David Bickford

Bus rapid transit (BRT), reminds me of the old joke about the food being terrible and the portions so small. BRT is often touted as just as good as rail but cheaper and faster to build. That is doubtful when there's a decade between approval of the route and completion. www.axios.com/local/phoeni...

I love how these bars on Second Street between McKinley and Garfield in downtown #Phoenix have collaborated to create their own corridor of spooky inflatables for Halloween. Bonus points to Pinky's for having a black cat reminiscent of the one we adopted a few years ago from the cat cafe next door.

The Coronado Hotel and the original Matt's Big Breakfast have been demolished in downtown #Phoenix. I hope that whatever high-rise housing replaces them is better than the Derby, the ugly stucco tower in the background with a parking podium that looks like it was built with plywood and chicken wire.

I enjoyed both the #Seattle TurkFest last weekend and the Greater #Phoenix Greek Fest this weekend. Despite the historic tensions between these two neighbors, both countries have rich culinary traditions, and that was a good excuse to eat well at each event and bring home baked goods to enjoy later.

It's so nice to return from fall break travel to find we now have actual fall weather in #Phoenix. A gentle wind and cloudy skies made for a relaxing bike ride home from the Roadrunner Park Farmers Market via the Dreamy Draw Path.

More than a decade later, this post is proving prescient. Valley Metro’s proposed bus network redesign, if implemented, will modify the 72 and 154 bus routes so they will no longer deviate from their straight line routes to stop at the unused park-and-ride. www.scottsdaletrails.com/2014/06/10/p...

Good summary of how years of dithering by the #Phoenix city council and bullying by the #Arizona state legislature have delayed the expansion of light rail to the west side of the city for another decade, if it happens at all. coppercourier.com/news/infrast...

I do not wish harm upon anyone's pet and am glad to hear the dog survived. Nevertheless, blame should not be reflexively directed at Valley Metro. The presence of unconfined, non-service animals on trains is a hazard to everyone, including the animals themselves. www.fox10phoenix.com/news/dog-dra...

This morning, I noticed the new offices of the Arizona Republic / AZ Central at the former Park Central Mall site for the first time. They would be fine for a regional bureau, but using that location for the headquarters of a major city newspaper just highlights the sad decline of print journalism.

The @valleymetro.org proposed bus network redesign is now available for comment. No major problems with it, but it's less sweeping than I expected. What the agency wants to do on a regional basis may be constrained by what its member cities and towns will support. www.valleymetro.org/projects/bus...

This is unsurprising since the combination of a grid layout, wide arterial streets, and mostly clear weather makes #Phoenix a relatively easy city for robotaxis to navigate. Waymo seems waymo’ controversial in San Francisco, as well as some potential expansion cities where the concept is unfamiliar.

Enjoyed visiting the #Chandler Museum, seeing the new Seafood City Filipino supermarket, and finishing restaurant week with Indian food at Feringhee. The only downside: These three destinations are literally across the street from one another, but poor design makes it unappealing to walk among them.

Last night, a member of my family left an item in a #Waymo autonomous vehicle. The silver lining: Retrieving it earned us a glimpse of the depot just south of downtown #Phoenix where our robotaxi overlords are recharged and bathed by their human servants. It’s an imposing, albeit unmarked, facility.

Impressive moonrise over Piestewa Peak in #Phoenix. The smaller lights are headlamps worn by nighttime hikers on the way up to the summit.

I don’t condone theft, but all the shoplifting at the Christown Target in #Phoenix has had one positive outcome: The store has removed its self-checkout and now staffs with enough cashiers to avoid long lines. The result is a much better shopping experience for the majority of law-abiding customers.

Witnessed in #Tempe this morning: A postal truck nearly hitting a person riding a recumbent bicycle in a marked crosswalk. Seeing that near miss does not inspire confidence that the same beleaguered agency could accurately screen the mail ballots used by the overwhelming majority of #Arizona voters.

This week's review: Meet the new steakhouse, not quite the same as the old steakhouse, but another rebirth in a city defined by them. phxrailfood.com/2026/09/25/d... #phoenix

Enjoyed seeing Meat Puppets play tonight at the #Phoenix Art Museum. I first saw the band live in 1984 when they opened for Black Flag at the Living Room in #Providence. Despite occurring more than four decades apart in totally different venues at opposite ends of the country, both shows were great.

This is a welcome development to facilitate combining robotaxi service and public transport for mixed mode trips. I would love to see it spread to #Phoenix, but first @valleymetro.org must catch up with its peers around the country and implement contactless payments. cities-today.com/waymo-launch...

Harkins is such a Jekyll-and-Hyde company. It’s a beloved #Phoenix institution that offers a far superior experience than its main competitor, AMC. On the other hand, its current locations are overwhelmingly suburban, and it continues to ignore its own history and the urban core of its own hometown.

Thoughtful talk between the leaders of @strongtowns.org and @parkingreform.org. It was a struggle to get the #Phoenix city council to adopt modest reforms. Meanwhile, entire states like North Carolina, hardly a progressive stronghold, have abolished mandates entirely. www.podbean.com/ep/pb-m8q8b-...

The season premiere of "South America" (fka "South Park") perfectly portrays the two extremes I see in bicycling: purists riding fast in lycra with dropped handlebars vs. kids riding e-bikes they don't know how to handle. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to my right. Stuck in the bike lane with you.

