By Ryann Checchi

Evolve PR & Marketing

LAVEEN VILLAGE – Locally owned and operated Angry Crab Shack, a restaurant specializing in seafood boils with Asian-Cajun flavors and signature sauces, has opened a new location in Laveen at 35th & Southern avenues.

The restaurant is open 3-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturday for takeout and delivery only. Angry Crab Shack operates 13 stores with 12 in Arizona, one in Orange Beach, Alabama, and a 14th location opening in Henderson, Nevada this month.

 “Angry Crab Shack has been growing and evolving quickly in Arizona and we’re excited to be able to open our 13^th location in Laveen,” said Ron Lou, founder of Angry Crab Shack. 

Angry Crab Shack’s features a menu of Cajun seafood boils as well as seafood-focused appetizers, sandwiches, soups and salads with its interactive, all hands-on deck dining experience where butcher paper covers tables, no plates are used and hands serve as utensils with cutlery available upon request. 

The restaurant offers a variety of new holiday seafood packages to-go including: a boil for two, family feast, neighborhood block party, and much more! Additionally, Angry Crab Shack is running a holiday gift card promotion through December 31 that could make for a great stocking stuffer, purchase a $25 gift card and receive a free $5 bonus card. In order to receive the free bounce back card, guests must purchase them in store. Gift cards are also available to purchase online without the complimentary bonus card option. 

Angry Crab Shack is experiencing rapid growth and is hiring at all locations throughout Arizona, in addition to Laveen. The seafood restaurant focuses on providing fresh, top quality taste at an affordable price point, sourcing lobster from the East Coast, Dungeness Crab from the Pacific Northwest, King and Snow Crab from Alaska, and crawfish from the Gulf of Mexico. 

The family-friendly Laveen restaurant will present a similar look and feel to the other Angry Crab Shack locations, incorporating its well-known, vibrant décor elements including live fish tanks, ocean life decorations and wood-boarded walls that guests can sign. 

Located at 6360 S. 35^th Avenue, the restaurant is open Sunday through Thursday 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. To place an order for pick-up, call the restaurant at 602-975-1065 or order online at the Laveen location HERE. To place a delivery order via DoorDash click HERE.  Normal hours of operation are Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and will resume at a later date. For more information about Angry Crab Shack and to stay up-to-date on business hours, dine-in service and new locations, visit angrycrabshack.com or follow on Facebook.

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Nothing says spring in Arizona quite like the smell of hotdogs and the steady, rhythmic sound of a solid sphere smacking into the leather pocket of a baseball glove or the crack of a bat as your favorite team warms up on the field.

Like hiking South Mountain and climbing Piestewa Peak, spending the afternoon at one of the multiple Cactus League fields around the Valley is a rite of spring passage in Arizona.

The tradition started in the heart of South Phoenix when the Detroit Tigers were the first Major League Baseball team to set up camp and train here in 1929. The team played a few exhibition games with local teams and MLB teams at Phoenix Riverside Park, near Central Avenue and the Salt River.

Some community members yearn to awaken that history with a spring training facility on their “wish list” for the South Mountain/Laveen area. However, given the expense of building a stadium, it’s not likely to happen, even with the new South Mountain Freeway poised to bring in development when it opens in late 2019.

“It’s a nice fantasy, but not realistic,” says Phil Hertel, a longtime Laveen resident and a member of the Laveen Citizens for Responsible Development. “When you look at the price of hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre… well, I just don’t see it happening. It’s too expensive. I just don’t think it’s economically feasible.”

The City of Phoenix has only a single Cactus League facility–Maryvale Stadium–where the Milwaukee Brewers train and play each spring. City officials have shown little interest in stretching the city’s tight budget to accommodate something that pricey. Instead, suburban cities such as Goodyear, Surprise and Tempe have offered up state-of-the-art complexes to attract MBL teams.

At least for now, residents in Laveen and South Phoenix will have to get their spring baseball fix by driving to such nearby facilities, or from various youth sports leagues, including the Laveen Softball and Baseball Sports Association, formerly known as Laveen Youth Ball Association, that has served up recreational baseball, softball and T-ball to area children for 27 years in fall, summer and spring leagues.

