Roosevelt Row First Friday Closure Ends Temporarily
- The Roosevelt Row street closure used for First Friday arts events will end for the time being, organizers said. - The pause affects the weekly downtown closure that supports artists, vendors and evening crowds on Roosevelt Row. - Organizers and business owners expressed disappointment as the city reviews logistics, safety and neighborhood impact (patch.com).
Phoenix’s First Friday will continue in May, but the Roosevelt Row street closure and vendor market are being suspended for the foreseeable future. (abc15.com) Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation and Downtown Phoenix Inc. announced the change on Thursday, April 16, saying the ARTS Market street closure and vendor setup on Roosevelt Street need to be reevaluated. Businesses, galleries and arts organizations on Roosevelt Row will stay open during the monthly event. (12news.com) Organizers said they made the decision after talks with neighbors, stakeholders and City of Phoenix partners, and after what they described as recent violence in or near the ARTS Market footprint. They said the next few months will be used to “refocus and recalibrate” Roosevelt Row’s role in First Friday. (abc15.com) The change follows an April First Friday that had already been scaled back. On March 13, organizers said the April 3 event would run without street closures or vendors because downtown Phoenix was also preparing for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Women’s Final Four. (12news.com) First Friday started about 30 years ago as an art walk built around galleries and local artists. KJZZ reported that organizers now see the event as having grown into a street fair that is “no longer tenable” in its current form. (kjzz.org) Recent after-hours incidents pushed safety to the center of the debate. 12News reported that Phoenix police responded to a fight near Roosevelt and 8th Street after March’s event, used pepper balls on a disruptive crowd, and then investigated a shooting nearby that injured a teenage boy and an adult woman. (12news.com) Some Roosevelt Row businesses had already welcomed the April shutdown of the street, saying they saw more customers when cars could still pass and fewer unruly late-night crowds. Other merchants and artists have worried that losing the vendor market strips away a key draw for the district’s small creative businesses. (12news.com; abc15.com) For now, the city’s signature art night is shifting back toward open storefronts and gallery stops, without the blocked-off Roosevelt Street that had become its busiest stage. Organizers said that reset will stay in place while they decide what First Friday should look like next. (kjzz.org; abc15.com)
