As chosen by you, here are the most popular stories OF ALL TIME (aka last week). Just in case you missed it.

Recently, Scoop Factory went deep beneath the streets of Phoenix as it explored the Camelback Pedestrian Underpass, a surprisingly beautiful tunnel connecting Biltmore Fashion Park with the cluster of high-rise offices, condos and hotels just across this busy street. However, we’ve got the sad story behind this stunning civic space, as well as how history seems to be repeating itself as city officials argue over how to connect two popular shopping centers on opposite sides of the Phoenix/Scottsdale border.

Hopefully, this latest shopping center squabble won’t also end with poor pedestrians being squashed by SUVs.

Located on Camelback between 24th and 26th Street, the Camelback Pedestrian Underpass had been in the works for decades. That’s because almost immediately after the massive Camelback Esplanade office and retail complex opened across the street from the Biltmore mall in 1990, worker drones and shoppers started sprinting back and forth across Camelback to grab lunch or catch a movie. Unfortunately, with more than 90,000 cars also careening through the intersection every day, it was only a matter of time before someone got hit.

The issue was first splashed across the front pages in 1995, after a popular local radio personality was arrested for hit and run accident that killed a 78-year-old man. Named Carla Foxx (pictured at left), this former 99.9KEZ DJ later reportedly claimed that she didn’t realize she’d hit anyone and thought the blood spatter and body parts found in her car’s grille were simply chicken fingers! And despite the rumors (since confirmed to us by at least one radio producer who saw her that night) that she was hammered at the time of the accident, Foxx only served a year in jail. (We’d link back to more news coverage from the time, but apparently the Arizona Republic has still never heard of Google.)

Sadly, the Camelback conundrum continued to be debated, as property owners argued whether a passageway would steal business away, while homeowners fretted about a footbridge blocking their mountain views. In the end, nothing was done until another high-profile pedestrian killing broke the proverbial Camel’s back. This time it was a 13-year-old girl named Brissa Espinoza, who was run over in December 2004 while trying to cut across the street on her way home after watching a movie at the Esplanade. Spurred by community outrage, the project was moved to the top of the city’s priority list and finally completed in May 2007.

But now, another couple of popular shopping centers are in the middle of a new pedestrian-car showdown. Check back on Monday to read why the City’s of Scottsdale and Phoenix are having to go to couple’s therapy as they fight over how to keep shoppers from racing across the six lanes of traffic dividing Kierland Commons and the Scottsdale Quarter.

Image at left via Deirdre Hamill/The Arizona Republic

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