Can't we all just get along...

I've tried to be nice to the guy, countless times, as has everyone else... so the apparent answer to your question is no. :(

I agree. Phoenix needs to also look at the pricing. $1.50/hour is a little steep, for the area. Its not a cosmopolitan area just yet, where people are fighting for spots.

I know its a fine line to try to get people to ride the LR vs. driving to DT and also trying to generate as much revenue as possible, but wherever the city installs meters, nobody ever parks there. So it seems like the high price and the extended hours has actually discouraged on-street parking, therefore, a drop in revenue for the city.

Quarter only? I pay with nickles and dimes all the time and have for 10 years. The only denomination the meters don't take is pennies. There are a large group of meters which take credit/debit, and they are currently installing more. I'm the king of argumentative fallacies, eh? You are basing your argument on what you've read on AZ Central, which is always wrong.

where do these fucks get off talking like they do?

http://www.eateraz.com/2010/11/the-peoples-court/

Jesus fuck, you love picking fights. Im sorry I should've said "change" not "quarters." I usually just use quarters because its easier to carry $1.50 in quarters than in nickels or dimes. You of course knew damned well thats what I meant but were being a fuck just to be a fuck. Also, congrats on completely misunderstanding what a argumentative fallacy is, me using the wrong word on accident isn't one.

The fact that we have so few machines that take ATM/Credit is a freaking joke. This summer I spent time in LA, Portland, Houston, Chicago, St Louis, Dallas, & Denver and not once did I ever need metal money in my pocket to use a parking meter.

Some cities had each meter with an ATM/Credit device, others like Portland had a kiosk at mid block that printed out a little ticket that you put in your window. I also hear Vancouver has a system in which each meter has a 1-800 number on them that you can call and then you can pay via ATM/Credit on an automated line, then you can apparently text that number when you need more minutes & it charges you automatically.

no, I didn't know what you meant. I thought what you wrote was what you meant. How am I supposed to know what you meant? ESP? Sorry, my crystal ball is broken. When you say quarters only, I have to assume you mean quarters only.

That's the way I read it too. Wondered if he actually ever used the meters.

Jesus Christ lets cut to the point and quit with the semantics: Phoenix is one of the only big cities in the West (I can't speak for the East, haven't traveled as much there) to have its meters primarily only take change. The fact that the City is going to potentially stop pinching pennies and go for 21st Century style meters is a very good thing.

When you make inappropriate comments like this, everyone can see what sort of a childish buffoon you are. It really eliminates any chance of having anyone take your argument seriously. That is a logical flaw in your argument, Mr. "I'm the king of argumentative fallacies." LMAO...

And for the record, you are rude. There's no reason to be like this, except that you exhibit behavior here on occasion that can best be described as being like a bully.

--don

Eater AZ is definitely Scottsdale-centric. Their offices are in the Galleria (Scottsdale's answer to the AZ Center), and they events they sponsor always seem to be in Scottsdale. It's therefore disappointing but not surprising that they have a dim view of Downtown Phoenix, even though the ratio of restaurant openings to closures is probably better Downtown than in Scottsdale. They did, however, seem to love Verde, so I'm dreading their take on its closure yesterday. I fear that one isolated restaurant failure will become an excuse for "told ya so" negativity toward Downtown Phoenix.

Oh totally. Tyda is a little prick that constantly tells people how great he thinks tey are and then publishes humiliating things about them. He really insulted two good friends of mine Richardson Browne and Beau Macmillan. I wrote him a note today and his reply was equally as snide as my comments to him.

Yeah, he likes nothing better. He enjoys being a huge douche and putting his two cents into every discussion and everyone's replies.

Adding two cents into discussions is sort of the point of a forum...

I love watching this place self-moderate. All of you can hold your own as far as I can tell. Please try to keep it on topic tho.

How did Verde close? Their carrying costs looked unbelievably low. (probably had something to do with the building, i'm guessing).

I posed a question in the scottsdale thread ... wtf is going on there? Nothing.

This seems kind of cool...

That is cool. Looking forward to seeing designs!!!

The owners cited busy weekday lunches, but not enough traffic on nights and weekends. Of course, that could be said of a lot of Downtown restaurants.

In retrospect, I think the following would have helped:

-- Better music and speakers
-- A liquor license, at least a limited one for wine and beer
-- Better signs
-- More vegetarian choices on the menu
-- More illumination of the window that looked in on the room where tortillas were being made. Seeing the tortilla making would have been great advertisement, but you really had to look to see what was going on in there.
-- More social media activity
-- Better ulitization of the nearby Phoenix Public Market, maybe, as suggested by Michele Laudig of the New Times, by selling tortillas there

Or, you could go with my three-year-old daughter's theory. She really liked the place. In fact, it was the first restaurant she knew by name. When I told her it was closed, she pouted and then told me, "Batman closed the restaurant."

Reasons for Verde's fail:

1. The menu was too limited. My wife complained that she didn't like any of the 5 menu items so she refused to go there. As a result, I didn't get to go unless I was alone. If you are a vegetarian, you were pretty much screwed. Hell, the menu was too limited for me. Unless I was in the mood for pork, I couldn't really go there.

2. It's called marketing. If people don't know you exist, they won't come to your place. Especially when you are one of a whole lot of burrito places in Central Phoenix. Even driving by it was hard to tell what the building was. It looked like a gallery or something to me.

3. Be open on Sundays. I live close by. I like eating during the weeknight evenings, but I am usually too tired from work to actually go out. Know when I am hungry and rested enough to go somewhere? Sundays. And of course, just about everything is closed. If you want to be closed to get a day off, try Tuesday night. Be open on Sunday.

I thought Verde was a good concept. They just didn't quite execute everything great to succeed.

1. They were called Verde, meaning Green, because they were trying to be environmentally conscious. Not sure but I think they went for some kind of LEED designation with their building renovation. You may have noticed their recycle bins and the wooden stool things were a way to be "green", etc. That should have brought them more notariety and business.

2. The location seemed like it should be good, but in reality 1st Street and Garfield is 1 block too far south and 1 block too far east. They had zero driveby/walkby traffic.

3. Yeah, they should have definitely done more marketing.

4. They had some pretty cool plans, just ran out of money to do them. They wanted to have their parking lot be a place with music and drinking on First Fridays. They also wanted to use their little lunch truck that they had. If the lunch truck stuff takes off like it seems to be doing (with the Public Market, etc.), that would have/still could be a good idea.

5. Needed a liquor license, obviously.

6. They ran out of money (due to the construction) and didn't have enough steady business to recoup their costs, or improve, like getting a liquor license.

I'm a firm believer that a restaurant can have a very limited menu.. even more limited than Verde's.. but what you do have has to be unforgettable. If you do something unbelievably well, eventually your food and reputation will sell itself. They had good tortillas, but nothing else was truely great. A lot of downtown restaurants are in the same boat, but maybe they just have deeper pockets than Verde so they can stay afloat.