Surprising Study of Phoenix Area Edge Cities
In a slide show, Daniel J. Christen shares a study of the Phoenix area he started in grad school. Joel is not familiar with his numbers methodology. But if true, the most startling aspect is the growth of the Scottsdale Airport Edge City -- coming out of essentially nowhere when Joel published in 1991 -- to become the biggest Edge City in the entire region. Particularly interesting is its relatively great distance from downtown and the more established Edge Cities, coupled with its proximity to "nice" -- Scottsdale still prides itself on being a destination resort. It has fancy housing, fancy food, strict architectural and environmental review, good schools, outdoor recreation in mountain and desert preserves, paid for with relatively high tax rates. And oh yes, a busy airport devoted entirely to private aircraft, especially private jets. Joel had been scratching his head about what all that traffic on the 101 was about. This would explain a lot.