Sen. Robert F. Kennedy campaigning at Chris-Town mall on March 30th, 1968, soon after announcing his candidacy for president. He would be dead from an assassin's bullet less than three months later.
Some are comparing this year's unrest to 1968 — not persuasively, to my mind — so it might be interesting to check in on Phoenix during that tumultuous year. Just what a different world this was is evident in a headline of the Arizona Republic on Monday, January 1st: "All The World Gay As Old Year Dies." Cultural language wasn't the only difference. The overnight low was 35 degrees, common then as Phoenix had several frosts each winter. The low would hit freezing later in the week. These are much more rare today amid the human-caused heat island. The paper carried Today's Prayer on the front page, as it had for years.
The sixties were a period of great change in Phoenix, where the magic of the old city's oasis was very much alive but the suburbanized future was coming — Maryvale and Sun City were abuilding. The city grew 32% during this decade. The city also entered the big leagues of sports in 1968 with the NBA expansion team Phoenix Suns.
Downtown was still a major retail center at the beginning of the decade, but it was in decline by 1968, hollowed out by Park Central and other malls, as well as low-cost retail buildings bulldozed to create Phoenix Civic Plaza with its convention center and Symphony Hall. This also leveled many single-room occupancy hotels and other parts of the Deuce. Critics warned the shattering of the city's skid row would send vagrants to nearby neighborhoods, which it did.
While some new, sterile buildings were constructed downtown, such as the Municipal Building, important historical structures were lost to become surface parking lots. Among them was the Arizona Hotel at Third Avenue and Washington. In an added insult, the soon-to-die hotel was cited because its classic neon signs violated the city's new sign ordinance. In 1968, the city planned to use the site for a police and courts building but it never happened. Today it's a multistory garage.
Meanwhile, the Paramount Theater closed, leaving the Fox as the only movie house where several once operated downtown. The Nederlander family of Detroit purchased the empty building, promising to restore it. The plan never amounted to much — Spanish-language films were eventually shown there. Years later it would be restored as the Orpheum. The Fox, Phoenix's best theater, was bulldozed in 1975.
A preservation movement here would be decades away (it began in New York after the shocking 1963 demolition of majestic Pennsylvania Station). The action — business, retail, development, and a swinging scene — was shifting to Midtown.
Popular Mayor Milt Graham, age 48, was beginning his second term. In an interview with the Republic that ran January 1st, he said he was torn between two priorities: "people problems involving private and public housing, education, and employment. No. 2, the pressing need for a freeway system, the lack of which can strangle our city economically because of escalating traffic congestion."
Graham epitomized the mindset that set Phoenix on the path of poisonous sprawl. He was hostile to transit and land-use planning. Most Phoenicians didn't want an expansive freeway system, but a consistent and focused opposition never held, as was the case in Portland, Seattle, and most famously where Jane Jacobs defeated powerful "master builder" Robert Moses in New York.
The Wilber Smith plan was on the books but only the Black Canyon and Maricopa freeways had been built. The Papago Inner Loop route would cut through historic neighborhoods, where it became impossible to get a mortgage and they fell into decline. Its design at the time placed the massive Interstate 100 feet above Central Avenue with "helicoils" as exit ramps to Third Street and Third Avenue.
The mayor was far from alone. Experts presented the City Council with a plan for a central Phoenix of 2.5 million residents in the year 2000, its spine stretching from Lincoln Street to Camelback Road along Central. Essentially today's Central Corridor. Consultant Robert Hart said with proper planning (sic), Phoenix could be "a unique city, unlike any other, with the possible exception of Los Angeles...(a city that would be) totally automobile-oriented." We now know how that turned out: Central Phoenix hollowed out and facing a long climb back. We got the "automobile-oriented" without any of the advantages of LA.
To Graham's credit, he opposed 1960s urban renewal, "the idea that buildings can be bulldozed so the rich can profit at the expense of the poor. I do see sooner or later...an urban rehabilitation program based on sound business practices that keep in mind the rights of people. The program would involve fixing up homes rather than knocking the down and starting over again." Unfortunately, this aspiration never became sustained policy and miles of historic black neighborhoods and Hispanic barrios, as well as much of the priceless districts around the Capitol, were eventually bulldozed.
Western roots lingered. In addition to the Rodeo of Rodeos, the 20th annual Arizona Livestock Show was held at the three-year-old Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Heavy rains on March 9th hurt attendance to the rodeo parade. The longest strike in its history paralyzed the copper industry, which was still foundational to Arizona. It was so severe that the White House intervened. To our sensibilities today, an astonishing 26 unions were involved. In Clifton and Morenci, store owners cut off credit to the strikers. The strike lasted eight months, ravaging the families of mining country.
