World-class city

Sackcloth was donned and teeth were gnashed on Facebook with the news that Taz Loomans was decamping from Phoenix for Portland. Loomans described herself as "an architect, a writer and an advocate for sustainable building practices and community-oriented design in Phoenix. I love living in Central Phoenix and taking part in the coming of age of this city." She was one of the people who gave hope to the Resistance. Now, however, she writes:

During this emotionally turbulent year, I have had the privilege to travel quite a bit. In fact, as I write this, I am in the Bay Area on a new years trip. I visited some world class cities this year such as Barcelona, Chicago, Portland New York and now San Francisco.

These trips have also changed me and the way I look at the world. Whereas before I was happy to help build Phoenix into a world-class city, I now want to find out what it feels like to live in a world-class city. Before, I wanted to help bring bike lanes, urban gardens, community and walkability to Phoenix. Now I want to live a life where those things are a part of the culture and are woven into the fabric of the city. In my travels, particularly this year, I’ve found that there are quite a few places in the country, and no doubt in the world, where this is true.

I’m moving not so much because I’ve lost faith in Phoenix, but rather because different things are important to me as I go through a personal evolution...But it’s still a tough place to build on previous progress and get to the next level. The city’s penchant to tear down old buildings and build new ones in their place is a perfect metaphor to how Phoenix always seems to be starting from scratch (apropos, perhaps, because of it’s name), and just can’t seem to build enough sustained momentum to become a world class city.

So continues a steady brain drain. One thinks of Nan Ellin and Yuri Artibise, among many others, who tried and moved on.

Alpha (and beta) global cities share certain characteristics. They are dominant centers of the world economy, with the ecosystem, clusters, whatever you want to call them, that go along with such stature. As Wikipedia puts it, "the most complex of these entities is the global city, whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means."

The metropolis is the critical player in today's global economy, more consequential in many ways than the state, county or even nation-state. Metros produce most of a nation's gross domestic product (making our urban-rural political divide all the more toxic). The alpha and beta cities are the most powerful of all. They disproportionately create wealth and draw wealth from places such as, well, Phoenix. PricewaterhouseCoopers examines the leading world powerhouses in its Cities of Opportunity report. In the United States, below New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, a strong case can be made for Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia and Seattle.

The world-class city has real corporate headquarters, renowned universities, prominent skylines, high quality of life and is very connected to the world through its economy and cultures. It is a magnet for the world's highest-skilled talent. It is where the decision-makers and innovators live and work. It often controls and is always a massive beneficiary of capital formation. It has a real downtown and is dense, served by good mass transit. It boasts eminent cultural assets. Wages are high. Other characteristics include tolerance, progressive politics and many locally owned small businesses. A world-class city is all these things and more. (And sure, they have malls, suburbs, golf courses and freeways, too).

Needless to say, Phoenix is not one. It has never aspired to be. The governing philosophy, if it could be called that, was to add population like crazy and hope the rest would follow. When it didn't, the answer became, essentially, "it's sunny and it is what it is, so shut up or leave." And people do. One of the astonishing aspects of metropolitan Phoenix is its population churn: Thousands come, but thousands leave, too.

The problem with decades of low expectations is that Phoenix is a huge metropolitan area, with all of the associated carrying costs and competitive pressures, without the attendant economy.

So even though many Phoenicians just want to be left alone in the sun, the economic, social and now climate challenges keep growing. Some of the consequences of inaction or regressive policies are low wages, a vast underclass, starving arts organizations, poor schools, etc. To this has been added the intolerance and extreme politics that drive away talent, young people, high-skilled immigrants and quality capital investment. Phoenix is like a 300-pound boxer that can barely punch at bantam level.

Seattle can claim two global-alpha prizes with its aerospace and software clusters, as well as one that's fast emerging in the field of world health thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is the headquarters of such giants as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Paccar, Alaska Air Group and Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In addition, outfits such as Google, AT&T and Intel have large research and development centers here. Seattle and nearby Tacoma are major ports in a state that is among the most powerful trade players in America. Seattle also has one of the nation's top biotech/biosciences centers. It is blessed with wealthy stewards who reinvest in the city. No wonder that Seattle was ranked the fourth leading city in the world for startups. It is the sixth most productive metro in the nation. Looking at global "hot spots" among competitive cities, The Economist Intelligence Unit released a survey looking at 31 indicators: Seattle stood at 29th worldwide, including No. 8 in human capital. The Urban Land Institute named Seattle one of the most attractive real-estate markets for 2013. Phoenix didn't make any of these lists, including (ouch) the last one. And these are gold-standard rankings, not the click-bait one finds all over the Internet.

