Arizona's Future

Summing Up The Future is a Problem of Selection

It started snowing hard as the delegates to the 37th Town Hall began arriving at Grand Canyon's El Tovar. Dime-sized flakes soon gave way to small dense flurries that frosted the branches of the pines and aspens surrounding the old lodge. Inside, the warm lobby was rapidly filling with people: a farmer-rancher from Willcox, a state senator from Flag-staff, the president of a tribal council from San Carlos, a registered nurse from Globe, an educator from Paradise Valley, a housewife from Tucson.

For the next two-and-a-half days, these select few would join with over one hundred other delegates in several meeting rooms, to discuss an issue incredibly vital to all of them: Arizona's future.

Town Hall, sponsored by the Arizona Academy of Public Affairs, in itself is a relatively unique phenomenon. The semiannual statewide conference, which forges nonpolitical ideas and opinions, draws its participants from all walks of life.

And this conference was a key one, John H. Haugh, Academy president, pointed out on opening day: “The extent to which Arizona prospers and maintains its desired life-style,” he said, “depends upon making the right choices so that the future which happens, is the future we really wish to happen.” Legislators, energy and communications executives, small businessmen, farmers and civic leaders, pastors and elementary school teachers talked through the hours, comparing ideas, arguing, and listening intently.

Arizona's ledger sheet is filled with pluses, thanks to the energy and ability of its people to work out past problems. But now a new clutch of potential problems, many of which may not surface for more than 20 years, were becoming apparent: the state's relationships with Mexico, energy and water utilization, the need to attract new industry and expand the state's cultural base, the difficulties of unequal population distribution, crime control, educational needs, and demands for human services.

While Town Hall never tackled the future before, tomorrow has made Arizona headlines in the past. Gary Driggs, president of Western Savings, one of the state's largest savings and loan associations, is a former economics professor who turns his hobbies into civic projects. When he developed a fascination with the future, he convinced several local influentials to form “Arizona Tomorrow” to help promote the state, and to hire the Hudson Institute, a private nonprofit research organization, to do an in-depth study of Arizona's potential for growth and development.

Then, Dr. Francine Hardaway, a transplanted Easterner, decided that the study merited further research. So she had her class at Rio Salado Community College in Phoenix, write a report on the Hudson paper.

Recently, Driggs directed Western Savings to do a comprehensive review of current and future trends throughout the Phoenix Valley. The result was “Foresight Eighty” which detailed present and future trends in housing, life-style, and economics.

Reports are big in Arizona. In 1974, a team of city planners and architects converged on Phoenix from around the country for a blitz of urban assessment. They too, left a white paper in their wake. Then, in the midst of it all, Robert Theobald, a nationally-known futurist, took up residence in Wickenburg, nestled in the desert between Phoenix and Prescott, and began to ponder where the country and the state were heading.The future is of immediate importance to Arizonans, because, as Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance is fond of saying: “We still have a chance to do it right the first time.” While older cities are wrestling with blight and redevelopment, Phoenix and Scottsdale are still trying to plan for their vast open spaces. Phoenix lists nearly 40 percent of its land as undeveloped; Scottsdale, 80 percent.

Today, growth continues to hurtle toward a 5 million statewide population mark. Will the citizens make a difference? “Yes” say those who have given time and effort to the development of the state and its future. It seems these efforts are as indigenous to desert cities as palo verde trees.But why so many forecasts?

Dr. Roy Amara, of the Menlo Park, California, Institute of the Future, unwittingly commented on the constant planning, at the recent Town Hall. The best advice for a futurist, he said is this: “If you must forecast, forecast often.” Arizonans seem to wholeheartedly agree. Pam HaitComments and questions from around the state, the nation, and the world.

