Phoenix today – The year 'round good life

Dynamic people are ready for tomorrow's challenge.

Phoenix has overcome many obstacles in her history through the aid of both resident and newcomer. Never hampered by tradition, she has always been ready to accept a new concept or workable solution regardless of the source. As a thriving metropolis whose population has passed the 559,500 mark, Phoenix today faces many typical problems of urbanization: traffic congestion, air pollution, an inner city poverty pocket, needed expansion to keep pace with population growth. By far the greatest catalyst for civic improvement lies in the voices of thousands of concerned citizens who are willing to work with elected officials to create a better environment. Many bright stars loom on the Phoenix horizon, but her two most valued resources will remain the natural assets ofsun and water and a never empty reservoir of human energy and talent. Without the lifestream of irrigation, molded by human hands, the saguaro sentinel might have seen Phoenix enjoy but a brief existence as a frontier town.

From its beginnings a century ago, Phoenix has repeatedly outgrown the dreams and hopes of its citizens. Today she stands as a majestic metropolis, too preoccupied with jet-age expansion to remember the problems and fears of a colorful childhood.

Yet one need simply travel a short distance beyond the realm of asphalt and power lines to feel the desert's life forces those forces which have for a century sustained the Saguaro and a youngster named Phoenix.

It has been several decades since the Indian mothers and their children camped and waited in the shade, on the other side of the river, while the men leisurely attended to the important business of trading in the old town.