The gentrification of Sunnyslope, Maryvale, and downtown Phoenix, Arizona


The term "gentrification" is applied to an neighborhood that is, uh, less than fashionable, or to use a term that no one uses anymore - "blighted", and is going through the process of restoration or replacement  of old buildings. Right now I'm watching Sunnyslope, Maryvale, and downtown Phoenix going through the process of gentrification.

As an old Californian, I know that gentrification means that an area becomes too expensive for the people who have been living there, sometimes for generations, and the ordinary grocery stores become replaced with expensive "boutique" shops. The neighborhoods get prettier, but it displaces a lot of people who need affordable housing.

When I moved back to Phoenix from Los Angeles in 1989, I was particularly fascinated with Sunnyslope. To my eyes it just seemed impossible that an area with such beautiful mountain views could be so, uh, less-than-fashionable. I wondered why Central Avenue didn't just go up into the mountains and have mansions there. Of course, it does now. And the process continues. If you remember Dunlap east of Central Avenue from before the current stuff was built there, it's just amazing. Of course, Sunnyslope is moving slowly in the direction of gentrification, and unless you saw it in the 1980s, you would probably not be impressed by what you see now.

I'm also watching Maryvale. I've been watching how Grand Canyon University has changed the Camelback corridor from I-17 to 35th Avenue, and how they restored the old Maryvale Golf Course. Beautification, and gentrification, of Maryvale, could be on its way.

Downtown Phoenix went through a period of gentrification that began in the 1980s, and has recently sped up tremendously. Of course, memories are short, so all the families that lived in all of the houses that were condemned, torn down, or turned into trendy restaurants, are forgotten by most people.

When I worked for Bank One, back in the '90s, I discovered an old map of Phoenix from the 1960s that clearly marked - in red - blighted areas. And that meant that loans were not to be given to those areas. And without home improvement loans, and construction loans, neighborhoods don't get the attention they need. But when a lot of attention is given suddenly, the process can be shocking. I'm keeping an eye on things, I'll let you know what I see.

Image at the top of this post: S Mountain in Sunnyslope in the 1960s.
If you liked this article, and would like to see more, please consider becoming a patron of History Adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! You make this happen!

 Click here to become a Patron!
History adventuring posts are shared there daily. The basic tier is a dollar a month, and the PhD tier, which includes "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos, is five dollars a month, and is discounted for seniors, veterans, and students.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more