[combusean]

HOW I LEARNED I HAD LANDED IN THE BIG CITY
Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ) - September 15, 2006
Author: Clay Thompson, The Arizona Republic

You people certainly seem to have a lot of bird questions lately. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because the weather seems to be turning a little nicer and you're getting out more and seeing more birds. I don't know.

Anyway, we have a bird question today, but first we have a days of Phoenix past question to deal with.

I know several people who grew up in Phoenix who refer to Van Buren Street as the " Deuce ." They don't know why that is, and neither do I. Have you ever heard of this, or do you know anything about it?

The Deuce was a chunk of downtown Phoenix bounded roughly by Second, Fifth, Buchanan and Van Buren streets. It was not exactly the city's pride and joy. It was a seedy neighborhood filled with flophouses, pawnshops, bars and cheap cafes and was razed in the '80s to make way for the convention center.

On one of my first days at work at the long-lost Phoenix Gazette, I went to lunch at a restaurant in the Deuce with some colleagues. At the counter, there was a guy asleep facedown in a bowl of menudo. I thought to myself, "You're not in Kansas anymore." Of course, I'm not from Kansas anyway, but you get the idea.

One thing about the Deuce : Its single-residence hotels, or flophouses, provided cheap housing for lots of people down on their luck. When they were razed, they were never really replaced, and a lot of people ended up on the streets.