Phoenix's Family of Suburbs

They're all relatives of the big city. As kids they enjoyed a splendid isolation from each other. But now they're grown up, and you can hardly slide a street map between them...

by Dean E. Smith Watercolors by Robert S. Oliver In the bad old days of the Depression '30s-before the Army Air Corps bulldozed the desert for Luke Field at the west end of the Valley and Williams Field at the east end...when it was hard to find Scottsdale, and few people tried...when Leisure World and Ahwatukee and Sun City weren't even a gleam in their developers' eyes...the Phoenix suburbs grew up surrounded by their miles of irrigated cotton and alfalfa and citrus and melon fields. With a tankful of nineteen-cent gas, we raced our Ford jalopies east on the narrow two lanes of Baseline Road through the beautiful greenery to far-off Chandler. Or we took the Menderson bus (one left every thirty minutes) out Grand Avenue to Glendale. There was a lateral, or main canal, every mile. In those days, all the suburbs together couldn't boast of 25,000 residents, unless you included the cows and sheep. Nobody in his wildest dreams could have pictured today's metropolitan sprawl, from South Mountain to Carefree, from the Superstitions to Buckeye. A newcomer might assume it's all one big metropolitan area now. But the fierce individuality of our suburban cities burns as brightly as ever. "We all have very different personalities," declares Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell. "Do you realize we even have different colored fire trucks-Mesa white, Glendale yellow, Scottsdale green, Tempe red, and so on?" For more than fifty years, I've been watching these fascinating characters grow up. I roomed with many of them along the way, and was a next-door neighbor to the others. They're all Ma Phoenix's kids, these suburbs, and naturally there's a little sibling rivalry here. There was a time when they basked in splendid isolation from each other, but now they're grown so close you can hardly slide a street map between them. The most striking characteristic of this crew is their remarkable individualism. For children of a common parent, they're about as different as any bunch of kids could be. There's pretty Miss Scottsdale up to the northeast-younger than most of the others, glamorous and sophisticated. Her glittering charms and artistic talents are known around the world, and people flock here to see for themselves what a charming hostess she can be. Old Brother Mesa, on the southeast, is just as friendly but not nearly so flashy. He's the biggest of the crew, a really solid citizen, churchgoer and family man. Nobody has more community spirit, and he's so proud of his accomplishments he sometimes makes the other kids a little peeved. Just south of Mesa is a teenager named Chandler, bustin' out of his jeans, and clamoring to be recognized as the technically talented, community-boosting adult he is rapidly becoming. Almost hidden in the shadow of Mesa and Chandler is Old Lady Gilbert, a sedate little farm gal who has moved into a condo and suddenly started kicking up her heels. Call it second childhood, maybe, but she's sprouting before our eyes. Then there's complex Professor Tempe, that worldly-wise academic who has discovered industrial parks and high-tech research. Boxed in by Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, and Chandler, the professor has been forced to abandon the expansion race and use his university resources to develop a special quality of life. Can such a contrasting bunch of personalities all be children of Ma Phoenix? Well, you'll find still more diversity over on the west side of the Valley, where a bunch of late bloomers are demanding their place in the Arizona sun. First there's kindly, unassuming Mrs. Glendale, who used to run a boarding house for people who worked in Phoenix. She has added a bunch of new rooms, but not for the Phoenix crowd. Cousin Peoria, just to the west, is a country gentleman who once gloried in the rural life and sneered at those city slickers caught up in the rat race. He's going metropolitan at a dizzy pace, and wondering how it all happened so fast. Development fever has spread to the southwest Valley, too. A group of smalltown kids named Avondale, Litchfield Park, Tolleson, and Goodyear-little guys as I remember them-have banded together as the Western Gateway group to bring in new industry. Out on the west side, Sun City, Youngstown, and Sun City West, those cordial gray-haired retirees with surprisingly young ideas, are about the only folks who aren't interested in attracting industry and beefing up the Chamber of Commerce.

Chandler

Founded: 1912, by Dr. A. J. Chandler. Source of Name: Its founder, Dr. Chandler -veterinarian, irrigation expert, builder of the San Marcos Hotel. Population: 1980 Census, 29,673. 1984 (est.), 46,000. 2000 (est.), 170,000.

