The urbanist Yuri Artibise left Phoenix last year, returning to Vancouver. It's part of a continuing brain drain, although to be sure such assets as ASU continue to bring in new creatives. I don't know where the tally stands, but I fear Phoenix continues to lose more than it attracts. Architect Taz Loomans recently conducted an interesting "exit interview" with Artibise. It made me realize that it's been five years since I got the first inkling that the Arizona Republic would take away my column, which would eventuate in me leaving town. So I thought I'd use Loomans' questions as a test for myself.
What do you miss most about Phoenix? My good friends. (I tried to select one "most"; for more, see my additions in the comments section).
What did Phoenix have that Seattle doesn’t? It is the repository of so much of my history, so many of my hopes. My mother and grandmother, long dead, are so alive on the streets of Willo, Roosevelt and Storey. The church where I was baptised is still going, as is my grade school, still in its inspiring, grand building, and enchanting Encanto Park. Union Station, where I spent countless hours as a child watching trains and dreaming of far-away places. The streets I worked as a paramedic, learning too much too young. The different mountain vistas that always orient me. Phoenix is the home of my heart, a place so mangled, mismanaged, raped and pillaged, but still worth fighting for. No matter how long I am gone, when I return I can drive the streets and walk the neighborhoods as if I had never left. The ghosts of the Hohokam still speak to me on winter nights when the cold wind blows from the High Country and the peculiar acoustics of the valley mingle train whistles and voices of the beloved dead.
What do you miss least about Phoenix? The weather. I hate the heat. Also, the ongoing, heedless destruction of the Sonoran Desert for sprawl, foolish inter-city competition for assets, political extremism and lack of the ability to create urban solutions to the vast array of urban problems besetting the entire metro area.
From the perspective of someone who lived here and now has left, what do you think Phoenix’s biggest pitfalls are? First, the Legislature. In addition: Too many people move to Phoenix to be left alone, bringing the "resort mentality" that says you'll engage in all sorts of destructive and apathetic behavior because it's not "home." It's a place to use up and move on, rather than to cherish, enhance and preserve. Lack of a large educated, literate population. Lack of genuine pluralism that holds political extremism in check. Lack of urban values on the part of most residents. Lack of a diverse economy with large numbers of high-paying jobs. Ignorance of local history and the lessons therein. Too many people are mean, crazy and armed, and too many are lacking in compassion to the last, the least and the lost. The Real Estate Industrial Complex and the entire "more land than brains" pathology. The prevailing mindset that Phoenix should keep expanding out, depending on single-family housing construction and population growth, while hiding the truth about the water situation, is intellectually criminal. The large underclass with no economic opportunity is made more of a drag by underfunded schools and racism. And complete obliviousness to Phoenix's vulnerability to climate change and scarcity of water, oil, etc. that will define the new century. Time is not on Phoenix's side. A sense of urgency is needed.
From the perspective of someone who lived here and now has left, what do you think Phoenix’s biggest opportunities are? Phoenix's biggest opportunity is to begin retreating from most of suburbia and build a high-quality, dense, transit-rich and shady city within the footprint of the Salt River Project. It could also become a player in healthcare and research if it could focus on the Phoenix Biosciences Campus and turn it into a Texas Medical Center. It could leverage its proximity Mexico for economic development, as well as seeking foreign direct investment from Asia. Phoenix could build a major rail/air logistics hub tied into Southern California. It could and must build a real downtown, down-zone the Central Corridor to make it friendly for development of low- and midrise development, even single-family housing (period revival!), creating walkable, live-work-play neighborhoods along light rail.
Would you ever come back to live Phoenix, given the opportunity? Why or why not? Yes, although the powers that be, such as they are, would not have me.
What can we learn from Seattle here in Phoenix? Constant reinvention. The value of attracting world talent and diversity, as well as having a powerful, diverse economy. The need for large corporate players and leaders who can knock heads and write checks. The benefits of density and critical mass. A populace heavily engaged in building community and serving the public good: A "we" society instead of a "me" society. Tolerance. Diverse, aggressive media. An intellectual environment thanks to such things as Town Hall. A conservation ethic. A powerful non-profit sector led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which, of course, chose to build its headquarters in central Seattle). Metro Seattle has plenty of ugly sprawl, just like Phoenix, with the huge externalities ignored and, as Jim Kunstler would say, a gigantic misallocation of resources. If you choose to live in the 'burbs, you'll spend plenty of time stuck in traffic. It's also a big tourist town, just like Phoenix. But it also has a vibrant downtown, with plenty of walkable city neighborhoods that have shops right up on the sidewalk, each with its own distinctive vibe, look and history. Transit is abundant. Multiple trains connect Seattle with other cities. I don't have to own a car. Phoenix lacks this, and doesn't realize the competitive disadvantage this conveys.
