As many people know, the Valley of the Sun (a misnomer, as the metro area long ago "spilled over" several of the original boundary hills and mountains) is a sprawling metro area with almost 4 million people. Statistics I just heard a few weeks ago claimed that Arizona regained its title from Nevada as the fastest growing state. It now has about 6 million residents, and is just 300,000 people away from surpassing the political powerhouse of Massachusetts. The city of Phoenix itself is home to over 1.3 million people (making it the 6th largest U.S. city), is 475 square miles (the 10th largest by land size), and is the largest state capital in the nation (by population) [see Wikipedia entry].
All this growth is exciting. As many people know, a brand new NFL Stadium (the University of Phoenix Stadium) was home to the BCS Championship, and will host the 2008 Super Bowl.
This is a picture I took while driving around the area. The stadium is amazing... it has a retractable roof, but the field itself is on wheels, and rolls out to grow the grass in the sun, then slides into the stadium for play. Totally crazy! But as you can see, it was built in the middle of farm fields in Glendale. Growth is now frenetic around the new stadium. But this growth is draining the city center of Phoenix. At one time, downtown Phoenix was a ghost town after 6 pm. There was nothing but offices there. Then, in the 1990s, a revitalization was started. It made great progress as the new basketball arena and baseball field were built, and entertainment venues and restaurants followed. At that time, the Suns and Mercury basketball teams, the Diamondback baseball team, and the Coyotes hockey teams all played downtown. Condos and townhouses, and the business that cater to them, began infilling the area. But this was not to last. The Coyotes play in a brand new arena just 1/2 mile north of the new Cardinal's stadium. And, as you can imagine, much of the energy of growth has now been diverted from the city center.
This is a look toward the stadium (the silver dome between the two palms) from the new Cabella's Showroom. This development is called Westgate, and is still being built. It includes movie theaters, condos/apartments, restaurants, and shops.
The whole area around the stadiums is being built up by the day. From the same parking lot as the above picture was taken from, you can see hundreds, if not thousands, of apartments being built.All this frenetic growth is exciting. There is an incredible feeling being apart of something new. You can literally see the principle of "If you build it, they will come" in action. There is a strong siren call from the cranes and construction trucks.
But when I step back and look at what is happening, it seems to be so foolish. Most other metro areas have learned that if you continue to grow only at the periphery, the core dies, and the whole metro area suffers. Most are working to bring growth to the core areas of a city. This does several things. It brings jobs to areas devoid of opportunity, thus creating wealth not otherwise available. It makes mass transit more economical and effective. It creates more intense communities as people begin living in higher density than they would otherwise. I need not go on.
Phoenix's benefits and problems are myriad. Some of the biggest problems people face (severe pollution, traffic jams, lack of effective public transportation, lack of a cultural center, and lack of community) are made even worse by the sprawling growth of battling suburbs (Consider that Glendale, a western suburb, has over 230,000 people, while Mesa, an eastern suburb, has over 440,000 people! And that is just two of the 2o or so suburbs!)
The frenetic growth of Phoenix is exciting, and alluring. But I can't help to think of the folly of such outlying, unplanned, uncontrolled growth. I hope they learn soon.
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