Attractions: San Marcos Hotel and Golf Course, new high-tech industrial plants, City Hall complex and Central Square, Sun Lakes planned community, Williams Air Force Base.

Dr. A. J. Chandler created a pretty little farming community around his grand San Marcos Hotel in 1912, and it stayed that way for half a century. But now Chandler is racing along a road of no return, plowing up cotton fields to make way for semiconductor plants and bulldozing citrus trees to build more planned communities. Out west along Williams Field Road you now drive by one gleaming new manufacturing plant after another: Intel, Rogers Interconnection Products Group, General Instrument, Inter-Tel Corporation, and others. Sun Lakes south of the city is a lure for visitors, and other planned communities, such as Pecos Ranch in south Chandler, are under construction. Even Chandler's original industry, the San Marcos, is getting a transfusion of seventeen million dollars for a complete renovation.

"Wait 'til you see Chandler ten years from now!" chortles Jim Patterson, whose recently completed term as mayor saw unprecedented growth. "The downtown square will be the focal point, with its two-story buildings in a SpanishMediterranean motif. We'll continue building planned neighborhoods, parks,, city facilities-and we'll keep our friendly, small-town character, too."

A good trick, if Chandler can pull it off.

Gilbert

Founded: 1912; incorporated 1920.

Source of Name: Robert Gilbert, a local rancher who donated land to the railroad for a spur track to facilitate produce shipments.

Population: 1980 Census, 5717. 1984 (est.), 8000. 2000 (est.), 55,000.

Attractions: Homesites of an acre or more, with horses and gardens; tree-lined streets and well-kept homes; Town Hall and Community Center; fine churches and schools; annual "Gilbert Days" rodeo and festival.

Coming to Gilbert is a little like stumbling onto Brigadoon-a delightful fairytale town where people still choose to live in older, simpler ways. Most folks have an acre or more of land, with horses, cows, and a garden.

Gilbert is a "town," not a city, and there's not a major industry in sight. It's a quiet, friendly farming town, great for raising a family.

But Brigadoon has been discovered, and the good old days are about over.

"Right now we have developers with 9000 new homes ready to be built in Gilbert," marvels Jim Bradley, the new Chamber of Commerce boss. "That's more than 20,000 people coming-and we have under 8000 now."

That worries a lot of Gilbert old-timers, who like to make U-turns in the middle of the business section, and walk where they please. They can see their cherished lifestyle vanishing before their eyes.

Growth is coming late to Gilbert, but that's not all bad. "Perhaps we're fortunate," reasons Mayor L. J. Reed. "We can look at the communities around us and learn from their mistakes."

Glendale

Founded: 1891, by Brethren Church settlers from Illinois.

Source of Name: Settlers liked the peaceful, rural sound of the name and called the settlement the "Glendale Temperance Colony."

Population: 1980 Census, 97,172. 1984 (est.), 110,000. 2000 (est.), 200,000.

Attractions: New Municipal Complex bordering the central square; American Graduate School of International Management; Arrowhead Ranch development (37,500) new residents; Sahuaro Ranch

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historical park; annual Thunderbird Balloon Race.

Glendale once took pride in raising luscious cantaloupes, icing the refrigerator cars to ship them east, and using the profits to beautify one of the prettiest little towns in Arizona. Now this fast-growing city-intransition is putting on industrial muscle and thirsting for higher education and the arts. Only three percent of Glendale's jobs are in agriculture today.

Already the state's fifth largest city, Glendale has stopped envying the East Valley's rapid development and is shouting, "Now it's the West side's turn!" Mayor George Renner proudly points out that his city's population has increased 170 percent over the past ten years, and even more explosive growth is ahead.

Newest of the big residential developments is Arrowhead Ranch, a 5000-acre planned community to the north between Union Hills and Pinnacle Peak roads. It will add 37,500 residents to the population and will include a major shopping center, commercial properties, and two Arnold Palmer golf courses.

