Jon Talton: How did they screw up our economy?
The former Republic columnist, now a Seattle-based author, continues his must-read meditations on the Valley and its discontents, “Phoenix 101.”
In his most recent post, he describes the diverse economy the area once had, ranging from vast swaths of agriculture to tech firms:
[B]y the late 1940s, Phoenix’s leaders knew the city must attract new industries or it couldn’t sustain its growing population. Stewards such as Frank Snell made aggressive efforts to attract “clear industry.” It paid off with AiResearch, Hughes Aircraft, Sperry Rand, General Electric and especially Motorola. Makers of automobiles and tractors were lured to establish proving grounds to test under desert conditions. (Between the mines, railroads and construction, membership was very high statewide in trade unions).
In other words, as Phoenix emerged as a populous city in the 1960s, it had an strikingly dynamic and diverse economy, with well-paying jobs — especially for a place so isolated and relatively new. Of course real estate and construction were big (along with tourism). Maryvale and Sun City were new. The groves of Arcadia were being turned into subdivisions. Land fraud was rampant — I remember vividly one man who defrauded my grandmother, a real estate agent, being sent to prison; the Arizona Republic’s martyred reporter Don Bolles earned his chops on exposing such schemes. But real estate was a consequence of the real economy. Real estate wasn’t the economy.
You know what’s coming:
Much changed from when I left in 1978 and returned in 2000. By that point, the Phoenix economy, while still containing the remnants of the old chip makers plus Intel, had degenerated into a massive real-estate Ponzi scheme plus some call centers. Everything depended on adding 100,000 more people a year. Aside from this, the metro economy couldn’t match up to the diversity, quality, dynamism or incomes of its peers. Arizona, after tracking the national average in per-capita income as late as the 1980s, consistently lost ground, a trend that continued during the 2000s “boom.”
The balance of his very long and persuasive post details meticulously how that change happened.
You can read it here.
The complete Phoenix 101 archive is here.
8:25 AM
"The Arizona Taliban"
One of the commenters on the Talton post I just mentioned, “azrebel,” deserves special mention for an observation he or she made:
I have a theory. I’ll call it the Arizona Taliban.
For those of you who have not spent time in rural Arizona, let me tell you, you have no idea how much rural Arizona hates “The state of Maricopa”. They hate eveything about the valley and they hate all the millions of “ants” who live in the valley. Over the years, some of the craziest legislative measures have come from rural legislators. When you group the rural kooks along with the east Valley Mormon kooks and the west valley ultra-conservative kooks, you have a majority which can by design or ineptitude do immense damage to the state.
The Afghan Taliban regularly do things which shout out to the world – we are ignorant, we are uneducated, we are mindless religious, fanatical robots, we have guns and we will kill you all.
The Arizona Taliban, don’t use guns, they use votes.
8:33 AM
What in the hell is happening at the Rodney Glassman campaign?
Rodney, Rodney, Rodney.
You’re a nice Jewish boy from Tucson. You sing at your temple, you’re not unhandsome, and you’re rich to boot.
In the Democratic primary for John McCain’s senate seat, we’re voting for John Dougherty, him being an investigative reporter and all, but on paper you’d seem to be McCain’s sturdiest challenger.
But then we read Stephen Lemon’s Feathered Bastard post about how top advisors are leaving your campaign:
[S]everal confidential sources inform me that Glassman’s staffers left because they were not happy with the behavior of their candidate.
These sources relayed a litany of complaints about the Glassman campaign, from Glassman berating staffers and volunteers in public, even yelling at them, to Glassman’s having his brother Jeremy play a major role in the campaign (doing little or nothing, they say), and the fact that Glassman and his minions gave Democrats reason to believe he would sink millions into his bid for Senate.
The details:
My sources tell me that Glassman was, as one of them put it, “out of control in the worst possible way.” They say he was needlessly rude to staffers and volunteers alike, and described him throwing temper tantrums and yelling at stunned campaign workers.
