Phoenix
Phoenix is the state capital of Arizona, and was incorporated as a city on February 25, 1881. Phoenix is located in central Arizona in the southwestern United States, 118 miles northwest of Tucson. It is Arizona’s largest city and largest metropolitan area by population. It is also the county seat of Maricopa County and the principal city of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is appropriately called Hoozdo, or “the place is hot”, in the Navajo language and Fiinigis in the Western Apache language.
In mid-2004, Phoenix was the sixth-largest city in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest estimates. However, according to unofficial projections Phoenix surpassed Philadelphia in late 2005, moving into the top five cities in the U.S. The 2000 U.S. Census reported the Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as the fourteenth-largest in the U.S., with a population of 3,251,876. The city’s MSA grew to an estimated 3,790,000 by 2004. Between 1990 and 2000, the metropolitan area grew by 34 percent, making it the eighth fastest-growing metropolitan area in the U.S. However, the region was hit hard by the real estate crisis, and the market has struggled since.
Phoenix is the largest capital city by population; meaning that of all U.S. capital cities (all 50 state capitals & the national capital Washington, D.C.), it’s the largest. It is also the third-largest capital city by area in the U.S. (behind Juneau, Alaska and Oklahoma City).
Downtown
Phoenix’s downtown area is called Copper Square, although most locals still call it Downtown. Incorporating the themes of Phoenix’s early history with culture and local events, Copper Square is the name for the one square mile area surrounding Central Avenue and Jefferson. This is a slowly growing hotspot for activities and action. Downtown attractions include the Arizona Science Center, Phoenix Museum of History and the Phoenix Art Museum. Also downtown is the Burton Barr Central Library. Downtown Phoenix currently features about twenty-five mid-rise and high-rise buildings ranging up to 39 stories tall. Only two skyscrapers reach over 400 feet tall (122 m), the last of which was constructed in the 1970s. Unique among large American cities, downtown Phoenix is rather small and short due to four important factors:
1. There is very little historical housing stock precisely because Phoenix was so small—only 106,000 people in 1950. In addition, much of what little there was largely destroyed in the “urban renewal” movements of the 1960s and 1970s, for example, no equivalent of San Diego’s Gaslamp District exists anywhere in Phoenix today. Thus, few historical structures remain, and today some of downtown Phoenix is pockmarked with vacant, dusty lots and unremarkable, under-utilized, one-story buildings. For comparison, in 1950, San Diego was more than three times as large as Phoenix. Dallas was more than four times as large, and Houston was almost six times larger. Even Kansas City, Missouri was over four times as large as Phoenix in 1950. Today, Phoenix has three times the population of Kansas City, but Phoenix’s skyline has not kept pace.
2. Much of Phoenix’s growth during the 1950s and 1960s was low density suburban sprawl, like that of most other American cities. The difference is that Phoenix had no real core of taller buildings. Zoning at the time largely favored mass subdivisions of inexpensive cement block homes at the edge of the ever-expanding city. Land was cheaper and there were few neighbors and little red tape. As a result, developers gravitated to the edges of the metropolitan area. This still continues today. Zoning favors large setbacks and ample parking requirements, with the result that parking in downtown Phoenix remains relatively easy and inexpensive. Wide streets and narrow sidewalks form the predominant nature of Phoenix’s urban environment today.
3. Phoenix was an isolated small outpost far from the centers of power. Phoenix’s tallest building from 1929 to 1961 was the Westward Ho, a 17-story hotel that is now a retirement home for seniors. In 1970, Phoenix’s entire metropolitan population was less than one million, and was considered largely a retirement and tourist haven. At the same time, Dallas had well over two million residents and Los Angeles had seven million. Thus, much of the skyscraper-building frenzy that marked the downtowns of sunbelt cities like Dallas, Houston and Atlanta never occurred in Phoenix. Phoenix was considered too small and too remote to attract much significant commercial high-rise development during the 1960s and 1970s. It is also possible that the growing leviathans of Los Angeles (and to a lesser degree, Denver, Houston and Dallas) siphoned off some of the high-rise development that might have otherwise occurred in Phoenix. All of these cities were much larger than Phoenix and were seen as being much more progressive at the time.
4. Phoenix was anti-urban and still is, to some degree. A comprehensive freeway plan was resisted until 1985. At that time Phoenix was the largest metropolitan area (with almost two million residents) in the United States without a completed freeway or beltway system encircling and crossing the city, which created busy arterial streets. Sightlines and mountain views are important to residents. Many still oppose high-rises because views of the mountains are considered sacred, as evidenced by the recent rejection in 2005 of Donald Trump’s 15-story high-rise project in the Biltmore area. Many people that came to Phoenix in the latter half of the 20th Century did so to escape “big city problems,” so there is a natural tendency in Arizona to keep things small. As a result, much of the office space in Phoenix is located in low profile newer office parks in outlying areas of the city, and not in downtown high-rises like in other cities.
Copper Square, despite these shortcomings, has undergone a renaissance since the building of the US Airways Center (formerly America West Arena) in 1992 and Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark) in 1998. Several new skyscrapers are under construction, with many more planned that will dramatically transform the skyline.
Education
Public education in the Phoenix area is provided by over 30 school districts. The Phoenix Union High School District operates most of the public high schools in the city of Phoenix.
The main institution of higher education in the area is Arizona State University, with its main campus located in Tempe, and satellite campuses in Phoenix and Mesa. ASU is currently one of the largest public universities in the U.S., with a 2004 student enrollment of 57,543.
The University of Phoenix is also unsurprisingly headquartered in Phoenix. This is the nation’s largest private, for-profit university with over 130,000 students at campuses throughout the United States (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Mexico, and the Netherlands.
There are also ten community colleges and two skills centers throughout Maricopa County, providing adult education and job training.
