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Phoenix is one of the best places to build a city in the entire southwest. It's at the confluence of two major rivers (the Gila and Salt), near a lot of decent
by AlotOfReading 2y ago
Phoenix is one of the best places to build a city in the entire southwest. It's at the confluence of two major rivers (the Gila and Salt), near a lot of decent agricultural land, and connected by canal to an extremely large river (the Colorado). It's geologically stable and land is cheap. The population is relatively high, relatively educated, and the state government is willing to give companies huge concessions to be there.
People have been building along the Sonoran rivers for thousands of years and they'll probably continue for thousands more.
- throwup238 2y agoThis is what Phoenix looked like in 1885, long before water could be pumped long distances: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Phoenix1885-AerialMap_HiRes.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Phoenix1... There's water there to support civilization, Phoenix just grew too big.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoThank You. This plus then overgrowth is the real answer. Nice place, too many people moved there, now kind of stuck with some tight resources.
- scientator 2y agoArguably the resources are tight because of too much agriculture, not too many people. Specifically, too much alfalfa, used to feed cows. I think the numbers are something like 70% of the water in Arizona is used to grow alfalfa. Reduce the production of alfalfa and the water scarcity disappears.