Arizona ends and odds

• The Arizona Republic continues to tiptoe around the water issue. Most recent is a story about the uneven water availability for cities in metropolitan Phoenix. A day before, the paper ran a piece headlined "Buckeye is the nation's fastest growing city. But it doesn't have the water to keep it up."

Where to begin? First, Buckeye is not a city except on legalistic paper. It is a far-flung collection of real-estate ventures ("master-planned communities") connected by wide highways. Buckeye has an astounding 393 square miles of area for 74,000 people. As James Howard Kunstler puts it, "the matrix of single-family home subdivisions, arterial highways and freeways, chain stores, junk food dispensaries, and the ubiquitous wilderness of free parking — the last of these implying just one insidious side-effect of this template for living: mandatory motoring."

By contrast, the city of Phoenix consists of 519 square miles and 1.7 million people — that's a city. Buckeye, once tiny stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad was never meant to be a "city."

But the big enchilada is that Arizona doesn't have the water to continue unlimited sprawl. Who will tell the people? Who will stop the Real-Estate Industrial Complex?

• Phoenix opened the "Grand Canalscape" trail along 12 miles of the Grand Canal from Interstate 17 to Tempe. Mayor Kate Gallego said, “People are surprised when I tell them that Phoenix has more canal miles than Venice or Amsterdam. Today we are integrating the canals into our communities to improve neighborhood access, add new public art spaces and contribute to a healthier Phoenix by introducing them as a recreational amenity."

The Grand Canal, one of the original legacies of the Hohokam, once looked like the photo above. The new "safe, convenient route for bicyclists and pedestrians" is a sun-blasted emptiness. Phoenicians don't even know what they lost. Aside from road-widening, the ministrations of the Salt River Project is the biggest killer of Phoenix's once-abundant canopy of shade trees. And more sprawl is not worth the destruction of even one of those trees, much less tens of thousands. In the meantime, enjoy your skin cancer and heat exhaustion. It's heartbreaking to imagine a shaded canal, even in stretches. But, no.

• Trump is to hold a rally at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Talk about the Madhouse on McDowell. Gov. Ducey sticks to him like white on rice. Maybe Doug digs the authoritarian deal. But like other Republicans, he likes Trump because the "president" has supported all the failed Republican policies of the past, along with, to put it kindly, white majoritarianism.

Trump isn't welcome in central Phoenix. But central Phoenix is an outlier. The rabid enthusiasm that greets his repeated visits to the state should serve as a warning.

• Speaking of politics, Tim Egan had a column in the New York Times about how California's outmigration holds the potential of turning red states purple or blue, including Arizona. "People leaving the Golden State are changing the political makeup of the states they move to." This is a longtime unicorn that seers have hoped for since Bill Clinton carried Arizona in 1996.

Unfortunately, it runs up against Bill Bishop's "Big Sort," with evidence that people move to places where they can find others with their political and social views, actually bolstering the status quo. He writes:

America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote like we do. This social transformation didn't happen by accident. We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood and church and news show — most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away. The reason for this situation, and the dire implications for our country, is the subject of this ground-breaking work.

This has been at work in Arizona for decades. So yes, the state might — might — get two Democratic U.S. Senators this fall. And five out of nine U.S. Representatives are Democrats. This is progress. But the long-anticipated rise of Hispanic turnout hasn't materialized — not even SB 1070 could make it happen.

Trump has repeatedly visited Arizona. I can't think of one visit he's made to Seattle.

Most importantly, the GOP continues to hold its lock on the state Legislature, the only branch that really matters. The body has done ongoing damage to Arizona's economic, civic, environmental, and political health. Republicans underfund education, prevent cities from exercising local control, stand athwart even modest protections of the state's priceless landscape and water resources. A new gambit is to undercut voter initiatives, another foundational element of the Progressive constitution.

Meanwhile, Ducey and the GOP want to turn the Corporation Commission — a pillar of Arizona's Progressive-era constitution (and much more than "utility regulators") — into commissioners appointed by the governor. That would further the state Republican lock, something also seen in the Ducey-appointed state Supreme Court.

And Joe Arpaio is leading in the sheriff's race of a Maricopa County supposedly politically transformed by California immigrants.

Purple Arizona? Get back to me in November.

• Ever heard of Tusayan, Ariz.? Neither had I until recent years. It has sprouted as "a resort town" near the south entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. This scheme wants to partner with an Italian company to create a massive exurban sprawl development. The town is seeking easements on the Kaibab National Forest to make the project possible.