Water was in the forefront all year. Although Arizona had won its landmark case against California for Colorado River water, the federal government had yet to fund a canal to Phoenix and Tucson as the year opened. A story in February discussed the state building the aqueduct itself — byline Don Bolles. Using the legislative foundation of former Sen. Ernest McFarland, Arizona's bipartisan congressional delegation — especially Hayden, Rhodes, Mo Udall, helped by his brother Interior Secretary Stewart Udall — pushed a bill signed by President Lyndon Johnson on September 30th, 1968. The Central Arizona Project was nearing reality.
Major crime the previous year increased at a rate double of 1966, according to Phoenix Police Chief Paul Blubaum. FBI statistics showed seven categories rising more than 31% year over year compared with an increase of 15.7% from 1965 to 1966. PPD investigated 40 homicides and 797 robberies in 1967. Phoenix crime in 1968 seemed to be rising faster than the national average. The issue was punctuated by the shooting deaths of two women by one murderer.
On March 31st, 1968, the Republic began a series on organized crime, headlined "Mafia's Slimy Tentacles Slither Across Arizona," by Paul Dean. The newspaper continued its exposes of the state's underworld in the years ahead, leading to the 1976 bombing of Don Bolles.
Vietnam. Project Apollo. The 1968 presidential race. North Korea's seizure of the USS Pueblo. Assassinations. Urban riots. Student protests that weakened Charles de Gaulle in France. The gold crisis. Inflation (food prices up 14.2% over the previous four years in Maricopa County). Hippies. Most of these events seemed far away, especially my oasis idyll in central Phoenix.
One exception was the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. It was shocking enough to bring one of Publisher Eugene C. Pulliam's front-page editorials mourning King. Riots spread across the country — including a small disturbance around Eastlake Park (which received minimal press). A day later, Paul Dean continued his series. The headline, "Phoenix Police Given 'Book' On Overlords of the Mafia."
All that seemed to redeem the year was Apollo 8's surprise leap to orbit the moon and the stunning photograph of our planet, a miracle of life in the void. It offered some hope I doubt we'll see in 2020.
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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.
Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.
1968. My daughter was born at Good Sam and i got a job at Phoenix PD.
Good article Jon.
Posted by: Cal Lash | July 30, 2020 at 12:12 PM
I enjoyed this column very much, particularly this part:
"Vietnam. Project Apollo. The 1968 presidential race. North Korea's seizure of the USS Pueblo. Assassinations. Urban riots. Student protests that weakened Charles de Gaulle in France. The gold crisis. Inflation (food prices up 14.2% over the previous four years in Maricopa County). Hippies. Most of these events seemed far away, especially my oasis idyll in central Phoenix."
It seems that you are not the only person who felt that way. Your commentary made me remember some of the lyrics to a great song, which echoes your sentiments:
"When I was ten my father held me
On his shoulders above the crowd
To see a train draped in mourning
Pass slowly through our town
His widow kneeled with all their children
At the sacred burial ground
And the TV glowed that long hot summer
With all the cities burning down
And the stones in the road
Flew out beneath our bicycle tires
Worlds removed from all those fires
As we raced each other home."
-Mary Chapin Carpenter, "Stones in the Road"
Now, I haven't fact-checked Chapin Carpenter's statement about 1968 having a long, hot summer. However, I imagine that it was nothing like the summer of 2020 in Phoenix, which just set a record for the most days in a year during which the temperature did not drop below 90 degrees. Phoenix is also on track to shatter the previous record for most days in a year with a high of 110 or above.
I think I know what Today's Prayer for Phoenix should be.
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | July 30, 2020 at 01:41 PM
Prayer
People quit coming.
People leave forever
The planet heals
The human inflections
Ok im not e.e.c.
Posted by: Cal Lash | July 30, 2020 at 02:22 PM
Nor Elmer Gantry
Posted by: Cal Lash | July 30, 2020 at 03:56 PM
For 7190 and others interested in an article
I posted it on the last blog. comment 99
999 in police code is "Officer Down"
Posted by: Cal Lash | July 30, 2020 at 07:27 PM
Looking at Chris-Town, you can see the prosperity of the period. As awful as the mid-to-late sixties were, unemployment was low and poverty was declining. Maybe it was a function of my youth, but for all the tumult, I don't recall feeling pessimistic about America. Today, I feel nothing but pessimism. Much of that is the Trump effect, to be sure, but it's also about a nation that today no longer has a dominant center. In that breach some noxious fumes are rising. The anxiety and anger are palpable almost everywhere.