The Laveen Baseball League was started five years ago and currently offers a spring season for area children. Both groups are registering now for spring. Visit www.lybaonline.com or www.laveenbaseball.com to learn more.

In Arizona, the baseball tradition started decades ago when in 1909 the White Sox were making their way home from training in California and stopped on March 30 in Yuma to play a game at the opening of the Laguna Dam in the Arizona Territory – statehood didn’t come until 1912. The dam on the Colorado River was no longer necessary by the late 1940s, but by then baseball had gotten a firm grip on the state.
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, after the Detroit Tigers spent the one season training in South Phoenix, there was a gap before the roots of the Cactus League took hold. In 1946 Tucson resident Bill Veeck purchased the Cleveland Indians and brought them to train at a guest ranch he owned.
The next year, the Giants came to Arizona to train at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, near the corner of Mohave and Central avenues. Four years later, the Chicago Cubs began training in Mesa.

Over the years, the league has grown and expanded to its current 15 teams in 10 stadiums. Andrew Bagnato, a spokesman for the Arizona Cactus League Association, said new stadiums in cities such as Surprise, Peoria and Goodyear offer homes to more than one team, which has helped the league to grow.
To bring a team back into South Phoenix or Laveen, the City of Phoenix would have to be willing to spend money, something that Hertel does not believe likely given the price of land.

Randy Policar, a spokesman for the City of Mesa, noted that when the Chicago Cubs were thinking of leaving the city because of the aging Hohokam Stadium, voters approved a $7.7 million package to build Riverview Park, adjacent the new state-of-the-art Cubs training facility, for residents to use year-round. The $99 million Sloan Park baseball stadium anchors a 146-acre sports complex that includes the stadium, practice fields and a player development center.

“The Cubs had a pretty significant offer from Naples, Florida,” Policar said. “Mesa had to make a good offer to keep them. The Cubs have trained in Arizona for more than 60 years. That’s a big of chunk of Cactus League and Arizona history that could have gone away.”

To persuade voters to support the new facility, Policar said the city added in all the park amenities that are used year-round by locals. “Reaction to the park has been incredible. It’s always busy, even when it’s 115 degrees.”

Mesa officials envision the multimillion dollar Sloan and Riverview complex as a destination itself for both locals and tourists. The park offers a lake with fishing, splash pads with multiple fixtures for different ages, a 50-foot tall Genesis climbing tower, a 60-foot long caterpillar mesh rope climbing structure, two playground clusters for ages 2-5, 6-12 and older, shade play and picnic areas, miles of accessible sidewalks and more.

Policar predicts that as new training facilities are built, the trend for dual purposes will continue. He points out the Peoria Sports Complex, which hosts two MBL teams, as well as the Peoria Javelinas, the Arizona League Padres and the Arizona League Mariners. The complex is also host a variety of events year-round. “It’s a regional draw, and just not for March,” he said.

The economic impact of the spring training on local tourism Valleywide is estimated at $544 million for 2015 (the most recent year the Cactus League has data available). Those dollars are specifically tied to out-of-town guests and expenditures. Another Cactus League study, which focuses on local expenditures, put the economic value at nearly $266 million.

This article first appeared in the March 2, 2017 print edition of the South Mountain District News.

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The City of Phoenix is deep into the process of conducting its annual budget hearings for the proposed $1.22 billion operating budget for Fiscal Year 2016-2017 that includes a potential $50 more a year in property taxes for homeowners. But Laveen residents are clamoring for more attention to public safety needs for their community, something not specifically addressed in the city manager’s proposed Trial Budget.

For Laveen, there is only a single line-item related to the community with this paragraph:

Chavez Park: The Trial Budget also provides operating costs needed to provide additional maintenance and additional soccer field lighting at the Chavez Park expansion at 35th Avenue and Baseline in Laveen.

In the city’s Trial Budget Summary posted online at Phoenix Proposed Budget the community also gets a single mention:

Other significant Capital Improvement Projects in 2016-17 include:

• Construction of the Laveen Park-and-Ride

Laveen residents are not happy that the city is overlooking one of the growing community’s biggest concerns, which is public safety.