Portland is not in this league. It doesn't want to be (Seattle is very ambivalent, too, with many "Small Seattle" activists). Portland is very livable, an urbanist's dream, high-quality economy, great energy, civic stewardship, welcomes eccentricity (The television show Portlandia and unofficial motto "Keep Portland Weird"). It has the quality urbanism that is drawing young people (and they don't go there to retire). Like Seattle, it is highly sustainable, with nearby agriculture and even better transit. Portland offers many lessons for quality city building. And, yes, if you choose, it has suburbs, malls, freeways.

Someone on Facebook asked, "can a city be a good city without being world class?" I'm tempted to simply write: "Yes! Portland shows how it can be done." But Phoenix is too populous and spread out to be a Portland. Instead, Phoenix is a somewhat larger metro area than Seattle or Minneapolis. My sense: At that scale a place is competing in the world-class arena whether it wants to or not. It must be reaching for and sustaining world-class achievements or falling back.

Such leaders that exist, and many average Phoenicians or "Valley residents," think everything is fine. Most would recoil from the examples of Portland and Seattle (SOCIALISM!!). In place of serious discussions — and action — about intelligent responses to the critical challenges facing the metro area, there's happy talk, defensiveness and "You Hate Arizona." A place that seems to beckon "you can do anything!" on the surface, it's potential so obvious, turns out to have severe constraints if you seek to do more than go along with the status quo. As a sun-loving, golf-playing real-estate lawyer told me years ago, "Phoenix is OK if you don't take it seriously."

Everything is not fine. Things are not mostly fine, OK or good enough. The status quo is killing Phoenix's future. I've written about responses for more than a decade. Some progress has been made, but it's agonizingly slow as the world keeps moving faster. Amid the torpor, most action continues to favor destructive sprawl and Balkanization — suburbs against city — building freeways and trying to restart a "growth machine" Ponzi scheme that should be utterly discredited.

No wonder it beats down even the young optimists. I learned very young that Phoenix is a heartbreaker.

Read more about urban best practices in Rogue's City Desk archive.

 

Comments

[jmav]

Phoenix, winter resort sprawl of choice for the severely intolerant. The reputation solidly established over two decades of efforts of right wing politicians from Evan Mecham to Joe Arpaio to racist Jan "Bruja" Brewer.

An intolerant reputation that is well deserved and a viewpoint held by a clear majority of Phoenicians.

[AzRebel]

When we watch Portlandia, my wife keeps asking,"they're not really like that are they?"

I tell her, "yes they are dear, yes, they are."

[cal Lash]

Azreb, i suggest Wala Wala Wa. It has almost 200 wine manufactures and a great junior college. I believe Wala Wala is on tract to replace its lost grain farming revenue with weed. Wala Wala the W & W town.
from my phone in Sedona.

[soleri]

During the peak of the last boom, it finally appeared central Phoenix was getting its share of love. There were a couple of new condo towers downtown, many more proposals, light-rail under construction, and best of all, ASU swinging its big bat. Looking back, its easy to see how it masked the underlying disease of a city with a weak heart and swollen limbs. The proof was as simple as looking outside - the shrinkage of real-world retail, the uncrowded sidewalks, the vast and growing number of empty lots with signs promising high-rise potential. And everywhere suddenly: the poor.

Phoenix would be world-class if cancer were a boon rather than curse. But it isn't and that's the problem. During our heyday in the 1960s, Central Avenue was the street. Things were getting better, not worse, including the local economy. The dazzling upswing began flattening out in the 80s until we're at this juncture where there's no upward arc at all. Phoenix's fast sprint became, finally, a lurch and stagger.

I'm not happy about this but there was never any city here destined to become world-class. There was a potential for a Sonoran kind of Portland, which Tucson actually seemed poised to undertake before their local plutocracy crushed that dream. Phoenix never dreamed at all except the way a junkie dreams of getting another fix: more cars, people and shopping. Squint your eyes and downtown is better than LA's! Close your eyes and we're the best city in the world!

