Tucson in the NY Times
NY Times reporter Guy Trebay write lovingly about the mid-20th-century architecture of Tucson, Arizona.
Tucson is a city I only visited once, to take the bar exam (which used to alternate between Phoenix and Tucson, and unfortunately I took in a Tucson-hosted year). It’s only a two hour drive from Phoenix, maybe even less than that with a 75 mph speed limit, but it’s not a place I ever felt any need to visit.
Before reading the article, I would have just assumed that the Tucson architecture was merely an example of an area that was run down and has not had any appreciable growth since the 1950s, thus there’s no money to tear down the old buildings and replace them with newer and better.
It would be wrong to say that Tucson’s population isn’t growing, but it had this tremendous boom of growth in the 1950s, and then slowed down substantially. Maricopa County, the political, commercial and geographical center of Arizona, has steadily had a much higher growth rate since 1960. (Phoenix also has a lot of run down area; those are probably the places where working-class people moved to in the 1950s boom which are now predominately Mexican.)
On the other hand, I’ve heard that Tucson may be having a hipster renaissance.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
I’ve driven through it and drove by the plane graveyard and visited friends there. Other than the planes, I didn’t find anything remarkable about it.
Mike Street Station
June 15, 2015 at 12:23 PM
I think the last time that place saw action was on the set of Con Air.
Dain
June 15, 2015 at 3:54 PM
Are hipsters ever conservative?
Jjbees
June 15, 2015 at 1:21 PM
Jim Goad
Lion of the Judah-sphere
June 15, 2015 at 6:33 PM
Gavin McInnes
Lion of the Judah-sphere
June 15, 2015 at 6:41 PM
neither of them have much respect or credibility left among hipsters, especially hipster women. i remember a girl once nonchalantly referring to gavin mcinness as “it”
GM
June 16, 2015 at 9:14 PM
I remember Guy Trebay from when I used to read The Village Voice in the early ’90s. I don’t remember what his specialty was there (I used to like Nat Hentoff on speech issues and the guy who would make fun of Phil Rizzuto), but I’m pretty surprised he got a gig at the NYT since he didn’t seem to be much of a writer. I once knew a woman who grew up in Tucson, now a lawyer in SF. A classic Bobo – went to ultra liberal Brown, then devoted her career to helping employers stomp their employees.
full automatic
June 15, 2015 at 3:08 PM
Tucson has pretty fair representation on The First 48. Lots of low class, druggie kids down there prone to serious violence. Like many places in the country, LE is the growth industry.
fleeing nams
June 15, 2015 at 3:12 PM
Tucson is a haven for bohemians. Cost of living is cheap and thrift stores selling cool mid-century stuff abound. It’s got a 1960s Pulp Ficiton Rat Pack vibe. Mid-century modernism has its charm, but a certain aspect of is tacky and void of soul.
bobo
June 15, 2015 at 3:28 PM
Arizona and all of its cities, are prolier, poorer, and cheaper than its nicer, neighboring, more upscale, State of Colorado. Utah, is somewhere in the median of these opposing states, of low scale and upscale.
The Anglosphere status markers are very obvious, because of the inconsistencies of its cities, which isn’t very noticeable in non-Anglo, Euro countries.
JS
June 15, 2015 at 3:50 PM
Utah is Mormon.
Lion of the Blogosphere
June 15, 2015 at 4:39 PM
And New Mexico is more Hispanic than the all the other neighboring states. It’s also falls somewhere in the median with Utah, between the low scale, Arizona and upscale, Colorado. Interestingly, New Mexico has a solid middle class, while Arizona’s demographic is prolier in status (lower middle class). The cost of living standards are the lowest in Arizona, which is why I’m not surprised some of my guido acquaintances moved out there from Staten Island. I wouldn’t be so hard on them, if they moved out to San Diego, like one of my friends who worked on Wall St., now on semi-retirement, but of course, Staten Island guidos generally don’t have the means to afford Denver or San Diego.
JS
June 15, 2015 at 6:14 PM
It’s also very nice.
