Baker Nursery RIP

National readers of this blog will have to indulge me in writing again on sorrowful "news from home." Baker Nursery will be closing after 46 years in operation. Businesses come and go, we grow to love some of them, the verities of the marketplace don't care.

But this is a punch in the gut.

Baker's is a remnant of old Phoenix, the magical oasis, a garden city where people took special pride in bringing the bounty out of this timeless alluvial soil, where even the simplest apartments were lovingly landscaped. It is a remnant of the distinctive eastern part of the city that includes Arcadia but so much more. A remnant of when Phoenix was a very middle-class city, before the stark division of rich and poor, before the miles of linear slums.

What could have been more important for the garden city that once flourished here than nurseries? Phoenix once supported many, but Baker's was the best.

My mother was a Baker's customer from the start. Later, as a young man, I would take her to the nursery. She would select plants while I, well, admired the attractive Baker daughters.

When I came back to Phoenix in 2000, my wife Susan latched onto Baker's. She spent weeks removing the gravel that had been thoughtlessly thrown into the flower beds of our 1914 bungalow on Holly Street in Willo. Then she planted bushes, plants and flowers from Baker's into the grateful earth. It helped make the house a showpiece, brought it back to how it was intended to be: a personal oasis and gift to be treasured for the neighborhood and the future.

My mother died years ago. The house gained new owners when the Republic and the local bigs ran me out of town — and they threw down gravel.

Returning to Baker's is like stepping back into the rural character that defined this part of town. It's lush, shady and unpaved, like visiting a farm. This is part of the land where Osborn Road doesn't extend. On a hot day, the temperature feels as if it has fallen twenty degrees.

You can easily imagine the groves, date farms, orchards and acreages that proliferated here, the roadside stands, horse properties, towering trees and rugged arroyo of the Crosscut Canal. The major avenues were two lanes with no curbs, many with irrigation canals on each side.

The Crosscut has been paved over for a sun-blasted, treeless "park." The groves are gone, although citrus trees remain on many properties and many easterners complain of the smell of the blossoms. Lost, too, are the roadside stands that sold grapefruits, oranges and melons. The citrus often falls to the ground, attracting rats.

I'm sure some horrid tilt-up crapola something will replace the nursery, gravel and concrete will entomb the green. Few will remember or care. The Baker sisters grew old and so did I.

An appropriate elegy is beyond me. Every city changes. Why does my hometown almost always seem to change for the worse?

 

Comments

[Gordon Shumway]

Oh man, RIP!

The Urban Nursery or whatever it was last called N. of Glendale on 12th St is currently being remodeled to be a "some sort of farm/restaurant "concept"

Too bad bakers won't get that retirement package

[Jacqueline Arnold]

This makes me sad. I bought all of my outdoor plants when I moved into my house 11 years ago from Baker. Old Man Baker drove me around in his little golf cart. I go out of my way to purchase my plants, feed, soil and such from Bakers. I will miss this little gem and the kitties on the counter when you check out.

[wkg in bham]

Sounds like an excellent business opportunity for the right person. Reading between the lines the three daughters could just not get along – or the business could support Mr. Baker, but not three heirs. Surely there’s some old geezer in Phoenix (like me) who would step up and buy business and operate (more for fun than anything else).

[cal Lash]

wkg, wrong!
the locals are no competition for the Home Depot and Walmart's of the world.

[tena dutenhoeffer]

Jon, I grew up in a very small town in western South Dakota and, the memories are as fresh as yesterday. Going to Mr Snooty's greenhouse with Grandma Amiss and seeing which Iris she could adding to her garden,, she lovingly cared for her garden and it was a show piece in a semi arid cold country.. It is painful to observe that changes in the place we remember. Grandma's garden is long gone, the jobs are gone, the greenhouse is gone, as are the the ladies dress shops and shoe stores. There is no Walmart where I am from (to small) and the bigger town is to close for the small store to live. I miss the shop keepers, greenhouses, and my Grandmothers garden. RIP Baker street, it would be wonderful to wake up and find people supporting their local businesses again.

[soleri]

I was talking on the phone yesterday to a friend who's been in Las Vegas for the past few months. He told me that as bad as I might think Phoenix has become, that nothing really prepares you for the blight and misery of Sin City. Phoenix, at least, is green in its core and shows a settled quality in most of its central neighborhoods. But what if Vegas is really the harbinger? A generation ago Maryvale still looked fairly good. Once they start pricing water "appropriately", watch out. Remember, you "live" in a desert!

