A school in another state is also located downtown, just like VMT is downtown in our city. The schools serve their purposes well, but the areas are as different as day and night.
The first school, actually a university, is Arizona State University's campus in downtown Phoenix.
This downtown campus is something residents of Phoenix overwhelmingly supported by voting "yes" in a bond issue, a way government bodies can raise money for building projects. With bonds, pieces of the city are sold to people with the promise the city (or school district, or county, or other governmental body) will repay the buyers with the amount they paid plus a little extra, called interest. Here's a more detailed explanation of how bonds work.
The money from a bond election in 2006 asking voters to approve $233 million for downtown improvements helped pay for ASU's Phoenix campus.
The university's buildings are so well integrated into downtown that if you're not paying attention, you'll enter a classroom or office building, or even the twin-tower, 13-story residence hall where thousands of students live.
In one university building, next to the bookstore and a cafeteria is the office of U.S. Representative Ed Pastor. Another building houses the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (where I studied under my Reynolds Institute journalism fellowship in 2009. I have a photo of my name on an electronic scroll on the outside of the Cronkite building. I'll post it when I find it).
Yet another university building is the College of Nursing and Health, which has a clinic staffed by students and their professors-health professionals who treat anybody who walks in off the street.
There are other classroom buildings as well, but all are nicely integrated into downtown Phoenix, surrounded by city streets and near attractions like the Arizona Center outdoor mall, the Sheraton Inn, where we stayed, and the Arizona Republic newspaper and its parking garage. The Arizona Republic, Arizona Center, and the Sheraton are neighbors, and the Cronkite School of journalism building is just three blocks away. There's a Franciscan monastery and Catholic Church two or three blocks in the opposite direction from the hotel and across from one end of the Arizona Center. It dates back more than 100 years. In the distance are mountains, since Phoenix and the area are located in a river valley. In fact, the area refers to itself as "The Valley".
On the ground floors of the university buildings are retail businesses. There's a convenience store located on the ground level of the resident halls, and three restaurants on the ground level of the Cronkite building. All have their own outside entrances. One is a Subway, and the others were fast food places, a Mexican restaurant and a pizza place. I don't remember their names. The College of Nursing and Health didn't have retail space on ground level, as far as I know, but did have the walk-in clinic.
Near the university, in different directions, are a United States Postal Service branch, Phoenix Performing Arts Centre, complete with life-sized bronze statues of musicians and dancers out front, sports facilities Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks, American League baseball) and U.S. Airways Center (Phoenix Suns, NBA), and a giant convention center which spans two blocks, with buildings on each side of the street linked by pedestrian walkways high in the air.
And, since Phoenix is in the desert, throughout the area where the university is has extensive areas of desert-type plants that don't need much water, such as cacti and leafy plants of different types with all colors of flowers. So beautiful! Most of the rest of downtown is nice and clean, and contained businesses and offices of all types in well-maintained buildings.
Now, let's look at VMT. We have our campus, located just west of downtown in the St. Peter's Historical District. Some of have classes in old houses, some which are nearly a century old and still beautiful, and aging classroom buildings dating back to 1918 (Urbahn Building) and 1923 (Harding Building). Check the bronze plaque in the entrance-way to the courtyard to see how old our buildings, which were once Mary Help of Christians School, are. With Mexico just eight blocks to the south, and the campus spread out, we no longer have the safety we once had. That's one reason for the eventual move to a new campus.
Let's start walking. Head east a bit and there's Valero convenience store/gas station and numerous worn-out looking buildings housing restaurants, fast food places and stores of all types, most selling electronics and countless other things. A number of the latter sell things very cheaply. They're really a treasure chest of all types of merchandise, much of it at unbelievably low prices. Be sure to take a lot of cash.
But the buildings housing the stores are worn-looking and old, and most don't seem to have been maintained well. Some have been closed for some time and probably should be torn down, in my opinion. As an example, go to the building next to the Hamilton senior center, where the restaurant is, and notice the
boarded-up windows and doors. The restaurant's interior is in very bad shape, also.
At one time downtown was the place to go, to shop and see and be seen, but has since declined. The decline, I believe, started when Mall del Norte opened in 1976, and stores such as Sears and others moved there and left empty buildings downtown, since filled with merchants selling cheap or inexpensive
merchandise. St. Peter's Plaza and St. Augustine Plaza are not really attractive places to go, and Jarvis Plaza, well, watch where you walk because of the birds in the trees and pigeons everywhere. But the monthly Farmers' Market is there, and is an interesting diversion. (Take cash!)
HEB has an always-packed store and parking garage, and there are some fast-food places, at least two reasonably nice restaurants close to school and some smaller ones, and two churches -- one of which is a neighbor of ours.
There is some recent construction, though. The U.S. Courthouse is the latest of several government buildings. City Hall and Webb County administrative building/parking garage were built since I moved into the county in 1976, and the county's Commissioners Court office building goes back a century or more. The jail is also a relatively new building, although the sheriff wants to build a new facility. Since all of these structures belong to a governmental body, Laredo ISD receives no taxes from any of this valuable property.
Arizona State University is a university I'd recommend if you want to study out of state. VMT is a magnet school for students who want to excel at in a fine arts area or communication field. Downtown Phoenix is a vibrant community bustling with activity and downtown Laredo, well, is downtown Laredo.