{"id":537,"date":"2006-10-14T08:29:45","date_gmt":"2006-10-14T15:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=537"},"modified":"2006-10-14T08:32:28","modified_gmt":"2006-10-14T15:32:28","slug":"valley-of-the-rubes-theres-always-a-new-boondoggle-to-rob-the-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/537\/valley-of-the-rubes-theres-always-a-new-boondoggle-to-rob-the-taxpayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley of the Rubes: There’s always a new boondoggle to rob the taxpayers . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I love Metropolitan Phoenix. I understand that some people don’t, but for me it is the perfect paradise on Earth. So do please understand that the withering critique I am about to offer is directed only at the gullibility of some of the people who live here and not at the place itself.<\/p>\n

Okayfine. Look at this picture:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is the confluence of two freeways, de facto<\/i> some of the most valuable real estate that can be created by fiat of state. Just east of the SR-101 Freeway, the City of Tempe is building a huge shopping mall, which is what you expect to find where two freeways come together. Just east of that, they have built the Tempe Town Lake in the dry riverbed of the Salt River, creating even more very valuable real estate on the banks of the fake lake.<\/p>\n

However, an unintended side effect of the giant inflated pontoons that contain the Tempe Town Lake is that any water that happens to flow down the riverbed of the Salt is trapped upstream, creating what I have named the Mesa Town Swamp. To my knowledge, no one but me has ever written about the Mesa Town Swamp, but, as it happens, some of the pilings of the SR-202 Freeway are embedded in the swampy riverbed. I will bet a large dollar that the engineers who planned those pilings did not plan for them to be planted into perpetually saturated soil. (This not to mention the West Nile Virus mosquito-breeding environment of standing water. Nor the more immediate threat that enraged bearded Birkenstockers will declare the Mesa Town Swamp a wetland wildlife refuge, to be preserved unmolested to the very edge of doom.)<\/p>\n

But wait. There’s more. In the lower middle of that map, there is a golf course, to which we will return. To the right is a huge city park with it own little fake lake, but just above the golf course are some silver buildings, expressing what the City of Mesa thought was the most important thing to be built at the confluence of two freeways: A water treatment plant. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Metropolitan Phoenix. I understand that some people don’t, but for me it is the perfect paradise on Earth. So do please understand that the withering critique I am about to offer is directed only at the gullibility of some of the people who live here and not at the place itself. Okayfine. Look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":238,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/238\/i-think-theyre-trying-to-turn-this-into-a-little-new-york-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":0},"title":"Phoenix rising: “I think they’re trying to turn this into a little New York City . . . “","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"That's a debatable point, but Angela Cara Pancrazio of the Arizona Republic has a sweet feature in today's paper on how cranes are remaking the skyline of Phoenix:Phoenix is rising again. And the cranes have arrived, reaching into a city and stretching its torso upward. With the exception of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":689,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/689\/real-estate-news-there-may-in-fact-truly-be-a-day-beyond-tomorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":1},"title":"Sunday real estate news: There may, in fact, truly be a day beyond tomorrow . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Arizona Republic is positively ripe with real estate stories today. First up, the amazingly ugly Chateaux on Central condominium development is being forced into bankruptcy. The homes were to sell for $2- to $4-million for apartments as many as six-stories tall -- not a misprint. Freddy Krueger and Damien\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":609,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/609\/raking-for-muck-in-phoenix\/","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":2},"title":"Raking for muck in Phoenix . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Anthony Barba tips us that the Phoenix real estate market is going to get Drudged tonight. I'll link to it when it happens... Further notice: The article is up. The New York Times and it's full of condescending errors: Hunt Highway is in Queen Creek, 45 minutes south and east\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17549,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17549\/overnight-news-drive-on-why-writers-love-proof-readers-and-hate-editors\/","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: Drive on: Why writers love proof-readers and hate\u00a0editors.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We have huge LED-like signs on our freeways, not because reading while driving causes accidents and we want more of them but because a vast new population of full-time Democrats had to be hired to install, maintain and populate these signs. Think about Arizona and then think about how many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1468,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1468\/seth-godin-in-phoenix-is-it-a-dip-or-a-dead-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":4},"title":"Seth Godin in Phoenix: Is it a dip or a dead end?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"About 350 people came out this morning to see Seth Godin discussing his new book, The Dip, at the Tempe Improv in suburban Phoenix. Jay Thompson promises to have coverage of the talk. For my own part, I was amazed that, other than Jay, we saw no one else we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/43\/tempe-puts-the-fork-in-the-thunderbird\/","url_meta":{"origin":537,"position":5},"title":"Tempe puts the fork in the Thunderbird…","author":"Odysseus","date":"January 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"As anyone who has been to Las Vegas knows, tourism doesn't make a city. But tourists can make an urban space feel like a city. Who is winning that contest in the Valley? Tempe, as always:But as cities compete for overnight stays, the numbers could work in Tempe's favor: &bul;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}