Life In Scottsdale

The Salt River Indians are turning their tent casino into a 15 story Vegas style hotel/casino.  The current casino, which is just east of the 101 on Indian Bend, is already a popular destination for the valley’s gamblers.  Personally, I can’t stand to walk into the place because it’s a smoke filled mess occupied mostly by sketchy people who look like they are on meth and can’t really afford to be there in the first place.  I find the entire experience sad.  The casino restaurant does offer great, low priced food, and it’s a great place to eat after midnight when just about every other restaurant in Scottsdale (which, despite its party-town reputation, is a bit of a bedroom community, especially when it comes to finding food at night) is closed.  After all, the casino wouldn’t want any of its hard working gamblers to have to *leave* the casino to find food elsewhere.  One thing I find fascinating about the casino is that its parking lot is full, day or night.  You can drive by at noon, 6 pm, or 3 am, and you’ll find the parking lot full of cars.  People just love to gamble, I guess.

Construction has already begun on the new casino, which is set to be completed in 2010.  There will be a 750 seat showroom featuring live entertainment, a concert venue with room for more than 2000, swimming pools, 497 hotel rooms, and apparently much more. 

Although technically the Casino will not be located in Scottsdale, whose boundaries end at Pima Road, the casino will be a boost for the city in the small scale version of the way that casinos have driven the Vegas economy for the past half century.

Update: Dish has gone out of business, to be replaced with “Good Eats”

Dish (a Food Experience) is a restaurant that opened about a year ago at the southeast corner of Scottsdale and Doubletree.  The citizens of Gainey Ranch (myself included) eagerly awaited the opening of this restaurant because there is a lack of good food options in the immediate area.  The concept seemed wonderful - a huge restaurant with a healthy theme and a gourmet carry out section.  The building, which is divided into a carryout section and a restaurant/bar, is beautifully built and designed.  Sadly, the restaurant seems doomed to fail.  I walk in about once/month, and each time I enter there seems to be fewer customers than the last.  When they first opened, at lunch time business was booming and people were everywhere.  Now, there are usually more staffers than customers.  I used to stop in on my way to work, but for one reason or another (slow business, I imagine), they delayed their opening until 9 am.

Most experiences I have had at Dish are negative.  Although the restaurant is usually empty, there still tends to be a line to actually get food.  My experience yesterday was typical: I wanted to order an omlet, but I wasn’t excited about the spinach and mushroom omlet that they offer.  I asked the guy at the counter what else I could get on the omlet.  He seemed confused, so I specified “can I get tomatos, turkey, chicken, or anything else?” He walked away, asked a couple of the cooks, and then came back to me to report “they won’t tell me what you can get on the omlet, sorry.”  Basically, *every* time I have ever ordered from Dish, there has been a similar problem.  The staff isn’t outright rude, and in fact sometimes they try hard to be helpful.  But they often seem a bit clueless, and they almost always mess up the order.  Most people I’ve spoken to about Dish say the same thing.  Lots of bad experiences.  On top of that, despite the huge carryout section, there just isn’t that much appealing food.  I rarely can find something that I’m really craving.  They don’t even have chocolate chip cookies!.

In general, I have felt that the food is mediocre.  Sometimes its OK, sometimes its bad, but its never great.  Still, I’m hopeful the restaurant will succeed.  It’s in a great location, and the building is gorgeous.  People want to eat there.  They just need to make some good food.  Good luck!

Scottsdale home sales for April 2008 fell 17% compared to April 2007, while the home sales for the rest of the valley increased by 15% over the exact same period.  The median price of a Scottsdale home sold dipped 9% over the exact same period (this doesn’t mean that houses definitely dipped 9% in value — it could just mean more cheap houses sold and less expensive houses sold — but it is a strong indiciation that prices may have gone down around 9%).

Meanwhile, on a national level, foreclosures have skyrocketed 65% between April 2007 to April 2008.

I personally do not have a problem with this real estate crash, and I think it should continue further.  Homes in Scottsdale are ridiculously priced, and even a successful family making $150,000/year would struggle to buy a nice home anywhere in Scottsdale.  I am guessing that the Scottsdale market will bottom out about 15% lower than it currentl is priced, at around the end of 2009.  Of course, that will represent an effective 25% drop in real estate value since real estate typically should rise 5-6% per year, to make up for the interest rates people need to pay to own property.

At One Yoga (www.atoneyoga.com) is the best place to do yoga in Scottsdale, plain and simple.  While their prices are somewhat high ($20 to go once, $200/month), considering that you can find many of the same teachers at local gyms (Gainey, etc), you cannot deny that it’s a great yoga experience.  At One has two locations - one in Scottsdale at Shea & Scottsdale, and one in Phoenix at Lincoln and 38th.  The rooms offer a feeling of feng shui, with hardwood floors, high ceilings, and fewer mirrors than most yoga studios.  The classes are typically heated, but not to the point of being unbearable.  The teachers are simply some of the best teachers in the entire country, and Alex Austin teaches the best yoga class I have ever experienced.  The greatest thing about At One Yoga: the students.  While the classes are certainly friendly to beginers, if you visit At One you will be surrounded by experts who will amaze you with the skill and beauty of their practice.  The girls who work at the front desk are often rude, but if you ignore them they will ignore you. At One offers a great culture of yoga.  Every time I leave, I’m glad I went.  And I don’t know of anyplace else in Scottsdale where I can say the same thing.

Bill Simmons just wrote an interesting piece that torches the suns management and ownership for destroying the future of the franchise to make an extra buck.  Their awful moves include dumping Joe Johnson to avoid paying his salary, selling multiple 1st round draft picks (including the #7 pick a couple years ago, a draft pick that led to Rudy Fernandez, and a few others).  Simmons trashes Brian Colangelo for his bad moves, without giving him any credit for the good moves (drafting Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire with mid first round draft picks when they weren’t obvious choices, signing Steve Nash when everyone else thought he was overpaid) that led the Suns to being the best regular season team over the past 4 years.  In my opinion, the true crime is Robert Sarver selling off draft picks and absolutely refusing to pay the luxury tax.

Hey, the guy only has two houses worth over 3 million in PV: (mansion, weird plot of land).   (Those are the only places listed by the Maricopa County Assessor in his name, I’m sure he has some more spots that are properly concealed from the public).  I don’t begrudge him his riches, and I don’t even really care if he wants to run the team in a frugal manner.  But selling off draft picks for cash?  That’s about the scummiest thing I’ve ever heard of an NBA owner doing to his fan base.  He appears to be a trust fund baby (his father was a big builder in Tucson), but he managed to found The National Bank of Arizona at the age of 24, and no matter how much money you have handed to you, starting a bank at age 24 is impressive.