We're a city of real-estate grifters and sun-baked dunderheads. We're the aspirational equivalent of an all-you-can eat buffet where the help is Mexican. People move here which is all the proof you need we're better than those "world-class" cities with uppity minorities and Democrats.

I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and it was cold. But there were people on the sidewalks despite the whipping winds. And the average age appeared much closer to 30 than 60, maybe because there are so many universities. And mass transit was widely used and not simply by the underclass. The arts scene was spectacular and there are more than a few people we know on Facebook caring about it. Chicago has metastatic sprawl just like Phoenix but the people you want to know and talk to live in the city. Schaumburg is the joke, not the Loop.

Phoenix is a big welcome sign with a crooked frame and fading colors. We're not going to grow our way of a mess created by growth for its own sake. And every dumb decision we made in the past - really, millions upon millions of them - is like a dead weight preventing any useful correction. We're living a failed destiny, outliers on the edge of a world passing us by.

[cal Lash]

Jon, Unless Obama declares AZ a wilderness the kooks will keep on until they own the Grand Canyon and the Gov's kids will have job selling carnival tickets.
from my tent in red rock country

[cal Lash]

Phoenix as a Mega city?? The american lung assoc now lists Phoenix as the second most dangerous city to take a breath in.

[cal Lash]

Again Soleri with the facts! Abbey was right The Phoenix is going to return to ashes (dust). I do wonder if to be a great city like Chicago you also have ro be the nations murder capitol. 600 last year. Only Juarez bested that!

[cal Lash]

Technological Junkies need "Technological Fixes".
Ha, all the kings scientists cant put planet humpty dumpty back together. The aborigines had more resources than currently exist. But they did not use these storages but lived in a world propelled by solar energy.

[morecleanair]

44 years ago this month, I eagerly accepted a corporate transfer to Phoenix from Minneapolis. Now, the population has almost quintupled . . feeding the Brown Cloud and the Bad Ozone. And the Latino influx seems to have added a permanent underclass that can't be assimilated in our lifetime . . if ever. Water also remains an unsolved set of issues. So, I'm not thinking about "world class" as much as I'm concerned about basic quality of life. Is this myopia?

[cal Lash]

"Is this myopia?"
No, just too much LDS and not enough LSD
move to Oregon

[Terry Ballard]

We have been Phoenix exiles since 1990 when we packed up and moved to New York. Thinking back on the city of my birth, I once described it as a live-in theme park.

[Bob Diehl]

Well said. Now, what if anything can we do about Phoenix?

[Dan Suhr]

Jon, Phoenix does not/cannot aspire to be good city. As you have documented over the years, the city center lost its soul and history to developers, politicians and revitalization decades ago.

[Rogue Columnist]

Bob, click on the link where I write about solutions.

[cal Lash]

Question. Does each technological fix increase or decrease the possible number of fixes?
Or
Maybe we are like the heroin addict. Never able to get that high of the first rush. But keep fixing till we die.

[Sean D. Sweat]

Jon-

My cynicism certainly rivals yours and if we traded points of contention with Phoenix in a drinking game, then, though I'm sure you would ultimately win via your deeper history, we would both be under the table.

But at some point it just seems like the Phoenix-bashing here no longer serves an instructive purpose. The people you can reach with that message have been reached and now it just seems like a pile-on without new insights.

I would like to kindly request that we either move on from the dead horse, or alternatively start building up the few that remain in Arizona's Alamo battling against the odds for a better future.

-Davy

[Rogue Columnist]

Sean,
I'm just a realist, and until reality penetrates and dominates the conversations in Phoenix, progress is impossible. Many new people move in every year with no sense of the issues or history. This blog's readership keeps growing from Arizona and across the country. In addition, Phoenix offers lessons in urbanism for everybody. If I really wanted to do "bashing," I wouldn't consistently support every effort at civic betterment.

[eclecticdog]

Soleri's back, cal is channeling his inner Timothy Leary, and azrebel watches Portlandia... I think maybe the apocalypse did happen!

And all light-rail references must be followed by (WBIYB)!

Ray Stern has a article on Phoenix's solar energy fail in New Times. As a side note, my neighbor had a solar energy system put on his roof about 4 to 5 months ago and is still waiting on APS approval before he can switch.

[azrebel]

Cal. Are you using a cell phone near a vortex?

You better be careful.

[cal Lash]

Tent life with cal. Leaving Sedona New Age vortex for Camp Verde and the Satanic power base.
From my solar powered cell phone with no NSA tracking chip.