Alison L. Richardson, an active member of the Laveen Meadows Block Watch, has been strongly encouraging residents to voice their concerns at public meetings on the budget, including the one held April 5 at Cesar Chavez High School. She’s posted numerous excerpts about the budget on social media in the region to encourage attendance and support for more patrol officers.

“Although we are doing everything we can with a Phoenix Neighborhood Patrol, active block watches and citizens willing to call in suspicious activity and crime when it happens, we can’t make a difference without sufficient officers to answer our calls,” Richardson said.

Last fall, the Laveen Association of HOAs, released a report showing that there was a 22 percent increase in burglaries in the Laveen area compared with the same period in 2014. There were 370 burglaries through the first part of August, compared 303 through the same period in 2014.

“With all of our home burglaries, the thieves know the cops aren’t going to show up because they don’t have the resources to come out,” Richardson said, adding that response times in the Maryvale-Estrella Mountain Precinct that covers Laveen are some of the slowest in the city.

The LA-HOA report also noted that violent crime in the Laveen area was up 17 percent compared with the same period the previous year. Of the 117 violent crimes reported, there were 67 aggravated assaults, 21 robberies and 29 armed robberies. It was noted that 51^st Avenue and Baseline Road area was a hotspot for such crimes and police put together a task force to focus on strong-armed robberies in the vicinity.

Richardson doesn’t expect any of these numbers to improve without budget support for more officers on the street in the community.

“We have maybe six patrol officers for this huge area that stretches from 104^th Avenue to 27^th Avenue and from the I-10 to south of Dobbins Road, which is not enough,” she said. “On top of that, our detectives and community action officers are being pulled from their regular duties to fill in on patrol. All the officers are working overtime on their days off to make up for the deficit.”

Although there are no more hearings specifically scheduled for Council Districts 7 and 8, which cover the Laveen area, residents can still email the city with their budget concerns by writing to:budget.research@phoenix.gov

Richardson encourages everyone to also copy their respective council members, too, when sending the emails:

Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Kate Gallego, D-8, council.district.7@phoenix.gov

Councilman Michael Nowakowski, D-7, council.district.7@phoenix.gov

Rose Tring is a long-time journalist and owner of AZ Media Maven, a Laveen-based marketing and public relations company. She is also the founder of FinditinLaveen.com, a local business directory and free community calendar. Email her at rose@azmediamaven.com

Laveen Village Voice Blog April 2016

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One of Laveen’s most active residents and staunchest community supporters announced last month that she would be moving to Henderson, Nevada due to her husband’s career. Stefany Scovell served for more than six years on the Village Planning Committee and was a founder of the Laveen Meadows Block Watch. Scovell also was an active administrator for Laveen Facebook pages related to crime and public safety.

Phoenix City Councilwoman Kate Gallego and Congressman Ruben Gallego both presented her with awards. The Congressman gave her a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition honoring her “outstanding and invaluable service to the community” and Councilwoman Gallego named her a “Friend of Laveen” with a special certificate.

Many members of the community gathered on Nov. 20 to wish her well and celebrate her eight years of living in Laveen.

“Through thick and thin, and in good and bad health, no one has shown the dedication to the future of Laveen like Stefany has,” said Phil Hertel, a fellow Village Planning Committee member. “She will be missed more than most people will even imagine. We have lost a treasure.”

Scovell said it was a very difficult decision to move, but that it is the right thing for their family.

“What an honor to be blessed with so many loving friends. I had an amazing time tonight and will forever cherish the memories,” Scovell said at her send-off party. “Thank you all for coming … I am deeply humbled and honored.”

Scovell devoted many hours to civic responsibility, serving on the Laveen Citizens for Responsible Development, the Phoenix Neighborhood Patrol Program, the Block Watch Program, PTSA President at Cheatham Elementary, member of the Phoenix Block Watch Grant Program Oversight Committee, secretary for the Laveen Association of HOAs, the Anti-Graffiti Task Force, secretary of the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board, secretary for Laveen Association of HOAs, secretary for the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board, president of Highlands @ Rogers Ranch Block Watch and PNP, and president of Laveen Meadows Block Watch

“Stef is a great example of a committed neighbor,” says Kim Domovich. “She was the ideal we should all strive to emulate as a community volunteer. She never ceased to amaze me when it came to any project or committee that would enhance Laveen.”