Once a bedroom community for Phoenix, Glendale now has Sperry Avionics, Gilbert Engineering, Southwest Forest Industries, Santa Fe Railroad, and nearby Luke Air Force Base to provide jobs. A budding center of higher education, it boasts Glendale Community College, American Graduate School of International Management, and the embryo West side campus of Arizona State University.

Glendale doesn't brag much, except to state simply that "this is the best place in Arizona to live and raise a family."

Mesa

Founded: 1878, by pioneers who first called it Hayden and Zenos.

Source of Name: Mesa is the Spanish word for table, or flat-topped hill. The settlement was on "the Mesa"-high ground south of the Salt River.

Population: 1980 Census, 152,453. 1984 (est.), 190,000. 2000 (est.), 300,000.

Attractions: Community Center, with Centennial Hall and Mesa Amphitheatre; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple; beautiful downtown business district; Mesa Community College; Fiesta Mall; Champlin Fighter Museum at Falcon Field.

Only a few years ago, Mesa, Tempe, and Scottsdale were tightly bunched in the race to be Arizona's third-largest city. But now Mesa has pulled far ahead of the pack. The city boasts nearly 200,000 citizensand expects to have 300,000 (some say 400,000) within fifteen years.

What's happening here? For one thing, Mesa is sixteen miles from the heart of Phoenix, just far enough to develop as a separate entity instead of a Phoenix bed-room community. It has available land, good freeway access, fine schools, and city services.

Perhaps most important, however, is a special kind of energy and community spirit that has driven Mesa people to be the biggest and best.

Long a haven for retirees and winter visitors who can't afford Scottsdale prices, Mesa now has so many young families moving in that the median age is only 28.1. While some Valley cities are closing schools, Mesa builds new ones. There's major industrial development here. Motorola employs 5000, Hughes Helicopters 1500, Talley Industries and Empire Machinery 700 each. "We believe people who choose to live in Mesa should be able to work in Mesa," explains Don Strauch, who has just completed his tenure as mayor.

Mesa has something for everybodypicture book planned communities such as Dobson Ranch and Leisure World, the magnificent Mormon Temple, one of the West's best community colleges, gleaming new hospitals, major shopping centers, a Community Center in an attractive twenty-two-acre park.

There are problems facing Mesa, of course: financing downtown redevelopment, some decaying central city blocks, the overcrowded Superstition Freeway, to name a few. But Mesa people believe they'll find ways to solve them and go on being the biggest and the best.

Peoria

Founded: 1886; incorporated 1954.

Source of Name: Four families from Peoria, Illinois, settled here first.As a result, there are forty-seven subdivisions with 12,000 new housing units on the drawing boards. That will more than double Peoria's population in five years.

Attractions: Municipal building complex, new residential developments, Sun City, Luke Air Force Base, Pioneer Days carnival.

Mayor Edmund Tang and City Manager Jim Walker are confident their city can handle the growth and remain a friendly, close-knit community.

People have been farming in the Peoria area in the Northwest Valley for a century now-cotton, melons, citrus, lettucebut with land values zooming to $35,000 an acre and higher, the temptation to sell the family farm to developers is getting mighty hard to resist.

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"We're getting residential developers to pay their share for facility improvements," says Tang. "They're providing land for parks and schools, too."

Peoria is a bedroom community that wouldn't mind staying that way for a while. But it's carefully preparing for the big growth tomorrow is sure to bring.

Tempe

Founded: 1871, by Yankee merchant Charles Trumbull Hayden, who built a flour mill and river ferry here.

Source of Name: Englishman Darrell Duppa thought the area looked like the Vale of Tempe in Greece.

Population: 1980 Census, 106,920. 1984 (est.), 139,000. 2000 (est.), 190,000.

Attractions: Arizona State University, the upside-down city hall, Gammage Center, Big Surf inland ocean, Old Town.

Artist member of the American Watercolor Society, Robert S. Oliver is a professor of architecture at Arizona State University.

Scottsdale

Founded: Homesteaded 1891, incorporated 1951.

Source of Name: Army Chaplain Winfield Scott, first resident and ardent booster.

Population: 1980 Census, 88,622. 1984 (est.), 106,000. 2000 (est.), 170,000.

