Arizona Life-styles

An Introduction Arizona Life-styles

Living Up to a Heritage of Leisure Not long ago one critic looked at Arizona and observed, “strip away the cactus image, and there's little to separate the way most Arizonans live from other Americans.” But scratch that cactus image, and you'll find it is patently very different. There is a heritage of leisure here, woven into the countryside, a gift from the early Spanish who introduced the relaxed life-style of patio living in their haciendas, built on multi-thousand acre ranchos like Babocomari and Calabasas, along the borderlands.

But today, patio living isn't just for special occasions. Margaret and Alex Harte, who retired to Phoenix a year ago, say they've hardly eaten a breakfast indoors.

Today, projections show that the best or worst, depending upon your point Of view is yet to come. Touted as the land of wide-open spaces, Arizona will be the fastest growing state in the nation during the 1980s. Already, Phoenix has emerged as the hub of the sun belt, a contemporary full-fledged city that's so busy punching its skyline through the clouds, it scarcely remembers its tumbleweed beginnings. Regardless of the cowboy image, most Arizonans are urbanites. Over 750,000 people now call Phoenix home, and the Valley suburbs of Mesa, Glen-ndale, Scottsdale, and Tempe are grow-ing at fast rates. Even Tucson, which dug in its heels, insisting it didn't want too much growth, is now a center for almost 500,000 people.

What's the lure? Karen Paul sits in her family room in northeast Phoenix, flanked by a beehive fireplace and Indian baskets. Behind her, through the window, the pool glistens.

“What's it like to live here?” Karen twists a turquoise ring on her index finger. “I guess I'd say that I like planning an outdoor dinner party three months in advance, and knowing that it will come off just like I want it to outside.”

The Spanish influence in architecture has always been strong in Arizona. St. Mary's Church in downtown Phoenix (far left, bottom) is dwarfed by the towering glass and steel Valley Center building. Alan Benoit (Far left, top) The old Spanish mission church San Xavier del Bac stands haughtily against the modern Tucson skyline. Willard Clay (Left, center) A custom-built house perched on a high outcrop on Phoenix' Camelback Mountain takes its subtle flavoring from a Spanish motif. Jerry Jacka (Left) Overlooking the City of Phoenix from the rugged slopes of the Phoenix Mountains, this bone-white cluster of Spanish-styled condominiums, stacked in delicately balanced disarray, captures the spirit of the far Mediterranean. Alan Benoit

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When the Pauls came to Phoenix, less than six years ago, they wanted the desert. Today little urban desert is left. But with nearly three-million acres of open space within less than an hour's drive, they aren't complaining. They ski in the winter, hike in the fall and spring, and swim year-round, thanks to a solar pool heater. Recreation is simply part of their life, every day.

What is life-style, then, but a house and a job and recreation and things to see and do? What sets it apart, in Arizona, is the setting: rugged mountains, clear blue skies, starkly simple desert.

"And don't forget the friendliness," Joan and Ben Marshand chime in. "That's one thing that hasn't changed."

When they came to Phoenix nearly 30 years ago, there were dairy farms on the town's main street which is still Central Avenue. And Camelback Mountain amidst burgeoning Phoenix and Scottsdale? (Today, some of the most valuable real estate in the valley.) "Who wanted to invest in such a worthless piece of rock so far out of town." Joan grins. "What was different then, Was everyone knew each other. Like if you wanted to help someone, you just called up and said 'I'm here.'" Today, she observes from her post as a retired member of nearly every civic board around, "it's different."

The friendliness? Take a drive on Thanksgiving Day to South Mountain Park and eavesdrop on the picnics. Friends of friends bring their families to feast and enjoy the open vistas. Barb and Brad Gordon started one such simple family Thanksgiving picnic four years ago and, "This year we're having seventy!" Barb exclaims.

Friendliness... a chance to be where tomorrow is heading... a sense of living where you can make a difference these are the phrases that crop up when lifestyle is discussed. Arizonans take their heritage of tomorrow seriously. They want to ensure that the future is at least as lovely as the past, for growth has its problems.

"Dear Abby", the pithy syndicated columnist, once advised, "If you want a place in the sun, you've got to put up with a few blisters." Neither Phoenix nor Tucson are immune to lumps. Yet, while some old-timers (anyone who has lived either place more than 15 years) speak longingly of those Saturday nights when the cowboys came to town. In truth, those days have been gone longer than most care to admit. But some things never change... like long, hot summers (50,000 backyard swimming pools do help, of course).

"I'd never want to live anywhere else," Susan Todd explains, getting into her powder-blue convertible. "I can't get over it. In Phoenix, I see mountains in my rearview mirror on my way to work!"

And 112 miles to the south, Audrey Daniels tries to synthesize the changes she's observed during her last 25 years in Tucson. "Mostly, I guess it's just that we're so much bigger now," shesays with a shrug. "But in many ways it's better. Look at all the super shopping choices we have."

Careers shopping... symphonies theatre... sports events... housing parks... patios... it's all life-style, depending upon how it's put together.

"You see, these cities still offer the American dream," a Phoenix city official says seriously. "Critics come in and look at the subdivisions, the tract hous-ing that spreads across the desert, and they knock it. What they don't stop to realize, is that this is what people want. They like their own home, their own car ing that spreads across the desert, and they knock it. What they don't stop to realize, is that this is what people want. They like their own home, their own car and pool and patio."

By other cities' standards, Tucson and the Phoenix Valley are eminently liveable.

"I get up in the morning and look out the window and see the most beautiful view I've ever seen and think I'm in paradise," one newly arrived retiree says.

And a long-time resident puts down a letter she's just received from yet another cousin, who is planning a move to Phoenix, and smiles, "Let's just say it's the kind of place that when you move here, your family follows." Pam Hait