Quote:
Originally Posted by Obadno
Most of the buildings in those photos are still downtown and occupied, People are looking back on pre ww2 Phoenix with rose-colored glasses.
It was a couple of blocks of a busy town center. Calling it a "bustling" downtown is just a-historical.
You could argue that it lost its retail traffic as many main streets did but it never lost employment or tore down office buildings or apartment blocks. Most of our "urban renewal" was the tear down of single family homes outside of the "downtown" What was once some single or two story retail buildings were replaced with modern office towers.
The pictures on the last page show the absolute extent of the pre ww2 city and it wasn't much at all, as you would expect for a small agricultural based city.
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Im not sure what you're talking about. Just pull up the 1949 aerials on the Maricopa county website and see. You either have zero clue, or are exaggerating on purpose. There were plenty more than just the "couple of blocks" as shown the picture you posted. There was a whole warehouse district near the tracks, streetcars, a historic Chinatown, blocks of typical lowrise businesses/offices/retail, in addition to the larger department stores, theaters, and taller historic office buildings. You know, a typical pre-war downtown for a smaller city.