San Paso

[Kifflom112 355]

This is real nice.

[N106 10]

Replies

legoman786: You can have more. It only took me a bit over a year and a half for me to get to it.

Kifflom112: Thanks

Update 9: Condos, Offices, and Shops, Oh My!

The city of San Paso continued to sprawl in all directions, with its population rapidly rising. Although the 1960 census placed Anasazi County at 602,419 people, the population figure now is believed to have passed 650,000.

In the eastern suburbs, real estate developers are finding that condos tend to be very profitable. For example, Saguaro Condominiums.

And the nearby Sunview Luxury Apartments.

Just outside of Cepillo, the Palm Park office park has been constructed.

A closer view of Palm Park.

Even religion must adapt to the changing landscape. San Paso Regional Trinity Church has a large parking lot in front of it.

Strip malls grow along the avenue grid.

Cepillo Community College opened its doors to its first students on August 22, 1962.

Parking lots near shopping centers grow larger every year.

Due to the increased area traffic, the entrance to San Paso International Airport has been reconstructed. City council has discussed some possibilities of a highway from downtown to the airport, but at the moment, nothing is being planned yet.

And that concludes tonight's update.

[Benedict 3,119]

Wow, what an unexpected return - great update!

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Long time no see! Glad to have you back!

[Lyhoko Leaci 770]

Lyhoko: Looks interesting, Lyhoko wonders what will pop up next...

[tshirt23 75]

Really enjoyed this update!

[N106 10]

Replies

Benedict: Thanks. I didn't expect to make this update, but decided that, since I was working on San Paso and taking pictures, I may as well update.

Schulmanator: It has been awhile. And thanks.

Lyhoko Leaci: Lyhoko shall have her answer in this update.

tshirt23: It's great that you enjoyed it. Hopefully this next update is just as entertaining.

Update 10: From the park to the highway

Although Daniel Warren, the pro-growth, anti-regulation candidate who was against heavy expenditures of city money and wanted to give the people of San Paso a tax cut, was elected, City Council ultimately blocked him on most of his policies during his term. The next election isn't until 1964, but Warren found himself stamping or signing many policies that he didn't like, including a higher property tax rate for San Paso residents. As mayor, Warren found himself with remarkably little power, given that the city government gave most of the power to City Council after Mayor John Roberts resisted local pubic works projects during the Great Depression and was nearly impeached.

The major project Warren found himself opposed to but approving was the Rio Paso Restoration Project, a legislation proposed in 1961 to clean up pollution in the Rio Paso, build a park in the area, and clear out many of the turn-of-the-century era factories for offices. Warren vetoed the industrial clearance, but approved the park and the cleanup. Many downtown-area residents criticized Warren for this action, asking, "What's the point of cleaning up the area and building a park if the area's still going to smell like industrial waste?"

The project is over a two mile stretch of the river, starting south of downtown.

Along the river, a winding path leads people up to Central Avenue, with the old viaduct now replaced by a gently sloping grass field.

The old industrial reservoir, which had been a horrific smelling cesspool for more than half a century, was also cleaned up and turned into a pond, although the continued presence of industry in the area may still cause issues.

Park pathways continue past the river, but the green park is still surrounded by the industrial park.

Finally, the Rio Paso flows into a large reservoir, officially called Warren Lake (that was one of Warren's requirements if he was going to allow this project to be built).

Warren Lake terminates at a low dam, where the Rio Paso Restoration Project ends. The entire project was completed just this year, 1963.

Warren, the mayor of Hamilton, and the town council of Cepillo found themselves in negotiations with the state of Arizona in 1961 over the construction of State Highway 145, which would meet up with the I-17 freeway at the northern edge of San Paso's sprawl. The highway has just been completed.

The 145/I-17 interchange, 5 miles north of downtown.

145 passes Cepillo to the North.

The highway curves next to the Rio Corduva, a river that flows 7 miles north of San Paso.

Another interchange for Cepillo exists just west of the town.

There is an interchange a couple of miles east of Hamilton, where the farms come to an end.

Just a half mile north of Hamilton, as well.

Meanwhile, San Paso itself continues to sprawl in a northward direction along the I-17. Although the suburbs thin considerably once one gets north of the 147/I-17 interchange, subdivisions continue to grow along the highway.

