Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWelcome To Tucson; 1 Million People, Spiraling Poverty, Dwindling Water & It's Only Getting Hotter
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These days, migratory snowbird retirees have flooded in from all corners of the country, but their tax dollarslike their RVsare seasonal. Few people enjoy the increasingly scorching summers in southern Arizona. Not surprisingly, the seasonality of Tucsons population has led to an unstable economy.
Before the housing crash, Tucson was one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. Since then, the area has seen some serious reversion to the mean. Tucson is now one of the poorest big cities in the country with a per capita income of slightly more than $20,000. Tattoo parlors, seedy dive bars, and gas stations seem to make up the bulk of the retail establishments. There are few sidewalks, so The Walking Deadesque scenes of people stumbling through the street at all hours of the day or night are commonplace. Tucson is off-the-charts poor and getting worse.
Despite the burst bubble, the regions population is expected to double in the next 30 years or so to a mind-boggling 2 million people. All with less water As a city on the frontlines of the water crisis, Tucson is a place to watch as the anthropocene begins to impart a warmer and drier climate. Things are going to have to change. And the sooner they do, the better.
This month, Im traveling the West to explore the effects of the drought. As I mentioned in the introduction to the series, Arizonas modern boom was made possible largely by water from the Central Arizona Project. The Colorado River was diverted into the desert, and agriculture and urbanization has flourished in one of the driest places in the United States.
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http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/03/tucson_tries_to_reinvent_itself_in_the_face_of_a_drought.single.html
Warpy
(111,277 posts)It's about the only way agriculture is going to be able to continue away from the few rivers that have water in them all year.
madaboutharry
(40,212 posts)They didn't want their little desert town to look like Phoenix. Over the next 40 years nearly a million people moved to Tucson. And all those motorist are trying to get from one part of town to another on two lane streets. The traffic is unbearable. The days of being able to put in a highway system are long gone; neither the land nor the money is there. I can not imagine what it is going to be like with another million people.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Wrinkled.
What with the seniors, lack of water and all that sun........
It was on our retirement list.
fortunately, the sprawl and high cost of living knocked it off.
northoftheborder
(7,572 posts)...poor water resources. probably will be the western Detroit.