Yours Sincerely

Dear Editor, With all due respect to a superlative publication both in photographs, separations, and high quality stories, I keep asking myself if you are not doing the beauty of Arizona a disservice. Will the great beauty of Arizona and the Southwest be slowly but surely desecrated because of the multitudes of people migrating here, due to the job opportunities, and the beauty of your magazine? Surely there have been countless families who have decided to move to the Southwest to get a part of that good life which should be preserved, but, like Colorado, will go the way of developments and greed which have let our front range go from a place of great beauty, to an endless succession of homes, businesses, and filthy air that has been such a sad thing to see. Sometimes the very act of making people aware of a region's beauty, brings about its destruction. It may be still beautiful and safe now, but, like the trails and solitude of the Grand Canyon, how long will it remain that way? After all is said and done, the West, as vast as it is, cannot offer enough space to accommodate the tremendous population growth which has done so much to harm this country's beauty. Knowing the glossy philosophy of Arizona Highways and its always glowing letters to the editor I can't have confidence this will be published, but wanted to give the staff food for thought.

Dear Jeff, You have posed a most interesting question, and certainly one that occurs to those of us involved with the magazine. Be assured that if we felt that making known the natural beauty of Arizona would hasten its demise, we would surely cease our endeavors immediately. Arizona has been one of the fastest growing states in the Union, for more than a generation now, and as with any growth, the danger of ruinous exploitation is present. But we must be realists.With or without our magazine's efforts, those qualities which draw people to Arizona will continue. The magazine's role for over 56 years has been to portray the splendid land in which we live in a manner which encourages protection that comes with appreciation. We believe it is possible for our population to enjoy its surroundings while maintaining the environment intact for our children's children. If, by dealing with God's country in this manner, we can encourage others to take the time to see the beauty, their pause for reflection, perhaps, will hold this land safe from deprivation.

Dear Editor, A business associate sends Arizona Highways to my company each year as a Christmas gift. On the day it arrives, everything on my desk is put aside until I've read the magazine from cover to cover. . . . I sit with goose bumps and tears in my eyes as I look at such beautiful pictures, and the captions and stories are no less beautiful. There is no way to describe the enjoyment it brings. Thank you (and my business friend) for another year of Arizona Highways.

Dear Editor, It is now about four years that I am a subscriber to Arizona Highways. I am sincerely every month marveled and fascinated by the shots, the colors, the subjects of the photos They are always, for me, a means for dreams and journeys in your great continent... I think that Arizona Highways is one of the rarest magazines showing the beauty of nature, the culture of human beings and so giving peace and tolerance in the heart. There should be this kind of magazine in every country in the world.

Dear Editor, . . . I passed on the June 1980 "Gone Fishing Arizona Style" issue to a friend's husband who is a very keen fisherman. He was fascinated and took the magazine to show to other members of his Fishing Club of Kariba the members were also keenly interested, and evidently one of them took the magazine home with him, as it has completely vanished!

Dear Editor, In 1979 we visited Arizona and, though we were only able to get a glimpse of this wonderful part of theworld, we loved it. Friends of ours surprised us with a subscription to your magazine, Arizona Highways. Now we're really wild about coming back. But this time we are much, much better prepared and informed thanks to your magazine and our friends.

Dear Editor, Will you publish a "thank you" that may speak for more readers than you know? "Dear Mom and Dad, Nearly fourteen years ago you left us "kids" back East to begin your new "retired" life in Arizona. It seemed light years away. How could we imagine you way out there? Not long after, a gift arrived which has been arriving ever since (Arizona Highways). Your grandchildren have grown up with it, it's been to school, and we've shared it with friends and neighbors Thank you for your thoughtfulness. We love you."

Editor, Please tell Stephanie Scott (Yours Sincerely, January) that the labels on the covers of Arizona Highways can be easily removed by putting a damp cloth or sponge on the label for a few minutes and then peeling very carefully.

Editor, Here is a tip for Stephanie the label can be removed in 4 or 5 seconds with a steam iron set on "wool". If it still sticks a little, do not pull, just put the iron on it again for a few seconds.

Editor, I have been fortunate-enough to have had copies of your magazine sent every month since last Christmas (1979) as a present from some very dear friends of my son's, who he met whilst on an exchange with a teacher at Phoenix So thrilled have I been with these books, that I have loaned them to several friends who are going to America for a holiday and I tell them that Arizona is a must as it truly is a beautiful part of America.