I go to Sundance every year (for the awesome skiing, not for the gay movie stuff), and every time I fly back to New York I’m disgusted for weeks.
Renault
June 16, 2015 at 12:45 AM
New Mexico has a very different Hispanic population. It’s the one state of the Union that had a a sizable Hispanic population when it was annexed after the Mexican-American war. The Rio Grande valley hispanics tend to be more Spanish than Indian, descended from the original colonists. Green and blue eyes are common among them. Their accent and dialect is distinct. Basque and Celtic fringe surnames like Montoya, Tafoya, and Gallegos are very common.
I think it goes a long way to explain why New Mexico is something of an outlier. There’s lots of illegal Indio immigrants, but there’s still a Mediterranean bedrock complemented by anglo Southern Californians looking for cheaper cost of living.
This said, it’s still more like Southern Spain than the USA. It’s one of the poorest states in the union with one of the worst educational systems, economically comparable with the very deep South. Jobs are scarce and to get a job you have to know someone in la familia. Government investment and employment is one of the main factors that keeps the state afloat and attracts some world class scientists and intellectuals.
There’s a substantial fitness subculture. Athletes from all over the world come to train in the high altitude and dry weather. When races are held in town, it’s not unusual to see Kenyan marathoners show up. A former governor, Gary Johnson is a hardcore marathoner and kayaker.
Santa Fe is a tourist trap. Taos is nicer. Albuquerque has a lower cost of everything and some charming areas in the foothills, Knob hill on central avenue, in Corrales, and even some parts of Rio Rancho. Aside from natural beauty, I can’t claim there’s anything there that would draw a New Yorker accustomed to the best delights and highest culture the world has to offer. Overall, it’s a blue collar town, its biggest claim to fame, Walter White, a fictional character. Other than that, prole celebrities like boxers and mixed martial artists.
But you can visit extinct volcanoes on top of a black basalt mesa, visit the cottonwood forests by the river, and walk through aspen forests on top of Sandia crest all on the same day. And at days’ end you can ask for the ‘weather report’ to find out whether the red or green chile is hotter today. Despite the drawbacks, the place is spread out, laid back, and relaxed.
Giovanni Dannato
June 18, 2015 at 5:00 PM
@ John (Mr. Dannato)
Why is it that Anglo domains tend to be prolier than non-Anglo ones, and I speaking of those with a sizeable White demographic? I think a lot of it is cultural, and not an economic or educational issue. One could also make a case, that Anglo domains have laxer immigration standards, which also means an invitation of prolier Whites.
And being poor/lower income isn’t exactly a measure of proleness. French Canada is a great example. The Francophones have lower incomes and lower educational credentials than their Anglo counterparts. Yet, the province is overall nicer, with a lot of cultural offerings, and the people are more laid back, than those of the English speaking ones.
I would rather live in a Southern Spanish City in Andalusia, where the median incomes are significantly lower, than anywhere in London or the UK in general. Aside from the climate comparisons, the Brits just aren’t a very culturally classy group of people (which means one thing – prolishness).
JS
June 18, 2015 at 5:59 PM
Utah is rich. At least, that’s impression I got the last time I was in Salt Lake City for a conference about three years ago. The Park City area, where the 2002 Olympic downhill skiing events were held, is both beautiful and very expensive. It was not what I was expecting.
Sequim
June 16, 2015 at 4:33 AM
It’s been over ten years since I was there, but I recall being quite surprised at how rundown many parts of Phoenix were. It wasn’t all the Sunbelt prosperity I’d been expecting. One thing in particular that seemed jarring was the way there was a near-ghetto almost immediately behind the state Capitol building. I thought Hartford was bad, with the Puerto Rican ghetto starting just two blocks south of the Capitol building, yet Phoenix seemed to have even less of a buffer zone.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
June 15, 2015 at 5:38 PM
All cities have their bad areas. The bad parts of Phoenix are a lot less bad than the worst ghetto neighborhoods of Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Lion of the Blogosphere
June 15, 2015 at 6:59 PM
What I was trying to say about the prolishness of Arizona vs that of Colorado, is a matter of cosmopolitanism and elegance. No doubt, Denver is more elegant, more polished and more sophisticated, than anything you’ll find in Arizona.
