Foothills growth caused problem

The Arizona Republic
Jan. 25, 2006 12:00 AM  

The Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee, represented by Laurel Arndt ("Pecos alignment wrong then, now," Jan. 24), is forgetting its roots. The world's largest cul-de-sac and the rest of the Foothills region are some of the first suspects when investigating the crime of "induced growth' and "induced traffic."

I am an Arizona native and I grew up in south Tempe. When the Ahwatukee area was developed, most of the locals wondered how all those people were going to get to work. The answer, of course, is they didn't. At least, not without mile-long traffic backups and hour-long delays. The result was a bunch of whining Ahwatukee residents screaming for a new freeway to solve a problem they created themselves. Twenty-plus years later, they want to shut the gate behind them and leave ADOT out of the process.

You can't have your all-white turkey and eat it, too.  

This means you can't complain about the destruction of natural resources and Native American culture if your house sits in the middle of what was once pristine Sonoran Desert, or if the streets of your Pleasantville drain nicely into sculptured retention basins instead of the original washes and arroyos. You have no business speaking of smarter citizens when the entire subdivision exists of people who commute double-digit mileage, twice a day, just to get out of the neighborhood and onto the freeway.

Freeways are part of living in an urban environment. I am pleased that ADOT plans a 10-lane facility through the area, since the rest of the East Valley suffered (suffers?) through incremental improvements to the Superstition Freeway.

I am also very happy ADOT decided to ignore the Gila River Indian Community when deciding on the route. Perhaps Ms. Arndt is from somewhere else, so she may not remember another tribe holding Pima Road hostage a few decades ago. If they want a freeway bad enough, they can open up the slot machine till and build it themselves.

The final irony of the whole discussion? There would be no need for a freeway alignment through Ahwatukee if Ahwatukee didn't exist.

J. D. Williams
Chandler