Commonplace Book: Soulless Urbanism

The more I traveled in Mexico, the less prepared I was for the United States. Mexico still functions on a profoundly human scale: towns are designed for people on foot, who expect to talk to other people whenever they go into a restaurant, a shop, or a bank. There are always buses going everywhere, and passersby ready to give directions. As a native of New England, which was largely settled in the days before the automobile, I find Mexico much more familiar and homelike than most of the southwestern United States. I had been struck by this before, in southern California and on visits to Texas. Still and all, nothing had prepared me for Phoenix. "The fastest growing city in America," the boosters call it, and I have no reason to disbelieve them, but I have never seen a town so sterile and inaccessible. I...checked into the YMCA...in the dead center of town......at 7:00 in the evening...the nearest open restaurant was a Taco Bell some two miles away and the only way to get there was on foot or by taxi. I walked, and did not meet a single person along the way...Apparently, taxis are not allowed to pick up fares off the street in Phoenix. The taxi companies explain that this is due to the danger to the drivers. No offense to the chamber of commerce, but if this is the fastest-growing city in the United States then there is a deep sickness afflicting the country.

Elijah Wald, Narcocorrido

My sister has recently traveled through Phoenix, and confirms this picture 100%. As automotive America gives way before the reality of Peak Oil, cities like Phoenix will be the first to go; I expect it to be like Detroit in 20 years.