Downtown Business Alliance outlines placemaking plan for Flagstaff core

Hunter Hebert, executive director of the Downtown Business Alliance, presented a package of placemaking ideas to the Beautification, Public Arts Commission on Jan. 13, 2025, proposing permanent signage, small-sculpture scavenger-hunt installations, alley and dumpster screening, and pedestrian refuge improvements along Route 66 to make downtown Flagstaff "a more inviting and more exciting place to be."

The proposal covered a range of mostly small-to-medium scale interventions that Hebert said could be implemented incrementally: metal cutout signs on existing pole mounts, a permanent scavenger-hunt of small sculptures (examples he cited: ravens, an Abbotts squirrel tied to local ecology), decorative screens for shared dumpster areas such as Heritage Square, and activation of underused alleys with murals, lighting, and ground installations. "There's also potential to add some sort of Route 66 call-out that could coincide with the Centennial," Hebert said during the presentation.

Why it mat…