Rogue Columnist

Minds made up

Carl Muecke illustration.

When was the last time you changed your mind? Be honest.

I can think of a few times in my recent life. I was skeptical about human-caused climate change until I read Elizabeth Kolbert's seminal reporting on the subject in 2001. I changed my mind. When I was business editor of the Charlotte Observer, where we covered the major bank consolidations of the 1990s, I had misgivings. About the repeal of Glass-Steagall. But I was convinced the system was secure. When it nearly melted down in the Panic of 2008, I changed my mind. Being raised a Goldwater Republican in Arizona, I adamantly changed my mind in the coming years.

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" to use a quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes.

But the evidence on the ground indicated that fewer Americans are willing to change their minds about anything.

More Phoenix in the 1930s

Phoenix went from Depression to a recovery earlier than most places thanks to abundant New Deal investments. Have a look in the photo time machine (click for a larger image):

The privately funded Agua Fria River Project, shown in this 1932 map, was derailed by the Great Depression. It sought to bring water to cultivate land all the way to the White Tank Mountains.

Thomas and Grand Avenue in the 1930s, the Alhambra Garage and a nearby grocery, with a Holsum Bakery truck making a delivery (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Boehmer's Cut-Rate Drugs in the Monihon Building at First Avenue and Washington Street in 1937. My fictional private investigator Gene Hammons has his office in this location (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Not quite blue

I watched tensely on Monday night as NBC News, CNN, and finally the Associated Press called the Arizona governor's race, with Katie Hobbs winning over Kari Lake. She will become the first Democratic governor here since Janet Napolitano.

But it was a close run thing, as the Duke of Wellington said of his triumph over Napoleon at Waterloo. Hobbs won by a mere 18,551 votes.

How could this be? Hobbs was Secretary of State, former state representative and state senator, a Phoenix native, very well qualified to be governor. Kari Lake was a former newsreader for the local Fox television station. She has no government or executive experience at all, was Trump anointed, an election denier, spreader of COVID disinformation, claiming President Biden had "a demonic agenda," and one-time Democrat. She called for putting Hobbs and journalists in jail (sound familiar?). Yet nearly 1.23 million voters were willing to go with her.

The answer lies in Arizona still being a hotspot of the Trump cult — the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and John McCain is dead. Props to McCain for choosing Sarah Palin, a proto-Lake, as his running mate in 2008.

The old High Country

Before land swaps and subdivisions in the pines, before a Super Walmart in Payson and wildfires started by the likes of Valinda Jo Elliott, the Arizona High Country was wild and lightly populated. Click on a photo for a larger image:

Loggers working between Heber and Overgarrd in the late 19th century.

Pack mules heading into Payson, 1901 (ASU Archives).

The Payson General Store (ASU Archives).

 

Vote like your life depends on it

Carl Muecke illustration.

Because of Typepad problems I am late in posting this urgent plea.

Vote like your life depends on it. Don't believe the polls. Some are fake. All risk dampening Democratic turnout.

Vote like your life depends on it. If Republicans win one or both Houses of Congress next week, you won't recognize this country next year.

Vote like your life depends on it because today’s GOP is a radical nihilistic cult worshipping Donald Trump. Its the party of Ginni Thomas, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Herschel Walker...of election deniers, those who would dismantle the safety net, privatize Social Security, switch Medicare to inadequate vouchers, and abandon Ukraine.

Vote like your life depends on it because there are no moderate Republicans.

Blog troubles

Typepad, which hosts Rogue Columnist, spent the weekend switching over to a different system. As a result, the blog was unavailable for most of that time. Now it's up but still buggy. Photos aren't loading (I have a help ticket in). You can check Typepad status on Twitter @typepad.

At 2:16 p.m., they reported: "The Typepad team is continuing to work to fully restore service. At this time, you may see issues such as blogs or images not loading, or you may encounter an error when logging into the application. We are working non-stop to address all remaining problems."

Meanwhile, check out Ruben's comment on the previous post:

"I started following Jon while he was still at the Republic. The reason he caught my eye was because he was offering common sense ideas to issues that challenged the community. At that time, the city, county, state and country were headed in a bad direction. Picture a graph where the line of progression is headed downward at a 45 degree angle. I must have been really naive at that time because I thought that the "powers that be" would see his ideas and take him up on his advice. Little did I know that they would do the opposite.

"Fast forward to now and we are still at a 45 degree downward angle and we are speeding faster and faster to who knows what hell awaits us.

"As to the blog, I would vote to keep it as a photo and memories site for us old folks. After millions and millions of words posted, WHICH CHANGED NOTHING, I vote we stop the political stuff which has tens of commentors who still try to sway a person here and there. Failure is never fun and I"m afraid that the overwhelming tide of uneducated, ignorant citizens have bulldozed us into the pit of irrelevance."

Living with drought

My new Gene Hammons Novel (a mystery due out in the next year or two) is set in 1936. In my research, I found that much of the Midwest and South suffered from a terrible drought, which claimed thousands of lives (separate from the Dust Bowl). But Arizona had plenty of rain that year — temperatures were also lower than today — and Phoenix was protected by the dams and reservoirs on the Salt River. And therein lies a tale.

 The population of Arizona was around 443,000 — fewer than live in today's Mesa. Phoenix clocked in at 55,000 or do, double that for the metropolitan area (remember, the city then was only around 17 square miles). Had today's mega-drought hit then, Phoenix would have been fine. Even with climate change.

But population growth has long been the primary driver of Phoenix's leadership. On the flag of the Arizona Republic in 1936 was a bug headlined "How Phoenix Grows!" listing population increases and building permits (The "flag" is the name of the paper atop the front page; the "masthead" lists the newspapers leadership, typically on the editorial page). So as of 2020, Arizona's population is 7.2 million, with Phoenix the nation's fifth most populous city — though far from No. 5 in other measures of quality and influence.

Russell Lee's Arizona

Russell Lee (1903-1986) is a photojournalist best known for his work with the New Deal's Farm Security Administration. Some of his work documenting Depression-era Phoenix is iconic. He also worked around Arizona circa 1939-40. Here's a sample from the Library of Congress:

An unknown location in the Apache National Forest in far eastern Arizona.

The Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone.

Office of the Tombstone Epitaph. It is the oldest continually published newspaper in Arizona.

Main Street in Bisbee.