Special Life-styles

It was on a helicopter ride one winter day, when I first spotted it. I was interviewing the pilot, throwing questions over the noise of the blades; he was giving back quotable observations, and in the middle of an important point I interrupted with, “What was THAT?” Below us on a smooth plane of desert was a small community that has since received national attention: a scattering of about 60 homes with wide streets and enormous driveways to accommodate the major vehicle of the subdivision the airplane. Chandler's Stellar Airpark is a spot where the carport is a hangar, and the backyard is a runway, and residents boast they live just minutes away from work wherever work is. Driving through the streets of this 12-year-old pioneer of special living the Wright Brothers would be proud makes an automobile seem inconsequential; helicoptering over gives the strong impression this must be a movie set.

Actually, it's the setting for people who see no reason commuting to work can't be an uplifting experience, plus those who like to create their recreation around a flight plan.

At the Stellar Airpark, the entire community has been designed as part of the runway. Farther to the north, in Carefree (perhaps the most accurately named hamlet in the country), you have to move to the airport to accommodate a soaring hobby. And that's what Dietrich and Susanne Loper did a year ago. They'd been living in Carefree for a half-dozen years, but wanted more access to their two sailplanes (one for solo flight, the other for duets). Being free of care, for the Lopers, means calling up a neighbor to see if his Cessna will give their sailplane a tow.

“We probably sail more than we should,” Mrs. Loper admits. “We sail at least every weekend, but sometimes, we'll sneak away in midweek. Once you're here, the beauty of the country reveals itself, and you can't leave.” Things are a little more down to earth in the center of Phoenix, an area that identifies with one of the city's major green spots, Encanto Park. This is the oldest residential area of Phoenix, with homes that were individually built, up to 60 years ago. Around the heavily used park are nestled expansive mansions and small bungalows that have been the focus of much restoration and T.L.C.

While the tempo of Phoenix has been described as new, newer, newest, this is the spot where the premium is on old, older, oldest. A fierce community iden-ntity goes with living “in Encanto,” where mature trees and winding streets give it a special charm.

“We've lived in two houses in this neighborhood since 1974, and we really wouldn't want to live anywhere else,” says Emily Jenkins-Reed. She and her husband, Ken, are both lawyers who spend their limited free time restoring and renovating their Encanto home. “The individuality of the homes first attracted us, and then we discovered there's a real sense of neighborhood here. The people across the street have lived in their house since they built it in 1938. And they just love to see the diaper truck pull up in front of our house they say children help rejuvenate the neighborhood.” The couple has been active in the Encanto Citizens' Association, one of a number of neighborhood associations that exists in Phoenix. “The Association is very active in preserving the quality of life here,” Mrs. Jenkins-Reed says. “We have something most cities don't have quality living, within blocks of downtown.”

Commuting isn't an operative concept here not when downtown is within two miles and the theatre, civic plaza, and main library are "just down the street."

The lure of Encanto has inspired many people especially young profes-sionals to "move back" into the city. One young businessman has started renovating old mansions that are even closer to downtown. City leaders are helping, encouraging this "urban home-steading," and considering several neighborhoods for historic status that would assure preservation.

Besides the whirr of sanders and the scaffolding for new coats of paint, a major feature of this heartland is the landscaping. It makes a visitor wonder whether hundreds of gardeners are employed here, or the residents simply have adopted a second career in land-scape architecture.

And it was the manicured lawns that first impressed me about Sun City, northwest of Phoenix. Others might point to the well-designed houses or the impressive recreational facilities or the swirl of curving streets, but the first impression that still remains, is that every lawn looked so perfect. Obvious care had gone into planting flowers and trimming trees and keeping those lawns looking like an ad in a home and garden magazine. When I found out the activity schedule in this showcase community for "resort-retirement living," I wondered when anyone had any time left to do lawn work.

Sun City: a celebration of the over-50 years that has made all-day play an institution; a 20-year-old mecca that has become one of the most popular retirement communities in the country; Arizona's 7th largest population center; a 9000-acre development which proves a lot of people are afflicted with what some label "heliophilia," a consuming desire for sunshine.

Arizona's climate a 95 percent chance of sunshine, daily is an over-riding factor that attracted the 50,000 souls who picked up from around the country to spend their sunset years in Sun City. A recent study by a geog-raphy professor at Arizona State Uni-versity, found 52.4 percent of Sun Citians cited climate as the reason they chose this spot. But Sun City obviously has something more than just location, Dr. Patricia Gober found, since more than 33 percent moved to the commu-nity after only one visit, and 70 percent considered no other site in the Valley.