What can Seattle learn from Phoenix? Many "don't do this" worst practices, especially allowing the suburbs to loot the city and be engaged in constant cannibalization, as well as attracting a self-selecting population that is extreme or apathetic (it's why I am happy for people to think it rains all the time and is cold as hell here). Now, the deliberateness and relative speed with which Phoenix and Tempe led the building of a 20-mile light-rail line is a model for Seattle, a city that loves to endlessly deliberate. The people who continue to make a stand for the better, from Jim Ballinger at the Phoenix Art Museum and Michael Crow at ASU, to Kimber Lanning, Greg Esser, Cindy Dach et al on Roosevelt Row, to Kit Danley's Neighborhood Ministries should inspire any city.
C'mon, man: don't you miss thunder? I lived in the northwest for twenty years, and I could count the times I heard thunder on one hand, and that was usually east of the Cascades. I bet you miss the smell of wet creosote, too. I bet this 'cause you're a native southwesterner.
Posted by: No one in particular | February 27, 2012 at 03:33 PM
Sadly I beleive the cathartic model of change is mostly likely to ultimately be the catalyst for change. Things may have to get markedly worse, we may have to develop the kind of mindset that is now employed in ad campaigns for Chrysler using dreary looking urban panoramas as a backdrop for some type of Madison Avenue-imagined re-birth. Perhaps First Solar could advertise a solar panel constructed against a backdrop of abandoned warehouses and office buildings. Having to use images of current and past failures as a vehicle to highlight progress is unsettling.
Posted by: John Little | February 27, 2012 at 04:10 PM
Despite being called a troll on this blog, these are the things I enjoy reading most and why I will continue to read...I actually don't like hearing cheerleaders for Phoenix development because most highlight suburban sprawl. Most developers in Phoenix don't see that the end of that road has been approached. Even creative home builders like DMB still await a Verrado resurgence that will never come. Why don't they create a cool new, dense community near Hance Park? I think it is because they employ too many who cannot get past the Phoenix that existed circa 1990.
Posted by: phxSUNSfan | February 27, 2012 at 04:24 PM
We get plenty of thunder up here on the Front Range. But yeah, I do miss the smell of wet creosote. I miss warm (but not hot) desert nights in the springtime. I miss hiking in the mountains and high desert north of Carefree. There's a lot to miss about Phoenix when you're a native who's moved away.
Posted by: ChrisInDenver | February 27, 2012 at 04:35 PM
From the song "Tobacco Road," (Nashville Teens, circa 1964):
"Bring dynamite
And a crane
Blow it up
Start all over again."
Posted by: Dan Wallach | February 27, 2012 at 04:43 PM
John, thank you for the shout out and interviewing yourself with the same questions I used for Yuri...One of these days I'd like to do a real interview with you...soon I'll drop you an email.
Posted by: Taz Loomans | February 27, 2012 at 07:25 PM
The Mexican food is something to miss. Lots of fit women of all ages. 12 months swimming season in outdoor Olympic size pools. Sunshine that you can count on.
The dirty air is not missed at all. The resort mentality which extends to an unusual number of rude and inconsiderate neighbors. The heat is too much. The politics are appalling.
Posted by: out of there | February 27, 2012 at 09:11 PM
Remember, I was asked what I most missed, as in one thing. If I could list more, it would be a long one, including Mexican food very close to the top. The historic districts, sunsets when the clouds and smog are right, Encanto Park, the feel of the night, train whistles in my old hood, the mountains, Dobbins Overlook on a clear day, Durant's, "The Portland," Paperboy's Island park in Willo, the distinctive feel of going into the shade, February, etc. etc.
A couple of examples of where downtown Phoenix needs to go. I went into the piano store downtown today. They had a John Lennon Steinway on the floor -- there are only 25 in the world, and this one had a sold sign. Downtown Seattle also has two gentleman's hat stores. Two. And the building stock is all over age-and-price wise, not just new stuff that no small business can afford.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | February 27, 2012 at 09:18 PM
It's bunch of sense memories- the scent of orange blossoms in the spring (in the center of town.) train whistles (instead of freeway whine) whatever that smell was after the rain (creosote?) the intense late summer storms when the air was grey/green and the streets would flood over the curbs. Spring training at old municipal stadium- got dusty rhodes' autograph in '55 mays and Koufax. The pcl giants there alou, mccovey(scary foul line drives into the r field stands) even manny mota! Bussing tables at Durant's (HUGE mob guy often at the bar in a nice suit) amazing early mornings with my girlfriend who slipped out after I finished my shift and bussing with her. Bopping along on my gazette route finishing it up by delivering to lew king on first st then selling my extras at the osteopathic hospital up the alley on McDowell followed by soda fountain gluttony at the drugstore at central and McDowell (mc crary's?) the children's library on Coronado. That's some nostalgia there. Like the lady said "(now) there's no there there.")