The furthest north subdivisions are now right up against the Rio Corduva, and a professor at the University of San Paso projects that everywhere south of the river will be developed by 1967.

Strip malls continue to grow at the very edge of town.

In downtown, the somewhat unimpressive, 9-story Prickly Desert Hotel is just finishing construction.

That concludes today's update!

[Fox 1,444]

Interesting highway, I like some of the overpasses you've built.

[N106 10]

Replies

Fox: Yeah... I like the RHW because the highways look way more realistic and take up a more realistic amount of space. It can get hard to work with sometimes, though.

Update 11: Downtown Constructions

In 1965, two large new buildings opened in downtown San Paso- the Redding Building to the left, and the Gray Tower, to the right. The correlation between their names and colors is coincidental.

Despite these new constructions, the San Paso skyline still hasn't changed much since the early 1930s.

Also, the San Paso Department of Urban Planning estimates that the regional population of the area has exceeded 800,000.

[vivapanda 422]

The update about the creek is a nice showcase

[N106 10]

vivapanda: Well, thanks. It took me a little while to build that park.

Update 12: An uneventful update

1966 was kind of an uneventful year for San Paso.

Anyways, I decided to play with photoshop. I put together pictures of the central San Paso tile and the neighboring tile, to see how well they line up. Other than the arrows and the strange transition to road, they lined up quite nicely, actually.

More coming next update!

[vivapanda 422]

I tried to do something similar one day. This looks WAY better!

[N106 10]

vivapanda: Thanks. I used Photoshop to put it together... I might try to make a mosaic and use this to cross tile borders. But that's an idea for another update.

Update 13: Downtown falls, Suburbia rises

Despite the recent new constructions in downtown, the area wasn't exactly in good shape- most office-based business was moving out to the suburbs, or even just to uptown. Also, industry was moving out as well, from the tight, aging facilities along the Rio Paso's park and facing ordinances and property values that made business in the inner city difficult. With both industry and business moving out, some people followed. Meanwhile, in the increasingly abandoned areas around downtown, crime rates skyrocketed, partly due to the social unrest and rising crime rates all across the nation in the late 1960s.

In downtown, the former First National Bank, once the architectural gem of downtown architecture, sat abandoned, with boarded up or broken windows, devoid of furniture, and with many of the fine marble or polished wood decorations crumbling. In 1965, the city condemned the building, and there is discussion of demolishing it, although, with downtown barely pulling through, nobody could image what would replace it.

Meanwhile, industry has found a new place in the northern suburbs, above the I-17 freeway.

Another new industrial spot.

Suburban growth has reached the Rio Corduva, a full 8 miles north of downtown.

On the north side of the river, a new neighborhood used retaining walls to deal with the uneven, rocky foothills or the mountains.

Strip malls continue to appear along major arteries, such as the I-17.

While downtown loses its shopping and offices alike, a new office park, Corduva Park, has opened just below the river, right along I-17.

Meanwhile, in Hamilton, new subdivisions and businesses have quickly expanded north to Highway 145.

Back in the central San Paso area, attempts to revive inner city areas include apartments and condos in park-like areas, keeping with the idea of large buildings in a park that was often prevalent with urban renewal projects.

Another method involves condemning abandoned buildings or buildings that have become home to squatters, and demolishing them, leaving large and empty lots throughout the inner city.

One neighborhood just a mile southeast of the central intersection is due for demolition.

Entire blocks have already been cleared.

In a city council meeting, representatives from East Paso Park (a neighborhood first developed in the mid-1890s, currently in transition from middle class residential to uptown shops and offices), the Central Paso Catholic Church, and the downtown stores still hanging onto downtown area properties petitioned for and demanded a more solid effort to revitalize downtown.

"I can't play favorites when it comes to neighborhoods," Mayor Warren said, "If downtown is being abandoned because businesses go to the suburbs, that's not my job to resolve. If the hand of the market points up the freeway, we can't throw all of our money in the opposite direction."

City council, however, was more supportive of the measure. Mark Hernandez, a prominent council member, has called for revitalization efforts since he was elected to the council in 1954. There are rumors that Hernandez and John Thomas, a longtime city council member who ran a failed campaign for mayor in 1960 and 1964, are working with a small team of local urban planners to create a plan for revitalizing downtown.

