In 1999-2000, I was offered the business editor jobs at the San Diego and San Francisco papers. I also had feelers about coming to work at the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. After nearly five years at Knight-Ridder's Pulitzer-winning Charlotte Observer, I was more than ready to leave a city where they ask if you've found a "church home," wanted to get back to the West. That was when John D'Anna at the Arizona Republic called and offered me a columnist job at my hometown newspaper.
Warning signs abounded: Downtown Phoenix was dead, corporate Arizona had moved out to north Scottsdale, and the Republic had recently been purchased by Gannett, known for its small newspaper mentality, suspicion of serious journalism, and obsession with fads (I had worked for the company as assistant managing editor for business news at the Cincinnati Enquirer and saw its bad and OK sides). On the other hand, downtowns were making impressive comebacks elsewhere — I had seen them first-hand in Denver and even Charlotte. Brahm Resnik, the business editor at the Republic, assured me the changes had been minimal. After years as a turnaround specialist editor, I longed to be out of management. And every journalist's dream is to write a column in his hometown.
So I took the job, following in the footsteps of the fine business columnist Naaman Nickell.
Susan and I bought one of the most beautiful historic houses in Phoenix, in Willo a block from where I grew up. And for the next nearly seven years I wrote one of the most popular columns in the paper. "Never thought I would read this in the Arizona Republic," was a common reader accolade. I enjoyed a position of prominence, leadership, and celebrity totally out of proportion with the job — at least in other cities. The parties we hosted at the 1914 bungalow on Holly Street attracted a who's who of Arizona. And then, in 2007, it was gone. We had to sell that beloved house as no other local jobs materialized and make our primary base in Seattle (we still have a Midtown condo and some lifelong friends).
Could I have found a way to stay?
It's a question I've pondered for years (I've been writing for the Seattle Times for more than a decade now, my longest tenure at any paper).
It's not as if I didn't come to understand the peril of writing about Arizona as it was (and is). There's a reason that E.J. Montini, known for his biting takedowns, or Laurie Roberts, who writes regular outrage columns, never take on the real estate interests. But I did. Relentlessly. I did the same with the crazy reactionary politics that had taken over Arizona — I had grown up a Goldwater Republican, remember. "Real Estate Industrial Complex" and "Kookocracy" made me more enemies than I realized, no matter how many readers were delighted by the terms.
And it's not as if I was always "negative," as my traducers complained, whatever that word means. I was the first and most constant supporter of TGen, ASU, the downtown Convention Center, and light rail (I take special pride that WBIYB). I wrote honest but largely favorable profiles of people such as the late Paul Fannin — even a fair shake for Jon Kyl once I had a column on the op-ed page. I worked hard to stay on the good side of the LDS. As a fourth-generation Arizonan, I was raised to believe I owed — talk about a positive impulse — but that included the moral obligation of using the column to tell the truth. There were, and are, many fine journalists at the Republic. But timing and fate put interpreting the economy, writ large, and explaining the history, largely forgotten or suppressed, on my beat.
I also knew that a drumbeat began soon after my arrival to have me silenced or fired. Sue Clark Johnson, as publisher, constantly protected me, never asked me to pull a punch. Of course, I did anyway, more times than I can count. I had spent my career living by Andy Grove's "only the paranoid survive." The real-estate people got plenty of chances to have their say in my column, even as I wrote about the unsustainability of the development economy, eventually calling the crash. One of the biggest things that made me dangerous was that I knew the history — and wrote about it. I knew what had been lost, so much that made Phoenix magical, the mistakes and malpractice, myths and lies. The reality of Phoenix was a tragedy of enormous proportions — yet it could still be saved. So I thought. This gathered a loyal band of natives to my side. But for many, even one dissenting and knowledgeable voice was too much. It was as if Phoenix was a little town rather than the nation's fifth largest city. Of course, Phoenix always had been a little town and still is in its outlook. And defying the booster party line is a career killer.
If I had to do it all over again, could I have made myself viable? Perhaps.
It would have required writing about sprawl, championship golf, and gated properties only in glowing terms, sales language ("gated communities"). Staying out of politics. Being skeptical of luring TGen, boosting ASU's research, rebuilding downtown, and light rail. It would have required a constant affirmation of sunshine and added population as unalloyed goods — as the answer to any criticism of the Ponzi scheme local economy. Profile the real-estate playerz and libertarian north Scottsdale businessmen as heroes. Become an indispensable destination for selling master-planned communities, Republican economics, and supersize suburbs. None of this Jane Jacobs or Jim Kunstler (or Richard Florida) stuff — or only in very small doses. No rigorous analysis of Phoenix and Arizona's competitive situation. History only in small and "positive" doses. And never — never! — write about water.