Posted by: Dawgzy | February 27, 2012 at 10:07 PM
The smell of citrus blossoms. Christmas luminaria on the sidewalks of Willo. The fall light. The 1914 bungalow I hoped to live in the rest of my life. The tamale women selling door to door. Breakfast at the Good Egg and seeing friends. The Arizona Room at the library. Seeing where my great aunt's acreage once stood and remembering the irrigation ditches along both sides of the roads. Driving the length of Central. Racing a train on Grand Ave. The way the setting sun hits the prisms of Valley Center (the Chase tower). Spring training at Maryvale Stadium. The smell of rain. The sound of palm fronds in the wind.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | February 27, 2012 at 10:30 PM
An exit left story?
Sunday at about 11 AM the girlfriend and me decided on brunch. We actually dove south of Roosevelt but after an hour of scoping out all City Scape had to offer we kept going south. We ended up at The Duce. Interesting setting, interesting folks, not so interesting food. Good booze prices. Watched Steve box a 10year old kid. Ran into two of my favorite waiters fro Gallo Blanco.
I dug the clothes on the rag racks and plan to go back for a Castro outfit as my girl friend has been wearing her current Castro clothes since she lived in San Francisco in 60.
Later we drove around between 3rd street and 5th Avenue and Madison and Lincoln. Our trip did include seeing 30 Asian appearing folks magically appear out of the ground behind Sing High and run for a bus waiting in the Central avenue tunnel. Where’s Joe when you need him.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 27, 2012 at 11:05 PM
Dawgzy, U sound like a possible for the Talton coffee club meetings? My second paper route was for the Republic in 1954.
Soleri and I are also Slope Kings.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 27, 2012 at 11:10 PM
My twin sister lives in Vancouver (South Main near Queen Elizabeth Park), so I get to visit that great city once a year. And in the spirit of honest discussion, this is what I don't like about Vancouver: various trivial things.
It's not that the city is perfect. The architecture is surprisingly awful for such a rich city. It's also very expensive, which means natives will eventually get pushed out to the hinterlands by rich newcomers. And despite a some gorgeous artifacts in Gastown, it can feel soulless because of its boom.
On the other hand, it's topography and setting are as beautiful as anything you'll find on our beleaguered planet. It's a great food city. Visual arts are so-so, but film is very important. It's eminently walkable, too. Bicycling is safe while mass transit is very good (and getting better). No urban freeways!
By comparison, I like Phoenix because it's cheap. We mask our inferiority complex with booze and cheap street drugs. There's a grit here that reveals the beauty in despair. And we interface the 3rd World now, so Phoenix is relevant despite its political obliviousness.
Phoenix is trending one way and Vancouver another. Don't forget to wave.
Posted by: soleri | February 28, 2012 at 06:29 AM
What do you miss most about Phoenix?
I miss a few good friends who remain there.
What did Phoenix have that your new home town doesn’t?
The beautiful Sonoran desert that Phoenix supplanted.
What do you miss least about Phoenix?
The dirt, dust, smog, the absence of a thinking, engaged culture, and GPEC.
From the perspective of someone who lived here and now has left, what do you think Phoenix’s biggest pitfalls are?
The future.
From the perspective of someone who lived here and now has left, what do you think Phoenix’s biggest opportunities are?
To become a model of shrinkage.
Would you ever come back to live Phoenix, given the opportunity? Why or why not?
Yes. When they crown me King of Arizona.
What can we learn from your town here in Phoenix?
Nothing. Phoenix is populated by too many wallowing beasts.
What can your city learn from Phoenix?
There, but for grace, go we...
Posted by: Sublime Commando | February 28, 2012 at 08:26 AM
This qualifies as beating the beast when it has already fallen, but Phoenix is in the cross-hairs when it comes to climate change . . . growing hotter and drier. Shaun McKinnon at the Republic has tracked these changes faithfully. Summers are longer and more severe. The good weather doesn't return until November, almost 30 days later than the 80's before the malignant growth. The Big Dogs can vamoose starting in April but the common folk just have to suck it up and deal with it . . assuming that they actually have a clue about the slow deterioration.
Posted by: morecleanair | February 28, 2012 at 05:16 PM
...."down-zone the Central Corridor to make it friendly for development of low- and midrise development"
Agreed, but all but impossible post prop 207 - and, it passed in such a landslide that I think myself and a few other city planners might have been the only ones to vote no on it. A huge miss in the media - it was "debated" (if I recall, it was a 2 minute discussion between the National League of Cities and the Goldwater institute, on that massively watched show Horizon)
I'm not sure if this was pre-Rogue, but I don't even recall you mentioning prop 207 in one of your pieces Jon.
....a lack of civic engagement is indeed a major barrier to progress here.