They depicted Glassman as a spoiled rich kid with a frat boy sense of humor. One described an incident during a fundraiser where he asked if the host’s assistant was an illegal alien.
Worst of all is a story from the Arizona Daily Star, in which a Tucson City Council member says Glassman said to her, “"The toughest thing for me to do will be to sit next to an openly gay councilmember.”
Glassman, shown above, ironically enough, at PHoenix’s Pride Parade this summer, denies having said it.
9:08 AM
"The Arizona Legislature is no friend of public education"
The daily rag gets it right:
[…]
Putting it politely, the Arizona Legislature is no friend of public education. Once, there was enough support and gubernatorial leadership to fund all-day kindergarten. But supporters lost elections. When gaping budget deficits developed, those who opposed all-day kindergarten from the beginning jumped at the chance to slash the funding.
[…]
If districts have to backfill what the state has taken away, it leaves less override money to keep class sizes lower. The only silver lining is that, because Prop. 100 passed, those classes didn’t get bigger yet.
Parents are quick to complain to the local superintendent or school board. Legislators escape responsibility.
This is not a rare occurrence. Lawmakers get it into their heads that schools should offer this class or attack that social ill. They mandate the action but provide no funding.
Districts have to hire administrators to implement the programs and file reports, which leads to politicians complaining that schools don’t spend enough in the classroom. The charge resonates with the public, which correctly wants more money spent on teachers and less on administration.
This is all worth remembering as you cast your ballot for legislative candidates in the Aug. 24 primary and Nov. 2 general election. If education is important to you, take the time to explore the candidates' positions on the issue
Read the whole op ed here.
11:04 AM
The Arizona Republic: The Nation's Leading Purveyor of Dog Journalism™
The Arizona Republic, which writes about local dogs more than humans, has a story today about a dog who died in the heat.
We’re sorry about the dog, but we already knew that it was hot out.
The story was in our zoned section, but we’re betting Scruffy McPoochie, the paper’s canny, canine Living section editor, will grab the thing and reuse it in his section sometime next week.
McPoochie, pictured above, is just one of the folks from whatever species who’ve help make the Arizona Republic the nation’s leading purveyor of dog journalism.
Just a couple of weeks ago, McPoochie ran a story about dog insurance.
It was a wire story, and mostly about people in Chicago, but McPoochie knew that dog journalism isn’t about states. It’s a state of mind.
It was such a great subject that a jealous business-section editor, in an act of journalistic oneupdogship, reassigned it to a Republic staffer, and the paper ran another story on the same lame subject.
The result, as we saw, wasn’t as good as the Chicago one, but whatever.
The paper doesn’t mind doubling down on dog journalism.
McPoochie ran a story about swanky dog hotels a while back …
… and a few weeks later, ran another story about the same damn thing.
Then there was the story about dogs on Twitter.
Which was almost as interesting as the story about dogs on Facebook.
And this is in addition to the paper’s day-to-day coverage of the beat: The church that allows dogs … another story about a dog who died … earthshaking changes at a dog park ….
Sure the paper’s circulation is declining ten percent or more a year.
That’s just among humans.
The local dog population may yet turn out to give the paper a whole new …
… leash on life!
8:08 PM
Politico looks at the "heavy cost" of McCain's re-election
Or re-nomination, at least:
[I]t’s been a costly road to a 5th term for the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, and the experience is likely to leave a lasting and unsightly stain on his legacy.
It’s not just the $20 million he’s spent already this election or the scorched earth campaign that he’s run. Rather, it’s the choices he’s made and the positions he’s embraced—-and what it reveals about him—-that could make for a complicated final chapter in his political biography.
[…]
A former McCain aide, who asked not to be identified, said it’s an open question which shade of McCain the Senate would see upon his return and acknowledged the repositioning might affect how he’s remembered.
“This could be a definition for his legacy,” he said. “From 1997 to 2006, that’s a different legacy.”
PHXated’s “The Case Against John McCain” is here.
6:59 AM
