A true western town, after all?

Hey, what speaks "Old West" more than a ghost town? As of now, it looks like Scottsdale is headed in that direction, fast.

Anyone who knows anything about economic history knows that when a city's economy is tied more than 20-30% to a single industry, and that industry goes bust, the city goes bust with it. Detroit, anyone?

Scottsdale has no real industries outside of real estate. 40% - and that's a conservative estimate - of Scottsdale residents are in real estate. They're either real estate agents, or mortgage peddlers, or work in a title or appraisal company, or sell homeowners insurance, or any other of the myriad of middlemen who hose you out of your money when you buy a house. Not that anyone in Scottsdale actually owns a house, that is ... it's the land of over-extended credit with payments that never end. The minute anyone builds any equity, they trade up to a bigger house and are right back to being 100% financed again.

Back to my point ... with nearly half (or more) of Scottsdale residents tied to real estate for their income, and with Scottsdale real estate crashing and burning, and thousands of realtors and mortgage peddlers and the like losing their jobs, what's the future of Scottsdale?

It can't rely on tourism. The money tourism brings in is a pittance. Barrett-Jackson is gone, and those people were the only real money to set foot on Scottsdale soil. You can't count the drunks at the FBR Open - $10 beers only add up to so much revenue. Hotels and golf courses don't employ many people outside of minimum wage unskilled labor. No economic base there.

In fact, the very idea that Scottsdale was ever a big tourist attraction was a joke and a myth perpetuated by the self-important and corrupt Scottsdale city government.

So that leaves ... nothing! Real estate was Scottsdale's lifeblood, and with the end of the real estate boom comes the end of Scottsdale as we know it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what's next for Scottsdale. The good news in all of this is that the phonies will go bust (because they were mostly realtors anyway, and the bartenders, waiters, and strippers who took the realtors' money), and without the easy 2nd- and 3rd-mortgage spending money, you won't see them in their BMWs and Porsches anymore (hello repo man). But the downside is the collapse of whatever was left of an economy in Scottsdale.

I don't feel sorry for anyone, except the old-timers. Scottsdale has a lot of good, honest, older people who grew up with the town, suffered through watching it turn from a conservative western town to a left-wing wacko freakshow full of weirdos and druggies, and now they have to suffer through this crash. At least maybe they'll get some satisfaction from watching the BMW-driving phonies go through repo, foreclosure, and bankruptcy. I know I will.

Comments

[david wilson]

Don't conservatives drive BMW's????

Since you hate liberals, why do you want the beemers to leave?

What are you trying to say?

[Frank Rumbauskas]

Actually, no, conservatives drive Mercedes. Liberals drive BMWs when it comes to German cars.

You may think I'm making this up but it's no joke. I read an article in Forbes profiling the demographics of various luxury cars.

BMW: "Affluent liberals."
Mercedes: "Affluent conservatives."

'Nuff said.

[keith]

After careful observation, I have come to the conclusion that Scottsdale residents are neither liberal or conservative - they are "metropolitical" - (kind of like a bisexual) - they go whichever way is easiest and most self-absorbing and above all, currently capturing their limited attention span and immediate gratification. That's why you see such ridiculous crap here like vegetarian menu choices at steak houses or greenpeace stickers on H2s - they have no direction - just a follow the leader mentality - if four or five of these spiky hair, middle aged faggots started showing up at the club in '79 Ford Pintos, suddenly Ford Pintos would be bringing $100k at Barrett- Jackson ( well, that is while they could still get an equity loan for it)

By the way, that Forbes survey is right on track - I live in Central Phoenix - all the MB's seem to have normal, sane owners - The very few BMWs all have stupid stickers touting their leasee's current lifestyle choices and race around the neighborhood like kids on skateboards. The funniest one is a guy in red M3 - about 40 years old - cruises the AJs at 7th at and t/bird like he thinks he still lives in the apartments on Thompson Peak - you cant miss him - he wears these gay-ass Paris Hilton giant sunglasses - he should trade them for a forehead decal that says "TOOL"...