Come Stay With Us: Deer Valley Opens 3 New Hotels

In a recent post, I wondered if North Phoenix was expanding fast enough to accommodate nine new banks within two miles of each other. It's a road we'll travel down once more, because this year we have seen three new hotels open up within one mile of each other, for a total of 432 new rooms available in the area.

Marriott Residence Inn Hotel - Phoenix
The new Residence Inn by Marriott is now open on Whispering Wind Road, right next door to the Courtyard by Marriott. The two properties are located about a half mile off the Interstate 17, so you can sleep soundly away from the roar of traffic. The Residence Inn is a five-story building with 129 guest rooms. It's a no-nonsense kind of place with quality where it counts. Let me explain what I mean.

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Organ Stop Pizza is the Valley's Best Pizza Gimmick

Pizza ranks highly on my list of all-time favorite foods, and I am always willing to try a new place in the pursuit of that perfect slice. Recently, I ventured far from the comfort and safety of North Phoenix to the faraway land of Mesa to visit Organ Stop Pizza.

Of course, they wouldn't give it a name like Organ Stop for nothing! The front of the building has a large glass-paned diaphone chamber for the organ, but other than that it looks pretty normal from the outside. You'd never guess that inside is the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the entire world. That's right, world's largest Wurlitzer organ plus pizza in Mesa. Seems like a good combination to me.

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Deer Valley Rock Art Center is a Hidden Gem

It is fairly common for Arizona transplants to criticize Phoenix as a sprawling metropolis devoid of culture and history. For some reason, people love to move to Arizona and accuse the city of being nothing but an endless sea of shopping malls and housing developments.

One of my goals in starting this blog was to show the world that this simply isn't true, and the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve (formerly the Rock Art Center) is a perfect example of what a rich and diverse place Phoenix really is.

The Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve is a historically and culturally important part of North Phoenix. It is nestled at the base of Hedgpeth Hills in the Adobe Dam Recreation Area, just west of 35th Avenue on Deer Valley Road.

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Photo Radar Leaves Scottsdale, Expands to Phoenix

If there's one thing that residents and visitors can agree on, it's that Phoenix is full of bad drivers. In fact, Phoenix has become infamous for its regular appearance on "Top 10" lists for things like red-light runners and stolen vehicles according to About.com. Speeding is also a huge problem that city and state officials have begun to take very seriously.

Scottsdale, Arizona was one of the first cities in the nation to adopt a high-tech solution in an attempt to put the brakes on speeders. In 2006, Scottsdale installed a controversial photo radar system on the Loop 101 Freeway.

Sensors embedded in the pavement trigger a roadside camera when drivers exceed the posted speed limit by a certain amount. A photo of the vehicle and a speeding ticket are then mailed to the vehicle owner, with the average fine costing approximately $181 dollars.

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North Phoenix Blog Salutes Our Veterans

We at the North Phoenix Blog would like to take a moment to reflect on what Veteran's Day means. It is more than just a day off from work and school. Veteran's Day is a way of showing our appreciation for those who serve in our armed forces, past, present, and future.

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