Sedona, AZ —By Don Griffith…
“It can’t possibly happen here.”
“You can’t stop ‘progress.’”
“I’ve lived here for 30 years, so I know what’s right for Sedona.”
We’ve all heard colleagues, friends and neighbors say something like this when newcomers and others challenge seemingly insignificant decisions related to public services, safety, tourism, housing and land use in Sedona. A zoning change here…stretching the rules for a new business or residence there…installing a new driveway here…illuminating a stretch of roadway there… Each decision seems harmless at face value.
Then, years or even decades later, we realize the cumulative effect of what, at the time, seemed like little, harmless decisions. Progress becomes regress, and citizens ask, “How could they make such stupid decisions!”
As a full-time resident of Sedona for 18 months, I tire of hearing some say that newcomers have a less legitimate right to comment on incremental decisions that affect our community’s environment and quality of life – that we lack the “historical perspective” to have a voice, or that we oppose progress. Indeed, it’s time to acknowledge the benefit of seeing Sedona through new eyes.
I visited Sedona as a tourist for nearly a quarter of a century, and I have witnessed the erosion of environmental quality that some call “progress.” However, more importantly, for 25 years I witnessed the incremental destruction of the environment and quality of life in metropolitan Phoenix as, decision by decision, civic leaders lacked the foresight and perspective to realize the consequences of their incremental actions.
I moved to Phoenix from Washington, D.C., in 1982 for many of the same reasons as others: to take advantage of the overall quality of life, including the ability to enjoy the natural environment at my doorstep; the safe neighborhoods; the clean air; and the ease of commuting and accessing services.
Then something happened.
After building a career and life in my dream city, I realized that something profound had changed. The area’s population mushroomed by multiple millions. The air quality plummeted. Traffic congestion was intolerable; new roadways were choked with traffic as soon as they were built. Drivers became irritated and rude. Large tracts of land on the outskirts of the city were filled with Los Angeles-style subdivisions as vacant inner-city lots languished. Crime soared, and gangs and violence became the norm across swaths of the area.
It happened in my own backyard.
In the 1980s, Phoenix city leaders, under great protest from nearby residents, approved a new “parkway” running north and south through the city’s center. Residents were promised that there would be only two lanes and the speed limit would not top 45 miles per hour, preventing the scenic byway from harming the quality of life in adjacent neighborhoods. Step by step, the parkway was expanded to become a full-blown freeway. Today, the Piestewa Freeway spans several lanes, right up to the foundations of adjacent homes, and it was extended through the pristine Phoenix Mountain Preserve to link to northern suburbs.
In 1991 I moved into an existing home in a modest subdivision on the fringe of Moon Valley, in what was then considered North Phoenix. The city’s edge, pristine desert, was just three miles away; today Moon Valley sits nearly at the geographic center of the vast metropolitan area.
My subdivision bordered “mountain preserve” land at the base of scenic Lookout Mountain. Within a year of moving there, the city handed scores of acres of this protected parkland to developers, who had long eyed this land for high-end development.
By 2000, several thousand new residents were occupying more than 1,500 new homes; the unique desert landscape was gone forever. As pollution mounted and people trampled the little remaining preserve land, 25-foot-tall Saguaro cacti that occupied the land for 75 years or more toppled. The remaining mountaintop today is scarred from trespass and strewn with trash.
Phoenix’s unfettered growth has brought gangs and crime to every part of the area. When I left Washington, D.C., drivers didn’t dare make eye contact with others, for fear of causing an “incident.” A mistakenly perceived facial expression could be met with threats and aggression. Ah, but Phoenix was different…then. Today, watch out.
In the 1980s, I marveled at the beauty of the desert along Carefree Highway and State Route 74 from Carefree to Lake Pleasant. Today housing developments and shops have replaced virgin Sonoran desert.
Fast-forward to Sedona today.
During my visits here during the past 25 years, I’ve noticed similar patterns of commercial growth, albeit on a much smaller scale. A zoning change here…stretching the rules for new development there…installing a new driveway here…illuminating a stretch of roadway there… Sound familiar?
When I bought my Sedona residence five years ago, I was admiring the gorgeous views during one house visit and a real estate agent commented, “Oh, you won’t even notice the scenery in a few years.”
Awhile back, I encountered an awe-struck tourist from Massachusetts on Thunder Mountain Trail. When I told him I live just a few houses from the trailhead, he said, “You actually get to live here?! You’re so fortunate! Take care of this beautiful place!”
It was a defining moment, and at that point I vowed to do everything in my power to help protect this special place. Yes, we can have progress. But progress must be in harmony with our natural surroundings. As I learned in Phoenix, there is no re-claiming the environment or unique natural beauty.
Seeing Sedona through new eyes is actually a very good thing. Just talk to a first-time visitor, or the longtime resident who genuinely appreciates this matchless landscape, and you will realize the incredible responsibility each one of us has as a steward of the red rocks. It’s a terrible shame that Phoenix was not seen through new eyes over the past few decades. If it had, maybe the once incredible desert vistas, clean air and soaring mountain views could be enjoyed by Phoenix visitors and residents today.
I have always loved Sedona traveling through there as a child back in the 60’s when there were not the homes there is today. I cannot believe they are allowing for homes to be built near or basically on the scared Rocks there! Seriously this needs to stop. I always called Sedona a bit of Heaven on Earth, but Heaven there is disappearing thanks to humans! Yes, I too would love to live there, BUT not at the expensive of the scared land!
Oh say can you see?
Next time you drive down Scenic Highway 89A between Cottonwood and Sedona and Highway 260 between Cottonwood and Camp Verde what do you see in terms of highway trash? Has this situation improved between 2009 and 2012?
I’m an outsider who has lived in the Verde Valley more than 4 years. Working with the original 2009 “Road Warriors”, we’ve tried to make a differnce in the amount of highway trash that has become a slow growing cancer that destroys tourism, real estate sales, home values and the ability to attract new businesses in the Verde Valley and Arizona.
Between 2009 and 2011 I became one of the 15 ADOT Adopt-A-Highway participants who have collected and for the most part recycled 1562 blue bags of illegally dumped or OOPs trash.
Please Google the SedonaEYE.com, Camp Verde Bugle, or the Verde Independent for the stories of what is now 30 ADOT Adopt-A-Highway groups who on November 19, 2011 collected 404 bags of trash and many othere large items on 15 miles of Scenic Highway 89A and 15 miles of Highway 260. Thanks to this local media, our story is spreading nationwide because of our out-of-the-box approach to self-managing Arizona’s broken Adopt-A-Highway program.
In Folksville USA, 30 Adopt-A-Highway groups pick it up, display it, and RECYCLE ALL OF THE CONTENTS of the “blue” ADOT bags thanks to Rusty’s Morningstar Ranch, Reese & Son’s Tire, Tire Pro Automotive, Cornville’s Windmill Garden, and at times over 300 residents who pick it up and place it in the bags.
Gary Chamberlain
“Point Man” FVUSA
Thanks so much to Gary Chamberlain and all the Adopt-A-Highway groups for all they do.