20 July 2006

Anthem is the biggest mistake ever perpetrated on the American cityscape

The Angry Geographer tackles Anthem, Arizona in a series on "Band-Aid Urbanism"
Anthem is far away from just about everything. The community's entrance is almost 35 miles from downtown Phoenix, and even farther away from the metropolitan area's main employment and entertainment centers of Scottsdale, Tempe, and Chandler. The nearest public bus stop is ten miles south. Light rail? Ha. Anthem may, in fact, be the least accessible suburban community in the entire United States. There is only one way out of the community: I-17. I'm not kidding. Anthem was designed without a single connection to the Phoenix grid system, or to any surface street whatsoever. Want to see a Diamondbacks game? I-17. Eat at a restaurant not owned by the Del Webb Corporation? I-17. Beat the inbound traffic on I-17? I-17. Del Webb's marketing literature for Anthem seems to stress some nebulous notion of "community," calling it "the grandest opportunity of all." What they don't tell you is that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO LEAVE.

Actually, Anthem isn't that awful a place. For one thing, it has a fabulous park that in additon to featuring typical park fare of softball fields, soccer fields, basketball courts, and acres of grassland, also includes a full size inline hockey rink, a groovy skateboard mini-park and a train that circuits around the park. But it is true that its development has coincided with the excessive clogging of the main artery that separates northern Arizona from the Phoenix metropolitan area. Bumper to bumper traffic on an interstate highway, and now it's not just confined to Fridays and Sundays, as is per usual in the summertime.

And Anthem isn't too far from Arcosanti, an experimental town demonstrating ways to improve urban conditions and lessen our destructive impact on the earth…

Comments

I suspect Anthem is an attempt to create a large metro community on the scale of Glendale between Phoenix and Prescott. I'm not quite sure if New River has all the components of a viable town, but Anthem could be the main suburban component of a New River, or Black Canyon Metropolis.
ADOT has already begun planning for major upgrades to I-17 between SR101 and New River (probably as far as Black Canyon City). Of course, it's a 20 year plan, and by the time it's complete, it'll be defunct, as is always the case (just think of I-10 between 27th-and SR101, SR51, SR202).
Major development (residential and highway) is also planned at Cordes Junction, but I'm not sure how much.

I think what's worse for Anthem, however, is that many houses were constructed on clay sediments that are still settling, creating huge issues in foundations, walls, etc. This problem may have been corrected already, but I would never want to live there (at least not yet), just as I'd never live on the eastside (especially Tempe).

I'm comfortable in my north-central location just miles from Central Phoenix, and Downtown Glendale.