The Arizona Republic recently reported that “Tempe’s surging demand confirms that planning during slow times pays off.” That’s a pretty broad statement and the article provided little evidence to substantiate the claim.
However, being the urban fan that I am it is easy for me to believe that planning for and encouraging denser mixed use zones does promote growth and investment and synergy.
Urban living makes sense today, much more sense than sub-urban living.
We work harder and longer so we desire simplicity, gas prices are crazy and likely to continue going up, more of us are thinking about mother earth before we buy, we are having fewer babies, we want quality of life over quantity of life, and we want to connect more.
Urban living fits all these requirements. When we buy or rent urban we are buying or renting a better lifestyle. We want to live closer to work and entertainment so we spend less time driving and more time living (unless you consider being stuck in traffic living), less driving means spending less on gas, less driving makes less impact on our environment, the downturn in the economy has forced most of us to live with less and guess what, it hasn’t been all that bad. In fact I argue that my life is better today with less “stuff” and fewer expenses. I downsized my material life but upsized my quality of life. That’s what it’s about for me and it seems that more and more people are in agreement.
The phrase “urban living” for some might conjure images of a gritty, isolated and tough existence but it is just the opposite. Urban living means you know your neighbors. You run into them when you’re checking your mail, or in the parking garage, or at the fitness center, or light rail stop, or at the pool or in the lobby of your building. We urbanites introduce ourselves to the new neighbor in the elevator. Urban neighbors talk about the building or the HOA or about the great restaurant they just stumbled upon. We actually spend time chatting.
I don’t know about you but I’ve done the sub-urban thing and it was nothing like urban. Most of us sub-urbanites came home, clicked our garage door openers and were never seen again until we were racing to work the next morning. We didn’t walk along the narrow subdivision streets to enjoy the faux desert landscaping and monotone color schemes. Instead we stayed inside or kept to ourselves in our manicured back yards. Were their exceptions? Absolutely. But the exceptions were mostly contrived. We had to manufacture socialization in sub-urbia by inviting others over for a barbecue or Super Bowl Party. Socialization in sub-urbia is less spontaneous and more structured and that’s a shame.
Urban living isn’t contrived, it’s real and spontaneous and fun. I love running into neighbors at a local mom and pop restaurant. Heck, I love that we have mom and pop restaurants instead of big box chain restaurants. I could go on and on. Bottom line, I love urban living and based on the number of people contacting us to help them buy or rent urban, I’m on to something.
So although I can’t truly say that “Tempe’s planning during lean years now is paying off” I could certainly understand why it’s true if in fact it really is.
Urban living is the future in Phoenix. No, I don’t believe that we will ever be as dense as cities like San Francisco or Miami or New York but pockets of Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe are becoming more and more dense and are picking up momentum as they go.
What social, environmental or financial differences do you see between urban and sub-urban living? Let me have it if you think I’m off track. I can take it. Afterall, I live in the city! 
