Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 153

739 2 Thk Arizona RKi'irwuc Northeast Valley Opinions 'Urban pioneer' view of central city Simple 'thumbs up' can go a long way with students 4f.i CLARA M. LOVETT Special (or The Republic SHEILA DICKSON Special for The Republic away. It is about choosing to spend less time in cars and more time with family and friends. It is about integrating, to the greatest extent possible, every aspect of one's daily life work, leisure, private space to share with family and friends, and public spaces to share with neighbors and strangers. Unlike older cities, central Phoenix has plenty of room for people ready to make these choices.

The supply of single-family homes worth renovating is quite small, but plenty of land is available to build town-houses or apartment complexes that facilitate an integrated urban lifestyle and minimize dependence on polluting cars. Indeed, central Phoenix has the potential to attract a new breed of "urban pioneers," one different from those of us who took on dilapidated houses and trash- and drug-infested streets in older cities. Here, there is opportunity for people who want to help create a new community. They are already getting started by connecting the dots of what remains of the older community Betsey Bayless told me about. Clara M.

Lovett is president emerita of Northern Arizona University. She once experienced in Brooklyn and Washington, DC, and what I see happening now in central Phoenix. The similarities, of course, are not found in the physical layout of the residential neighborhoods, the architectural styles or the landscape. Central Phoenix neighborhoods are much less dense than those in older cities on the Eastern seaboard; their homes and bungalows come in a wide variety of styles; their gardens feature an eclectic mix of mostly non-native flora. The streets of central Phoenix are wide, and that's good, because the residents depend on cars to get to work and shop.

That pattern probably will not change much after the light-rail system is built. The similarities are based almost entirely on the social and cultural choices that specific groups of residents make within large metropolitan areas. Because the Phoenix metropolitan area is as young as it is, these groups are just beginning to emerge and connect with one another. In central Phoenix, no less than in much older and denser cities, being an "urban pioneer" is all about choices. It is about choosing to renovate or build a small home within walking distance of the Heard Museum, instead of buying a much larger home, for about the same amount, 20 miles An urban pioneer is on the prowl in Phoenix.

The Republic's publisher, Sue Clark-Johnson, describes herself as "an investigative reporter by birth." I might describe myself as "an explorer by birth." As a child, I wanted to be like the lead characters in Emilio Salgari's novels the explorers, traders and sometimes pirates Sando-kan and Yanez, who prowled the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. Lately, I have been exploring closer to home, in central Phoenix. A conversation last summer with Phoenix native Betsey Bayless stirred up dormant instincts. On a visit to Northern Arizona University's leased offices at North Third Street and Windsor Avenue, Betsey noticed a "for sale" sign on a home on Windsor, where she had lived as a child. We started talking about what the older residential neighborhoods of Phoenix were like before suburban sprawl and I was hooked.

Since last fall, I have explored, by car and on foot, the residential streets on either side of Central Avenue. There is a lot left to explore south of Thomas Road and north of Os-born. I will resume my exploration as soon as this summer's heat breaks. I am neither an urban planner nor a developer. I am sim- The recent furor over a Peoria high school student's retaking a test that allowed her to graduate brought to mind my own educational history.

I'm currently studying Spanish, and last night, the students down the hall in the community college GED class took their break while our group was working to say buenos dias so that it didn't sound exactly like buenas noches. A man with "Jorge" embroidered on his shirt pocket paused in the open doorway to listen as we struggled to do what I assumed he had mastered by the time he could walk. Catching my eye, he grinned encouragingly and gave us a brisk thumbs up. Talk about community! Talk about recognizing that we are all in it together and need to help one another! Correctly or not, I took Jorge as the expert in what I was trying to do, and his ges ply exploring central Phoenix's residential streets through the eyes of a seasoned "urban pioneer." In the 1970s, when I worked in Manhattan, I participated in the rebirth of Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, Brooklyn's historic and majestic brownstone neighborhoods. A decade later, I witnessed a similar rebirth of residential neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., such as Capitol Hill and Dupont Circle.

Give me a map of an area and the time to walk up and down its residential streets. Better yet, give me opportunities to talk with local residents. I won't be able to quote you property values, as a real estate agent could. But I will be able to tell you whether or not a residential street and the surrounding area are alive and well. I shared my observations with a friend who is a professional urban planner.

"Did you find anything unusual or surprising," she asked. Yes, a big surprise for me were the many similarities between what I burn Hauling the Atncan Queen down the Zambezi River without a map, without Humphrey Bogart, in a banner year for leeches. By the time my parents got the phone call warning them about my failing grade, I believed the situation was hopeless. I had tried, I had done my best, I continued to fail: I concluded that I could not do it. My parents, however, said that my not yet having done it did not mean I could not do it.

