Desert Visions and the Making of Phoenix, 1860-2009

9 Changing the Urban Form: The Politics of Place and Space

266 Part III 1960. During its first decade, Charter Government effectively managed public opinion, mobilizing it for specific purposes. After 1960 Charter Government could no longer control public opinion on all issues, and public conflict began toshapecitypolicyindependentlyofthecouncil’sefforts.Thisprocessaffected notonlysocialpolicies,butalsotransportationandneighborhooddevelopment. An even more striking challenge to the postwar vision and growth politics came from an environmental critique, raising concerns about air pollution, the use of resources, landscape and architectural designs, and, more generally, how to live in a desert. During the 1970s, then, many people began asking serious questions about the form the city was taking, the built environment that was being created, and the area’s future. Some skeptics were relative newcomers to the Valley, but many who asked the most probing questions had created the growth vision and the policies that had brought it about. the politics of housing The emergence of the civil rights movement and the politicization of minority groups in Phoenix transformed city politics. Rather than just reflecting the interests of a single group, it displayed the concerns of many; instead of a narrow, progrowth, service-and-taxes focus, public discussion broadened to include larger social issues like education and jobs. The most troublesome of these issues were housing and where people lived. The city’s rapid growth created a housing shortage, which—exacerbated by the poor quality of some existing housing—stimulated demands for government involvement. This in turn prompted opposition from the housing industry and some home owners , and it produced a unique crisis. Phoenix had begun addressing the serious problems of woefully dilapidated housing and unhealthy conditions in the southern part of the city by constructing three public housing projects just before World War II. When the huge expansion of wartime manufacturing created a housing shortage, the federal government built several neighborhoods of “temporary” housing . The postwar boom worsened the housing shortage, but efforts to resolve this by building additional, permanent public housing were stymied until passage of the 1949 National Housing Act. In 1950 the city council authorizedconstructionof1 ,000units,andinthefollowingtwoyearsthecitybuilt 484 units adjacent to the original three inner city sites. The 1954 National Housing Act provided additional funding, but construction was delayed because the city had not produced the law’s required “workable plan” to eliminate and prevent urban blight and slums.1 Changing the Urban Form 267 The city’s interest in these larger questions had been stimulated in 1950 by the organization and activities of a citizens’ committee, and that concern grew substantially after housing reports in the 1950 census and a 1953 housing survey by the Phoenix Health Department showed areas of significant blight.2 After passage of the national 1954 housing law and state-enabling legislation, the city created an Urban Renewal Department and began developing plans for slum clearance and renewal projects. To get federal funding for these projects and for public housing, the city needed to adopt a code outlining minimum standards for housing. The city also needed this code to improve housing outside of the specially designated slum-clearance areas. Starting in 1956, Phoenix moved ahead effectively on these matters. In July the city council passed a code, and in 1957 it restarted the stalled public housing program, authorizing an additional 200 units, and pushed ahead with urban renewal. After a federal housing official required additions to the code, the city created a large revision committee and, following a public hearing, passed a revised measure in April 1959.3 The city then resumed work on the public housing, and plans for its two urban renewal projects were completed by April 1960. The city also implemented the first stages of its program of housing repairs, picking two target neighborhoods, where it identified needed repairs and required that a number of unfixable structures—mainly alley shacks—be razed.4 Thus, by 1960 Phoenix had worked with federal administrators and engaged its citizens to create and implement programs in public housing, urban renewal, and repair of deficient housing in the central and southern areas of the city. But this rosy situation quickly wilted. Theoreticalobjectionstotakingfederalfundsstartedthecollapse.Eugene Pulliam, a frequent critic of the federal government, published editorials in April and May claiming that accepting a federal “handout” for urban renewal would be “morally bankrupt.” The Phoenix Gazette argued that “civic renewal of the dilapidated areas of Phoenix can and should be done by local enterprise and initiative” and asserted that federal slum-clearance programs just moved...