Why are Arizona's biggest cities in the desert? (Phoenix, Tucson: crime, school)
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Many people deal with heat better then cold. Many people told me that Phoenix used to cool off more at nite back in the day, even in the summer.
Flagstaff IS very cold at nite. Prescott not so much.
I'll have to agree with you. I have a friend who moved from Minnesota to Phoenix area a few years ago and last time I stopped in to see him I asked him how he liked living there given the heat in the summer. His words were, "You don't have to shovel heat, you don't have to scrape it off your windshield, and you rarely slip and fall on it".
So why the hot dry desert for most of Arizona's population? Locations like Prescott, Payson, and Flagstaff would have been perfect for large metropolises instead of Phoenix, especially when climate is one of the big reasons chosen to move to Arizona.
Well simple reason is there's not enough buildable flat land in the Rim Country for anything much larger than the current sized towns you mentioned above. If you were going to fit a city the size of Phoenix up north, you'd have to chop down half of the ponderosa pine forest. Also, the Sonoran desert is where the water is. You do know that Phoenix was an agricultural valley with cotton fields and orange groves before it got bulldozed piece by piece into a big suburban city, right?
There's room for a Phoenix-sized city in a place like Holbrook or Winslow, but again Phoenix has way more water and the climate and soil of Phoenix is much more suited for agriculture, which is why that never happened.
Interestingly, some of the oldest civilizations in human history were desert cities in extremely hot climates with exotic rivers flowing through-- think ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia for example.
Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and even many cities in California would not have been able to grow as large as they have without reliable water sources and the many canals that carry the water to these cities.
The higher regions might get more rain and snow but it serves as mostly runoff to the lower regions.
It's also harder to transport water upslope from the Colorado River.
Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and even many cities in California would not have been able to grow as large as they have without reliable water sources and the many canals that carry the water to these cities.
The higher regions might get more rain and snow but it serves as mostly runoff to the lower regions.
It's also harder to transport water upslope from the Colorado River.
Until very recently, Tucson had no surface sources. There were NO canals carrying water to that city. Phoenix and Tucson benefit from canals but also from vast groundwater sources that are under or very near these cities. The water has been running off the mountains and collecting in alluvial aquifers in the deserts since long before humans ever lived here in numbers. In fact, much of the irrigated agriculture and much of the human activities in the Phoenix metro is still supplied by ground water, though not like it used to be. The CAP agreements required Phoenix to move away from groundwater and to rely on surface sources from far away places as a condition of funding.
Phoenix could theoretically support its population and much more entirely with groundwater although that would eventually run out as the rate of extraction would exceed that of recharge. In contrast, no "cool country" area would have enough groundwater to support even a small fraction of the Phoenix area population. Most of the towns in the rest of the state are struggling to maintain their groundwater supplies even with the small populations they have.
Last edited by Ponderosa; 09-12-2011 at 12:39 PM..
I remember hearing something along the lines of this:
Phoenix was largely agricultural and originally doctors would send people with asthma or TB to the Phoenix area (long before massive development) as the climate then was easier on their respiratory systems, which accounted for a significant amount of its early growth. After WWII, there was a bit of paranoia about having defense contractors in coastal cities and Phoenix was able to lure some to the area to gain more prominence and diversify the economy. Shortly after that, the innovation of tract housing appeared and Phoenix took advantage of the flat, open land (in contrast to mountainous areas, which make expansion more costly and difficult) and was able to grow more.
I don't recall all the details right now, but I think that had something to do with its initial growth
And the invention of AC which became commercially available in the early 50s.
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And the invention of AC which became commercially available in the early 50s.
But you do need ways to get people to work in any city, and the AC industry would only employ so many, even in a hot city like Phoenix. Of course, AC did make heat more tolerable, but there is a pretty direct correlation between Phoenix' growth and what I stated earlier.
In the census before the US entered WWII, Phoenix had 65,414 people. By 1950, it had 106,818. In that decade, the whole Levittown craze took off... and it shows, as Phoenix annexed land and started sprawling, reaching over 439,000 by 1960. Jobs followed people though. And Phoenix did pretty well using land as a commodity.
You can actually kind of see the early sprawl happening at the beginning of Psycho (~2:18):
And the invention of AC which became commercially available in the early 50s.
Definitely a lifesaver and the main way most of us can survive the heat.
At the same time it is probably one of my largest complaints about Arizona life.
The electric bills can be outrageous in the summertime, water bills are on the high side too. That is why I tend to argue with anyone who claims it's so cheap to live here.
Also one reason Flagstaff and northern AZ hasn't built up is because a lot of the area is National Park or Forest and BLM land, or Indian Reservation and various reserves.
I have wondered for years why a location like the Great Sonoran Desert has attracted so many people that it is now home to one of America's biggest cities. Same with the cities surrounding Phoenix that are among the state's largest; aside from Tucson.
Considering how hot it gets in the summer months, the water shortages and all, I really can't see the point of nearly 5 million people living in the desert. One of the meanings of the word desert is deserted, meaning few or no people.
With so many nicer climates to the north of Phoenix I wonder why a place like Prescott was unable to grow into a Phoenix-sized city.
Same with Flagstaff; even with some occasional heavy snowfalls, Flagstaff is still not as frigidly cold in the winter like some people make it out to be. Summers up there are heaven in comparison to Phoenix and Tucson.
So why the hot dry desert for most of Arizona's population? Locations like Prescott, Payson, and Flagstaff would have been perfect for large metropolises instead of Phoenix, especially when climate is one of the big reasons chosen to move to Arizona.
Some people, in fact MANY people, *HATE* winter with a passion. I moved to Phoenix because I hate winter, even mild winters. I'd rather have nice warm temperatures in "winter", and suffer through two months of extreme heat.... than deal with a real winter and have to wait for Summer. I like the fact that in Phoenix, it's practically summer/spring all year round.
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