The Super Bowl is in Phoenix

When the New York Times wrote about the high-fliers coming to the Super Bowl, they didn't fool around with the silly locution "the Valley." They wrote Phoenix, and Phoenix area.

Of course the local mantra is "Arizona's Super Bowl." But Arizona is a big state, and that's a little like saying the Super Bowl in Miami (it was also played in a suburban stadium) is "Florida's Super Bowl."  In other words, meaningless. Once again, the region will miss a great "branding opportunity" by continuing to deny itself the cool, distinctive name, Phoenix. It's a world of competing cities, not geographies of nowhere (in Jim Kunstler's apt phrase). But for Phoenix and "the Valley," it's an old tale of self-destructiveness.

What's less understood is why it happens.

After all, the city of Phoenix has a greater share of regional population than the cities of Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, etc. But for some reason, this region can't be called Phoenix, even though those other regions go by their simple, distinct monikers. Why?

First, Phoenix's old big, headquarters companies were bought or imploded. Meanwhile, the wealthy congregated in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. Even the region's major foundations are located there.

So the economic power shifted inexorably the suburbs: to chips in the East Valley, tourism in Scottsdale, ASU in Tempe, and, especially, to the big suburban house-building enterprise. Metro Phoenix is America's last major factory town, and house-building is the product. The entire universe of players, from builders to Realtors to sliding-glass door installers, is focused on the new suburbs, such as Surprise and Gilbert. They are selling "master planned communities" and have little interest in an identity that implied the "old" city of Phoenix. 

The traditional center of gravity held by the center city was lost. In other cities it is a center built around major companies, powerful CEOs, stewards with money and deep love of place, major economic assets, and other private powers. Its loss creates a vacuum that city hall alone can't fill. The big Phoenix asset of Sky Harbor does a great job of serving the prospering suburbs at a comfortable distance.

Second, Phoenix has gradually developed a very large population of first-generation, low-skilled immigrants, largely cut off from rising in the broader society. It is the center of illegal smuggling and its violence. It is miles of linear slums, underfunded schools and an emerging underclass. Phoenix's sheer size can conceal this problem. But for the powers-that-be, "Phoenix" became a name of discomfort, if not shame. "Phoenix is the Hispanic Detroit," as a rich man from north Scottsdale smugly told me.

Third, as an increasingly urban, diverse place, Phoenix tends to be, in Arizona terms, more progressive and Democrat, which puts it at odds, politically and culturally, with many of the 'burbs.

So the implicit putdown of Phoenix in "Valley," the lost opportunity for global identity, all this is sad for me, one who is proud to be a Phoenician.

So Arizona, Valley, whatever. Enjoy endless driving from the "amenities" of Scottsdale to the stadium in the middle of nowhere, on the other side of the "valley". Amid the lookalike suburbia you might well wonder where the hell you are. No wonder they use a term that could apply to anywhere.

Comments

[Bruce Ellison]

Jon,

Interestingly, you did not tell us that the BIG GAME (can't use the real words, trademark restricted) is in Glendale...

and, this isn't uncommon. The Indianapolis 500 isn't in that city but in Speedway IN; and the Fort Lauderdale open was in Lauderdale Lakes, and now I see (see below) it's in another 'burb.

-----------------
The First Annual "NROTC Fort Lauderdale Open" Military Charity and Fallen Hero Memorial Golf Tournament
Date: January 12, 2008
Time: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm

Location: Show map
The Palm-Aire Country Club
2600 Palm-Aire Drive North
Pompano Beach, FL 33069
USA

[Jon Talton]

Glenwhere? Seriously, though, the Indianapolis 500 is not called the "Central Indiana 500." And how sad about the Phoenix Open. Don't even get me started. Could have been the FBR Phoenix Open, but the vendetta against Phoenix was too strong, or the apathy too profound and a historic name was trashed.

As for the Glendale stadium: suburban stadiums went out in the 1960s most places. There's no mass transit. No existing amenities to play off, thus a huge waste and duplication of infrastructure. Just a long drive and a big parking lot. Oh, and a state-financed asset to help private developers. And developing farm land we need to ease the heat island. If it wasn't so boringly predictably self-destructive, it would be a tragedy. Ah, but tragedy requires some nobility on the part of the protagonists...

[Peter Barnes]

"'Phoenix is the Hispanic Detroit,' as a rich man from north Scottsdale smugly told me."

Telling quote.

All metro areas have their share of wealthy suburb-vs.-impoverished-neighborhood smugness. But people in the Valley tend to base even more of their identity on their suburb or their individual subdivision than on the community as a whole.

In Detroit, for example, residents can hang on to the cultural legacy of Motown, Joe Louis and a proud industrial footprint that was once world renowned.

The only thing I have ever identified with Phoenix is a tedious expanse of strip malls and little pink houses.

Family illness forced me to move here, but I still think of the area as basically Southern California without the beach.

You make an excellent point. For most of the 10s of thousands of people who have moved here in the last 15 years, the Phoenix suburbs are so spread out and homogeneous, the rest of the "Valley" may as well not even exist.

[tubbyaz]

I'm one of those poor and unfortunate "Hispanic Detroit" residents. I envy those Gilbert and Surprise folks every day, wishing I could sit in my car for 90 minutes each way to work.

My commute (if I drive, I usually bike to work on the numerous Hispanic Detroit bike lanes and paths) doesn't allow enough time to even use the cell phone! Damn, my life sucks.

[GWPDA]

Talton!
Good to see you - particularly linked to Eschaton.

Of course Phoenix is regarded as an awkward difficult place - owned by everybody and everything except the people who live here, governed by people who loathe it and its people, a constant challenge to the immigrants and scammers who try to win in it - it's never had control of itself since it was Pie Town. Its true blessing is the wonderful Chamber of Commerce discovery that hardly anybody who lives here stays here more than three years - and then we get a new batch who have the 'right ideas' and go thru even more absurdities.

Besides - if you call it 'the Valley' people will think you mean the San Fernando one - and you can never use Valle del Sol, after all. Mexicans you know. Still, I'm Old Phoenix and not North Scottsdale so presumably have no right to notice such things.

Btw - I miss O Pimental too...

[tom.a]

There are really only 3 cities in arizona, Flagstaff, Tucson and Phoenix, and all the surrounding burbs are lumped in generally. As an aside, Flagstaff and Tucson are only 2 hours from Phoenix, and as anyone who's ever lived in AZ knows, a 4 hour drive is just another day-trip.

[shrimplate]

GWPDA, good to see you here and not just at The Big Es.

[chris vaaler]

Good to see you surfacing!

One other reason for Phoenix's lack of identity is the sheer size of the suburbs. Glendale, Peoria, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale have populations between 200,000 and 400,000, whereas most US cities contain a large number of smaller burbs between 5000 to 50,000. With these few-in-number, but large-in-size cities encircling the core, you have some very influential players competing for resources and mindshare.