phoenix citizens ended up getting as a “park”, a park so unlike a true park that no one who is even there knows it exists.
Video by Leslie Barton and Steve Weiss:
Downtown Voices Coalition 
This used to be a really cool little park, right in the middle of downtown when I was a kid. It had this sort of stylized Eiffel tower type centerpiece that (I think) had some kind of laser beacon in the top of it. I remember reading something in the Phoenix Gazette (also gone) that discussed potential air traffic control impacts when they were building the park. Not sure if they actually did it, but I remember reading that there was some type of planned coin operated interface, that would enable park visitors to actually manipulate the laser on top of the tower somehow. It was a very big deal when it opened (we drove from the west side to see it) and a point of pride for the city, due to the artistic innovations incorporated into the park’s design. Sad to see it all demolished and replaced by a shopping complex; but, that’s pretty much the story of Phoenix… a desert, in every sense of the word.