JS
June 15, 2015 at 9:14 PM
How much time have you spent in Arizona?
Lion of the Blogosphere
June 15, 2015 at 10:44 PM
Houston is second only to NYC among US cities for the number of millionaires per capita. Should Lion move to Houston?
Curle
June 15, 2015 at 11:35 PM
I was in the downtown area of Phoenix for four days in 2010, attending a tax seminar. I was in the hotel most of the time, but I did get a chance to see a few areas within the confines during the breaks we had. One of them was the Heard Museum, which is a strange name for an institution dedicated to Native American artifacts. And stepping out, it was hot for a July, but not stuffy hot like NYC, because there is no humidity for a desert area.
I’m more familiar with Denver, because I have a relative who lives there, and have visited a few times. To be really fair, the climatic differences, between the 2 states, is the causal effect of the burgeoning output of Denver. Phoenix is dry and hot, year round, and Denver has the 4 seasons. It’s easier for humans to work under a temperate zone, than the desert climate of Phoenix.
JS
June 15, 2015 at 11:54 PM
Houston is not climatically desirable, aesthetically pleasing, or status inducing like New York. NYC is a dirty craphole, with many blacks and undesirables running around. So why do people keep moving here? Jobs and the immense amenities.
JS
June 16, 2015 at 8:23 AM
An older uncle and his family were part of that Tuscon population growth when he moved his family there from New England in the early ’60s for health reasons on the advice of his doctor. I thought it was cool when he came back east to visit about ten years later dressed in cowboy boots, ten-gallon hat, and big silver, turquoise-embedded belt buckle.
@LotB: Utah is Mormon.
After finishing my MBA in the late ’90s, I turned down a good-paying banking job in Salt Lake City. I wonder how that would have turned out.
E. Rekshun
June 15, 2015 at 6:37 PM
You can’t get ahead in a Mormon area unless you are also Mormon.
Lion of the Blogosphere
June 15, 2015 at 7:01 PM
He should have converted to Mormonism. I’d take Utah over any hurricane prone state, any day, especially one that is populated with Latin American illegals, kingpins, haughty Hispanics, redneck proles from the neighboring states, and last but not least, obnoxious retirees from the Northeast.
JS
June 16, 2015 at 8:15 AM
* haughty Hispanics – Caribbean types!
The Mexicans who live in the South West are generally more affable than their California counterparts, and 100 times more affable, than the cantankerous, Floridian Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.
JS
June 16, 2015 at 2:43 PM
O/T – This was in the news not too long ago. Mayor of Belmar NJ, who happens to be IA, is closing off his town, which is already swelled up with too many guidos during the summer months, that becomes an unbearable ordeal. And this isn’t the first time, that a mayor of Belmar, has decided to seal off the borders from those Jersey Shore pests.
Crowded Jersey Shore town temporarily closes to nonresidents
This picture screams prole all the way.
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/national/crowded-jersey-shore-town-temporarily-closes-to-nonresidents
JS
June 15, 2015 at 7:35 PM
I don’t think Guidos were the problem in Belmar.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
June 15, 2015 at 10:05 PM
Tucson girl. Sometimes the Mexican-Anglo mix can turn out really nice.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tucson+%26+linda+ronstadt+%26+youtube&FORM=VIRE5#view=detail&mid=3099BB4417CF62D1EEB53099BB4417CF62D1EEB5
Curle
June 15, 2015 at 9:50 PM
Lion can you discuss the Calais immigrants?
For reference
Basically what is happening are illegal immigrants from black countries are sneaking into Europe through Italy. None of them have any of doing work and plan to collect welfare checks all day.
They basically sneak in through Italy and spend all day on the roads harassing truck drivers trying to sneak in to their cargo holds to sneak into the UK.