She also discovered that almost 38 percent said they wanted the city in the sun because of its many leisure activi-ties; 22 percent liked the town's cleanli-ness, and another 19 percent liked the idea of living with people their own age. Surprisingly, she found only about 15 percent came to Sun City to be near friends and relatives, a response that "suggests we need to rethink traditional interpretations of moving in the direc-tion of kin and friends." Instead, she discovered, Sun Citians "seem happy to be away from their children and grandchildren and are enjoying lives of their own."

If the impression of a retirement com-munity is a lot of retired people sitting around pondering their age, then you've never been to Sun City. The monthly list of organized events regularly goes over 500 that's 500 individual things to do in a 30-day period and all that is in addition to golfing and tennis and swimming. More than 300 clubs and organizations are active, from rock hounds to square dancers. And facilities to accommodate everything from lawn bowling to billiards are available in the seven recreation centers. Plus there are 10 golf courses. Someone joked that instead of preparing for retirement, Sun City-style, people need to go into train-ing for it.

An encore development Sun City West-broke ground in 1978 on 13,000 acres, that promises to follow in the "giant footsteps" of its sister community a few miles away.

An encore development Sun City West broke ground in 1978 on 13,000 acres, that promises to follow in the "giant footsteps" of its sister commu-nity a few miles away.

The business and recreation cores in both communities are designed for easy access by bike, golf cart, or foot a design worthy of study for any community.

The Sun Cities are the best known retirement towns in Arizona, but the state also offers a variety of other choices, including Leisure World in Mesa "2000 acres of famous Arizona elbowroom" and Green Valley near Tucson. There's also significant retirement populations in the Red Rock Country of Sedona and in 10-year-old Fountain Hills, east of Scottsdale.

Arizona expects to be a continuing attraction to the older set as they exchange the snow belt for the sun belt. But its thriving growth focusing on a variety of "clean industries" from electronics to tourism also will bring thousands more to the 48th state.

Some will saddle up with the "horsey set" of Paradise Valley, where, in some spots, corrals are as common as cacti. There actually are two Paradise Valleys the town, where one-acre zoning is the rule, and another that is a portion of the City of Phoenix, although mountains separate it from the rest of town. Some of the state's most fabulous homes rest their foundations in the Town of Paradise Valley, Senator Barry Goldwater's among them.

The Paradise Valley section of north-east Phoenix once was only a bedroom community for those who wanted to "get away" from the city; but it is quickly developing its own business and industry base. This is the area of Phoenix where man and mountain get cozy; where the slopes of the North Phoenix Mountains the heart of the city's mountain preservation program are the backyard backdrops.

Phoenicians also can experience mountains on the south side of town, where South Mountain Park forms a boundary of the city. Many feel the south side "has always been the most beautiful part of the Valley."

Tucson, where territorial Spanish architecture is the rule rather than the exception, is ringed by mountain ranges, and a prime living spot is the foothills area of Sabino Canyon. Here, homes are nestled among the curves and crevices of the mountains often seeming to blend into the slopes and surrounding desert. Tucson the Old Pueblo, to those with a sense of Arizona history also capitalizes on natural desert landscap-ing: almost maintenance-free gardens of cacti and desert shrubs. Not only is naturalness an esthetic consideration, it's a necessity, for Tucson's entire water supply comes from groundwater a resource most won't waste on green laws. Tucson is strongly oriented around the University of Arizona, which sits in the center of the city. Many early homes around the University now are being renovated in this city with a small-town feeling.

For uptown sophistication, there's high-rise living, where the view is the city skyline. And, of course, there are the low-slung suburbs that have spread across the desert.

By all projections, the march to Arizona will continue, as people come looking for their own special life-styles. They'll find the selection is there; and that the state is imaginative enough to satisfy everyone's desires.

Phoenix has grown from a city surrounded by mountains to a city surrounding mountains now preserved in areas such as Papago Park (above) in east Phoenix, which features bicycle and bridle paths, picnic facilities, and the Phoenix Zoo, and Squaw Peak Park (left) in north Phoenix, which, in addition to picnic facilities, also contains one of the most popular hiking and climbing trails in the Valley of the Sun. Alan Benoit (Right) The epitome of Victorian-style architecture, the elegant Rosson House, built in 1895 and restored in 1976, stands as the "First Lady" of Heritage Square in downtown Phoenix. The park was set aside as an authentic historical representation of turn-of-the-century Phoenix. Jerry Jacka