They were confident that could, and therefore, were going to help me to get it done ASAP. They would block all, distractions from friends and my five younger sisters while I worked in my room until had a paper to hand in. Somehow between Friday afternoon and Monday morning I managed to concentrate my mind wonderfully and wrote the paper. shares her Arizona adventures with her husband and two cats. The views expressed are those of the author.

FAIRRINGTON'S VIEW LETTERS bfair97aol.com ture of encouragement is going to carry me through the long struggle to fluency. I wish that similar encouragement had been the reported response to the Peoria student's problem. Instead, there were scores of letters written to the newspapers predicting her swift and permanent removal to the gutter andor proclaiming her parents failures in teaching her responsibility. I think it would have been more useful and helpful if the community had just skipped over the beatings and gone directly to suggesting ways she could turn her situation around. There was a time in high school when I was facing an in world history because I had not been able to produce a term paper that I was will- -ing to hand in.

Today I know that I had taken on a subject that was way over my 17-year-old head. Worse, I did not let anyone who might have been able to help me, such as the teacher or my parents, know that I was in trou I've gone on to hit adcLb tional walls in my lifelong learning. It's always a scary experience, but so far, what I learned in producing that pa-, per has been the means for getting over, under or, through the walls. I've learned that I can work harder and longer than I think. I've learned that keeping everlastingly at it is 75 percent of the battle; the remaining 25 percent is trying different approaches.

Most important to me, though, is that I learned I don't have to do it all by myself. I'm not someone who remembers that readily, so it's a good thing that there are people like Jorge who take the-time to encourage me. I hope there is a Jorge in everyone's life. Sheila Dickson is a retired psychologist and lifelong learner. She can be reached at sheila.dicksonworldnet.att.net.

The views expressed are those of the author. ble. I just wrote and rewrote and sank deeper into the swamp the assignment had become. Picture Katharine Hep- Brian Fairnngton Devastating fires show need to limit sprawl May's stand hypocritical on funding Recently, while soliciting $5 Clean Election contributions for Republican legislative candidate Kathleen Gillis, I was asked my opinion of Steve May for opposing Clean Elections. I stated unequivocally that he is a hypocrite.

He accepts support to achieve his goal and pulls the ladder up behind him. I pressed my amazement that he particularly should employ exclusionary tactics to freeze out certain groups from participation. Inclusion appears to be an honorable principle he learned to parrot to engender sympathy for his interest. May's comments in the June 23 Arizona Republic increase my appreciation of his unconscionable mastery of the worst tactics of hysteria and misrepresentation. He admits in one sentence to ignorance of the supporters and the agenda of clean elections.

In the next sentence, he evokes hysteria to frighten taxpayers about the evil conspiracy of these unknown people. Free speech and political welfare? I think not, Steve. Free speech denotes dialogue. May's actions suppress participation and competition. Political welfare? May has been feeding from the trough at the state level for years.

He takes wages, benefits, office space, phones and mailings at taxpayer expense to further his campaign. He took federal tax dollars and benefits from the reserves while it was convenient. When it was inconvenient, he wrapped himself in the pretext of supporting other people's rights and left without changing anything for anyone but himself. Step out from behind your pretext, Steve. Get honest and engage in free speech with all the opposition.

You want to eliminate my candidate's reliance on the law and its funding. She is a single mom, walking away from potential business opportunities to participate in public service. She chose this path because Clean Election funding allowed her to. Qualified, well-intentioned candidates like Ms. Gillis are precluded from serving by your tactics.

Thomas M. Webb Scottsdale He showed character JONATHAN MARSHALL Special for The Republic In the state of Washington, it was a law that you had to have a trash receptacle in your vehicle or be subject to a fine. Why doesn't the Legislature enact a similar bill or require the car manufacturers who sell vehicles in Arizona to provide a suitable receptacle to be carried in the vehicle at all times? This won't eliminate all of the problem, as some people are just naturally pigs anyway. L.M. Eikum Phoenix Others failed, too Given the overall marginal academic performance accorded the Arizona schools system, I find it abhorrent that the select administrative officials in the Peoria Unified School District would fail themselves by their decisions and actions in acquiescing to this student's parents and aborting their own policies and standards applied to other students with more responsible parents.