In other words, I would have had to be a completely different person. By my lights, a column is a sacred trust and I truck in reality-based journalism. Susan says there aren't enough mood-stabilizing drugs to have allowed me to survive as that other person. Perhaps she's right.
But I'll never stop missing that house on Holly. It was home. We intended to live there for the rest of our lives. Even though I have to remind myself of all the times it was our oasis, while outside the property line and the historic districts the full horror of what had been done to my beloved city and state — which was ongoing — was a constant weight and heartbreak.
I wish my bosses, especially after Sue left, had been honest with me. I might have been able to change course. But that's not how Gannett works. And I'm older, age and experience being liabilities. So even if I survived the Information Center fad that killed my column, I might have fallen to subsequent layoffs.
Maybe I never should have come home. I never expected to. All the years I lived in Denver, working at the late, great Rocky Mountain News, I never had the inclination to make the short flight to Phoenix. It was only in Cincinnati that I began to come back — wrote the first David Mapstone Mystery, Concrete Desert, as a love letter home. But, as so many find, Phoenix never loved me back, although some Phoenicians do. Not that love is a requirement for good journalism — indeed, it can get in the way. Maybe I should have become a CPA. Regrets? I have a few.
Like that house! Walked by a couple of years ago when attending the Willo open house tour. Even as PHX is focusing on its core (with a lot of federal help), Maricopa County has taken up the sprawl banner and is looking to create a surplus city to be hyped by Bill Gates far west of PHX. The county is also luring Wickenburg into becoming the host of high impact industrial uses necessary to supporting a perpetual continuation of Sprawl west of the White Tanks. Is a potential solution an outreach to rural western Maricopa to create a new county or annex to abutting counties?
Posted by: John Cote | January 02, 2018 at 06:09 PM
Rogue Columnist, You had morality, decency, a conscience, and integrity. Unfortunately, it seems you found out that you can't go home, especially when the "home" that gave you those qualities now sees them as liabilities. On some level, seeing that degradation becoming your enemy must have been a torment.
I know some of this firsthand because I experienced the pressure to conform to the "local norms." I could only take seven years in Phoenix because I came from a much more diverse, tolerant, and pluralistic place. I could not--and would not--change the person I was because it would have been a long, slow suffocation of my soul to have adapted to the conformist corporate conservatism that pervaded Phoenix. Freedom is intrinsic to my definition of myself--and I wasn't about to let someone or some corporate entity tell me what "freedoms" I could choose from.
Treasure the Phoenix that made you who you are today. That crucible gave you your traits and qualities--and be proud you didn't surrender them to be a slave to the mercantile madness of today's Phoenix.
Posted by: Bradley Dranka | January 02, 2018 at 06:58 PM
One of the best analyses of journalism's withered soul was delivered by Stephen Colbert in 2006:
The President makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction!
I recall a point in the early '90s when Phoenix seemed as if it had finally grown up. Pat Murphy was the publisher of The Arizona Republic and had lured the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tom Fitzpatrick to town. Jana Bommersbach and Deborah Laake were writing for New Times. It seemed to my aching heart that maybe there was still some hope for the sprawling megalopolis Phoenix had become. By 2000, however, the Internet was killing journalism and those sparks were extinguished.
Jon Talton's too-late comeback was extraordinary, however. We had been defeated but here was finally someone stating the obvious about Phoenix and the shoddy compromises that it made with truth and its own best possibilities. "He can't say that, can he?" was the delighted if worried exclamation of old-timers like myself. The power structure was not amused and they eventually rid themselves of this troublesome oracle.
Today, I wish Phoenix the best as it becomes ever-larger and ever-more vulnerable to catastrophic climate change. I'm much more philosophical about trajectories now that my own is clearly in descent. We had some real moments of promise but the greater momentum was on the side of growth for growth's sake. It happened, we lost, and I'm pretty much over it. Still, I love to look back and feel the magic that lingered in that opium dream of a place we called home. Of course, it's like so much of America where change is the only constant. Maybe it's the phosphorescence of decay, but there's still a little magic in its ruined heart.
Posted by: soleri | January 02, 2018 at 07:54 PM
I was surprised and disappointed to hear the new 7,000,000 population number. I wonder how many long time Arizonans feel unwelcome in their own state. Up here in the sticks I've had to put up with the Trumpsters. Now we have the new wave of Kelli Ward worshipers taking over the White mountains. I have a mountain lion hanging around my property. I'm tempted to cover myself in barbeque sauce have the lion send me to the happy hunting ground.
