Rogue Columnist

The end

I've been writing this blog since 2007 and little has changed. Now, I'm done. The archives will remain open, especially for those interested in Phoenix history. So will the comments section, although substantive and informative posts are most appreciated.

The Arizona Problem, as Soleri aptly named it, remains. Despite a Democratic governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, the Legislature — the most powerful branch of state government likely will remain in Republican hands.

If so, stopping sprawl, enabling cities to chart their own policies, planting real shade trees in the older parts of the city, recovering the garden city of my youth, adequately funding public education, shutting down the charter school and private prison rackets, restoring Amtrak service to Phoenix, and overpowering the Real-Estate Industrial Complex. Forget about it.

And now, Donald Trump — convicted felon — wins the 2024 presidential election. Don't believe for a nanosecond that Trump 2.0 will be a replay of his first term.

Phoenix Union Station

Phoenix Union Station, circa 1975 (Photographer unknown).

When Jefferson Davis — yes, that Jeff Davis — led the pre-Civil War survey for a southern route of the transcontinental railroad, Phoenix didn't exist. The Salt River Valley still lay in its centuries of enchanted slumber surrounded by wilderness. So the line was set in an arc north and west out of Tucson toward California. This necessitated the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico — otherwise, today's international border would be at the Gila River. But it also meant that what became the nation's fifth most populous city would end up without a mainline railroad. Even when the Southern Pacific was built across Arizona in the 1880s, Phoenix was a mere hamlet. It was served by a spur from Maricopa.

By 1910, Phoenix was the territorial capital. With more than 11,000 people, it was fast overtaking Tucson as the territory's largest town — and with the Salt River harnessed by Roosevelt Dam it would become the center of huge agricultural production. In 1923, the SP and Santa Fe railways remedied this, by building this Spanish Colonial revival station. Three  years later, the SP built a northern main line up from Picacho Junction through Phoenix and west to where it joined the southern main just east of Yuma. It was a matter of competitive urgency, because the rival Santa Fe railroad had built a line to Phoenix (the Peavine) from its northern Arizona main at Ash Fork, and another that broke off west from Wickenburg to California. The SP's line was opened in 1926 and waiting for Phoenix's transcontinental railroad was the grandest building in this city of 48,000: the lovely mission-revival style Union Station.

It's still there, at 4th Avenue and Harrison Street, the best human-made reminder I know of that Phoenix indeed has history and soul. Because of terrible short-sightedness of state leaders, it hasn't been served by Amtrak trains since 1996. It held telecommunications equipment for Sprint, which began as an SP subsidiary, until 2020 and now it's being used as an events space. Being a telecom barn was a horrid missed opportunity to create something great downtown — as Denver did. I was fortunate enough to see Union Station at the end of its glory days.

 

Anxiety

Carl Muecke illustration

It seems impossible that we've reached this crossroads. The choice between a disgraced, convicted felon who denies the validity of the 2020 election and incited an insurrection versus a seasoned, if flawed, vice president in one of the most successful administrations in my lifetime. But here we are. And Arizona might represent the tipping point that allows Donald Trump to win the election.

If he does, America's experiment in self-governance will be over. In the future, our "elections" will be similar to those in Russia and China. Anyone who believes we can live through a second Trump presidency and move on is kidding themselves. Trump 2.0, with the lying J.D. Vance (who was no hillbilly but grew up in a middle-class family and attended Yale), will utterly change the nation.

Anxious? I certainly am. And you should be as well.

Constructive actions

I've always been skeptical of "media" attempts to offer solutions. Most of our pressing issues, especially where what Soleri aptly termed the Arizona Problem, can't be solved. But they can be made better. Steve Jobs aptly said that today's axis isn't between left or right, but rather between destructive and constructive.

With that in mind, here are some constructive measures I'd love to see happen in my home state and city.

Maintain and plant more shade trees, hedges, grass, and other cooling elements in central Phoenix and some suburbs. The beautiful view above is of the Encanto-Palmcroft Historic District. People come from out of town and throw down the output of the Arizona Rock Products Association, ripping out "turf" and shade trees, crowing, "We live in a desert!"

Actually, we live in a natural oasis in the actual Salt River Valley — much of what is termed "the Valley" is on basins. That oasis, thanks to the dams and water system created starting in the early 20th century, supported an agricultural empire. Investments in water for the cooling efforts I mention is far better than using it for more sprawl far out on the metropolitan Phoenix fringes.

Harris or autocracy

In a perfect world, when Barack Obama was president he and the Democratic Party would have been building a strong bench of capable younger politicians who could have run for the White House. But we don't live in that world, and for whatever reason it didn't happen. President Biden's decision to step away from the election was courageous but late. His inner circle and first lady Jill Biden should have persuaded him far sooner. And keeping his fading capabilities hidden is deeply troubling.

