News on the First Day of Spring.

The culture of Phoenix is very diverse. There are performing arts venues in the city too. The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and the Arizona Opera plus the Ballet Arizona are found in the city. Performs globally come to these locations to express their talents to the world. Several smaller theaters including Trunk Space, the Mesa Arts Center, the Crescent Ballroom, Celebrity Theater, and Modified Arts support regular independent musical and theater performances. Music can also be seen in some of the venues usually reserved for sports, such as the Wells Fargo Arena and the University of Phoenix Stadium. Dozens of museums exist in the Valley (which includes Phoenix). The Musical Instrument Museum opened its doors in 2010. It has the biggest musical instrument collection in the world. It was designed by Alden B. Dow. He was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The Phoenix Art Museum was constructed in a single year. It opened in November of 1959. Sculptures are found in the new Phoenix Civil Space Park. That is a two city block park in the middle of downtown. Tourism is very popular in Phoenix too. The greater Phoenix area has more than 62,000 hotel rooms in over 500 hotels and 40 resorts. Due to its natural beauty and climate, Phoenix has a plethora of outdoor attractions and recreational activities. The Phoenix Zoo is the largest privately owned, non-profit zoo in the United States. Since opening in 1962, the zoo has developed an international reputation for its efforts on animal conservation, including breeding and reintroducing endangered species back into the wild. Right next to the zoo, the Phoenix Botanical Gardens were opened in 1939, and are acclaimed worldwide for their exhibits and educational programs, featuring the largest collection of arid plants in the U.S. South Mountain Park, which is the largest municipal park in the U.S., is also the highest desert mountain preserve in the world. Mexican food is found in restaurants as well.  Some of Phoenix's restaurants have a long history. The Stockyards steakhouse dates to 1947, while Monti's La Casa Vieja (Spanish for "The Old House") was in operation as a restaurant since the 1890's, but closed its doors November 17, 2014. Macayo's (a Mexican restaurant chain) was established in Phoenix in 1946, and other major Mexican restaurants include Garcia's (1956) and Manuel's (1964). There are other restaurants that show Korean, Irish, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, Brazilian, and French cuisine. Sports are a huge part of the culture of Phoenix. The Arizona Cardinals (of the NFL), the Arizona Diamondbacks (of the MLB), the Phoenix Suns (of the NBA), the Arizona Coyotos (of the NHL), the Phoenix Mercury (of the WNBA), the Arizona Rattlers (of IFL or indoor football), and the Phoenix Rising FC (of Soccer), and other teams play in Phoenix.

Phoenix had just over sixty-five thousand residents in 1940. Later, it became America’s sixth largest city by 2010, with a population of nearly 1.5 million, and millions more in nearby suburbs. Young veterans traveled into Phoenix too. By 1948, high tech industry would be a strong staple of the economy of Arizona. Military electronics, research, and development centers developed. Motorola made offices in Phoenix. It was close to New Mexico and southern California. Engineering programs existed in Arizona State University. The climate allowed more residents to live there. Other high tech companies like Intel and McDonnel Douglas would set up manufacturing operations in the Phoenix area too. After World War II, the 1950’s saw Phoenix going through massive changes. Population growth rapidly increased in the city. Industry has grown. Many housing for minorities developed. Also, there was smog, traffic congestion, and many people moved into the suburbs and other surrounding communities. By 1950, over 105,000 people lived within the city. Thousands lived in surrounding areas.  There were 148 miles (238 km) of paved streets and 163 miles (262 km) of unpaved streets.  The 1950's growth was spurred on by advances in mechanical air conditioning, which allowed both homes and businesses to offset the extreme heat known to Phoenix during its long summers. Affordable cooling in the decade contributed to a wild building boom. In 1959 alone, Phoenix saw more new construction than it had in the more than three decades from 1914 to 1946. In May of 1953, there was the location of the very first franchise of the McDonald’s restaurant chain in Phoenix. It was found in the southwest corner of Central Avenue and Indian School Roads. The Phoenix location also was the first McDonald’s restaurant to feature the Golden Arches architectural motif, which would be emblematic architectural element of the global restaurant chain. The McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, desired to expand the successful restaurant that they had created in San Bernardino, California. They licensed the first McDonald’s franchise to the Phoenix businessman named Neil Fox and two other partners for a licensing fee of $1,000.00.  There was the rise of Barry Goldwater too in Phoenix. He lived from 1909 to 1989. He was one founding father of the modern conservative and libertarian movements. He was well known in Phoenix, Arizona and throughout the state. He wanted reform and he rebuilt the Republican Party in the state. He was a state Senator known as “Mr. Conservative.”