[Steve Weiss]

Watching Portlandia for the first episode, when they had the declarative music video about what is Portland("it's like the '90s never left"), I did have the epiphany that Phoenix's downtown art scene, at least some of the visible scene, was not only wanting desperately to be Portland, but 1990s Portland!

Fortunately and probably like any town, that's now relegated to the counter-culture scenes, and they can be quite amusing and sometimes even downright fun, but fortunately there's also some serious artists working and growing our town.

Meanwhile, people are doing things here they would have a hard time starting in a town full up of been there, done that. A dear friend was sad that her friend moved to Seattle, and now happy that her friend is moving back, the reason being, that the things she felt she was needed for in Phoenix already have an established infrastructure in Seattle. She is moving back because she feels she can make a difference here, and is frankly just another cog in the wheel in Seattle.

There is something to be said for finding the good and new things you can do here in Phoenix, simply because we haven't gotten all the benefits of a Portland or Seattle by some freakonomics society. Tazmine worked on projects from local referrals and created housing opportunities from the kind of housing stock you might have an initial difficulty finding in Portland or Seattle. People tend to forget that this is a very welcoming atmosphere for innovators, perhaps not as much from the City who's always last to understand("more over-priced condos!") but certainly from the folks trying to create and maintain the fine-grain and historic. We lose lots, but we don't rest either, and when we do rest it's in celebration.

The discussion should include why people come to Phoenix. Life changes, including divorces, have brought tons of people to PHX over the years, and maybe just as many leave for the same reason. There is something elemental to why people see that name Phoenix and think they can begin again. The weather is important, but the name evokes change in many traveler's hearts. Perhaps the real analysis is to ask why did you come here, why do you stay?

I wish Taz well in all things, and also wish well the folks I meet regularly, like artist Rebecca Green, who is now exploring the wonders of AZ as she settles in from a move from Flint Michigan to, no, not Portland, not Seattle, not LA, not San Francisco. She moved to Phoenix and within weeks was featured in Phoenix New Times and is currently creating an amazing mural on The Lodge Studio on Grand Avenue and 13th Ave. I cherish that she came here, and the 99 others listed, and all the unsung heroes, too.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2012/09/rebecca_green_illustration_the_lodge_creatives.php

[Diane D'Angelo]

Honestly, people. Taz' column was about much more than Phoenix v. Portland. It was about life choices, too, and we owe each other respect enough not to go to the lowest common denominator here. It's not either/or.

[cal Lash]

Nice post steve. Might u drink at the same watering holes as phxsunfan? regarding Green and other visionaries i find it interesting one would move from motor city to 1300 Grand in Phoenix. I think for visions living in the outskirts of Moab, Utah would provide great insights. Even Jerome , for me pushes my psyche more than 2013 Phoenix, a nice town in 1950.

[cal Lash]

Azreb, should I buy a TV to watch Portlandia?

[cal Lash]

believe Taz made the best choice of her life, to date.
I congratulate her.

[Petro]

Steve, I appreciate your comment. I have some friends myself who are vested in the downtown artist revival, and you couldn't ask for a better bunch of local boosters.

[Suzanne]

cal lash, I had not watched a Portlandia episode before AzReb mentioned it, so I did a search. There are lots of them on you tube; I picked ‘Feminist Bookstore’. It’s fun. http://youtu.be/Ohk-Ey01c9k

Steve Weiss, I appreciate your comment too.

[Rogue Columnist]

Plenty of "You Hate Arizona" defensiveness about Homey on Facebook. Sigh.

[cal Lash]

Jon, glad i dont do face book or twitter. A friend said they heard U on PBS.

Thanks Suzanne, but i dont do youtube or watch videos or shows or movies on my laptop. just do this blog, current written news and e-mails. With my reading of books made out of paper an cloth thats all i can manage and not that well. like onefinger cell phone typing

[cal Lash]

"Watering Holes" in the desert are like growing a "cool" Phoenix. Pools of idealism or as this desert rat sees it, a mirage.

[Rogue Columnist]

Here's my favorite head-exploding reaction from Facebook:

Talton generally has some good points, but his vitriolic tone does infinitely more harm than good. When has trying to attract flies with vinegar instead of honey ever worked?

