The Scenic Drive & the Four Henchmen of Urban Sprawl

Posted By Les Conklin on Apr 5, 2022

Published July 14, 2018

By Les Conklin

Will anyone notice when the last rural and residential space along Scottsdale’s Landmark Scenic Drive is replaced by urban commercial development?

There won’t be a breathless 9-1-1 call, a fear-stricken cry for help, a blood curdling scream, or a loud thud. When the time comes, people might not even notice that their quality of life and the natural environment has been brutally victimized. The best laid plans of many communities have failed to stop urban sprawl because its henchmen are insidious, relentless, heartless, and patient, VERY PATIENT.

Beware Henchman #1. The Camel’s Nose. “The camel’s nose is a metaphor for a situation where permitting some small undesirable situation will allow gradual and unavoidable worsening.” Evidently the term originated in fables, like one where an “Arab miller allows a camel to stick its nose into his bedroom, then other parts of its body, until the camel is entirely inside and refuses to leave.” Wikipedia. For example, changing the zoning on one corner of an intersection in a residential area for one commercial venture facilitates similar zoning changes in the future. Each “exception” facilitates the next change.

Beware Henchman #2. Creeping Normalcy. Major change can be accepted as normal, if it happens slowly, in small increments. The same change would be strongly opposed if it happened in one step or over a short period. For example, the eastern part of Shea Boulevard is Scottsdale’s first scenic corridor. If they had the opportunity, would today’s Scottsdale residents replicate the development that has taken place since that road showcased desert views in every direction?

Beware Henchman #3. Landscape Amnesia. As landscapes change slowly over time, people forget what the landscape used to be like, and additional changes are more acceptable.

Beware Henchman #4. The Shifting Baseline. Also from Wikipedia, “Shifting baseline (also known as sliding baseline) is a term used to describe the way significant changes to a system are measured against previous baselines, which themselves may represent significant changes from the original state of the system.”

“Divine Desert Drive” by Chad Weaver, Carefree – Winner Scenic Drive Category, 2015 Summer Fun Photo Contest

As north Scottsdale has become more populated, the experience of new residents begins when they arrive (their baseline). These new residents are apt to accept what they perceive to be small changes to the environment without major opposition. Destruction of the natural environment is masked because there is a loss of perception of change that occurs when each successive group of newcomers redefines what is “natural” and establishes a new baseline.

Easter Island Example

Why would the people of Scottsdale destroy the very things that attracted them and will attract others in the future? Because the four henchmen of urban sprawl have been at work; that’s why. The native society of Easter Island provides one of history’s sobering examples of the impact of the four henchmen.

The people who settled remote Easter Island depended upon trees to make large canoes for transportation, to build homes, as fuel for fires, and to move the large monoliths that now attract tourists. According to Wikipedia, Jared Diamond invoked the concepts of creeping normalism as well as landscape amnesia “in attempting to explain why in the course of long-term environmental degradation, Easter Island natives would, seemingly irrationally, chop down the last tree: Gradually trees became fewer, smaller, and less important. By the time the last fruit-bearing adult palm tree was cut, palms had long since ceased to be of economic significance. That left only smaller and smaller palm saplings to clear each year, along with other bushes and treelets. No one would have noticed the felling of the last small palm.”

Will anybody notice?

Will anybody notice when last acre of open space along the entire 27-mile length of Scottsdale Road from Tempe to Carefree succumbs to sprawl? Will they notice when all the remaining rural and residential space along Scottsdale’s Scenic Drive is transitioned to an urban commercial environment? What does history tell us?

urban sprawl cartoon

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