Thursday, September 09, 2010

Downtown Phoenix and the Arizona built environment: not a favorite of our leadership

The azcentral voters' guide offers a fascinating bit of insight regarding our state's politicians. When asked in questionnaires to name their "favorite place in Arizona," almost all of the state-level candidates and most of the legislative aspirants responded by mentioning natural locations such as the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater or (the red rocks of) Sedona.

A few central Phoenix candidates mentioned downtown-ish spots: Bob Thomas mentioned the Willo District, Katie Hobbs named the Encanto Neighborhood, and Lela Alston cited, of all places, downtown Phoenix.

But other central Phoenix politicos like Kyrsten Sinema (Camelback Mountain), Paul Yoder (Workman's Creek) and Ken Clark (Humphreys Peak) followed suit with natural locations.

Obviously, Arizona is a beautiful state and its natural environment is really unparalleled. But what does it say about the built environment that we've created that so few of our leaders find it memorable?

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