Microcosm of the Valley. Building Back Better.
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11/16/2023
Phoenix Arizona represents a lot of problems with Arizona but it is the big city which has to carry more burdens than the rest of the greater Phoenix Area.
1. Homeless and Crime- Phoenix has worked hard to address the issues by making sure they have homes and rehab centers for the homeless and also to take care of the crime in the city with better staffing of police. It has been getting better but it will take some time. It is very obvious some areas of Phoenix look very nice, and some of it has these issues. This is no different than most of Arizona as there is a housing crisis i will get into in a moment.
2. Housing Crisis- Most of this has to do with underbuilding for the last 20 years and also the influx of everyone moving in due to it being popular with Middle Class Asians and Mexicans to Phoenix and the Greater Phoenix Areas. As they know it's relatively safe, business friendly and affordable. Phoenix is rebuilding for more Missing Middle, Mixed Use and trying to aim for high walkability including areas of greater Phoenix.
3. Transportation- Phoenix has the Light Rail and is looking into BRT systems, the reason why Phoenix has poor Transportation much like the rest of Arizona is due to a lack of state funds, so they have to rely on Federal Funding and City Funding to get the job done. Also I do wish after Phoenix and Greater Phoenix get's built, there is consideration for more Light Rail and potentially a subway system.
4. Food & Leisure, Downtown- I would say Phoenix's bright spot is it's Downtown and Leisure, especially the Food is affordable and the best you will get out of many cities in the greater Phoenix Area bar none. Always tons of things to do or places to hang out at.
5. Rebuilding. A lot of Phoenix is rebuilding itself right now from a big city to an even bigger city it even managed to get TSM, and host a few huge Sports events despite it's issues and it is doing a good job so far even though i do think they need to begin rebuilding more mixed use, TOD infrastructure especially in poorer areas that desperately need that kind of infrastructure as well. Not just Camelback.
6. Sprawl- Although Phoenix has bad sprawl and it includes parking lots and it's not as bad as Mesa or Gilbert. They do need a ton of Infill for Mixed Use and they desperately need to move away from the Car. A lot of Urbanist videos including various Metro sites use Phoenix Arizona as a punching bag right next to Houston Texas as examples of the worst kinds of Sprawl and Car Dependency in the entirety of America. That nothing in Phoenix is walkable except for Downtown. I can only hope Phoenix City Council proves that is not the case and builds very high and dense to prove everyone wrong.
Like all things Phoenix is just a Microcosm of the valley, they did not build out correctly, they built out for the car, sprawl, and kind of just are waking up to this reality recently and have been doing as best as they can to clean up everything and passing laws to reverse this. I do think if people can be patient or at least for those intending to move here can see the potential of it's future they will be apart of something greater that reverses all of the bad things and becomes one of the top destinations outside of Vegas, Los Angeles, Austin in the West.
Ray | Mesa, AZ