He promoted conservative views throughout his life. He led a 1964 Presidential campaign against LBJ, which Goldwater lost. I don’t agree with him on many political views, but it is important to outline the complexities of people’s life regardless of their ideological affiliations. He is of both English and Jewish heritage. He is related to the famous theologian Roger Williams. He was a lifelong Episcopalian. He was a conservative. Therefore, he opposed New Deal liberalism and distrusted unions. Phoenix schools back then was segregated. Goldwater held a contradictory view on civil rights. He believed in civil rights for black people, but he wanted the states to handle the issue without federal intervention. He opposed the federal Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act because of federalism reasons. Of course, I disagree with Goldwater on that issue. He was a pilot, an outdoorsman, and a photographer. He loved the natural beauty of Arizona. He loved history and politics. He wanted to get rid of corruption in Phoenix. He was elected to the Phoenix City Council in 1949. He wanted to eliminate widespread prostitution and gambling. Goldwater rebuilt the weak Republican Party and won election to the U.S. Senate in 1952, defeating the Senate Majority Leader Ernest McFarland by enough of a lead in the Phoenix area to narrowly overcome Democratic strength in rural Arizona. Many groups wanted to eliminate corruption in city government. In 1947 a new organization, the Phoenix Charter Revision Committee, began to analyze the administrative instability, factionalism, mediocrity and low morale that had long paralyzed city government. The proposed a series of reforms and reorganized itself as the nonpartisan Charter Government Committee. Goldwater was a leader, and the committee, starting in 1949, swept nearly all the elections in the next two decades. The Committee had a broad base that included many civic and business leaders, and made sure that all the city's religions were represented. The problem was that the committee had only one woman and it had no black people or Hispanic people in the organization. Eugene C. Pulliam, owner of the city's major newspaper the Arizona Republic, provided extensive publicity. Much of the Committee’s funding secretly came from Gus Greenbaum, an associate of organized crime figures, despite the Committee’s vehement public denunciation of crime and corruption. The newly invigorated city council introduced a more efficient, less corrupt system based on a professional city manager. While the Committee could win all its elections, it was defeated on one major policy issue when a different grassroots group warned against urban renewal proposals, saying they were socialistic and threatened the rights of private property owners.

Arizona by the 1960’s changed from a Democratic stronghold in the 1930’s to a Republican bastion by the 1960’s. To this day, Arizona is a heavily conservative, Republican state. Democrats have lost much political power over the decades. There are many reasons for this. Many Midwesterners traveled into Arizona. Many of these human beings were Republicans. The new industries in Arizona were headed by people who voted Republican and abhorred labor unions. These new industries used high technologies and they appealed to engineers and technicians. Many Democratic areas were found in urban centers. Many retirees came into Arizona were Republicans. The media climate was different too. Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette newspapers and their television stations, owned by Eugene Pulliam. After 1964 however the Pulliam media were politically better balanced. Finally, Pearce points to the quality of Republican candidates that Goldwater had systematically recruited from among the affluent, well-educated new arrivals from the East. They attracted votes across party lines, as did Goldwater himself, as well as Governor Howard Pyle, Congressman John Rhodes and numerous others. Pearce, however, also notes a growing right-wing element, based in Phoenix that repeatedly challenged the business-oriented Republican establishment. Goldwater would be more libertarian and opposed the theocratic element of the GOP by the 1980's and in the 1990's.  

Architectural Design is one of the most important subjects in the world. In essence, architectural design deals with the design of buildings or urban landscapes. Many of the architectural designers have similar skills to architects. With technology today, a measuring technician analyses aerial pictures of rooftops and uses sophisticated software to create 2D and 3D computer drawings of residential and commercial buildings. All of these concepts deal with architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. Architectural designers design structures to make them better.  Architectural design merges not only architecture and math, but it deals with structures in making designs more geared to also serve the needs of the people too. It also uses cutting edge engineering technologies. This requires an extensive usage of mathematics and science. STEM fields are always necessary to complete any architectural endeavor. Many architectural designers have engineering degrees as it is necessary to understand the way that buildings come together and how to engineer structures in order to excel in architectural design. Architects in America pass a rigorous exam called the NCARB. It deals with testing critical and technical knowledge as it relates to the practice of architecture. It helps to ensure that a person knows about health, safety, and welfare when dealing with buildings. Architects have licenses. Many architectural designers don’t have such licenses. There is the ARE or the Architectural Registration Exam. Many architectural designers have been educated and have licenses. The architectural designer is the designer. This person is a specialist. In other words, the architectural designers decide what the building ultimately will look like. That is why architects need designers, access to building codes, contractors, engineers, and other resources to make projects a reality. Architects are usually heavily licensed.  In essence, the architectural designer will design the building (without having to oversee construction). Architectural designers use hand drawings and CAD (or computer aided design) software to achieve their goals. Architectural designers are in high demand, especially in our technological age.

By Timothy