Adventure: Tempe Takes a Shot

In of all places, Tempe. Arizona, that is—a sprawling sea of concrete and asphalt. Hot on a good day. Death-defyingly on a bad day. A few innovative minds are wandering those dusty streets, and thanks to these folks, a little experiment is taking place. A car-free development. I might go as far as to say it’s “mostly car-free” because the residents do have access to shared E-vehicles. E-bikes as well, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I first need to tell you why I love hipsters.

What? Me? Love hipters? Well, love might be a stretch. Sure, knit hats in 100-degree weather, odd obsession over the Leica M6, mass conformity, the stealing of trends from the 70s and 80s pawned off as their own, there IS a lot to loath, but I have one positive thing to say about hipsters. They don’t want the things we wanted that fuc%^%$ up our cities, namely cars and houses in the suburbs. They want to live in a car-free area where they can handle their daily needs all from a small, walkable, centralized area. They look at the commuting crowd with pity and disdain, and besides, that won’t work for them because you can’t make YouTube films while sitting on the 405 for four hours a day.

A young developer in Tempe created a car-free apartment complex near public transportation and bike lanes. Tempe has also made improvements to its mass transit and bike infrastructure. I know, how communist of them. Hopefully, they will all be jailed in the Exxon Supermax being built on the moon. I love this for a variety of reasons. One, someone has to try something. The current model of the American city isn’t working. It feels like the oil and gas lobby groups are running our urban planning. Mass sprawl is our current model. Commute times and gas and vehicle prices are up, as is insurance in many places. Taxes for road repair and maintenance are up, and our infrastructure is aging and way, way down. (Drive through the Rust Belt lately?) Only a moron would continue as is. Luckily, our government is filled with morons, so we might be okay in that regard. (This past week should be enough to illustrate this point.)

What if we build a car-free apartment complex filled with retail outlets and located next to public transit? Will it work? The film interviews several of the residents and the man behind the build. Is it perfect? Probably not. Will it change the world? No. At least not now. When things get bad, the world will change; until then, we will continue to fight malaise, corruption, stupidity, shortsightedness, greed, disinformation, and lack of political will. But listen to some of the key takeaways. Cheaper, less government, more happiness, weight loss, etc. This makes way too much sense for America, but I’m hoping other countries see this and take action. (Four of the top five happiest cities are bike cities, sorry rage-filled auto driver.)

Most of the people I know who will hate this story, or those who will immediately attempt to find a reason why this won’t work, are all angry people. They might not always be angry, but all have underlying anger issues or anger directed at things like bicycles, climate change, progressive thinking, or anyone attempting to do anything new that their political party has deemed “Woke.” I know tons of these people. They complain about traffic, pollution, the cost of gasoline, anything sustainable, bureaucracy, and anything their political party has deemed “Woke.” They tell anyone who will listen how horrible Europe is and how the EU was set up to rob the US, but they vacation in Europe whenever they can, utilizing public transit the entire time. Some of them will also not like the fact that the people PBS interviewed are minorities.

Possible issues? The folks who live in this compound could keep their cars elsewhere, defeating the point of living here. It is a very affordable spot, so I can see certain types gaming the entire idea. Some might say, “I could never live in high-density urban living.” Also, parking is provided for the retail outlets. That’s wasted space that will retain heat at night—speaking of the heat. I know what some of you are thinking. “This is the WORST place to test this theory. It’s just too hot.” Many of you are heat wimps. Let me get that right out in the open. When you find yourself in hot weather, you go from an air-conditioned house to an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned job, guaranteeing you will never adapt to your environment.

I worked in Phoenix from 1993 to 1995. The summer I arrived, Phoenix set the record for consecutive days over 115 degrees. I lived in a house with only a swamp cooler, and I never ran the air conditioning in my truck. I adapted, but I did melt the glue in my lenses. Remember, it’s a dry heat! And the desert at night and in the early morning is pure awesome. This applies to any desert anywhere. Were I living in Phoenix now, I’d be riding my bike year-round. I don’t remember if Phoenix had more than buses back then, but their addition of light rail and bike lanes are nice to see.

Would I move to a city where I could live car-free? Yes. Absolutely. My wife and I talk about this regularly. I might be able to do this in Santa Fe, but it would be tricky, and there are certain scenarios where I’d need to rent a vehicle. This is a small town in a poor state, so I don’t see a remedy anytime soon.(The New Brompton G-Line will help.) I love stories like this. I like seeing people try new things, especially when those things attempt to address a known issue or a flawed historical trend. Everyone complains about traffic. Everyone complains about the cost of gas. Everyone complains about pollution. Everyone complains about the cost of living. We gotta start somewhere. It might as well be Tempe. PS: Those Waymo things scare the shit out of me. At some point in the future, I see myself having to fight them like John Connor.

Give it a watch. Give it a listen.