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I love Phoenix, right now. But, it faces a very uncertain future, with the lack of water issue. Some try to sweep this under the rug, and seem like it's irrelevant, but it's HUGE, in no uncertain terms. No city with such an uncertain future will retain a global position. If someone here has the answer to their water problems (an actual answer, that they're moving forward with), please share. Otherwise, talk is cheap and a viable solution has not yet been found.
Good news, those of us with a vested interest in Phoenix and the founders of the region have thought about this for centuries. People should think about water like your personal financial budget, you have x amount to use, how is it being used now and what other options may you want to invest that finite asset? Due to it's farming history Arizona still uses the majority of it's water on agriculture. If supply decreases however, urban development investments with water are far more valuable than agriculture is today. Where will the country get it's winter vegetable supply and how much will those prices increase, is probably a more applicable question here?
There is a lot of talk about water in Phoenix from people who seem to know very little about it. A few starter questions are.
1. What do you think Phoenix's water problems are? One source, which supply's about 1/3rd of the states water, is over-allocated.
2. What do you think Arizona uses most of it's water supply on? Agriculture uses nearly 3/4 of Arizona's water.
3. How do you think population growth has changed water use in Arizona? Water use has actually gone down as the state has grown.
What is being done?
- Reduce: The federal government has mandated reductions in water deliveries from the Colorado River and will continue doing so until the lakes stabilize.
- Reuse: Phoenix has the ability to reuse most water that enters it's wastewater system, this has not been utilized at all.
- Augment: Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado and Utah are working cooperatively with federal funding resources to augment water supply.
- New Sources: Arizona has budgeted $1 Billion for desalinization in the Sea of Cortez; near Rocky Point (about 170 miles from Phoenix).
Arizona Water Facts:
• Arizona is currently below 1957 water usage levels due to increased conservation methods and the decrease in water used for agriculture.
• Arizona has five times (5x) more water stored than we use and has never mandated municipal or residential restrictions on uses throughout our state’s history.
• 93% of the water that enters the Greater Phoenix waste stream can be reclaimed and treated for potable use and this is a huge differentiator for us.
• Arizona is a national leader when it comes to the reuse of water. California sends more water back to the Pacific Ocean each year than the City of Phoenix uses in total.
• Only 36% of the Arizona water supply is provided by the Colorado River; Nevada is nearly fully reliant, its California’s predominant water supply at 60% and makes up 30-40% of Colorado’s.
There are conflicting articles about the problem. Maybe you could read some that speak about people already out of water, and dire predictions, and then believe what you want. I haven't read anything that I believe, that states there is not a problem.
It looks like they do. The Austin area landed a large Samsung chip plant which they seem very excited to have won. So I guess it's not a top city either? These aren't my top city rankings, Milken puts the Phoenix area at #4 for top performing US cities in 2022.
There are conflicting articles about the problem. Maybe you could read some that speak about people already out of water, and dire predictions, and then believe what you want. I haven't read anything that I believe, that states there is not a problem.
Are there conflicting facts about the supply and use of water in Arizona? Seems pretty black and white there.
I wasn't claiming Phoenix is an expensive city, although it's certainly not super cheap anymore. We were talking about global cities and specifically comparing the list provided on this thread.
Saying Minneapolis is global because of George floyd is like saying Waco is global because of David Koresh. Even if it’s true, is that the notoriety you want?
Someone uptgread said Dallas, Atlanta and houston might be global. I disagree they already are
Regarding Austin and Samsung, yes austin is expensive but I’d bet Samsung received plenty of incentives to build there
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Yeah, no contest. Crazy thing is Seattle does this despite super high cost of living compared to Detroit or Minneapolis.
Seattle is the most global city on the list. I don't think there is any question about that.
But I think Detroit makes a case for being global because its the global center of the automobile industry. Its one of the worlds most important industries and the world looks to Detroit (and Germany/Japan) for innovations in that field. Working in the airline industry, its the literal only city in North America that makes a nonstop flight to Nagoya, Japan work because of auto ties. Not even San Francisco, LA, or Vancouver can make a flight to there work. Pre-pandemic it produced the same amount of O&D to Japan than Boston was doing, the same amount to Korea that Seattle has, and about the same amount of O&D to China as Houston.
I honestly don't find Minneapolis/St. Paul global. I like the metro area a lot, but its international community is largely refugee based and its economy is mostly focused on American companies.
Phoenix could get there in the future with how fast its growing. I don't think its there yet.
I look at them like this:
Definitively Global:
NYC
LA
Chicago
DC
SF
Miami
Boston
Houston
Newly Global
Dallas
Atlanta
Seattle
San Jose
Global in Aspects
Philadelphia
Detroit
Las Vegas
Orlando
San Diego
Maybe in the Future
Phoenix (probably the next city to jump categories)
Austin (hits way above its weight, but still has a bit to go IMO)
Charlotte
Denver
Tampa
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Baltimore
I know I'm going to get pushback for where I placed Philly. The main issue is that Philly just underperforms on several global metrics I look at (immigrant population, international O&D, economic connectivity, etc.). Its a great city, but I don't know if I think its particularly global per se.
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