Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildcats
The City of Scottsdale is no longer "The West's Most Western Town." Growth is one thing - but to destroy the character of Scottsdale?!? Along with this kind of growth - comes big city problems. The pictures of recent month - shows that. The only reason Paradise Valley is the kind of community that it is - because of very stringent codes. You have to have at least one acre - and no industry! I grew up near the corner of Mockingbird and Cheney in the 1960's and 1970's. Just ranch style homes and a lot of land. It was NOT the mega mansions - as it is today. Wide open desert - to play - and it was SAFE!!!!!!!!!! Hummingbird and Blue Bird were still dirt roads! Everyone had septic tanks! We road horses behind St. Barnabas Church - on the DESERT - where they are building the Ritz Carlton resort! Judson was a school - not a development of expensive houses. Read where Hugh Downs just died. If I recall, he was part of the effort to stop the development in Paradise Valley - to destroy its character! Let the developers build like crazy in downtown Phoenix - or, the Biltmore at 24th St...or, Tempe! Don't destroy Scottsdale and Paradise Valley! I can see why people in Prescott are worried. In just the short time I have lived here - I am worried about its growth. It might be just people coming up from the Valley ( I am seeing a lot of "Scottsdale" ..."Peoria"...etc., frames on the license plate). After summer, hope that will die down.
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While you are entitled to your opinion, it's not going to be respected on a forum that is decidedly pro-development. I would advise you to not fight things here because this is not the forum to do so and it's borderline trollposting. I especially do not want the added responsibility of checking up on this thread because of what you're posting about anti-development opinions.
That being said...
Scottsdale has never been the west most's western town, at all. That is easily decided on Tombstone, AZ, Virginia City, NV or Crown King, AZ that I know of. That motto was invented for tourism kitsch like pretty much like most of downtown Scottsdale as I remember it.
What you're describing is pretty much what could be found before any edge suburb prior to its development in the Phoenix area, Phoenix included (especially on the north side), which Scottsdale pretty much is as it's hemmed in by the reservation and other geography and modernized in the post-war era.
Scottsdale has very little trace of its pre-WW2 "western" heritage so any historic reference to that in deference to its motto is totally built over and has been for decades. Anything left over in its kitsch shops are bygone relics that hardly exist as the market demands.
And, for as far as Paradise Valley goes, the 1-acre lot minimum is easily described as exclusionary zoning and should be illegal. Hell, now that I think about it, I'd run a progressive ballot measure in AZ to impose state property taxes for the first time on incorporated owner-occupied lots that size with proceeds dedicated to an affordable housing trust fund.
The fact behind this is that PV even exists is a problem. These are luxury enclaves that don't pay their fair share as people take the damn bus from Phoenix to provide services for them in Scottsdale. This disjointedness of public administration and especially finance is absurd when you take that wretched corner of the metropolitan area into consideration.
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