Posted by: AzReb, | January 02, 2018 at 07:58 PM
AzReb, I hear 'ya. Every time I'm back in the Valley I wonder if I got rerouted and ended up in LA. Especially the last couple of years. We learned nothing, sigh...
Posted by: PHX is dead, long live PHX | January 02, 2018 at 10:59 PM
I wonder how many of those 7,000,000 Zonies are sock puppets living inside a certain commenter's head.
Posted by: soleri | January 03, 2018 at 05:46 AM
I certainly appreciate all you did while here and continue to do to point out the strengths and weaknesses in this city and state. At one point I thought of going home (I'm from California), but didn't make the move which I'm so thankful for. Especially when I work with a friend on projects there which defy all logic based on the objections. So while I agree Phoenix is still a small town, with a small town mentality, my hometown is so much smaller that I would probably have to be committed to some institution before going back. Still, as an "objective" historian, I try to point out the good and the bad parts of what I see while having an eye on the future when we will have to pay the piper for all the damage we have done. The Hohokam left for some good reason. What will be "our" reason? And then read your books so I can chuckle at what I "missed" by not growing up here.
Posted by: Donna Reiner | January 03, 2018 at 11:23 AM
And here we are in tiny Cochise County Az with many of the same problems. We spearheaded a movement against El Dorado-Phoenix developers -and received lots of local coverage in our weekly Benson paper-as well as the daily Sierra Vista Herald. Dana Cole provided excellent coverage. No more. You can ask her why-but needless to say-all but the most pablum stories about the developer's misdoings in our tiny community disappeared. The town of Benson,Arizona- pop. 4,000 or so-now holds city council meetings spiked with big city northern Arizona real estate developers-seems the local (replacement for Dana Cole ) reporter can now report on council meetings in a more favorable light. Because this development of 28,000 homes in a county of 90,000 will draw its water from the San Pedro River (a river of global importance for North American bird migration)- and remember-this is the desert-Army Corp of Engineers was pressured into seeking public comments. Did our weekly paper give this story due justice over the most contentious development in SE Az? Jon is right-all this in the county that is losing population faster than any county in the US. No jobs. My husband and I are retired-but-like Jon did-our house is for sale.
Posted by: cyndi sinclair | January 03, 2018 at 11:36 AM
I love talking.
Posted by: Phil | January 03, 2018 at 12:41 PM
Hahaha. Well, that fell flat. Or, as some wild day, that was a Freudian slip. I meant to say "I love ya." Sometimes Spellcheck is your worst enema.
Posted by: Philip Motta | January 03, 2018 at 12:45 PM
"some wild day."
OK, I quit.
Posted by: Phil Motta | January 03, 2018 at 12:46 PM
Coming home to the metro Phoenix area in the 1990s after active duty military service, I was also shocked by the extent of sprawl and political dominance by outsiders newly arrived. People with no experience of swimming in a densely shaded irrigation ditch, whose parent had never enjoyed a picnic and dance at Riverside Park. Your columns were a "must read" for me, they hit with total accuracy. When I ran for the state legislature in the late 90s, I was surprised and proud that the Arizona Republic endorsed my candidacy. As you say, that newspaper was different then. But the development trend has continued. For someone who lived there in the 1950s through the 70s, (then again for another two decades) it was very hard for me to give up on Arizona. But eventually I realized it had become a place where I no longer fit well. Like you, I'm now in the Puget Sound area, and have successfully integrated myself into much fuller community life here. Every trip back to Phoenix, I still cringe at what was lost there.
Posted by: Ken Thomas | January 03, 2018 at 02:39 PM
Donna Reiner, you said the Hohokam left for some good reason. I'm guessing the drought of the late 13 century had something to do with it. Which brings us to today....
Posted by: Bradley Dranka | January 03, 2018 at 05:14 PM
Bradley Dranka-The problem now is that unlike the 13th century,there is nowhere to. go.Overpopulation is the problem and like climate change, there is no denying it, no matter what we do.People are not going to quit having babies or polluting the atmosphere until Mother Nature makes the price so steep that we will have no choice but to comply Alss,I fear that nuclear winter will destroy us first.Thank God,I'm 71 years old,but do feel sorry for my kids(4) and grandkids(8) who will have to deal with it.
Posted by: Mike Doughty | January 03, 2018 at 06:14 PM
P.S. RC-you are much appreciated both now and when we were blessed to have you in Phoenix .Been here since since 66 and remember when Willo district was running down along with Encanto Park.You can't say you didn't try.