I loved Baker's and left a lot of money there. Still, its obituary didn't shock me. The good news is that the ominous decay on nearby Thomas Road didn't kill it. Arcadia is still tony enough to withstand the worst tendencies of Phoenix's overall deterioration. The oasis in the desert is fragmenting into islands for the prosperous and growing wastelands for the also-rans. The market is picking winners again!

Okay, time for an invidious comparison: the problem in Portland is the opposite. Gentrification is so relentless that the historic black part of town is disappearing. It's an irony that perplexes Portland's very liberal sensibility. It seems half the SUVs here sport Obama bumper stickers. Subtext: we like black people but we love their vintage bungalows even more.

The Phoenix I grew up in got fat, dumb, and happy on growth for growth's sake. Now it's enduring a post-crash diet that seems almost like metabolic shock. Nothing lasts forever: not youth, not binges, not even denial. We old-timers have seen it all. Youth was magical and seemingly eternal. Old age, by contrast, is an IV drip of bitter reminders. We are mortal.

[cal Lash]

From Nursery's to Solar, From Agriculture to oil
corporations destroy communities and get wealthier by the billions every day. Soon you will be a slave working on the plantations of the 5000 families that rule the worlds.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/09/1335430/-Walmart-heirs-working-to-kill-affordable-rooftop-solar-power?detail=email

[Jerry McKenzie]

A pity about Bakers. I thought it would be one of the exceptions to the (corporate) rule.

[cal Lash]

Corporate rule reminds me of the film Soylent Green. Soon we will all be feeding at a giant trough owned by Walmart. And given climate change they will be selling clean air to those that want to keep breathing.

"Some of the Dead are Still Breathing"

[jaimie hester]

I fear for the mighty Silk Floss tree that graces Baker world. I admire it all year in its prickly greeness but especially in late fall when it is splendid in all its pink flowered beauty. There are about 4 or 5 other giant Chinese Silk Floss trees we visit around town too, but the Baker tree is the grandaddy.

[cal Lash]

I have been told the Bakers are "tired".
Do not know if thats true but if so
maybe WKG in Bham should come to Phoenix
and put together a co-op to keep the business going.

[Michael aus Köln]

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Emil Pulsifer]

Nursery gone. Sad.

Meanwhile, there's a 12 percent chance that civilization as we know it will end in the next 10 years, according to NASA:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm/

Excerpts:

July 23, 2014: If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news.

Two years ago, Earth experienced a close shave just as perilous, but most newspapers didn't mention it. The "impactor" was an extreme solar storm, the most powerful in as much as 150+ years.

"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado.

"I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did," says Baker. "If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.

Studies have shown that a solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would likely cause widespread problems for modern civilization. There is an estimated 12% chance of a similar event occurring between 2012 and 2022.

Analysts believe that a direct hit by an extreme CME such as the one that missed Earth in July 2012 could cause widespread power blackouts, disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket. Most people wouldn't even be able to flush their toilet because urban water supplies largely rely on electric pumps.

* * *

From an IEEE engineer specializing in the High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) phenomena:

http://www.todaysengineer.org/2007/sep/hemp.asp

Excerpts:

HEMP-induced functional collapse of the electrical power grid risks the continued existence of U.S. civil society.

Early-time HEMP (E1) transients are likely to exceed the capabilities of protective safety relays.

Late-time HEMP (E3) could induce currents that create significant damage throughout the grid.

The national electrical grid is not designed to withstand near simultaneous functional collapse.

Procedures do not exist to perform a “black start” after an EMP attack, as restart would depend on telecom and energy transport, which depend on power.

Restoration of the national power grid could take months to years.

HEMP-induced destruction of power grid components could substantially delay recovery.

The EMP Commission’s overall power system conclusion was: "Widespread functional collapse of the electric power system in the area affected by EMP is likely."

...it is clear that the level of technology used in electronic equipment has changed significantly over the years: from analog to digital, with operating frequencies increasing from megahertz to gigahertz, and with the operating voltages of chips reaching ever lower levels. These changes have increased the probability of malfunction of 2007 commercial equipment to the HEMP threat.