I'd love to know the shady deals that made Tusayan's existence even possible. And with the Trump administration's war on the people's lands, this monstrosity could happen. Water sources? Don't ask. "It's Chinatown, Jonny."

Is there no part of Arizona that we won't profane for the short hustle?

President Theodore Roosevelt said, "In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."

TR was a Republican.

 

Comments

[Cal Lash]

Not only are the trees gone but they are concreting the canal paths wide enough for 8 bicycles wide or a semi.
Really ugly.

Not like in 1950/56 when i hand fished my way from Skunk Creek near Sun City to Granite Reef when the canals were drained yearly for cleaning. I had a key to every SRP gate padlock (one fit nearly all) as my dad was a Zanjero. And only a few of the great Cottonwoods remain on places like Central Avenue.

I still catch ghostly glimpses of that ole Ford Station Wagon. Is that Denny Gleason's skelton at the wheel? Still intent on naming laterals?

[Kevin in Preskitt]

The Big Sort is real. Californians are moving to the Prescott area in droves, but according to The Daily Courier, Yavapai County is becoming more Republican. From the 2016 General Election to the 2018 General Election, there was an increase of about 4,000 registered Republicans in Yavapai County. Over the same period, registered Democrats increased by about 400.

[Cal Lash]

Thats what happened in Idaho over the last 30 years Big influx of whites from California
And now eastern GOP counties in Oregon want to be annexed into Idaho.

[Joe Schallan]

"Is there no part of Arizona that we won't profane for the short hustle?"

There is a long history in Arizona of profaning for the short hustle. Read Thomas Sheridan's Landscapes of Fraud.

By the way, that view of the Grand Canal is westward, from about 7th Street to Central Avenue. Whatever water those big cottonwoods sucked out of the canal was well worth their presence. There were relict cottonwoods here and there around metro Phoenix as late as the mid-1970s.

[Ramjet]

Laterals, I haven't heard that in a while. There was a time when the major roads west of Central Avenue were names lateral 12, 13 and so on. Pre I 17 the road to Prescott was, in various places known as 27th Avenue, Mission Drive, Black Canyon Hwy., and Lateral 14.
East and West roads changed names when they crossed Grand Avenue. McDowell Road became Christy and all the others became a letter, Indian School was J and so on.
It all didn't mean squat to Denny. His world began at Central and Baseline and had the 5 gallon lids to prove it!

[100 Octane]

With the water issue, my question is always the same, what is the timeline? No doubt it will be (is) a problem, when will it be disruptive to growth instead of something in the future for someone else to worry about (suckers).

I had to hit Google for Denny Gleason. Interesting man.

I can't even wrap my head around the idea of a "development" at the Grand Canyon.

[Cal Lash]

Tusayan! The plot has been around for a while and various sinster shadows linger on the edges. Given the politics it probably will come to fruition. Then the Uranium boys will have a place to party and sleep. Makes me want to install Greta as Queen of Earth.

You have to be old like me and Roger to know Denny, his car and 55 gallon drum tops with lateral identifications placed at weir boxes.

Reference TR and IKE. As i posted last column there are few of us alive. I think its the water?

[GWPDA]

It's all why I had to leave North Central. It was too damn much to watch everything be served up to the same g/d forces we'd almost got out from under. Developers - destroyers.

[Cal Lash]

Thats 5 gallon paint can tops. But i seem to recall larger ones also. And sometimes Denny would just paint on the Weir box.

[Cal Lash]

Also see Jon's column "Driving History " March 9, 2015.

https://www.roguecolumnist.com/rogue_columnist/2015/03/driving-phoenix-history.html

[Amy]

That write offs games dat at das end o de minthwe see it repearedly

[Joe Schallan]

Cal -- in my neighborhood in the 60s Denny G. wired lids to the chain link fence around the Camelback High School campus. They were on the fence on the northeast corner of 26th Street and Campbell.

Some Denny Gleason links:

https://www.phoenixmag.com/2011/08/01/sign-language/

https://tinyurl.com/rahhbn5

[Cal Lash]

U were there with Dennis Dairman and my first spouse?

[Gary S.]

Jon, the New Times article is about Arpaio out fundraising his opponents, not leading the race. As has been the case for awhile, more then 80% of his money is from out of state. I'm sure the race will be close come November, but Joe won't be in it by then.

Our president only likes to visit states he won in 2016 or where the Trump Org owns properties he likes to visit. Getting the Dead Head treatment from his hard core happens at all his rallies. The folks quoted in that article traveled from California.

When was the last time any Republican presidential candidate visited Washington?