They jump in front of trucks to force them to stop
Law enforcement is unable to stop them
Stopping the ship full of illegal black migrants is RACISS
Deporting them to Africa is RACISS
Can’t run them over and can’t shoot them cause thats RACISS too
GodSlayer
June 15, 2015 at 11:22 PM
Holy shit, zombies are real.
You really can’t believe all the blacks in France when you go there, Paris was literally like a Detroit but with more american tourists. France is finished.
jjbees
June 16, 2015 at 10:33 AM
NYC isn’t all that different.
blacks are everywhere, with the exception of the White prole areas. It’s amazing that the liberal types, are stacked against their beloved black neighbors, resulting from a gentrification grid lock, that has come to a full stop. So the tide might be turning. And blacks avoid moving into established prole areas.
I can’t stop laughing, when the day these liberal hypocrites, are trying to flee from them.
JS
June 16, 2015 at 2:32 PM
I sometimes go a week without seeing a black person in San Diego, and months between seeing a rapping hip hop youth types. Generally when I do it would be downtown or in a gov office.
But that has NOTHING to do with why rich people keep moving here and have bid up the average price of a 50’s tract house to $650,000.
Lot
June 17, 2015 at 1:26 AM
I remember going through Paris for a couple of days with a friend. I remember us having lunch by the Seine while being regaled by a harshly screaming drunk black man on the other side of the river. The central island with Notre Dame was right by us.
In an order that prizes legitimacy, I can’t imagine such a sacred central area would be allowed to be soiled with debauchery.
By the Eiffel tower, there were almost as many black hucksters as tourists trying to sell trinkets and liquor.
Giovanni Dannato
June 18, 2015 at 7:14 PM
Stop giving out welfare checks.
Calogero
June 18, 2015 at 3:02 PM
Wake up,mobs of soul patrols are raping,looting and killing superior Whites every day.But the Zionists do not want us to know.
I have my own little War.
Daniel F.Maloney
July 8, 2015 at 2:30 PM
OT: WaPo, 06/16/15 – The animals that are most likely to kill you this summer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/16/chart-the-animals-that-are-most-likely-to-kill-you-this-summer/?tid=pm_business_pop_b
…A CDC report from a few years back found that cows killed about twenty people a year in the mid-2000s…
That’s many more than sharks, alligators, bears, and snakes but less than dogs and deers.
E. Rekshun
June 16, 2015 at 5:40 PM
@JS, I am unable to reply within the same thread. I hope you see my response here.
Anglo culture has always been very stratified. There’s always been planters and white trash, since before the New World. I’ve reflected on the dynamics of the anglosphere. It’s not a fun or easy-going life for the individual that has promoted anglo success, but a lifestyle of relentless attrition that milks the best effort out of its people for every ounce of reward.
As far as the UK. I can tell you what to do:
Get out of the big city.
Rural England, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall are filled with many of my favorite places on earth. The people are lovely, every town has a pub that attracts the locals for a relaxing evening. Meanwhile, I found London with its inflated prices and overwhelmingly post WW2 buildings less impressive than Kansas City, MO once you get well away from the Thames. Culturally, it was just another big city. Not sure why a New Yorker would cross the Atlantic to go there.
Nevertheless, I still find the English anywhere to be more than several notches above Americans in culture, “humour”, obesity stats, pretty much everything, even if they’re well behind the continent.
Giovanni Dannato
June 18, 2015 at 7:01 PM
You have a great post on the issue, and it says it all. Yes, Anglo values are almost unnatural to modern human existence, which mirrors that of the East Asian cultures, except they live in a very collective society, and the Anglos do not.
Many of the commentators here, with the exception for a handful, have failed to even grasp the surface, as to why the Anglo-sphere is a petty fiefdom, or why some of them here, have been venting about the problems that are inherently Anglo, like the workings of American Capitalism, or its inherent multi-racialism, which is both an Anglo construct and an Anglo symptom.
JS
June 18, 2015 at 10:10 PM