Posted by: Mike Doughty | January 03, 2018 at 06:17 PM
I understand your regrets about having to leave your hometown. But your honest criticism of Phoenix's "real estate industrial complex" was spot on. Somebody needed to hold those folks accountable and you were in a good position to do it. And you did it very well.
Posted by: Peter Corbett | January 03, 2018 at 07:33 PM
Glad you are still posting here. Come back for a cup of joe sometime!
Posted by: eclecticdog | January 03, 2018 at 09:31 PM
Jon,
I know this won't change how you feel -- nor do I intend for it to -- but I think it is worth mentioning that I started reading your columns right around the time I graduated from Northern Arizona's journalism school. Not only did I share your opinions and criticisms about many of the issues that you wrote about, but I appreciated and admired your willingness to take on the people and industries that were frequently your targets.
A few years later, I landed a job as a business journalist and columnist in Massachusetts. Having studied your approach to journalism, I modeled my own career after yours. I spoke my mind. I covered issues that were formerly off-limits. I asked questions that business and political leaders weren't used to answering. I was afraid of the ramifications, but I knew that having courage was better than caving in.
You were instrumental in the initial success of my career -- I still remember meeting with you for career advice 3 days before my wedding in October 2005 at the Park Central Starbucks -- and I appreciate everything that you did for me, careerwise. Even if you weren't aware that you were doing it. I'm glad you didn't do things differently in your career.
Posted by: ChrisInDenver | January 03, 2018 at 10:49 PM
Jon, I always loved your column. I'm glad you came back to Phoenix when you did.
And I'm glad you're a reality-based journalist.
Posted by: ArizonaEagletarian | January 04, 2018 at 12:56 AM
I keep moving farther out until now I am up against the Superstition Mountains and can go no farther yet the sprawl commeth like a locomotive or maybe a Sherman tank. What was once rural Pinal County is filling up with strip malls and subdivisions. We need you back, with a strong voice to speak the truth to power.
Posted by: Anne Coe | January 04, 2018 at 09:17 AM
Anne I am out here with you, my back up against the mountain.
One reason
https://weather.weatherbug.com/life/air-quality/apache-junction-az-85118
and Phoenix
https://weather.weatherbug.com/life/air-quality/phoenix-az-85012
but I am looking to move again if they keep building like mad out here.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 04, 2018 at 12:13 PM
Jon you did the right things. Keep it up!
as here they come
The Billionaire Bump Stock Ramp it up
Earth RAPISTS!
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-turmp-offshore-oil_us_5a2fe66ae4b078950283bee3?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 04, 2018 at 12:23 PM
You are missed. The world has plenty of CPAs, but not nearly enough good columnists.
Posted by: Ron Dungan | January 04, 2018 at 05:21 PM
Mike Doughty, My main issue with man's use of the planet's resources is that man tries to subjugate nature by force, numbers, ramping up development beyond the harmonious, and a general indifference to potential consequences and "blowback."
This is a testosterone-laden, macho, bullying, and conquering mentality of a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" absolute capitalism. The practice in Phoenix functions as a "bludgeoning" of the desert to suit our needs, and nature's and the environment's need be damned.
To paraphrase Sir Arthur Harris (Bomber Command, WW II), "We sowed the wind, and now we will reap the whirlwind."
Posted by: Bradley Dranka | January 04, 2018 at 07:37 PM
The 10th annual fan club meeting was convened today at 1100 hours at Park Central Mall. Possible new members were welcomed.
Ruben, AKA Azrebel, Helen Hightower, Auntie ?? was welcomed back and not required to pay past punishment fines.
Regrettably a number of folks failed to make it, including Dudas and of course the great bard and founder, Jon T as he was busy posting his Seattle Times column.
Happy New Year.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 06, 2018 at 04:32 PM
Re: Having one's back to the Superstitions...
In 1961 I first hiked the Peralta Canyon trail to Fremont Saddle -- a great spot to view Weaver's Needle close up -- and there wasn't a soul on the trail, even though it was a weekend. You had to watch for the turn off US 60 onto the dirt road leading to the trailhead -- The sign was small.
I recently drove up to Globe. The now-paved dirt road is bracketed by subdivisions and the intersection has a traffic light. This used to be waaaay out of town. We'll all have our backs to the Mogollon Rim soon enough.
Posted by: Joe Schallan | January 06, 2018 at 11:10 PM
I forgot to mention that to ring in the new year i re watched the Manchurian Candidate.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 07, 2018 at 12:07 AM
Cal-please post requirements for club membership and next meeting and location.In Tempe but interested in attending.