Attractions: Civic Plaza gardens; Rawhide, Arizona, Western village; Indian Bend Wash recreation areas; the Borgata (renaissance shopping center); famed resorts and restaurants; art galleries.

Go into a travel bureau in Paris or Rome and see what Arizona attractions are being advertised to Europeans. The brochures feature the Grand Canyon, with Scottsdale and Rawhide close behind.

Scottsdale, which had only 2000 residents thirty-five years ago, built its amazing growth on tourism. But it has become much more than a tourist town, as any proud citizen will explain with little urging.

"Not a city, but a way of life," goes one promotional slogan. "Arts capital of the Southwest," proclaims another.

No doubt about it, Scottsdale has a unique beauty, sophistication, and vitality. Its fabulous resort hotels-Camelback Inn, Mountain Shadows, Radisson, Cottonwoods, Clarion Inn at McCormick Ranch, to name a few-offer dream vacations and luxurious conventions. Its art galleries, shops, restaurants, and festivals are unsurpassed. Visitors love it all.

"We're even more proud of the quality of life we offer our citizens," declares Mayor Herb Drinkwater, Scottsdale's most effervescent salesman. "This is the best place in America to live and work."

Scottsdale is not without its problems. Its housing is too expensive for many young families, and its very glitter and fame scare away others.

But you have to admit it: It's not only a great place to visit, but an exciting place in which to live.

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Because Tempe is so closely identified with mammoth Arizona State University, it's easy to assume that's all the city has to offer.

But Tempe has a personality of many facets, and it's adding new ones all the time. It's a center of high-tech research and leads the Valley in industrial park development. It's a mecca for world-class entertainment, at Gammage Center and other fine halls. It hosts the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day, the Arizona Wranglers United States Football League football team in the spring, and ASU Sun Devil sports all year. Tempe is building hotels and high-rise office complexes at a dizzy rate, and its new 320-acre research park will be Arizona's first.

Arizona's fourth-largest city is proud of its downtown redevelopment efforts, says Mayor Harry Mitchell. What was only recently a downtown area of blight and decay is fast becoming a magnet for cul-tural and entertainment resources.

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"We've restored territorial buildings," explains Mitchell, "and achieved a turn-of-the-century charm with our downtown streetscape of trees, brick sidewalks, lamps, and canopies."

Arizona State University is the big employer in town, hiring some 6000 people to teach and serve its 40,000 students. Motorola, ITT Courier, EMP Electronics, Garrett, and State Farm Insurance are here. In fact, there are now more people who commute to Tempe than from it.

employer in town, hiring some 6000 people to teach and serve its 40,000 students. Motorola, ITT Courier, EMP Electronics, Garrett, and State Farm Insurance are here. In fact, there are now more people who commute to Tempe than from it.

Tempe's failure to attract a regional shopping center is an embarrassment. There are problems with traffic and parking. But where else can you choose, on a given evening, among a New York Philharmonic concert at Gammage, a Nobel laureate's lecture, and an exhibition of Renaissance art?

The Other Communities

Not everybody in the Valley of the Sun lives in Phoenix or its major suburbs. East of Mesa is Apache Junction, a burgeoning city which appears to be ten miles long and four blocks wide. Its independent residents only recently incorporated, and many aren't sure they like it that way. Even more independent are the people in Wealthy wealthy Paradise Valley, tucked between Phoenix and Scottsdale, who have no fire department and contract individually for fire protection.

Tempe has two contrasting neighborsGuadalupe, a proud community of Yaqui Indian descent; and Ahwatukee, an affluent planned development. Another planned community is Fountain Hills, which spews the waters of its "world's highest fountain" into the sky northeast of Scottsdale.

On the west side, the unincorporated retirement communities of Sun City and Sun City West now number nearly 60,000 residents. Litchfield Park is a pretty little town built around the famed Wigwam resort hotel. West side farming communities include Tolleson, Cashion, Avon-dale, Goodyear, and Buckeye.

Each is special to its residents, who love small-town living near the big-city amenities.

Former newspaper reporter and public relations director Dean E. Smith is the executive vice president of the Arizona Historical Foundation.