Remember that Trump vastly underperformed in AZ relative to Romney, McCain (duh) and GWB. If you talk to the AZ Dems, the California migration thing is real. But it's up to the party to keep those voters engaged. They do have a plan to pick off targeted R's and re-take the state House. We'll see.

IIRC, Tusayan became a thing when Congress cut funding to the Park Service and told it to stand on its own. So we get big hotels and theme park atmosphere. So much for what Ken Burns called "America's best idea."

[DoggieCombover]

I'm for taking politics out of issues that are inherently technocratic. So whatever political process puts corporation commissioners in place, whether elected or appointed, is anathema to me. Look what electing them has gotten us so far, a bunch of political hacks with little to no knowledge of what they are supposedly regulating.

There is a proposal/legislation floating around to structure the appointment of commissioners along the lines of the redistricting commission, by allowing appointments by a diverse group. Agree letting Ducey do it would be unacceptable.

[Dave Parish]

Wide as concrete the path is, after any rain the SRP maintenance vehicle will explore the Scottsdale Indian School canal. Frequent travel directed off trail, mud puddles are explored. Return to pavement finds contamination debris from this move taking quite a bit of time to eventually fly away in the wind.

Self made trail made by hikers and runners is then rutted, making further use quite unstable.

[Cal Lash]

Tusayan theme park has been a LDS-GOP dream for years. And to bring private ownership to nation parks.

[Cal Lash]

If you hang around the canal on Indian School where the cross cut is long enough you will see a large out of state company truck that moves fish from the east side to the west side for SRP.

I'll take mud over concrete all day long.

[Joe]

Skin cancer affects everyone. It is especially dangerous for the ignorant and for those who spread ignorance. According to the CDC the rates of skin cancer affecting those in Washington state rival those of those in Arizona. As a native of Seattle I was never worried about skin cancer. I moved to Arizona 25 years ago and had skin cancer removed from my back 5 years ago. I only started to pay attention to it because I thought I lived in a skin cancer prone area. It can happen no matter where you live, and to turn it into a trivial/political shtick does no one any favors.

[Rogue Columnist]

"Joe": Why do you think what I wrote is meant as "trivial/political shtick"? Skin cancer is dead serious, and a big reason why Phoenix needs abundant shade trees (others: Local warming, climate change, oasis beauty).

Try to keep up.

[Cal Lash]

Skin Cancer. I have had more than 700 spots removed and four Mohs removals with resulting plastic surgery to my face in two after 70 years in AZ.
However if you Google states with highest rates of Skin Cancer the first 4 sites dont put Arizona in the top ten.
One site shows Arizona as 11th.
I always wear a hat, suntan lotion. sunglasses and usually a long sleeve shirt. No shorts. Just my 60 year old Levis.

[Cal Lash]

WATER: Jons Arizona section has a story on a forthcoming law suit by Southwest Biodiversity and others in the Feds relaxing the rules on water ways.

[Cal Lash]

Pearson i dropped you a note in response to your question on previous blog.

And you to Helen

[Joe]

My point was to the fact that people who live in less sunny places, like Seattle, don't get checked as often as people in "skin cancer" prone areas. While I go in every six months to get a full body checkup, I know a lot of my friends in the Northwest do not. That is a mistake, in my humble opinion.

[Roger]

Ten X Ranch is a disaster for Tusayan. The developers want the community to build their infrastructure. The water for that community would come from the same source as Havasupai Falls.

Look at the Drought Monitor. We are getting way less snowpack in the Rockies- which means less water on the Colorado, which could impact those stupid dreams of Phoenix and Pinal County and on and on as they keep on saying 'we don't need to conserve, we have plenty of water, like the CAP'.

Arizona is the perfect intersection of bad policies that created Trump and Ducey. We are a border state. We are a desert state. We rely on Federal funding and Federal programs like, oh, National Parks, Forests, military bases, Defense contracts. On and on it goes and we sell our wealth for pennies on the dollar. Ripping up the desert for more homes is a horrible idea whose time should never come.

Engineers and hydrologists are given the challenge to see if they can pull it off. And they see it as just that. Yet they aren't paying attention to the long term consequences of their actions.

Add in the roll back of regulations that lets mining companies and other entities pollute again and we have a recipe for a state that will stagnate in less than a decade. Where do you think climate change is going to impact the most? In the areas that are most sensitive. Arizona is one of those areas.

I'm so glad I protested Trump last night. It's madness. The world has gone mad.

I need a drink...

[Cal Lash]

Roger Your a crazy old desert denizen. Obviously suffering from sunstroke.
But i admire your gumption and look forward to our next coffee meet.
Probably March 1.
I recommend Mexican Hot Chocolate.

