Everything Sedona
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Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, and yet we are still in the 70s every day!!! Gotta love Arizona!
If you plan to spend Thanksgiving in Sedona, please book your dinner reservations now at Open Table. Me? I’m heading from Sedona to Camp Verde to be with my kitty rescue people Marylee Hamilton Moore, Cheryl Benton, their spouses and family, as I have a number of times before. Marylee and husband Russell cook and cook and cook while the rest of us bring appetizers and desserts. It’s totally an old fashioned Thanksgiving day with hugs, laughs, and stories, and of course, cats. Marylee is “First Mom” to my cats Teddy and Benji and Cheryl is “Auntie” to both. Russell is an aquarium person like me…we talk cichlids, bloodworms...
May your Thanksgiving be as wonderful as mine will be.
Sedona has always been a spiritual place…some say because of the energy of the votexes…some say its healing power…others say the eternal beauty of the red rocks…some say that Sedona was touched by God! For me, Sedona is just home. I wake up each morning looking at Thunder Mountain where the sun in the East rises to light up the mountain in the West with its warm orange and golden colors…I look North at Wilson Mountain everyday from my living room to see the ravens circling or the clouds gathering…and each day the deer, the Javelina, the coyotes, rabbits, lizards, humming birds, and ravens grace my land. Sedona is my church.
Speaking of churches, if you want to attend Church services over the Thanksgiving weekend, here are some options: Church of the Red Rocks is hosting an Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on November 26 from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm or St. John Vianney Church who has not yet published its Thanksgiving service. Click here. Church of the Holy Cross is closed Thanksgiving day.
Sedona’s Cultural Park. We need to talk.
So what is all the Brouhaha abouth the Cultural Park? First, let’s talk about “what it is or, better yet, what it was…” Click here. Christopher Fox Graham gives a 2019 “opinion editorial” on the rise and fall of the cultural park amphitheatre; but, the article does not voice the spirit of Sedonans. Yes, the article gives the reader the mundane reasons for the failure to survive, but it does not speak the growth of Sedona’s cultural community, nor does it take into consideration that just as the world turns, so does Sedona. During the years from 2006 through 2018, Sedona residents saw property values drop approximately 50% and not resurge to 2005-6 heights until about 2018. Lender foreclosures. Investors. None of these even imagined a Cultural Park. Nor did they care. For those of us who watched our city take this roller coaster ride, we forgot about the Cultural Park and focused on survival. Holding on to our properties was paramount. As the market recovered and short term rentals became state law in 2016, Sedona moved forward with more owners who wanted Sedona to find its way back to its cultural past. To be or not to be.
In November-December, 2022, the City of Sedona purchased the Cultural Park for $20+ Million. Click here.
Then in 2024 came the City of Sedona’s plan: “Safe Place to Park” whereby the City approved a zoning change in March of that year. The City Council officially voted 6-1 to approve the zoning change needed to implement the program, which would provide 40 spaces for local workers living in their vehicles. Ultimately, the plan was put on hold after a successful referendum petition was filed by residents. Voters then rejected the program in the November 2024 election.
The City Council was not listening to the residents.
Somehow that did not detour the Sedona City Council. They hired a Phoenix group, Dig Studios to design the Sedona Western Gateway Master Plan. Rename it and maybe the residents will forget about the Cultural Park. Again, the City Council marched to their own ideas of how to solve a problem that the market has done very well over the years to correct, without Council’s help. Click here. Joseph K Giddens gave a complete look at the division between the residents and the Council.
And so began the Initiative to preserve the Cultural Park.
Many of us have petitions for Sedona voters to sign, with the following wording:
“The Sedona Cultural Park should be saved as one of the last great scenic open spaces in the city. The initiative PROTECTS it as a city park and recreation facility that will remain open to the public. Residential development or overnight camping is prohibited. The park can only be used for recreational and cultural activities, such as hiking, biking, museums, film festivals AND MUSICAL EVENTS. THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO OPERATE AN AMPHITHEATER OR ANY OTHER VENUE IN THE PARK.”
We residents want Sedona to be unique, cultural, and affordable; yet it appears the Council means to make our community more plebian than we residents would like it to be. We want culture here!!! Yes, we want families and we want our city a city we can be proud of. We want a city that people are excited to visit. We want a city where residents desire to live. We want Sedona to be our very own happy place!
Response from the City of Sedona. We will sue.
Can they? Yes, if the initiative passes through the November 2026 ballot stating the above, the City can sue to overturn the will of the people... Does that show who’s boss? Only if the residents of Sedona allow it.
Think about it…is Sedona worth your time and effort?