Rogue Columnist

The price of Phoenix hatred

So the Phoenix Coyotes NHL team is changing its name to the "Arizona Coyotes." Anthony LeBlanc, the team chief executive, justified the decision at length in this story:

We are very excited to announce that our franchise name will change to Arizona Coyotes for the start of the 2014-15 NHL season. Becoming the Arizona Coyotes makes sense for us since we play our games in Glendale and the city is such a great partner of ours. We also want to be recognized as not just the hockey team for Glendale or Phoenix, but for the entire state of Arizona and the Southwest. We hope that the name ‘Arizona’ will encourage more fans from all over the state, not just the Valley, to embrace and support our team.

As some say in the South: Huh, do what?

This is actually another example of the pathological hatred of the city of Phoenix and the city's name that fascinates, repels and carries significant consequences beyond sports.

The McCain censure, explained

My email boxes filled up this weekend with people wanting my take on the "censuring" of wealthy Republican John Sidney McCain III by the Arizona Republican Party.

The decision certainly attracted much attention among his chief constituency. The Wire reported, "Citing his 'long and terrible record of drafting, co-sponsoring and voting for legislation best associated with liberal Democrats,' the Arizona Republican Party passed a resolution attacking Senator John McCain for being too liberal." It added, "It remains difficult to be a maverick."

For the New York Times, McCain "has become known for his willingness to work across party lines" and the Gray Lady (using a Reuters story) took comfort in former Sen. Jon Kyl telling the Arizona Republic, "I've gone to dozens of these meetings and every now and then some wacky resolution gets passed."

Over at the Washington Post, the story noted that "McCain has been dogged by conservatives objecting to his views on immigration and campaign finance, among other issues, since he first ran for Congress in 1982. Republican activists were also turned off by his moderate stances in the 2000 presidential race."

McCain's constituency is the media and they just can't quit him, their make-believe straight-talk express "moderate."

The wrecking crew

I was stunned to read this story about the future of the historic Barrister Place in downtown Phoenix. The 1915 Hotel Jefferson, now city-owned, is one of the few remaining of what were once scores of beautiful old structures downtown.

The Republic's Dustin Gardiner writes, "The hotel, which featured 150 rooms, was decked out in mahogany, marble and expensive colonial furniture. It featured a coffee shop, a cigar stand, private suites and a rooftop garden with palm trees and a fountain."

As an EMT-Paramedic, I saw it in harder times, when it was an SRO which frequently required visits from emergency responders. Amid the human tragedy and shabbiness, it still retained good bones. Unfortunately the interior was later gutted. Now the city is looking for a buyer.

Here's what stunned me: "Councilman Jim Waring...questioned whether the city could get more money for the lot, in the heart of downtown Phoenix, if a buyer could demolish the building and start from scratch."

Fortunately, he didn't prevail. But behold what your city council risks becoming, Phoenix.

Arizona Counterfactuals

"Counterfactual history" are fighting words for historians. Some view "what ifs" as useless or even pernicious. Others, and I am among them, think they can be a useful way to deepen our understanding of the past and how we got here.

In a previous column, I looked at some specific lost opportunities for Phoenix. This time, I want to lay out some turning points that might have gone another way, with profound implications for Arizona and the nation.

1. William Henry Harrison lived and served out his term(s). As every schoolboy or schoolgirl should know, the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe was elected president in 1840. He delivered the longest inaugural address in history on a frigid March day with no hat or overcoat. He caught cold, which turned into pneumonia and pleurisy and he was dead in a month.

The consequences for American history were profound. Harrison led a Whig agenda (the "American System") that today would be considered progressive. His vice president, John Tyler, a former Democrat, abandoned it. Had the Whigs been able to enact their policies under this popular president and extend them with the election of another statesman, Henry Clay ("Harry of the West"), the power of the South would have been lessened and the Civil War might have been postponed for decades.

The Mexican War likely wouldn't have happened. An independent Texas Republic might have emerged and even joined the union. But what became Arizona would have remained part of Mexico. A weak and divided Mexico would have been unable to subdue the Apaches in the late 19th century. The result: Cal's dream of "sahuaros" as the largest population in a land of empty majesty.

Shoveling sunshine

\ The image to the right was making the rounds on Facebook over the weekend. I can take a joke. Hahaha. On a more serious note, the state Tourism Office spent $200,000 on advertising in Chicago reminding residents that they can "warm up in AZ." If this brings in some visitors with money to spend, good on them. Like it or not, tourism is one of Arizona's most important industries — and also a source of mostly low-paid jobs.

On the other hand, if it brings more people to stay, it is a calamity. Arizona needs about 4 million fewer Midwesterners. And the ones — Anglo, older, Republican — that come will merely reinforce the reactionary politics of the state, a la "the Big Sort."

Arizona's experience has made me deeply suspicious of people who move places for the weather or of states that promote sunshine as their prime asset.

The global city

What is it? Does it matter if you live and work in one? I try to answer some of these questions in my cover story for Pacific Northwest magazine. Phoenicians: My thinking on these issues began in the early 2000s, when ASU President Michael Crow gave me a copy of the late Janet Abu-Lughod's book. He meant it as a benchmark against which Phoenix will be measured and compete, whether it wishes to or not.

[UPDATE] I see that Phoenix Magazine has put up the December story I did on old Phoenix. Read it here.

 

 

Suicide for dummies

I suppose it's the season. Stories are abounding about the economic comeback of 2014, a new era of bipartisanship and, because it's cold in winter, that global warming isn't happening.

Little, if any, of this is real.

Instead, let's tap into the abiding paranoia that motivates Americans. It is a dangerous world. We have enemies, foreign and — especially — domestic.

What if someone wanted to destroy America. Really bring it to its knees. Impoverish its citizens, shred its Constitution, ruin its most important institutions, force it to retreat from the world and leave it with a future where a United States of America became impossible to sustain.

How would one go about it?