I'm not really interested in the ravings of someone who's a quitter. Listening to Talton ramble on petulantly is like taking advice on how to play Dodgeball from the kid who got knocked out in the first minute.

Those, like Talton, who seem to think Phoenix can't become a world class City are frankly wrong. Maybe it won't be in their lifetimes, but it was their generation who fucked Phoenix up so badly in the first place- so really, I don't want to hear it. My generation will have to spend our lives fixing what happened in the 60s-90s and many of us are OK with that and know its a long road ahead.

But that road is worth going down, because if Phoenix can urbanize and become a sustainable, rich, exciting City in the middle of a harsh desert, then it can be done anywhere. The Sonoran Desert is the most beautiful desert in the world and in my lifetime, it'll have a City that lives up to its splendor.

For these reasons and more, Phoenix is by far the most interesting American City in the 21st Century. Anyone with a real love for making Cities great out to be decamping from Seattle, Portland, Austin, NYC, et cetera and getting on the first plane to Sky Harbor.

[Rogue Columnist]

To be fair, there were many more affirmative comments.

[cal Lash]

The Techno fix!

[Phx Planner]

Good post. Taz's move should be viewed as (another) canary in the coal mine. A guy I know who works for the county has been saying for some time now that Phx has very little time left to get its act together or the Millenials will abandon/ignore the city wholesale. Smart guy. Taz isn't a Millenial but is a progressive thinker/leader that embodies the new generation's values. Her leaving is a big blow to Phx

[cal Lash]

Azreb, left u a note on 2012 Hottest blog

[cal Lash]

Thousands of years of animal and human sustainability in the Americas ended about 1400 with the invasion of greed and religion.

[cal Lash]

Azreb and Mylo, more on 2012 Hottest blog

[AzRebel]

I see the notes cal.

Sorry, I thought by 2012 Hottest you were referring to that hansdome hunk of a Front page editor.

[eclecticdog]

Pretty harsh Facebook post, but I have to wonder why our collective generation is the one that f'd things up in Phoenix. I never developed farmland or desert. No one ever asked me my opinion about it. No one gave me veto power over it. I never even worked as a construction worker. And yet the same mentality is still at work. Is their generation to blame then?

[morecleanair]

The Fiesta Bowl (post John Junker) is a micro-example of big league (if not world class) vision by Jack Stewart, who then owned the Camelback Inn when he got the idea of staging a major college football event that would compete for coverage with the bowls and give Phoenix some much needed national publicity. That was 1970 when he invited me to a meeting, showed the whirly-gig graphic and asked for the local retailers' support. First Fiesta Bowl was in 1971 and Jack's most excellent idea remains his legacy.

[Donna Ballard]

I believed Phoenix was wonderful too until I moved to New York and found out how it was done in the big leagues.

[TooLeeRollUm]

Soleri wrote: "There was a potential for a Sonoran kind of Portland, which Tucson actually seemed poised to undertake before their local plutocracy crushed that dream."

Please elaborate if you are so inclined. Last time I was in Tucson I was astonished at the revitalization of Congress St. and much of the rest of downtown; I remembered it being pretty moribund as recently as ten years ago. There may be no hope for the exurbs, but it seems like gentrification is spreading out from the core, if fitfully (look at Dunbar Spring now). If I recall correctly, the now-profitable bohemianization of Portland was driven by the low cost of living through the '90s, but it's not cheap any more -- the fate of Greenwich Villages everywhere.

I used to love Austin. This is what happened to it: http://nplusonemag.com/austin-at-large . Places can be doomed by their own success, at least if you define "success" in the terms of globalized capital. Me, I know I can never win at that game, so my ambition is limited to finding a warm place to die relatively unmolested.

[cal Lash]

ToLeeRollUm, Baja

[TooLeeRollUm]

I know, right? The first and last time I went down there was spring of '08, motivated by some old Erle Stanley Gardner travelogue, but I didn't make it too far south of San Felipe and got stuck in the sand four times. I read a Bruce Berger where he makes La Paz sound really good but also maintains Baja was over once they put the surfaced highway in. The new Charles Portis anthology has a great tale of him bumming around down there ca. 1964. Unless you meant Baja Arizona. Whatever happened with the secessionist movement anyway?

[cal Lash]

TooLeeRollUm
How about Todos Santos. U can hang out at "Shut Up Franks" with other fugitives. Cold Beer and Great Green Chile Burgers. Too far try Kino Bay or a few mile more down the Sonoran desert road to San Carlos next to Guymas.

