A giant metal dinosaur installed by a California company in a homeless camp in downtown Phoenix is still in place well past the deadline the city has set for it to be removed.
Dinosaurs and other metal sculptures appeared in mid-November behind street sidewalk railings on Ninth Avenue. These are a bizarre escalation of the ongoing conflict in the Zone, where local business owners have fought to wipe out the city of more than 900 people living on the streets.
Shortly after the dinosaur’s appearance, the city announced that it had been installed without a permit during an ongoing public utility project in the area. However, the city declined to name the business owner who installed them.
Acquired record phoenix new times The city indicated it believed Maker Kitchens, a California-based ghost kitchen company, was responsible for the dinosaurs. The company owns a warehouse on the block.
In late November, the city gave Maker Kitchens 30 days to remove the building. “The city will take further action if the roadblocks are not cleared by December 30, 2022,” said Kini Knudson, the city’s Road and Transportation Director, a partner at Maker Kitchens. wrote in a letter to Mr. Yossi Reinstein of
A week after the city deadline, dinosaurs remain.
Neither Reinstein nor Maker Kitchens responded. new times‘We had an inquiry about dinosaurs last month, and another inquiry about dinosaurs on Thursday went unanswered.
The city declined to say whether the company would face sanctions for failing to meet the removal deadline. “The city is aware that the roadblock has not been cleared and is working to identify next steps to remove public right-of-way,” said a spokesperson for the city’s Road and Transportation Authority. One Greg Bach wrote in an email: new times on Wednesday.
But there are fewer dinosaurs than there were a few weeks ago. Bill Morlan, president of Electric Supply just north of Maker Kitchens, admits: new times In December, he funded part of Dinosaur. He initially denied responsibility for the dinosaur. Morlan then removed the sculptures directly adjacent to his property, including a large Brontosaurus and several metal prickly pears.
During the city’s cleanup in the zone on December 16, social workers helped unprotected people move their belongings to a nearby parking lot.
Katya Schwenk
Sweep continues in zone
Maker Kitchens is part of an ongoing lawsuit by business owners in the area to force the city to remove the encampment. Business owners are waiting for a judge to decide whether to intervene.
But the lawsuit has succeeded in urging the city to resume sweeping in the zone after months of pause. These mopping-up operations, which are calling, are forcing people living in tents to move all their belongings while the streets are sanitized and cleared of trash.
In the past, the city has often trashed unprotected people’s belongings during cleanups.
Still, the city is going ahead with the cleanup. After the city called it a “pilot” on Dec. 16, it conducted another sweep Wednesday morning. is a change from
The city said it was providing housing to those living in the zone during the cleanup, but many activists are skeptical that this effort is contributing to a permanent solution. When reporters visited the area two weeks later, the blocks emptied during the cleanup were refilled with tents and other structures.
The city declined to provide a schedule for future sweeps. Ashley Patton, the city’s deputy director of public affairs, said, “In the future, we’ll be doing more sweeps than monthly because we can put the process in place.” I expect it to happen frequently.