Equally important is yet another example of the failure to support our teachers by both the parents who choose to abdicate their parental responsibilities in the education of their children and the school system leaders who leave us, the public who pay their salaries, yet again, wanting them held accountable for their poor performance. As taxpaying citizens who want to see substantive improvements in the Arizona education system as well as the educators themselves, we deserve to have access to the names of each of the administrative officials involved in High School teacher for striking a student. Let's look at the episode from a different point of view. One beautiful spring morning you are getting out of your car at high school. Unbeknownst to you another driver thinks you cut them off in traffic.

As you are gathering your backpack and locking your car, an angry, screaming stranger is charging at you. Spewing rage, she advances. Startled and confused (maybe even frightened) you blurt out an expletive. That doesn't deter the out-of-control adult, and she strikes you several times. What self-control and character this student showed when he did not return the blows.

So many letters to the editor unfairly cited this young man as the poster boy for what is wrong with American youth. Rather than celebrate and support the teacher's violence, they should put themselves in the shoes of this student (who may or may not have made a driving mistake) and recognize his refusal to strike back when attacked and his gracious choice not to press charges against the overreacting teacher. Kate Timmerman Phoenix Fixing trash problems I am really disappointed with the way trash is controlled in this state. In fact, there is no control. One of the major problems is that the car manufacturers do not install some form of container in their vehicles to conveniently dispose of trash.

making this egregious decision. As stated in Ms. Joice's letter, the rules of discovery and public disclosure run in both directions. We deserve the opportunity to grade their performance and pass or fail them. I want, to thank Elizabeth Joice for having the backbone the school district officials apparently lacked to stand firm in the application of the academic procedures and standards and maintaining an equitable foundation for all students.

As for the student involved, I hope she has learned the appropriate and more life-saving lesson from this experience rather than the irresponsibly poor example set forth by her parents and their attorney. Michael Weeks, Ph.D. Phoenix Job security The attorney who threatened legal action for failing one student may have had career advancement in mind. Consider the possible business to be generated by all of the discrimination suits that could be filed because this one student was given special graduation priority. Noel Nave Phoenix Got something to say? Write to us at ne.lettersarizonarepublic.com or The Arizona Republic, Letters to the Editor.

106 E. Baseline Road, Mesa, AZ 85210. Responses also can be faxed to (602) 444-7985 or called in to our Letter Line at (602) 444-7714. Please include your name, city and daytime phone number for verification purposes. Forest fires are scary.

They become especially frightening when fanned by high winds. They become disasters when there are serious droughts and vegetation becomes fuel. This is what happened in Colorado this summer. Who would have thought the flames would reach the outskirts of a major American city? Who would have thought that the flames would attack the lovely suburbs of Denver? But the West had its driest winter and spring in many years. There was no rain in most places, and conditions were ripe for disaster.

Now Arizona has been experiencing this nightmare. A careless camper or picnic party or a lightning strike was all that was necessary. In one case, it was a Forest Service employee. When joined by an exceptionally windy few weeks, little fires became roaring infernos. So homes were burned, priceless possessions went up in flames, firefighters had to risk their lives, and all taxpayers have to foot the bill for aid.

One reason fires have become so devastating is our land-use policies or lack of them. We allow people to build in places where there are steep canyons and on top of hills where it is difficult to contain fires. Arizona's Oak Creek Canyon is an example of a fire hazard waiting for disaster. Denver sprawl was an even greater mistake. The real-estate people won't like this, but part of the answer is to limit urban sprawl.

Developers should not be allowed to create communities that lack adequate water supplies. And" homes should not be scat- tered in the woods or allowed in canyons or on ridges where fire can engulf them in a mat-' ter of hours. The big solution to a lot of problems is urban sprawl, control, as has been done in Portland, Ore. A few years; ago, the Sierra Club and othef environmental groups tried, to get a sprawl limitation measure passed in an elec-i tion. Of course, the money people defeated the proposal.

They said jobs would be lost Maybe now that we have the example of Denver and its surrounding communr-, ties, plus Mount Lemmon out-' side of Tucson, voters can be' rallied to support unselfish land planning. Then maybe the risk of future fires can be reduced. I Jonathan Marshall is the retired publisher of the former Scottsdale -J -f Progress newspaper. The views expressed are those of the author." Now they've gone and done it! I cannot take any more letters cheering on the Arcadia YOUR VOICE COUNTS TIIE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Founded in 1890 A Gannett newspaper Incorporating The Pnoem Gazette GENE D'ADAMO, We Prrsidenf ommmtt) Hrktimm GASPER GENOVESE, ire TraJrrw 77 BOB KOTWASINSKI, ue lrautent I'mdiMTum MIKE SPECTOR, JON HELD, t-XfwOiw hnanaal Hiker LEON LEVITT. bcemnvr VP Online Vtvkvs JAMES A.

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