Apr
05
2005

The Destruction Of Mill Aveneue

PhotosTuesday, April 5, 2005 - 06:10:36 pm
(Posted Under: Travel, Arizona Trip, Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
This afternoon, after finally buying an ashtray for the apartment, Katie and I headed down to Mill Avenue, to check it out. Over the weekend, the Tempe Arts Festival was on, and Mill was closed, so we'd decided to leave the Mill Trek until today. Driving down to the cool part of Mill, obviously I was particularly looking out for the place on Mill - Long Wongs.

All of the articles over the last few years regarding the destruction of the old Mill Avenue, to make way for commericial development have been so true. Long Wong's, closed down exactly a year ago this month, is certainly the last dinosaur of the old Tempe scene left on Mill. Driving down the rest of the street was actually quite boring, nothing but flashy store fronts. The only exception was Monti's at the end of Mill before the Tempe Bridge, a Mexican style looking building housing a steak house - which we later ate at. There was really nothing else that cool on Mill Avenue. We circled around ASU (Arizona State University), back down to 7th Street, to pull into the parking lot of Wongs. With the cool 'Long Wong' signs pulled down, the vacant building looks sad, compared to it's former glory. Even with it closed, it really would have been much more fullfilling if the signs were still up. Admitadly, as Katie pointed out, had they been left up, they probably would have been stolen, given Wong's cult following. We looked at the patio, where now homeless sleep, and walked around the front, to the now boarded up doors. The board on one announcing the re-opening of Wong's next month, and the big 'redevelopment' notice above the doors. And the other announcing "Doug Hopkins - Live 05-05-2005". (I'd thought initially this said 'Doug Hopkins Lives On', which I thought was cool, but what it actually says is kinda stupid). Physically standing outside of Wongs, now I'll believe Wongs is reopening when I see it. I also felt what people have been saying about it not being the same, if it is reopened. If the building is renovated, which I'm sure it will be, it just won't be the same.

We then wandered around the side facing 7th Street, to peek in the window. This was cool, seeing the tiny stage that all those bands would have played millions of times in the late 80's through 'til last year. It was suprising just how small the Wongs stage really is. Then looking directly up, the graffiti-ed roof, still with the holes where Doug Hopkins would ram his guitar into the roof on stage with the Gin Blossoms. The bar area was also visible through the window.

While these days, Wong's literally looks sad, it was such an experience to see and at least see the building, and the inside untouched. While it's closed down, and vacant, I definately feel quite lucky to have been able to see the beast, which is Long Wong's, while it's still standing. While it may be re-opened, and may not be torn down and rebuilt for re-opening, the inside - the graffiti-ed roof, walls and doors, the hole filled roof above the stage, would no doubt be renovated. So I definately feel quite luckily to have at least had the opportunity to see the old, real Wongs, even if just from the outside.

It was also interesting to see where Wongs is in relation to ASU, and could see how it would have totally been the place to be in the late 80's and early 90's. From ASU, it's only a stroll down 7th Street, down to Wongs.

After the Wongs experience, we drove back around A Mountain (which has the ASU 'A' on it, and is actually called A Mountain) down to the other end of Mill to eat at Monti's. Previously we'd planned to walk down Mill, but seeing how it wasn't really cool except for Wongs, I'd decided to do so later. However, while eating at Monti's, in the building built by Hayden, I asked Katie where Hayden Square was and decided that after eating, that it'd be cool to go down there. So after our meal, we headed to Hayden Square, which is right off Mill. Hayden Square was suprisingly small, totally different than what I'd expected. Sitting on the steps of the Ampethetre, it was really weird to think that this was where The Refreshments played their last ever show. Purely because it was so small.

After taking some photos at Hayden Square, I decided that we might as well walk the rest of the way down Mill. It wasn't that exciting until we reached University, the street that intersects Mill in the block where Wongs is. What I found quite suprising was the number of pan handlers on Mill, asking for both change or food. With Mill Avenue looking so commericialised and up market, it was even more of a suprise. Quite sad too, as the age of the people begging was quite young, compared to at home.

At University, we took another quick look at Wongs from the front. Crossing at the University intersection, I got to see Cafe Boa, and the tattoo palour between Longs and Boa (all in the same building), which was cool, hearing all the stories in mid 90's of people meeting up at Boa and then heading over to Wongs to see Satelitte, Dead Hot or the Piersons. We then headed back down that side of the road. Stopping for a last look at Wongs, we gave away Katie's doggy bag from Monti's to a pan handler asking for left overs. The walk down the other side of Mill Avenue wasn't much more exciting, and we cut through the Hayden Square again, to get back to the Monti's carpark.

On the way home, we took the scenic route, over the Tempe Bridge, past the Papago Park (silloettes of the cactii on the mountain looked really cool at dusk), through Scottsdale and back to Tempe. Just in Tempe to head out to Yucca to see Marc Norman.

I'm being lazy with photos at the moment. I really should have written some code to do stuff with photos before I left. Oh well. At the moment, I'm just going to resize, do quick brightness control, and throw them up. It's up to you ATM to figure out what they're photos of. I'll do something better with them when I get home.

These are photos from today.

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