Nevertheless, Biden was one of the best presidents in my lifetime. He led us out of the pandemic, extricated us (not without blunders) from the Afghanistan war, oversaw a stunning economic comeback, led investments in infrastructure and education. Under the Biden administration, renewable energy is the second largest source of power and climbing. He energized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to, among other things, eliminate "junk fees" hidden in many customer bills. His accomplishments are legion and historians — if they exist — will remember him well. Most of all, he believed in our experiment in self-governance and saved us from Trump in 2020.

Now the Democrats have Vice President Kamala Harris and the future of our nation rests in her hands.

Monster

Carl Muecke illustration.

Rogue readers have been imploring me to write again. So I will put my shoulder to the wheel, even though much of this will be repetitive, whether dealing with what Soleri aptly called the Arizona Problem or our national existential crisis.

I hesitate to use the T word, because he and his cult feed on media attention. Whether voters are paying attention is another matter. Many Democrats are panicked by President Biden's debate performance this past week — even though he became much more impressive as the night continued. However, by that time too many viewers had tuned out.

When I was growing up, Arizona was a low-population state with only three congressmen. It didn't matter much in national elections. Now, with an unsustainable population of more than seven million people, Arizona has become a swing state with dangerous possibilities in November. When the totally unqualified former news-reader for the local Fox affiliate comes within a few thousand votes of becoming governor, you know we're in trouble.

The new Dark Age

Jan Van Eyck's The Last Judgment.

When I was a graduate student at Miami University working for my master's and Ph.D. in American history with an emphasis on the Progressive era and Great Depression, an essential book was The Modern Researcher, by Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff. Barzun went on to write another important work entitled, From Dawn to Decadence, 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life. 

By decadence, Barzun, a French-born American historian, didn't mean we had degenerated into orgies and widespread louche behavior (too bad). Rather, he argued that the West had run out of ideas. Look at any skyline and you'll see variations of the same International style architecture that has overrun our cities since the end of World War II. But no revival of Art Deco, the pinnacle of architectural achievement in the 1920s and 1930s. Go to the symphony and you'll hear new compositions that only harken back to the atonal music of the early 20th century.

Even pop culture has stagnated. My unified theory is that everything that's bad is getting worse and everything good is at risk, that keeping people stupid allows for every kind of mischief, especially to our democracy.

More than that, we're entering a new Dark Age. The Dark Ages, as every schoolchild once knew, lasted from the fall of the Western Roman Empire until the Renaissance, Reformation and Age of Enlightenment. Our new Dark Age will be different, yet perhaps share some similarities.

The capitol

Arizona never had a state capitol building as such. The charming building at the end of Washington Street topped by a copper rotunda was opened in 1901. It was the territorial capitol. Designed by San Antonio architect James Riely Gordon, it was intended to convey the sense that Arizona was ready for statehood (which happened in 1912).

Gordon wanted a much larger building, with a more prominent rotunda and wings for both houses of the Legislature on each side of the building. Yet problems with funding meant the project had to be cut back in size with the massive segments for the Legislature discarded.

In 1918 and 1938, the building was expanded to the west employing the same architecture as the original territorial capitol. Some of the later construction was done by Del Webb's company. It increased the total square footage from the original 40,000 to a final 123,000.

It was home to the Legislature until 1960, when the current House and Senate buildings were constructed, and the offices of the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general until 1974.

In that year, the Brutalist Executive Tower was built (Brutalist is not a pejorative but rather a style in the architectural vernacular; it still has its champions) which now looms over the original capitol, which has been turned into a museum. The AG's office was consigned to a long, unworkable building on Washington east of the capitol before moving to Central Avenue.

Bright lights, big city

I flew down to Phoenix this past week for a book signing. Here are a few observations, make of them what you will.

— As my fictional character David Mapstone is given to saying, "Phoenix is beautiful at night." Unfortunately, during the day the uglification of the garden city of my youth continues. Gravel has replaced grass with desert plants dying from the radiated heat. Few shade trees can be found (when one does, the temperature drops 10 degrees). This was an extraordinary warm January, a sign what's to come. I can't count the number of times I've told people that the Salt River Valley experience several hard frosts every winter — that's why we didn't have West Nile Virus.

— Denial is widespread. Denial of the damage done to Phoenix. Denial of history. Denial of climate change. Denial of the peril our experiment in self-government faces in November. People live in their own tribes, with their distinct tribal beliefs. Very intelligent people I spoke with were shocked that I think Donald Trump will win the presidency again. It's highly likely and the Republicans might win control of both houses of Congress.

Our cynical retired Front Page Editor argues that the Democrats should dump President Biden (or "Bye-done" as he says) in favor of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She's impressed me, too. But this is magical thinking. When incumbents are challenged they always lose the nomination, such as Reagan vs. Ford in 1976 and Ted Kennedy vs. Carter in 1980. The internecine conflict within the party only weakens it.