In 1968, you could have a low-paying job and still afford a house. Commutes were easy, college tuition low, and sex was everywhere. Who could we blame for all this?
What we gave up in community we gained back in a go-go culture that valorized the new and sensational. In the '70s we saw the damage this was doing to our cities that were trying to reinvent themselves as something alien to most of our species. Instead of shops and restaurants, we apparently craved huge parking garages, convention hotels, and modernist skyscrapers. Phoenix was a city on the make and played that game depressingly well.
One mistake in Rogue's history: Barry Goldwater was not in Congress in 1968. He was busy running for the Carl Hayden seat against Hayden's aide Roy Elson. He won easily by playing the fear card - crime! - as if a US Senator were in actuality a police chief. In this respect, nothing has changed. It's 2020 and the hobgoblins of change are still haunting the sleep of Real Americans.
Posted by: soleri | July 31, 2020 at 06:50 AM
Thanks for the catch, Soleri. Fixed. Barry was also writing a syndicated newspaper column carried by the Phoenix Gazette.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | July 31, 2020 at 07:11 AM
Notably, in 1968 the Arizona Republic DIDN'T endorse a Republican for President! Their editorial said either Humphrey or Nixon would be a good choice, but NOT George Wallace.
Posted by: John Beadle | July 31, 2020 at 09:05 AM
The Republic also didn't endorse Barry in 1964.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | July 31, 2020 at 09:08 AM
The Republic probably didn't endorse him because they "knew" him too well.
I watch the current despicable political ads on TV today and think about the one LBJ ran against Barry in 64 with the Bomb. It was roundly condemned then. It was really very tame compared to now.
68 was a different year in Phoenix. It was the year that a lot of people found out that there were lots of "people of color" in their fair city. Some of them still haven't gotten over it yet.
Always remember "This too shall pass away".
Posted by: Ramjet | July 31, 2020 at 01:39 PM
Jon, this is off topic, but I'm curious about your thoughts on the future of train service in Tempe.
In 2012, you correctly predicted that the building that burned down on Prescott's Whiskey Row would not be rebuilt/replaced with a new building (It is now "open space" for parties, weddings, etc.).
Do you think that the collapsed railroad bridge in Tempe will be repaired/rebuilt? Why or why not?
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | July 31, 2020 at 06:55 PM
Kevin,
Union Pacific says it will rebuild the bridge.
Although the old SP Northern Main Line no longer carries multiple passenger trains and freight trains daily carrying the bounty of the Salt River Valley, the line is important. It hauls inbound autos, lumber, and chemicals among other products. And outbound scrap.
(The western half of the line from Arlington to Welton is out of service, since the state refused to help fund the SP's effort to improve the track and roadbed quality. This left Phoenix as the largest city in North America without intercity passenger rail).
Metro Phoenix should have both Amtrak and commuter trains.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | August 01, 2020 at 12:08 AM
Slightly OT, check this link if you want to see the destruction in Tucson from "urban renewal" in the 1960s. It's not merely the loss of buildings but the connective tissue of a city.
https://tucson.com/news/local/history/see-what-was-torn-down-in-downtown-tucson-in-the-1960s/collection_a9f2d78a-7cd4-11e5-a9b5-2b75e6193d55.html#35
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | August 01, 2020 at 10:33 AM
Yep Tucson developers in action.
Continuance of European destructiveness.
A good visit is the Misson South of Tucson
Where the Spaniards spent years "saving" the Yaqui and Tohono O’odham
Phoenician born Alfredo Vea wrote a good novel, La Maravilla set in Phoenix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Xavier_del_Bac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaqui
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_V%C3%A9a_Jr.
Back in the day when my PI business flourished. I always added an extra PI and car to the surveillance as Tucson streets appear to have been laid out by a drunken conquistador.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 01, 2020 at 11:24 AM
La Maravilla set in Phoenix is a mixture of Yaqui and Catholic religions. What i call myths and superstitions.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 01, 2020 at 11:29 AM
Consultant - You hire him to tell you what time it is. He borrows your watch, tells you the time, charges you a fee and keeps the watch.
Has anyone heard a similar, humorous description for a "developer?
Posted by: Ruben | August 01, 2020 at 12:08 PM
Jon, thanks for sharing your thoughts about the future of the railroad bridge at Tempe Town Lake. I hope they do fix or replace it.
