![]() They kept making the same nine original house sandwiches for a loyal group of regulars even as the city transformed around them - its population growing by about 25,000 each year, inflation rising faster than in any other U.S. They remodeled the kitchen to make room for a nursery when their children were born and then expanded into catering to help those children pay for college. Their margins had always been tight, but they saved on labor costs by both going into work every day. “Love the new haircut,” Joe said a few minutes later to a city employee who came for meatballs three days each week.ĭebbie arrived to help with the lunch rush, and she greeted customers at the register, while Joe prepared tomato sauce and weighed out 2.2 ounces of turkey for each chef’s salad. “Hey, bro! The usual?” Joe said to a construction worker who always ordered an Italian on wheat. ![]() Crime … Depravity … Outdoor mental asylum.” And in Phoenix, where the number of people living on the street had more than tripled since 2016, businesses had begun hiring private security firms to guard their property and lawyers to file a lawsuit against the city for failing to manage “a great humanitarian crisis.” A group of fed up small-business owners in Santa Monica, Calif., had hung a banner on the city’s promenade that read: “Santa Monica Is NOT safe. In Seattle, more than 2,300 businesses had left downtown since the beginning of 2020. Cities across the West had been transformed by a housing crisis, a mental health crisis and an opioid epidemic, all of which landed at the doorsteps of small businesses already reaching a breaking point because of the pandemic. ![]() That had seemed to them like an open question each morning for the last three years, as an epidemic of unsheltered homelessness began to overwhelm Phoenix and many other major American downtowns. “It’s the usual chaos and suffering,” he told Debbie. A man was weaving down the sidewalk in the direction of Joe’s restaurant with a saw, muttering to himself and then stopping to urinate a dozen feet from Joe’s outdoor tables. A young woman was lying in the middle of the street, wrapped beneath a canvas advertising banner. On this February morning, he could see a half-dozen men pressed around a roaring fire. He looked out the window toward Madison Street, which had become the center of one of the largest homeless encampments in the country, with as many as 1,100 people sleeping outdoors. He picked up the phone and dialed his wife and business partner, Debbie Faillace, 60. Fake flowers remained undisturbed on every table. The peace sign was still hanging above the entryway. He parked on a street lined with three dozen tents, grabbed his Mace and unlocked the door to his restaurant. The rooftop was converted into Floor 13 Bar, boasting stunning views of Downtown Phoenix.He had been coming into work at the same sandwich shop at the same exact time every weekday morning for the last four decades, but now Joe Faillace, 69, pulled up to Old Station Subs with no idea what to expect. Now: After sitting vacant for years, the building was renovated from 2014 to 2015 and opened as the Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix Downtown in December 2015. A large rotating Valley National Bank sign was added to the top of the tower in 1958, and is prominently featured in the opening sequence of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. Then: Constructed in 1932, The Professional Building is an Art Deco office tower that originally housed the Maricopa County Medical Society and Valley Bank and Trust Company (later known as Valley National Bank of Arizona). Arizona State University has also moved into the ground floor offering a clinic to residents. Now: The tower is home to several hundred people, most of whom are elderly or have disabilities. Several famous movie stars and politicians visited the Hotel Westward Ho, including Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor and John F. Then: Once Arizona’s tallest building, the 16-story beacon served as a luxury hotel until 1980. Arizona State University Libraries: Arizona Collection / After photo: Lauren Potter)
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