Scovell’s departure leaves openings on the Village Planning Committee and the Laveen Citizens for Responsible Development, a nongovernment citizen advisory panel made up of community members who volunteer to participate. Planning Committee members are appointed by either the mayor or council members representing the area. For Laveen that is District 8 Councilwoman Kate Gallego, via email atcouncil.district.8@phoenix.gov or 602-262-7493, and District 7 Councilman Michael Nowakowski atcouncil.district.7@phoenix.gove or 602-262-7942. The city also provides an application form on its web site:https://www.phoenix.gov/formssite/Forms/appbdcom.aspx, for anyone interested in serving on any city board, committee or commission.

If interested in participating on the LCRD board , contact President Steven Klein at 602-237-2965 for all board inquiries and Jon Kimoto at 602-237-3138 for sub-committee inquiries. For all other inquiries, e-mail the LCRD at theLCRD@gmail.com

Rose Tring is a long-time journalist and owner of AZ Media Maven, a Laveen-based marketing and public relations company. She is also the founder of FinditinLaveen.com, a local business directory and free community calendar. Email her at rose@azmediamaven.com

(published in December issue of South Mountain District News – http://somonews.com/archives/30222

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When the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway project links Laveen to the rest of the Valley, local Realtors predict an uptick in Laveen home prices, which were some of the state’s most devastated after the housing market collapse in 2007.

“The 202 South Mountain Freeway will offer new growth opportunities for Laveen and the surrounding areas,” predicts Sam Lawmaster, a Laveen Realtor for ReMax. “Having access to I-10 will make Laveen more connected to the rest of the Phoenix metro area and may potentially have a positive home value impact on many of the properties around the area.”

But just how much of a boost will it be? About 10 years ago, people were trying to outbid each other to purchase Valley homes, and Laveen was one of the areas riding high on those soaring prices. When the bubble burst in 2007, local homeowners were hit hard and suffered drastic declines in home prices.

“One can never be sure how any event will affect real estate,” says Doyle Perry, owner of Black Belt Realty. “There have been way too many surprises.  But, a general rule is that more traffic and convenience means more demand for housing.”

Last year the median price for a home in Laveen was $175,000. The median is the point where half the homes sell for more and half sell for less. Compared with 10 years ago at the height of the housing market, prices are still down 29 percent when adjusted for inflation. However, prices in 2014 were up about 8 percent from the previous year, and overall prices are up about 22 percent over the past five years, even adjusted for inflation.

Jeffrey Hale, co-owner at Turf Realty, is sure the freeway will be help prices, but he cautions that there are other factors to consider, such as the national housing market and interest rates to name two.

“I am certain it won’t hurt our values, and I believe that it will help,” Hale acknowledges, “but it will be too hard to measure the exact impact it has among all of the other factors influencing value.”

For example, Hale said that if property values were to see an immediate 10 percent rise once the freeway opened in 2020, then that would be an easy correlation.

“But that won’t happen,” Hale said. “Values rose when the freeway was approved. They will rise when construction begins. They will rise as we get closer to completion and the connecting arterial roadways are completed. They will rise as the freeway opens, and they will continue to rise as commercial businesses invest along the freeway corridor.”

There are some other points, too. Perry said that because the route is in the western area of Laveen, it won’t change downtown commute patterns for residents living east of 51^st Avenue. “It won’t have the impact that it would have if it helped us get downtown,” he said, “But, it comes under the heading of every little bit helps.”

Hale added that while the roadway is being built over the next five years, there also will be an increase in the number of investors who sell their inventory and swap out renters for homeowners.

Census statistics show that about 75 percent of Laveen residents currently own their homes. Lawmaster said that neighborhoods with high percentages of owner-occupied homes tend to be more stable in value. “For owners, it means a tax deduction; it means pride of ownership. And usually homeowners want to retain the resale value of their home, so they have an incentive to keep up with maintenance and take care of their home.”

But as Hale said before, Laveen isn’t isolated from outside economic influences.

