The Daily Sun has a write up on some potential development for the theater spaces around Flagstaff. It's a good and necessary idea, while a discount chain would be nice, students generally can get that from the University (well if they are still showing movies on north campus, it has been 8 years since I have been a student). It would be nice for students to have an independent and foriegn film theater walking distance from campus. About the other proposed uses I can say that Trader Joe's idea is outstanding, it's the only store I really ever missed while living in Flag. A former prof and I used to make TJ runs on occasion for one another (yum pickled garlic) while I was a student and it's really something Flag needs, a high quality inexpensive grocery store.

Those spaces need to be used especially the Greentree Plaza Shopping Center and the Orpheum Theater. The Greentree plaza is right around the main entrance into Flag and it sticks out like a sore thumb that that space is empty, and I suspect it's the reason a few other shops in that center have closed as well. As for the Orpheum Theater it symbolizes "Historic Downtown Flagstaff" a phrase the city has been trying to use to drum up business for years, and it's one of the few properties that hasn't turned into a bar of late. You want to have a community, open back up the Orpheum and on weekends have kids shows, maybe even old time cartoons, that would get locals and not just tourists or students coming downtown more often. And if you can't find a contractor to take on the job, perhaps it should be offered it to local community theaters in return for working to improve the space and turn it into a true community space that Flagstaff could be proud.