[Gary S.]

More on the MC sheriff's race. Arpaio has outraised Penzone, but Penzone's donor base is wide-ranging and local.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/cathi-herrod-gay-daughter-arizona-progressive-lgbt-11442762

[Rogue Columnist]

Joe, I am trying to keep us on topic. Which is the column.

OT, if people want to check skin-cancer rates by state and county here's the CDC site:

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/statistics/index.htm

Seattle is quite sunny, especially in the long summer. Seattleites want you to think it rains all the time and is cold as hell — because they don't want people moving there for the weather.

We've seen the damage from weather-migration in Phoenix. And the Northwest will face climate refugees in the future.

[Cal Lash]

Water: good article in Jon's Arizona pages on the West's most vital river.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/20/climate-change-has-stolen-more-than-billion-tons-water-wests-most-vital-river/

[Cal Lash]

"The Water! It comes at night!

[Ramjet]

I am not the poster "Roger". My name is Roger but I post as "Ramjet". No problem just want to be clear

[Cal Lash]

Ok. I am confused. Is it Roger the poster or Ramjet the poster that makes the coffee gab sessions?

[Ramjet]

Ramjet is the coffee guy.

[Cal Lash]

Tanks

[Rogue Columnist]

“Tanks.” — Erwin Rommel 😎

[Bill Pearson]

A bit of history/trivia i doubt any of you know: In the late 50's as the Webb Corporation was mulling what Sun City should look like, they were working with an architect who suggested the community have a series of canals with homes built around them.

Thank goodness they quickly saw the error of their ways.

[Cal Lash]

Tanks
Erwin Rommel was the German "Desert Fox." Danny Lee Eckard in 1967 to 1969 was Arizona's Desert Fox. He died in 69 in a shootout with a Highway patrolman that also died.
Rumor had it Danny and family had connections with law enforcement officers that may have aided him in his escapes prior to his death.
I was a cop starting in 68 and worked the areas of family and friends of Eckerd.

[Cal Lash]

Not sure what's wrong with houses and canals but then theres the retirement RING (my wording). Large houses for bolo ball retirement, condos for those that dont iron, assisted living for those that can't bowl any longer and then the RINGS final destination, the mortuary.
Come Live the good life and let me help you die. Your pal
Del
Ps, Shuffleboard, Monday at 10 AM.
Bingo Tuesday at 6 pm.

[Bill Pearson]

The Rest of The Story Cal: Del died July 4, 1974 after making enormous sums of money. In 1960 he started the Del E Webb Foundation. In spite of all his accomplishments his greatest is this: 60 years after the foundations started, it's still funding hospitals and hospital research. Almost all of his wealth was donated to it.

My apologies to RC for the off-topic response. Truly looking forward to coffee with the gang, we may come at things from different perspectives which always makes it more fun.

[Cal Lash]

Glad Del did the "good works."
The topic was Arizona Ends and Odds.
Coffee and lies appears to be on for 1 March.

[Chuck Albertson]

Gary S., Trump did rallies in Lynden (up by the Canadian border), Spokane and Everett in 2016. Before that, I think it was John Anderson in 1980. I'm not counting the ones who fly in to tap the Medina ATM.

[Cal Lash]

WATER: In Jon's Arizona pages.
Pinal County to raise water rates
26 percent.

https://www.pinalcentral.com/casa_grande_dispatch/area_news/arizona-water-company-requests-rate-increase/article_8f432259-5368-5d78-a2cb-33b1bb2374f7.html

[Ed Dravo]

I assisted with a study about Sun City lifestyles many moons ago. I was always somewhat disparaging of elderly adults who knowingly congregated with the self-same individuals who chose to live there. My interactions with Sun City residents changed my mind. They spoke about how empty and cold the Midwest could be, about how lonely it was when your friends moved or passed along, about how at Sun City there was always a group you could join to keep engaged, whether that be politics or carpentry. And there was golf, lots of it as well as medical facilities.

Those people were more than satisfied with their choice of retirement locales and I couldn’t disagree.

[Bill Pearson]

Thanks for the comments Ed. Sun City was once labeled "the great social experiment." More than anyone understood was what those of us felt living inside the walls was wholly different from those who saw it outside the walls.

DEVCO's biggest challenge was the stereotyping; a place where seniors came to die. What they found was it was where we came to live a better way of life.

Meeting the "old timers" for coffee today, i am thrilled. I will be the guy who has the shirt on the says; "Sun City AZ, The Community That Changed A Nation."

Best i leave soon, it will be a true bugger trying to get there on time in my golf car (said with a smirk).