Posted by: Phx Planner | February 29, 2012 at 09:55 AM
Off Subject
but talk about Exiting stage Right.
see article by a friend of mine.
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/135c99cde834b07d
Posted by: cal Lash | February 29, 2012 at 10:18 AM
From "Phoenix Update" blog.
As for CityScape it could be much better. I don't think of it as suburban, but still too inward facing. Better than Arizona Center but still not quite right.
I get down to AZ center a couple of times a month to go to the AMC theatre, as my girl friend and I can go see a movie and there is NO one else in the theatre. Walking around the center U might see 10 other people, total.SAD, SAD, SAD
Posted by: cal Lash | February 29, 2012 at 10:37 AM
Cal - that link just reverts to my gmail inbox - probably a Google security thing, so I can't peek in yours...
Posted by: Petro | February 29, 2012 at 10:47 AM
I e-mailed it to U
Posted by: cal Lash | February 29, 2012 at 04:07 PM
Happy to oblige, Cal:
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/152/cidb078df685059432d915b.jpg
Posted by: Petro | February 29, 2012 at 04:13 PM
Always enjoy the dialogue.
Every so often we need to add a pinch of PERSPECTIVE to the conversation.
Phoenix has deterioriated a bit over the past 50 years.
Mankind has enjoyed a nice run for about the past 50,000 years. (About 50,000 years ago we almost became extinct. Close call, huh?)
For 165,000,000 years, dinosaurs ruled the earth.
One volcanic eruption releases enough poisonous gases to equal all the pollution produced by mankind since they learned how to start a fire, car emissions included.
Just keep things in perspective. When you die and go to heaven, there may be a T-Rex waiting to have you as a snack. After all it's his heaven, and he was there first.
Posted by: AzRebel | February 29, 2012 at 04:41 PM
One man's "PERSPECTIVE" is another man's self-serving avoidance, delusion, and distraction: Just the kind of cr*p one would expect from a mind that imagines "heaven" to be necessarily elsewhere.
The central point is that the ugly 'now' of Arizona could have been much different, brighter, and perhaps even sustainable. It was *choice* that brought us to where we are. Unlike us, neither the dinosaurs nor your magically willful volcanoes exercised choice that altered the global environment.
Chew on this 'dialogue' for a while, before you again peddle such tripe.
Posted by: Needed Dose | February 29, 2012 at 05:11 PM
Wow, struck a nerve.
How often has YOUR CHOICE coincided with the other 7 billion souls on this planet?
We are 7 billion souls with 7 billion ideas on how things should be done.
What gave you the idea that your puny bullshit opinion mattered??
Posted by: AzRebel | February 29, 2012 at 05:21 PM
Someone needs a funny-bone transplant, stat.
Posted by: Petro | February 29, 2012 at 05:24 PM
Actually, Petro, there is a lot of "crankiness" showing up on this board.
Probably a sign of the futility of it all.
That's why it's best to enjoy that cup of coffee sharing a friendly discussion with friends.
That's what matters. The human connection. All this online stuff is cool, but it lacks PERSPECTIVE.
There's that word again, hope Needle Nose doesn't get his panties in a wad again.
Posted by: AzRebel | February 29, 2012 at 06:23 PM
U know AZReb a lot of them dinasaurs were vegetarians
maybe a lttle weed would help U on your way to the magical kingdom.
Let me when U want to do coffee.
Posted by: cal lash | February 29, 2012 at 06:43 PM
And i think we should invite Needed Dose as i sense a spirit of Abbey and Camu.
Posted by: cal lash | February 29, 2012 at 06:49 PM
"Probably a sign of the futility of it all."
More great thought. Just like your definition of "PERSPECTIVE", it suits the dismal, fairyland world-view you promulgate.
You honor yourself too highly with, "struck a nerve". Your ideas and your reactionary, feeble, ad hominem rejoinders are only the heaping of further shame upon yourself.
Posted by: Needed Dose | February 29, 2012 at 07:00 PM
Do they have jobs in Vancouver? If so, I want to move there.
I miss the economy we had in the 1960's. And 1970's. And 1980's. And 1990's.
This country was better off in 1960 and 1970 than it is now.
Posted by: Mick | February 29, 2012 at 07:32 PM
"Reason to Quit
The low is always lower than the high."
Merle Haggard, Reasons to quit.
Posted by: cal lash | February 29, 2012 at 07:38 PM
Sorry Albert. I meant Camus
Posted by: cal lash | February 29, 2012 at 07:40 PM
It depends on your perspective AZRebel
Posted by: jmav | March 01, 2012 at 12:35 AM
Self-serving avoidance is the preferred perspective for the discriminating blogger.
Posted by: soy loco leche | March 01, 2012 at 12:49 AM
test
Posted by: Emil Pulsifer | March 03, 2012 at 04:24 PM