New development threatens Downtown relics

Surrounded by a jungle of buildings and nested on 3rd Street and Portland are the endangered bungalows. They might be torn down to create new multifamily homes.

Wayne Rainey, an artist and owner of the creative studio Monorchid, is a third-generation Phoenician. 

"My great grandfather came here from Texas in the early part of the last century," he said. "They were cowboys."

Over the years, he has watched Phoenix change.

"It was a real city. It was kind of a Wild West city, but it was a pretty vibrant downtown," Rainey said. "And I had the exact opposite experience. By the 70's and 80's, downtown had vacated."

His home, a 104-year-old bungalow, and others like are the few relics that stood the test of time. Now, they are slowly disappearing. 

"We can't remake history. You can't fake it," Rainey said. "And I think that we're really prone to forget that the historic equity that we have is extremely thin already."

Some developers are saying it's out with the old and in with the new, but many like Rainey agree that the fabric of downtown Phoenix is changing in a bad way.

"Typically developers don't stay in the projects they build," Rainey said. "They build them and they flip them and they're out."

Rainey says those buildings, which drive out cheaper bungalows, are not in line with the downtown aesthetic.

"It's so much more interesting to live in the same building that the guy who painted the artwork on your wall [lived in]."

As for the pros, Rainey could go on and on.

"When you have a vibrant, eclectic, interesting city, then you attract headquarter companies," Rainey said. "And that means more money. And that means you get better streets and better fire and better police..."