Nice to see Park(ing) Day revived in #Phoenix for 2026 by my friends at @urbanphxproject.bsky.social and allied organizations. I wish I could have organized a thematic spot and participated all day, but work got in the way. At least I got to visit with everyone on Third Street during my lunch break.

I use Waymo an average of once a week in #Phoenix, and I completely agree with this assessment. Non-Muskmobile robotaxis can be a helpful supplement to public transit, but they are no replacement for it. Using them as an argument for disinvestment in rail and bus service is dumb and disingenuous.

Rigorously researched, balanced video about the good, bad, and ugly of #Phoenix past, present, and future. Nice to see guest appearances by my friends Jamie and Skitch.

The best part of this morning's commute: running into #Phoenix District 4 City Council candidate Ed Hermes, who was also biking to work via Third Avenue. We had a great conversation for several miles. I wish my District 6 councilman Kevin Robinson were even half as accessible as Ed. www.edhermes.com

Overheard during dinner at a popular #Phoenix steakhouse: Someone in the next booth, likely of the MAGA persuasion, was describing a trip to the Florida panhandle. After mentioning the Gulf of Mexico, he quickly "corrected" himself to use the imposed name. Even the faithful can't keep up with this.

Witnessed yesterday: A sociopath in a Muskmobile driving straight through a red light at excessive speed, narrowly missing two pedestrians in a marked crosswalk. #Phoenix police need to focus on this, rather than writing tickets for jaywalking, and automated enforcement with cameras is a vital tool.

This is a good listen. There are many worthwhile points, including the downsides of social media influencer culture, the importance of not hoarding knowledge of under-appreciated restaurants, and the futility of always trying to please everyone. Some focus on #Phoenix, but relevance to all cities.

7 Brew outbid Tempe-based Dutch Bros. to acquire 73 defunct Salad and Go sites, many of them in the #Phoenix Metropolitan Area. From the standpoint of urban vitality, the battle between these coffee chains is like the latest installment in the Alien vs. Predator franchise: "Whoever wins, we lose."

Good forum for #Phoenix City Council District 4 candidates hosted last night by @valleyurbanaction.bsky.social I support Ed Hermes, but I envy my Midtown friends for having multiple worthwhile candidates. In District 6, I have to choose between an unresponsive incumbent and MAGA-aligned challenger.

Most of these fears are greatly exaggerated. Very few businesses actually closed due to prior rail construction projects. Nevertheless, the #Phoenix city council's incoherent, equivocating approach to west side light rail has created an understandable level of cynicism. www.abc15.com/news/operati...

I got the updated fall 2026 COVID-19 shot over the long weekend, and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona is listed as the prescriber for the vaccine. His blanket prescription is a clever bit of legal legerdemain allowing AZ pharmacists to administer the vaccine despite chaos at the federal level.

This change in map projections is long overdue, so of course the current U.S. administration voted against it. While the rest of the world moves forward with a more realistic and fair way of seeing the world, we'll drag our feet, just as we've done with the metric system. www.bbc.com/news/article...

My mother's ambition to become a lawyer was discouraged in the '60s. In the '70s, she subscribed to Ms. Magazine, and in the '80s, she enrolled in law school, passed the bar, and began her legal career. I think Gloria Steinem is at least partly to thank for inspiring her to pursue a deferred dream.

Smart people like "DEI bike lanes," preferably with physical separation from car traffic, because they don't want to DIE when simply trying to travel between two places. It doesn't even have to be "woke." Use your bike to get some raw milk and beef tallow if you like. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/u...

Mapquest is getting a lot of love right now for not going along with the “Lake America” absurdity. There is one problem, though: Unlike Google and Apple, Mapquest does not provide public transit information. That makes it not only less useful, but also unexpectedly aligned with the Trump 2.0 agenda.

In example of horseshoe politics at its worst, the far left and the far right have united to conflate automated traffic enforcement with Flock cameras while ignoring the fact that the former react only to traffic violations while the latter surveil everyone. www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/politic...

Journey's final concert is scheduled for November 28 of this year. That gives the band three months to change its signature song's lyrics: "Just a city boy / born and raised in north Windsor." They may anger a few US fans who get the joke, but with retirement approaching, what have they got to lose?

No, it's not "42 light rail crashes." It's 42 drivers colliding with trains because they failed to comply with traffic signals. That said, signs can always be improved, and some intersections may benefit from grade separation projects if funding can ever be found. www.azfamily.com/video/2026/0...

Regularly scheduled rants about drive-thrus and bad city planning have been interrupted to bring you this amazing cactus super bloom in my front yard. Although the current high pressure system is producing only oppressive heat, storms back in July must have done something to bring about this bounty.

Of course it’s “city approved.” Our current #Phoenix mayor and city council, civil servants, and village planning committees seem unwilling to say no to drive-thru blight just about anywhere, even near schools and light rail stations where is there is likely to be high levels of pedestrian traffic.

I occasionally use Waymo and Lyft as supplementary transport. Without the labor cost of a human driver, I would expect the former to be cheaper. Instead, they are often the same, and sometimes Waymo is much higher. Today, Waymo is quoting me $70 for the same eight-mile ride Lyft can provide for $25.