Scottsdale Az Old West Meets Sexy Spas Resorts and Shopping
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Old West meets new urban chic
Scottsdale tourists once delighted in the rubber-tomahawk culture that prevailed in “the West’s Most Western Town.” These days, visitors are as likely to spring for a turquoise-clay wrap at one of the many spas in this oasis of Southwest sophistication.
Downtown, once epitomized by the hitching post, has forsaken kitsch for chic.
Buildings soar to the relatively skyscraping heights of 13 stories, with exclusive nightclubs, restaurants, and boutique hotels such as the W.
Young, hip tourists seem to like it, but how do the city’s voters feel about it?
Civic leaders – always conscious of their brand – like to describe Scottsdale as the place where “the Old West Meets the New West.” But this convenient marriage is far from harmonious.
Scottsdale’s downtown revitalization has given a great boost to the tourism industry but has left some residents heartbroken at the fast-paced urbanization. A vocal group hopes to halt the transformation with a slate of candidates running in the city’s election on Tuesday.
“This election is hugely important,” said City Councilman Bob Littlefield, who usually ends up on the minority end of controversial development votes. “This election will determine what Scottsdale will look like over the next five to 10 years.”
At the top of the low-growth ticket is activist Tom Giller, who has vowed to oppose nearly any new project that rises above 42 feet – about three stories in height. Close behind is Nan Nesvig. Although less virulent about height limits, Nesvig promises to “listen to residents,” many of whom resent losing their views of Camelback Mountain while fighting late-day traffic jams.
If Giller and Nesvig are elected, they would form a reliable council majority with Littlefield and Councilman Tony Nelssen, the mule-riding, cowboy-hat-wearing enforcer of Scottsdale’s Old West. He protested last year, for example, when city officials quietly removed the “West’s Most Western Town” motto from Scottsdale’s Web site.
The four could become a permanent pain to Mayor Mary Manross, who is expected to prevail over opponent Jim Lane, a city councilman giving up his seat to run against her. Further progress on the city’s glitzy downtown – which the New York Times recently described as “a desert version of Miami’s South Beach” – could be at risk.
“I think it would not bode well for our future if we had a majority of the council feeling that all change and all growth is bad,” Manross said. “What we need is a balance with the old and the new. There’s room in our city for both. People come here from all over the world for a lot of different things.”
Not everyone is thrilled with the “24/7, live-work” downtown that Manross and her council majority have promoted for half a decade.
At election forums, Lane has hammered Manross over the city’s $120 million investment in the high-tech joint venture with Arizona State University called SkySong. The mayor points to her legacy project as a long-term investment in stable, high-paying jobs, but south Scottsdale activists say that a hockey arena or retail stores at the old Los Arcos Mall site would have offered more to residents.
Nelssen said that some longtime tourists and residents find the nightclub scene intimidating.
“A couple (tourists) said they didn’t feel safe on the streets,” he said. “The city has lost its family atmosphere.”
Others say that is nonsense. Manross points to falling crime rates. Tourism leaders are pitching the city to a high-end market less interested in Western knockoffs than spectacular resorts and exotic cocktails.
“I think to some degree this is an election that deals with whether Scottsdale is going to be a progressive community going forward or whether we fall into the trap of nostalgia,” said Rick Kidder, president of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber’s political-action committee has endorsed Manross and incumbents Betty Drake and Ron McCullagh. The group likes businesswoman Suzanne Klapp for the third council seat, while others have supported attorney Lisa Borowsky. Joel BramOweth and Oren Davis round out the candidate list for the three council seats.
Candidates not aligned with Giller and Nesvig are less concerned with fighting the new urbanization than making sure it functions efficiently.
Drake wants a “pedestrian-oriented” downtown where visitors and residents can comfortably walk from one neighborhood to another. Candidates on this ticket want to pull ad-hoc projects, such as the Scottsdale Waterfront and Optima Camelview condominiums, into a coherent whole.
Nobody is willing to give way on the city’s Old Town and Fifth Avenue shopping districts, which they say should remain sacrosanct. But jobs are a high priority, as is the tourism that has kept Scottsdale coffers full while neighboring cities are slashing budgets.
According to Kidder, the tourist today is much more discerning.
“The demographics have changed,” he said. “They’re coming for the nightlife and the resorts. They’re also coming for the Sonoran Desert. There may have been a time when the vast majority of visitors were coming for the ‘West’s Most Western Town’ feel, but I think they are coming for vastly different reasons today. They are a different generation.”
Low-growth advocates have argued that the height and density are disturbing in part because of the “mediocre” quality of design and construction.
Nesvig criticizes the “cart before the horse mentality” that has thrown up buildings before streets, sewers and the city’s infrastructure are ready to handle them.
Nelssen wants “site-specific, climate-sensitive” design that could survive a broken air-conditioning system.
“It would drive a style of true desert architecture,” he said. “That was what brought us all here. It was the quality of life. It was charm. It was character.”
Scottsdale is becoming too much like Tempe, the low-growth ticket complains, and is losing its distinct edge.
“People come from an urban environment to visit a resort that’s unique and Western,” Giller said. “Once you’re in a bar you can be in a bar in Tempe or South Beach or anyplace. . . . We get a lot of people down here but is this really how you want to build your brand?”
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