Rogue Columnist

GOP vs. WBIYB

Cars, 138-year-old technology.

A reader writes:

WBIYB, very true.

However..........AZ republicans are behaving like fanatical religious groups found in the middle east, whose only goal is to end public transit, if not in their lifetime maybe the life time of their great grandchildren.

What in the hell drives these nut jobs nutty about public transportation???

I will attempt to explain, although for regular readers this is familiar ground. In 2004, Maricopa County voters approved Proposition 400. It assessed a half-cent sales tax for 20 years to build new freeways, widen existing ones, expand highways and arterial streets, and fund transit. Of the total, 33.5% was intended for transit. Headlines in the Arizona Republic often use shorthand calling it "a transit tax," when it's really a transportation tax.

Legislative Republicans would have preferred to use the highly regressive sales tax exclusively for cars. But voters felt otherwise. The real hot button for Republicans was light rail, a modern technology and concept that was little understood by most in metropolitan Phoenix.

The resorts of old Phoenix

Before the Sanctuary, Boulders, or Phoenician, the city embraced a tourist experience beyond the hotels downtown, motels along the highways, or dude ranches. They were resorts offering amenities that couldn't be found elsewhere in the Southwest. First came the Arizona Biltmore (above) in February 1929, months before the big stock-market crash. Next, during the Great Depression, was the Camelback Inn in 1936, financed by John C. Lincoln and Jack Bell Stewart.

All fed into a reviving economy, location on a transcontinental railroad, and the Chamber of Commerce's "Valley of the Sun" tourism campaign. Contrary to urban legend, the Biltmore wasn't the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, but rather his student, Albert Chase McArthur. McArthur paid Frank Lloyd Wright $10,000 to use his patented block design, (but it turned out Wright didn't actually own the patent). Soon, William Wrigley Jr. bought the resort and built the famous mansion on a nearby butte.

Let's take a tour. Because TypePad, which hosts Rogue Columnist, is buggy on photos, I'm going to bunch out the gallery, below, without captions. You'll see the Biltmore — including its pre-construction site — Camelback Inn, Royal Palms, Chandler's San Marcos, and the Wigwam near Litchfield Park. Hope you enjoy. Click on a photo for a larger image.

Drive-ins in old Phoenix

Midcentury Phoenix was remade by the automobile age. One of the keystones was drive-in restaurants. Sit in the car and eat. Or sit on benches. Drive-ins were essential to the tradition of Cruising Central — an essential way for teenagers from different high schools to meet each other and find new steadies.

Regular readers know that the McDonald's at Central Avenue just south of Indian School (above) was the first franchise location outside of California and the first with Golden Arches. Opened in 1954, it was the only McDonald's location in Phoenix for years.

Let's visit a few, from the 1930s to the 1960s.

The Coffee Pot Drive-In at Seventh Street and McDowell in the 1930s.

The Village Inn at two-lane Central and Thomas in the 1940s.

Gizmo at 13th Street and McDowell Road in the late '40s. Not much business when this photo was taken.