Chuck Robb at the Arizona Republic makes fun of the economic worrywarts who are fretting that Phoenix isn’t the capital of the solar industry in the United States. “Apparently, no one has told them that those components are actually produced indoors.”
He mentions that the same economic worrywarts used to chase biotech and before that their cause celebre was the “creative class.”
The Creative Class
Adherents to the “creative class” faith believed places like Portland were cool and creative and Arizona was a backward backwater.
Here is Robb’s punch line.
Portland had the ninth-largest increase in college graduates in the country, 2005 to 2007… but Phoenix ranked first in the country. And not on a percentage basis but the absolute number of college graduates increased more in Phoenix than in any other area of the country.
“Phoenix area still has an unemployment rate substantially below the national average, 7.3 percent here compared with 8.9 percent nationally. And Portland? Well, its unemployment rate is 11.8 percent.”
Arizona Republic Leads the Crusades
What Robb doesn’t mention is that the Arizona Republic was a prime promoter of these Phoenix-is-bad crusades.
And Robb forgets to mention that Portland was held up as the oh so hip Promised Land that justified spending gazillions on the Phoenix light rail. Portland cool. Phoenix red neck.
One of the most interesting points in all this to me is what will happen in the future to such crusades when the Arizona Republic has only a fraction of its old influence.
Newspapers are a dying industry. I, for example, canceled the Arizona Republic years ago. The easiest way to reduce your carbon footprint and save some trees is to cancel the Arizona Republic.
In the future will such crusades be able to reach a critical mass of hysteria without a super influential Arizona Republic shepherding the public opinion?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Benjamin Ficker 05.24.09 at 11:30 pm
This was a fun read since I am 6 days and counting from moving to Phoenix from Portland. I really do love it up in PDX but I see Phoenix as having a lot more upside potential then Portland right now. Adding the light rail, and as low priced as the real estate is, I can’t wait to get down there and enjoy the weather.
Shift 05.25.09 at 3:44 pm
I have no lover for Portland, however, this looks like spin.
We are given that we have a larger increase in number (but not percent) of college grads. We should all know by now that raw numbers can be less than meaningful. Raw numbers are most often used to misrepresent the nature of the true situation.
Another thing: The diatribe against Portland in favor of Phoenix smell of culture-war.
Disclaimer: I ride the light-rail. When I started looking for a house to live in, I calculated that I could live further away from my job if I stayed near enough to a light-rail line. Perhaps the light-rail is bad and evil and taking everyone elses money and ruining the entire nature of what it means to live in a state full of transplant victims. I do not care. I ride the light-rail for convienence and cost. Perhaps this makes me a hippy or whatever the boomers call the lines that divide them.
I hope that when the boomers are dead, the culture wars die with them.
azrob 05.26.09 at 1:21 am
Of course this is nonsense. If a city had 100% college grads, and no population growth, than it would add zero, and look very bad compared to phoenix!
John john john, you deleted the page making fun of the “phoenix bubble bloggers” you wrote in 2006, be a man own up to it!
Rail Life 05.27.09 at 6:59 am
“Portland cool. Phoenix red neck.”
OK, this one made me laugh. I nearly spit out my grits all over momma’s cookin’
Whizzer 05.28.09 at 3:26 pm
Did not realize Portland’s current employment #’s. ‘Shift’ makes good points EXCEPT his boomers thought. Not sure it’s so much “boomers’ and culture wars as…. I won’t go there. Certainly myself and many, many boomers are sick and tired of the ‘culture wars’ too.
As for the “creative class” (I understand Portland’s cool persona), but I think of the Bay Area, Austin, the Research Triangle, etc, or a place like Denver with it’s good governance, (not over), with it’s vibrant Downtown, etc.
What most are still missing is the lagging bubble in CRE, which is certainly yet to play out in PHX, though not to the extent of Residential.
But the RE boom here, certainly did include Commercial which is still
‘building out’ to completion on many many projects. Then it’s Goodnight.
Phoenix is blessed, most importantly, by it’s proximity to California, as well as other pluses and minuses - like anyplace. This state has yet
to show the necessary creative, sound governance, that will be necessary now that the bubble has burst (in the process of with CRE).
Jim Zirbes 06.02.09 at 11:12 am
To those who like it dark (in more ways than one), Portland is the place to be…but not for me!
And to “Newspapers are dying”; they may be, but they aren’t dead.
See: http://jimrejournal.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-defense-of-print.html
“Being digital” can be great, but it still leaves much to be desired for many of us, who still prefer print or want both.
I propose that many agents who canceled their subscriptions of newspapers (& many did for print of all types, i.e. magazines), not because of all of the negativity in the periodicals or to reduce their carbon footprint, but because they, 1. Are broke (or closer to it–the NAR says median Realtor income is down about 40% over 2005), looking to reduce their overhead like most of the world, and, 2. The papers stacked up largely unread –more than ever– as electronic media demands more of their attention.
Lastly the “Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?” adage applies here. Newspapers foolishly gave way too much of their e-version access for too little in trade back from the reader. The genie is out of the bottle & it’s incredibly hard to put back!