Posted by: Mike Doughty | January 07, 2018 at 01:01 PM
Mike, requirements , breathing.
Suggest a quiet Tempe place very near light rail that has environment for old folks with bad hearing.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 07, 2018 at 01:11 PM
What Soleri said. Your column was the bright light of truth in those years. You were brave and left with your head held high, moving to a better place, rather than crawling for them. And you keep telling it like it is on Rogue. Thank you.
Posted by: Deb | January 07, 2018 at 03:26 PM
I was asked only last night how I liked Phoenix. My wife told the questioner, " Don't get him started."
Having grown up there from 1950 til 1965 when I left or college, it was a wonderful place to grow up, but I'd never move there now.
Though filled with republicans, the Black Hills are good enough for me now ... and in many ways remind me of the good things about long-ago Phoenix.
Posted by: Buckobear | January 07, 2018 at 03:55 PM
Buckobear you might enjoy the book "First Impressions "by David J Weber and William DeBuys.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 07, 2018 at 10:31 PM
Cal Lash-suggest we meet a Ncounter at 310 s. Mill right off Mill ave. light rail station.Let me know time and date of next meeting.Still breathing after 71 years.
Posted by: Mike Doughty | January 08, 2018 at 10:16 PM
Okay Mike, sounds good. Next meet will depend on the condition of Rubens back and will likely occur on a Saturday.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 09, 2018 at 09:55 AM
That was a fun chat at Park Central. Happy to meet ROGER for the first time.
Cal was, of course, in character and managed to invite a random woman, Lynn, into the conversation. AzReb's reaction to that was priceless.
Cheers, all.
Posted by: Petro | January 09, 2018 at 04:39 PM
G. Joubert "How was she chosen"?
Joseph Turner, By random!
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 09, 2018 at 10:51 PM
I do enjoy reading Rogue's columns because they truly are truth standing up to the powerful.
Unfortunately, the only real "payback" for many of the heathen and plundering "powerful" will have to wait until Judgment Day.
It seems to me that those who exploit, control, and mistreat others for their personal profit serve the lord of darkness, who will exact his exploitation, control, and mistreatment when he gets their dark souls.
I am comfortable and serene being on the "right side" of THAT history.
Posted by: Bradley Dranka | January 10, 2018 at 07:46 PM
Phoenix had so much potential as a fairly newly developed city. Corrupt and inept politicians, journalists, real estate boondogglers, and everyday citizens killed that potential. I'm glad you are still writing about Phoenix. We appreciate your work.
Posted by: Thomas | February 13, 2018 at 03:41 PM
Attack the motherfuckers and let their blood soak into the desert sand.
Posted by: John Dougherty | October 16, 2020 at 12:47 PM
My folks moved us to Phoenix in 1961, when I was 5. Our house backed up against the Grand Canal with the Pendergast dairy farm on the other side. This was Clarendon and 59th ave. Newer part of Maryvale back then. It was swamp cooled, but ideal for youthful exploration. Now it's the heart of the crime ridden westside. Did the developer, the honorable J.F. Long ruin it? I think not. It was the closure of the barrios around valuable Sky Harbor and the movement of its population to Maryvale that ruined it. And that was an act by the Council of the City of Phoenix. Developers are of course in favor of building whatever the customer wants. One should not blame the developers for owning the political process in AZ. One should blame the voters.
Posted by: Jerome Petruk | September 12, 2021 at 12:50 PM
AZ loss is WA gain. Your journalism in the Seattle times is extraordinary!
Posted by: Bill Youngman | April 14, 2022 at 04:09 PM
You lived right around the corner from us!
{sigh} I do miss the old neighborhood. It was pretty, the neighbors were a joy, the house delightful.
But... I don't miss the transients breaking into our car to sleep in it; the burglar/rapist trying to get into the house while I was sitting there typing term papers (or my German shepherd chasing the poor soul down the street); the prowler who did get into the place at two in the morning, without waking up the dog; the noisy fire station our Honored City Fathers installed a few houses down the street from our place; the guy following me home from the babysitter as I pushed my infant along in his stroller; feeling we couldn't put our son in the sub-mediocre public school down the street; the sh!thead who stole our neighbor's whole litter of doberman pinscher puppies out of her back yard; ...on and freakin' on. North Central isn't a LOT better than Willo, but for a female it is, I think, somewhat safer.
Posted by: Vicky Hay | April 12, 2024 at 12:23 PM
This is interesting and inspring
Posted by: Amy | September 29, 2024 at 02:32 PM
Thanks I have a whole story about this
Posted by: Amy | September 29, 2024 at 02:32 PM