In an involuntary spasm of honesty, the Arizona Republic admits the truth:
The journalism school is considered the most crucial component of the new campus’ second phase, in part because it boasts an enrollment of nearly 1,800 students. Most of those are undergraduates who are more likely to live in downtown Phoenix.
That’s important because increasing the number of downtown residents is key to achieving Phoenix’s overall revitalization goals for the area.
Arizona State University has become the default financier of politically-favored real estate projects.
- The City of Scottsdale expropriated the Los Arcos Mall but was left holding the bag when hockey baron Steve Ellman made an even better sweetheart deal in Glendale. But here comes ASU’s Skysong to the rescue.
- ASU West owns a half-section of land in Northwest Phoenix, a gift parcel, that it cannot use productively and cannot sell. So it is building a Kierland-like shopping mall on the land — three miles away from the flagging MetroCenter Mall, which sits on taxable land. It would be beyond cynical to wonder if someone has plans for that land, once its value plummets.
- And here the Republic actually admits that the purpose of the inane Downtown Campus of ASU has nothing to do with the students. The purpose is to graft an artificial population of around-the-clock residents into Downtown Phoenix, in the hope that this, at last, will cause a true downtown to erupt there — as organically as mold in a petri dish. The cost to the taxpayers of massively increasing the value of the land Downtown, much of it owned by very powerful players, including (ahem) the parent company of the Arizona Republic: They admit to $800 million, so it’s probably a whole lot more.
But don’t get the idea that increasing the value of land owned by very rich people is the only reason for plopping a pretend university campus in Downtown Phoenix. Far from it! The students are also needed to make the insane Trolley line we’re building look busy — as they trundle back to the real ASU campus at least once a day for their real college classes.
You could say to yourself, “If only Phoenix had a real newspaper, this stuff would be news.” But if Phoenix had a real newspaper — instead of a cheerleader for insane boondoggles from which it stands to profit — none of this would be happening in the first place…
Further reading: I have written a lot on this general topic over the years. Here are some links to pursue:
A workable Downtown Phoenix
City Hall 101
(not)Railing at light rail…
Revenge of The Shiny People
An open letter opposing the ASU bonds
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing
Dave Barnes says:
Greg,
You are dead on.
The problem is a gross misinterpretation of Jane Jacobs’ wonderful book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
She described two wonderful urban environments: Boston’s North End and New York’s Greenwich Village. She pointed out that the creation of these environments took time and was messy.
That is what the “new urbanists” ignore. They want instant gratification and neat & tidy. Jane wrote about people moving into a neighborhood and improving its vitality. The shiny people think that you can manufacture vitality and then people will move in. Wrong.
One huge difference between old organic cities and newly-created “communities” is the lack of Class-C and Class-D real estate. If you want some immigrant to open an authentic ethnic restaurant, then you have to have really cheap retail space for him/him. These “new towns” have none of that so the only restaurants are chains with money.
,dave
September 17, 2006 — 10:42 am