Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 2. Road to Groundhog Land

Courtesy Friends of the Scenic Drive

 Tom Hanks with Groundhog I thought of an old movie as I was driving on Scottsdale Road from Shea Boulevard to Pinnacle Peak Road, passing more commercial buildings where stately saguaro had stood in the 1980s. In the movie, a TV weatherman drives to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he finds himself living the same day over and over again.

The year “Groundhog Day” was released, I found myself “on the road” seeing the same thing over and over again. America was becoming a vast Groundhog Land, a land where every place looked like every other place because of insensitive development and urban growth. I feared that the natural beauty and qualities that distinguished many communities would eventually be replaced by a landscape of nowhere.

On the Road

During my 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, I traveled the breadth of America. Initially, it was to see the West’s national parks, national monuments, scenic drives, and other special places. After I married, my wife and I returned to enjoy many of these places. Later, we took our kids to see them too. Meanwhile, my 40-year career in the burgeoning software industry took me to many of America’s metropolitan areas again and again.

As I revisited many towns — Jackson Hole, Sedona, Laguna Beach, Colorado Springs, Pasadena, and San Antonio spring to mind — I noticed that the distinctive characteristics that I had found attractive had been somehow diminished. As I left a motel or hotel in a metropolitan area, I sometimes experienced a split second when I didn’t know where I was because there was little to differentiate the built environment from that of other communities.

At the time, I wondered how the people that lived in all those places could let that happen. I thought; “What a shame. What a crime!”

 

Related Articles

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 1. Roadside Sprawl Heading Our Way? – Published 5/27/2014

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 2. Road to Groundhog Land – Published 5/28/2014

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 3. Four Henchmen of Urban Sprawl – Published 5/28/2014

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 4.  Roadside Gorilla – Published 5/31/2014

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 5. Dig Reveals Original Sprawl Solution – Published 6/1/2014

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 6. Two Game Changers – Published 6/11/2014

Scenic Drive Post 7. After the Crash, An Update – Published 6/12/2014

Scottsdale Scenic Drive Post 8. New Scenic Drive Commercial Zoning? – Published 6/29/2014

 

Related Websites

 

Related Websites

Friends of the Scenic Drive (www.scenicdrive.org)
McDowell Sonoran Conservancy (www.mcdowellsonoran.org)
City of Scottsdale, Preserve (www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Preserve
 

 

 

 

Author: Les Conklin

Les Conklin is a resident of north Scottsdale He founded Friends of the Scenic Drive, the Monte de Paz HOA and is the president of the Greater Pinnacle Peak Association. He was named to Scottsdale's History Maker Hall of Fame in 2014. Les is a past editor of A Peek at the Peak and the author of Images of America: Pinnacle Peak. He served on the Scottsdale's Pride Commission, McDowell Sonoran Preserve Commission, the boards of several local nonprofits and was a founding organizer of the city's Adopt-A-Road Program.. Les is a volunteer guide at the Musical Instrument Museum.

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