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | August 01, 2020 at 01:18 PM
Side note on Putin and Trump from Rogue Front Pages. I know why. $$$$$.
Trump and Kushner have been owned by the Oligarchs for many years. Is there any doubt that Putin and the fanitical religious Billy Barr will do what ever it takes to insure Trump remaining president.
There will be more blood on the Capitol steps if necessary to keep Trump 4 more years. But i was born and remain a pessimist.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 02, 2020 at 02:56 PM
Kevin i hope they rebuild the bridge and keep the trains running through Tempe. Its one of few things left of what was once a nice village. Tempe 2020 is the city of ugly Caravan and State Farm and like structures dominating the skyline. But it would not surprise me if Tempe pols try and get it re routed. So the coeds will not be rudely awakend by obnoxious clickety clack. If you have an opportunity i recommend the 1950's Harkins Theater. My first father in law was Red Harkins first projectionist. Sometimes my friend and i are the only occupants. And across the street is Old Town book store ran by friendly folks likely in their 90's. And now their daughter and granddaughter. Its a narrow dusty storage of some great ole tomes.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 02, 2020 at 03:11 PM
Cal,
Yes, I saw a few movies at Harkins' Valley Art theater on Mill Avenue back when I lived down there.
When I was in high school, some older friends took me there to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There were thespians (of a sort) at the front of the auditorium, acting out everything as it was simultaneously occurring on the big screen. I mean everything--and probably even a few things that were not happening on the screen. At one point, someone threw a tomato, hitting me in the head and splattering all over my Hard Rock Cafe pullover.
And that is the story of how I lost my innocence.
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | August 02, 2020 at 04:17 PM
Great story
Epigones at play back in your day.
Where are they now.
Back around the first of the year i was on Mill avenue and it was filthy with litter. I commented to my friend. She said some cities wash their streets.
Mill Avenue needed a good hosing that day.
Its been a long time (58) since i shared a dorm under the old stadium with football halfback Clay Freney from Globe, AZ. At 80 I've lost the name of the old stadium.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 02, 2020 at 05:32 PM
Goodwin stadium. They tore it down for more parking space.
Posted by: Ruben | August 02, 2020 at 08:54 PM
Thanks Helen
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 02, 2020 at 09:15 PM
Epigones. I had to look that up in the dictionary! Thanks for the vocabulary lesson, Cal.
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | August 03, 2020 at 06:00 AM
Cal, I googled your old college roommate, Clay Freney. Sorry for his passing. I see that he was married for 57 years. Do you know if he played football after college, or what his career was?
Were the ASU dorms racially integrated in 1958?
I'll be in Clay's hometown later this week and next for the filming of a Western movie called The Woman Who Robbed the Stagecoach. I'm playing the husband of the legendary outlaw, Pearl Hart.
Posted by: Kevin in Preskitt | August 03, 2020 at 06:25 AM
Kevin, In 58 I shared quarters with Clay and a Black guy named Calvin who was at ASU on a wrestling scholarship. They went onto to college and I left at the suggestion I might try manual labor.
If you’re going to be in Globe/Miami/Claypool you should try and connect with Globes oldest Resident Carmen. She is 106 and has been in Globe since she was 4. She has a really sharp mind and is locally famous for her involvement in the area. She was born in Douglas of Spaniard immigrant parents. The Blanco family is well known in Arizona mining towns. Carmen is my lady friends aunt.
You are playing Hart not Cal Bywater?
Have you played the part of Mary Katherine Haroney’s pal?
The area has changed since I used to visit there in the mid to late 50’s. Another day.
My email is [email protected]
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 03, 2020 at 10:51 AM
In case uall haven't noticed its so
"hot you have to prime yourself to spit."
Clifford Irving.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 04, 2020 at 07:31 PM
Thanks for posting the link to the Hamill, Jon. Fifty-two years down the line and very little has changed, and Hamill called it with prescient accuracy.
Posted by: Joe Schallan | August 05, 2020 at 10:07 PM
Peter Hamill's 1988 article on Gabriel Garcia Marquez was posted today in Vanity Fair.
Hamill had a great run.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 05, 2020 at 10:54 PM
I was there that day at Christown when Bobby was there. I was standing literally at the foot of the platform as he was speaking. I could reach out and touch him. (I actually did...) at this point, he was the next president of the United States. Then they shot him...
Posted by: Ned Earley | January 13, 2022 at 02:31 PM