When thinking about what I wanted to cover in this blog post, I couldn’t help but to focus on the way the economy has affected local businesses.
I remember that when I first moved here in 2005, the Centennial Hills area was right up there with Anthem and The Lakes in terms of posh amenities and multi-million dollar homes.
Fast forward to 2011. I bought a home up here last June for 1/3 of what it sold for in 2006. It is still a beautiful location lined with palm trees and Mount Charleston in the not too far distance. However, the downfall of the economy really shows in this area of town with one look at the businesses in the area. Huge, lavish buildings sit vacant. The architecturally stimulating Echelon apartments are empty-having not had a single tenant.
As I drove around taking pictures I wanted to make sure I captured the essence of vacancy. Hence the fence being included in the foreground of the Grand Montecito office buildings, and the picture of the Courtesy Import building with not a single car in the lot.
I used two different cameras. One being my Canon SD780 IS and the other being in the Hipstomatic app on my IPhone. I like the way that the app seems to capture the mood of the surroundings.
I took over 100 pictures today but find that these were the strongest and seem to really convey what the economic downturn has done to the area.