Urban Lifestyle & Culture | This Could Be Phoenix
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Urban Lifestyle & Culture

Lately, everywhere you look is a rack full of bright green bikes sporting smiley-face emoticons. It's Grid Bikes, a bike-share program that launched in Phoenix late last year. The majority of the program’s nearly 40 stations and 500 bicycles are clustered in Downtown and Midtown, and there are four different payment options: $5 hourly, $30 monthly, or $79 annually, with a student rate of $59 annually. The paid memberships all offer 60 free minutes of riding time per day. We've put together some of our favorite Grid Bikes rides and destinations. If you’re looking for a fun ride, use these maps and routes to start your journey.

My introduction to the real Phoenix came at the hands of a coffee shop. It was a month or two into the school year, and I went with some of my friends to First Friday. Afterward, we stopped at Jobot for iced toddies. I'd never been in a local coffee shop before — raised in the suburbs, I was much more familiar with Starbucks — and I was fascinated by how many people were hanging out in those three small rooms talking and laughing and making friends. It's not something you see in a Starbucks, where if someone is at one of three tiny tables, they're in a suit, on a laptop, and don't want to be bothered. In the years since, I've grown to appreciate the value of third places — those crucial spots that facilitate socialization and interaction outside of home or work. Ray Oldenburg outlines just why third places are important in his book The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. They offer an "escape or time-out from life's duties and drudgeries." They serve as a pick-me-up, and create new sets of acquaintances.

If you've spent any time Downtown recently, you know that Phoenix is booming. This year it ranked 11th on Forbes' list of fastest-growing cities in America, and is projected to be the fourth largest U.S. city by 2020. This growth is perhaps most visible in the sheer amount of construction taking place, especially in the housing industry. Last month a Phoenix City Council subcommittee voted to recommend a request for proposals for a mixed-use residential and commercial development just south of Fillmore Street. A couple weeks ago developers broke ground on Union @ Roosevelt, another mixed-use development that will include commercial space at the street level and residences above. Portland on the Park is set to break ground at the end of this month. And last week, 222 E. Roosevelt was demolished to make way for a new residential tower being developed by Baron Properties. We could go on...