I started out the day cranky and sad. Sometimes it's the little things. A Republic story, apparently confined to the "neighborhood news," tells of a poor soul jumping to his death from the 26th floor of "a downtown office building." Unfortunately for the credibility of the "Information Center," the aforesaid building is the Phoenix Corporate Center, in Midtown Phoenix. (As with many stories now, this does not even include what was once a journalism basic, the Where, the address.)
It's hard to make progress when reporters for the state's largest news organization don't even know where the hell downtown is — and, no, you can't just make up the boundaries because you rolled in from the Midwest yesterday and think Phoenix has no history. It could be worse, I suppose: I've heard radio stations refer to 24th and Camelback as "downtown." A little thing perhaps, but to me another sign of the total civic sickness in Phoenix, this reinforcing of a numbing, disowned, neglected "geography of nowhere." Almost as maddening as the Republic's cloying use of "the Valley." Alas, cities are the 21st century competitive units, and one that doesn't even know its own name (and such a beautiful one, too) won't go far.
And I suppose it's necessary to note the latest scaling back of CityScape, the office project that really is located in downtown Phoenix. Sigh. Every city is being affected by the real-estate bust and credit collapse — but just from my downtown Seattle window I can see five new skyscrapers going up. I won't retread familiar ground about Phoenix's unique challenges downtown. I will add that these major-mega projects won't work when they are built largely on spec, without a real business community that will create demand for such space. (And how sad Wells Fargo put so many jobs in the burbs, rather than downtown, to use one example of how the tiny existing biz community fails downtown). And it's unfortunate that land speculation and the apparent powerlessness of City Hall to do anything but throw down gravel makes it difficult to build more small projects, organically connected to the city scape around them.
In such a mood, I receive this link and read, from the Business Journal, a story headlined: "Ariz. police say they are prepared as War College warns military must prep for for unrest; IMF warns of economic riots." Seriously?
The story continues:
State and local police in Arizona say they have broad plans to deal
with social unrest, including trouble resulting from economic distress.
The security and police agencies declined to give specifics, but said
they would employ existing and generalized emergency responses to civil
unrest that arises for any reason.
“The Phoenix Police Department is not expecting any civil unrest at
this time, but we always train to prepare for any civil unrest issue.
We have a Tactical Response Unit that trains continually and has
deployed on many occasions for any potential civil unrest issue,” said
Phoenix Police spokesman Andy Hill.
“We have well established plans in place for such civil unrest,” said Scottsdale Police spokesman Mark Clark.
There was unrest during the Great Depression and 19th century "panics," and defense planners are always floating scenarios. One can be excused for being more uneasy now, with the damage to civil liberties done by the Bush administration. With corrupt Wall Street CEOs getting bailed out and average Americans losing ground, more protests by working people would be a good thing. How would our government react? When would a protest become a "disturbance" requiring a para-military response? We saw a bit of this with the over-reaction by police at this year's Republican convention. Or does Power assume we will remain in a narcotic trance of media distraction, Wal-Mart shopping and just trying to keep our stuff?
The risk definitely goes up as Americans have to face reality, especially about peak oil, energy costs, global warming and a hollowed-out economy based on debt and swindles. Phoenicians, in their artifical migropolis, will have an especially rough time facing up to the facts. But I'm sure Joe/Peyton will keep everything in order.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. we have learned that, under the Bush regime, agencies that used to know how to handle emergencies have been gutted and turned into incompetent puppet fiefdoms for cronies.
Just yesterday I turned up an example while cleaning my files: eWeek October 8, 2001 quotes Henry jackson, deputy director of the New York City Office of Emergency Management after the well-known events of the month before: “We didn’t have a contingency for our building getting blown up.”
This is sublimely ridiculous. Emergency management agencies always harp on their constituents to prepare for emergencies and one fundamental component of a complete plan is what to do when your building is unavailable.
It is true that you do not try to imagine every scenario that might cause your building to become unusable. That is not a useful exercise. You just make a plan on what to under any of the possibilities. The agency didn’t have one and seemed to be surprised that anyone would think that they might.
My company had had one in place for years and had updated it that summer. I had a meeting this morning on the newest plans. It still doesn’t mention terrorist attacks because it doesn’t need to. The response is the same whether it is due to a bombing that completely destroys the building or today’s snowfall that will be gone tomorrow.
Agencies like this will always tell you they are prepared, but I no longer believe them.
Even in the lush life of some three years ago, CityScape seemed disproportionate in its optimism. Where were all these new downtown cliffdwellers going to come from? Who would pay $300K for a low-floor studio apartment? How would the project integrate with the existing downtown? Those were questions only a few dared asked. As with so many other master-planned mega-deals, this one seemed high on its own hubris.
There were really many more questions than answers. If other projects never realized their potential in downtown (Arizona Center, Collier’s Center), how would this one? What did it learn from the others’ mistakes? How would real-world retail function in a place where everyone drove? And why would anyone endure the hassles of a parking garage to shop at some chain store?
Organic urbanism works with the people and buildings at hand. Instead of wholesale reinvention, it deals with conserving and knitting together the various fragments of community. Not Phoenix, however. Granted, the few fragments of actual urbanism left in downtown weren’t sufficient to create a vibrant urban scene. Some boldness would be necessary. But people know when you’re faking it. Building four new high rises in an inert downtown does not in itself confer life. The idea that it might is almost always a sign of desperation.
Now the economic landscape is utterly changed, and probably permanently. CityScape oversold on its meager promise and even that is being scaled back. Those countless empty lots/parking lots in and around downtown will stay that way into a future no amount of ad copy can gussy up. Welcome to Phoenix, the ad might say. Here’s a city waiting to happen.
What the police can call a disturbance has a very low thresh-hold, especially if it involves any criticism of them:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/us/18arizona.html?ref=us
This is what our ‘democracy’ is reduced to: toe the line, quietly, or we will ruin you with fines, jail time, and corrupt policies.
On the use of “Valley” … I had an intense debate with a reporter on how they (and the rest of the media) take in real estate numbers from ASU real estate wonks and do nothing more than regurgitate them. It’s irritating because it’s obvious these numbers are only meant to get ASU’s name in the paper, not actually provide information. How can you possibly analyze the “East Valley” real estate market as one organism? It’s a population three times the size of Kansas City and has about 15 smaller micro-markets carefully insulated from each other. Even more disconcerting is the larger analysis for “how Valley real estate is doing.” There’s no such thing as a “Valley real estate market!” I would agree with you there’s no such thing as the Valley!
I sometimes get the feeling, reading news stories about the militarization of the police, or the reorganization and domestic priorities of the military, that the Establishment has more information than is vouchsafed to the general public.
I had no idea that wingnuts held sway even at the Phoenix Business Journal: I refer to the comments section. The reference in the first comment to “fascist liberals” seeking to force gun nuts to bow to and lick the shoe of “the Obamanator” is particularly characteristic.
Re: downtown, midtown, uptown — see Dry Heat, p. 53. I’m sure they meant the Central Corridor. Hee hee.