...An important feature of this waveform is that it can expose a very large area of the Earth (on the order of several million square kilometers) simultaneously (it propagates at the speed of light), and this creates a special hazard for large area networks such as the electric power network which are designed to withstand a series of single point failures as long as each failure is recognized in turn.

...The early-time E1 waveform is somewhat different in that it can directly penetrate through apertures in the external case of equipment, such as a computer, and induce significant currents and voltages at the circuit board level. These voltages can create malfunctions in the operation of the equipment and may cause damage depending on the shielding effectiveness of the equipment case. The early-time HEMP waveform also couples efficiently to short lines (1-10 meters) connected to equipment (power, signal lines, etc.) and can induce large voltages and currents that can be conducted to the inside of the equipment. Laboratory E1 HEMP experiments for unhardened (to HEMP) commercial equipment indicate that the coupling to these short lines is the major threat to most commercial equipment.

* * *

So, not only can the entire power grid (and everything that relies on it, from water supplies, hospitals, transportation networks, etc., etc.) be wiped out in the blink of an eye, but any kind of technology that involves computer chips (phones, computers, automobiles, etc., etc.) can also be burned out via induced voltages, even without being plugged in.

No electricity, no transportation, no computers, no phones or radios, no trash pickup, no municipal water, no refrigeration, no heat; all perishable substances from food to medicine gone; backup generators that can be damaged by the phenomenon also gone.

Good luck recovering from that one.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Um...by the way...what happens to nuclear weapons systems when exposed to HEMP effects produceable by severe geomagnetic storms? Could they explode? Serious question, but I don't have any idea...

[Ruben]

Emil !

Lord have mercy !

By the way, it should be HAEP.

Although, I am OK with HEMP.

It's because of the HAEP scenario that I put the Phoenix metro area at 600K after the event.

I'm much more worried about LBWHB (Low Brain Wattage Human Beings) walking around this planet.

That's why I have a bunch of HPFMJA, (High Powered Full Metal Jacket Ammo).

I'm smack in the middle of rural LDS country, so I have my fake LDS underwear and blond hair dye, so I'm ready to go.

[cal lash]

Ruben
From a source:
"EMP is what follows the detonation of a nuclear weapon also. Some things can be shielded but very, very few are. If an EMP hits us, all of those things predicted will happen and more.

For a long time the DIA though that the Soviets would use that sort of low yield but high EMP weapon against us because retaliation would not get a like effect. You see, vacuum tube electronics is immune to EMP and in the 70's vacuum tube gadgets were all the Soviets had."

Just thought you might want to know.

[cal Lash]

Pardon as I digress but re the Air war over Phoenix, I repeat,
There are so few places left where the silence roars.
I find it insane that anyone would want to live in a flight pattern. Noise plus mentally destructive air plane leaded fuel. Go to top of South Mountain and look at the Black cloud on top of the brown cloud over Sky Harbor.

[wkg in bham]

Back to the Baker topic: I’d love to take over management of the property. But there are two (at least) problems: I have merely a ton of money and I’m too old.

This presents the fundamental issue: you need to find a new Mr. Baker and the new Mr. Baker needs to have tons of money; a very unlikely combination to find.

The most practical solution to this dilemma is to amass a sum of money and buy the property and operate it as semi-botanical garden. I don’t know the details of the Baker property. Is it two acres? Five acres? I get the impression that we’re not talking a lot of property. It would seem that the cost of the property would be the land value plus the (wholesale) value of the plant inventory. I have the impression we’re talking something in the range of million or two (at most).
It would seem that if the nursery is as loved as the readers indicate, raising sufficient amounts of money would not be a problem.

[Ruben]

There is a saying in the restaurant business, "In order to make a small fortune in the restaurant business, you need to start with a large fortune."

I imagine the same would apply with a nursery going up against Walmart and Home Depot. If 1% of the population will support you, 99% will give in to the low prices at Walmart.

When Walmart and Home Depot came into Show Low, it closed 4 local hardware stores and 3 local nurserys.

Americans talk a good game about supporting local businesses, while they shop at Walmart.

[Jerry McKenzie]

Ruben, don't forget to drop the "n" off the name. Then you will blend in completely.

[PamelaR]

"Phoenix Baker Nursery sold for $8.7M to home developer" story by Ryan Van Velzer, The Republic | azcentral.com 1:53 p.m. MST December 30, 2014 http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/12/30/phoenix-baker-nursery-lot-sold-scottsdale-developer/21058997/