[cal Lash]

Baja AZ? A Tucson drunk lawyers dream. Easily forgotten after some good Inexpensive Mexican weed.
hasta luego
Chapo Calderon
Harvard Proffesor

[Stacey Champion]

I have mixed feelings about this post... I believe Taz is leaving because she needs a new chapter. To the best of my knowledge she hasn't lived in any other city as an adult, she has no children and is self-employed. Taz should spread her wings and see what else is out there. Why shouldn't she? People move all around all the time. It's good to experience different places, which is probably part of the reason that I'm happy to call Phoenix home and continue to fight the good fight.

It's like being able to sow your wild oats in your youth, then be content in mama mode in later years without feeling like you might miss something big on Sat. night.

I have been writing and speaking about all of these things for many years now with regard to sustainability. None of it is new. I also grew up in Minneapolis, lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, Maui, northern AZ and have spent tons of time in San Fran & NYC. I've traveled throughout the world a bunch - for both business and pleasure, but I am happy with my Phoenix home.

Having lived in all of these different places and great cities, I can say with experience that each one of them has pros and cons. Every place does. At the end of the day it's just about creating community - wherever you are - and I think I have a pretty badass community here. I'm settled and happy about it. Someday when my children are grown this may change, but Phoenix will remain my home base.

Maybe I like the fight, or the fact I can easily make change or see the fruits of my love projects here. Maybe I like that the activists are that much more feisty here or that it's the smallest big city I've ever lived in.

Though yes it's true you're more apt to find a larger percentage of progressive left-leaning people in urban cores, the truth of the matter is most humans in general have the same basic wants and needs at their core. We're all flawed. We're all consumers. We're all hypocritical when it comes to something.

I'd be lying if I said this place didn't piss me off on a regular basis. But I also feel it's that which drives me to be a better person, be less complacent, and work towards getting shit done. If I lived in a place where most people thought like me, I may end up eating steamed kale and sipping chai while watching my kids play with the latest app on their tablet and just chatting about ideas- instead of actually doing.

I think the most important question for anyone to be asking is: what are you doing to make your world a better place - every day - no matter where you live? For both now and future generations? If more people could answer that question (like I can) every city could be better - including Phoenix.

People come, people go. Life keeps moving...

[cal Lash]

I am doing my part by waving at Stacey as I pass her house and wave at her on her porch, typing away in pursuit of making Phoenix a better place.

good post Stacie!

[Stacey Champion]

You're a good neighbor, Cal! I have several projects up my sleeve I think you'll like. :)

[Bob Graham]

Speaking as one in the trenches of downtown Phoenix planning and development, I certainly commiserate with Jon's bleak assessments and mourning for our past losses. However, I have to say that over the last 10 years I have seen a generational change in attitudes about downtown.

I'm sure that this change is not reflected in the larger populace of suburbia but is tangible in the central city. The change has been brought about largely because of the development of ASU downtown, the undeniable success of Roosevelt Row, and the completion of the first leg of light rail.

Those of us who are left have no illusions about the landscape in Phoenix (both physical and political) but are in the best position in my memory for shaping the future of downtown. And with the infusion of new, young, idealistic, and educated blood I really think great things are possible in the next economic cycle.

[cal Lash]

Bob and Stacie, the major problems I see.
Pollution, Water and Sprawl.
The inner core 2700 west to 4800 east and south Mountain to North mountain of Phoenix is in good shape water wise. (I helped inspect the entire water system after 911 and was impressed. Pollution is a nightmare for many, including myself and many people my age (72). While not a fan of any structure higher than one story, I guess the core has to go up. I ride my recumbent in the Downtown Canyons on early Sunday mornings and it is eerie.
Hopefully you will be able to allay the ending of Edward Abbeys novel "the Good News".

[pat L]

It's WallaWalla,WA, the city so nice, they named it twice!

[Stacey Champion]

You all may be interested in reading this document. My thoughts regarding sustainability in Phoenix can be found on page 7.
http://da.velux.com/arLB/Documents/PDFs/DA18_articles/DA18_Places_Phoenix.pdf

[Suzanne Phx]

Beautifully put, Stacey. This world is getting smaller by the minute. Taz isn't dropping out of society; she's going to do great things in PDX. We'll continue to conspire and inspire each other!