By Amy Silverman | Phoenix Magazine
Grand Avenue is poised to succeed Roosevelt Row as the Valley’s signature arts district, but the expected wave of gentrification – and possible departure of its staunchest advocate – has some longtime residents bracing for impact.
Whatever you do, don’t call Grand Avenue an arts district – not in front of Beatrice Moore.
You can call it historical, or a neighborhood, but really, Moore would be just fine if you didn’t mention it at all.
In a city where two restaurants and a plant shop at a single intersection are enough to trigger a cultural chain reaction and send property values through the roof, Moore would rather keep her neighborhood to herself.
And it really is hers. It’s hard to come up with another person in metropolitan Phoenix who’s so closely associated with a street.
