Welcome To Tucson; 1 Million People, Spiraling Poverty, Dwindling Water & It's Only Getting Hotter

[hatrack]

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These days, migratory “snowbird” retirees have flooded in from all corners of the country, but their tax dollars—like their RVs—are seasonal. Few people enjoy the increasingly scorching summers in southern Arizona. Not surprisingly, the seasonality of Tucson’s 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 Dead–esque 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 region’s 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, I’m traveling the West to explore the effects of the drought. As I mentioned in the introduction to the series, Arizona’s 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]

1. Grey water recycling is going to become a big industry in the southwest

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]

2. Back in the 1960's the city council vetoed the idea of putting in a Freeway system.

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]

3. "I can not imagine what it is going to be like with another million people. "

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]

4. I doubt that a million more people will move there, with the change in the climate and ....

...poor water resources. probably will be the western Detroit.