No Place is More Frightening Than....

Wednesday I drove over into the more southern part of downtown Phoenix, around U.S. Airways Center and Chase Field. I had not been in that part for years, really the only time I had ever been in that area was for a Diamondbacks game, and I haven’t been to one of those in a long time. I was looking at a few different places for possible photography shoot locations. (That sounds kind of fancy, really I am just trying to find interesting places to do portrait photographs at as well as some architectural places to shoot as well.

There was one place in particular that really intrigued me prior to driving over there. It was originally Phoenix Feed and Seed and the original painting and signage has been restored on the side of the building. It sits right along the railroad tracks just south of U.S. Airways Center. It’s really a great looking place for pictures, not pretty and green, but more of a rough urban feel. 

Phoenix Feed and Seed

However, being south of the tracks for some reason made me uneasy. There was no reason to be, nothing around to make me feel unsafe, but for some reason I was. Going just a block north somehow made things a bit better, being in the newly updated area with restaurants, shops, etc. The whole area there is really an exciting place, it’s like a very mini version of what you picture Chicago, or other major big cities to be like. Phoenix has never really been known as the place to go and hang out at.

Anyways, this morning while I was reading this book entitled The Tao of Travel I came across this quote that summed up what I had been thinking Wednesday, “Adventure travel seems to imply a far-off destination, but a nearby destination can be scarier, for no place is more frightening than one near home that people you trust have warned you against.” This was exactly my problem, I had heard talk of “downtown” Phoenix being dangerous and scary, and so this made me uneasy. In reality, the area I was in is not one of those dangerous and scary areas. This quote sums up why I was feeling like I was Wednesday night, and why in October when I was in Honolulu and wandered around by myself with no map (well I had my cell phone), no idea of where anything was, nothing, I was not uneasy at all. I was perfectly comfortable setting off on my own two feet and seeing what  I would discover. I need to try and remember to make my own decisions about places, and not listen to others, without being stupid.