“There will be natural and historical market adjustments that influence values,” Hale said. “There will also be larger state and national economies at play, which will affect our local market.  With all of the other factors affecting home worth, it will be hard to calculate the exact impact the freeway itself has in raising our property values.”

So the consensus is that the freeway will definitely help but the significance of a longterm positive impact will be difficult to predict.

“Yes, it will increase demand for housing in Laveen,” Perry says.  “No, it will not be dramatic.  And to the disappointment of many, with a freeway interchange, Laveen is becoming less and less of a village.”

The print version of this article appears in the June edition of the South Mountain District News.

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What started as a frolic in the fields of her father’s home near Estrella and 51^st Avenue, turned in to three days of anguish for Dinahlee Ochoa, 21, a lifelong resident of Laveen, and Coco, her 4-year-old Shih Tzu.

But thanks to the power of social media and a community’s love for of animals, the two are together again.

Dinahlee lives in the Rogers Ranch neighborhood near 43^rd Avenue and Baseline Road, but she said that they decided in late May to visit her dad’s horse property off 51^st Avenue to give Coco some room to run around in the fields and play with the other dogs. Except on May 18, Coco didn’t come back from his rambles.

Two hours of searching and calling for the little white dog brought no luck. Dinahlee returned home, worried about coyotes and fearing for Coco, but decided to take a chance and asked her cousin if he would post on some of the Laveen Facebook pages about her missing dog. She doesn’t have a Facebook account herself. So Esteban posted:

Esteban Ochoa

May 18 at 7:41pm

My cuzins shih tzu Coco ran off from our ranch on 51st avenue and Estrella in Laveen. South of dobbins. He’s white and is very furry. He was wearing a gray collar with silver rhinestones. He was last seen between Estrella and Carver down 51st ave. If found please call 480 822 8367 or 602 476 9567.

Four days later:

Nick Smith

May 22 at 5:32am

As I was on my way to work this morning I find this little guy stuck in a tumbleweed on 51st av and carver! He has a collar so I’m hoping he has an owner. But judging by the condition of his fur it looks like he hasn’t been cared for in a while! If you recognize him please contact me!

A flurry of comments followed Nick Smith’s post, with dozens of offers to help from people who had remembered the first post about Coco from three days before. By midmorning, mutual friends had connected Nick to Dinahlee, who gave a positive ID for her missing dog. After he finished work on May 22, the founder drove Coco home to his joyful owner.

“Within three days he was home,” Dinahlee said, a few days after her reunion. “I couldn’t believe that the Facebook post worked and we got him back safe.”

TAGLINE: Writer Rose Tring is a long-time journalist and owner of AZ Media Maven, a Laveen-based marketing and public relations company. She is also the founder of FinditinLaveen.com, a local business directory and free community calendar. Email her at rose@azmediamaven.com

Read the Laveen Village Voice Blog in this month’s South Mountain District News.

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The South Mountain District News recently printed an article about a $30 billion light rail plan that voters will get the chance to decide this summer. The article written by Patty McCormac notes that the plan is about  much more than just extending light rail, which many argue will alleviate freeway congestion and make it easier for commuters to get to jobs downtown.

McCormanc notes that while the  plan  would triple the length of the light rail line,it also would fund a better Dial-A-Ride services for those with disabilities, improve bus schedules and routes, increase bus rapid transit opportunities, improve the conditions of roadways that had been let go during the recession, provide shade for bus stops, and add bike lanes to many areas. (CLICK HERE FOR the full article)

It seems the main talk here in Laveen in coming months will be about the impact of improved transportation, including the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway expansion that got approval in March. According to the ADOT Web site, the department “is proceeding with right-of-way acquisition and the procurement of final design and construction services in the form of a design-build-maintain contractor or “developer.” The developer will be selected at the end of 2015 and freeway construction will begin in early 2016, with the Chandler Boulevard extension project to facilitate local access beginning in summer 2015. The freeway is planned to be open to traffic in late 2019 or early 2020.”

We will be taking a look soon at what all these projects could possibly mean to the Laveen economy and real estate market. If you have a comment about what you think the impact will be, positive or negative, please tell us!

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