In fact, Thomas blasted Mayor Warren at a press conference earlier today. "Warren likes to say he's not playing favorites when he leaves the city's historic center to die so that subdivisions, strip malls, and warehouses can eat up our region's farms. But in that same statement, he said that we should follow where the 'hand of the market' points. Is that not placing the fortunate as a favorite? I can only wonder what he will do when, 10 years from now, his business and home find themselves surrounded by empty, scrub-covered lots and decaying, abandoned houses?"

Hernandez, however, has seemed less interested in joining the mudslinging. When approached by reporters, Hernandez merely said, "If downtown dies, everybody loses."

[vivapanda 422]

I hope the downtown can be revived!

[N106 10]

vivapanda: I hope so, too.

Update 14: Citrus and city planning

A recent satellite photo of the area between Valleyview and San Paso show that both cities are expanding and sprawling towards each other. In between the cities is the town of Citrus, which spent the first half of this century as a sleepy farming town, but is now becoming a center of growth between the two larger cities.

As late as 1955, Citrus was a tiny town of barely 1,500 people, surrounded by miles of uninterrupted farmland.

However, the town's population has exploded to over 10,000 with suburban sprawl and the mass migration to the Sun Belt. Now, in 1968, the feel of Citrus has changed. Many locals and even some new residents are pushing to incorporate Citrus as a city, and are hoping to establish some kind of character for the area, in order to keep it from becoming another forgettable new neighborhood.

Some residents have discussed building a park around Citrus Lake. However, the town still lacks the financial capability to construct such a park, and regional governments have been more concerned with San Paso.

A shopping center near Citrus.

Meanwhile, in San Paso's eastern suburbs, Towne Plaza, a new shopping center trying to catch the small town feel, just opened.

Another view of Towne Plaza.

Meanwhile, politics remain in play back in San Paso. With Mayor Warren's second term expiring next year, an election is taking place. Warren's Chief of Staff, Ron Michelson, is running against city council member Mark Hernandez.

However mixed up in his campaign Hernandez may be, however, he did propose a plan to revitalize downtown a few months ago. Hernandez spent months working with city council member John Thomas, and a few local urban planners, to create what is known as the Hernandez-Thomas Plan. The plan involves demolishing a couple of blocks to build a large park, constructing a Civic Center on the southern end of downtown, turning part of Central Avenue into a pedestrian mall, and changing many of the downtown streets to be one-way.

In his written proposal, Thomas stated that the industrial district behind the train station should be demolished, and the city should consider relocating its major station about a mile north or south. Hernandez shot the idea down, stating that too radical a plan would prove too expensive and gain too much political opposition.

For a representation of what some of the planned changes look like on top of downtown San Paso in 1967:

So far, City Council has only taken up the Civic Center idea, and Mayor Warren stated that he would not approve any highly expensive change to downtown. Ron Michelson has taken it a step further, questioning how necessary a downtown revival actually is.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Cool! I always love seeing reviatilization plans! Hopefully yours goes as planned...

[Fox 1,444]

Looks like a great plan.. although I love pedestrian malls.. might want to move it over one tile.. that seems to be your major road over the rail line and through the city, I'd keep it that way, otherwise you'll have angry motorists trying to get through all those one way streets and traffic lights and corners.

Btw.. that first picture of your region.. amazing!

[vivapanda 422]

Everything in this update is great! An awesome region view, rural area, mall and map

I hope the revitalization plans will be executed

[jonnycolombiano 0]

I just finished reading through the original CJ for San Paso, and rushed through this one as soon as possible so I could make a comment on these CJs - first of all, congratulations on having such a fluid process of showing this city to us, it's been such a pleasure to read and incredibly entertaining to read through the satire (especially in the newspapers)! I hope you can get back into the swing of things soon with this CJ renewel.

 

Second of all, I would like to sponsor this urban renewal project for the CBD of San Paso. It looks like a plan that would not only inspire city beautification and bring businesses back, but would also begin to help San Paso distinguish itself from the multitude of southwestern cities that have the same problems (i.e. sprawl, crime in the CBD, and non-pedestrian friendly).

 

Good luck to San Paso, I hope to see some spectacular growth soon!

[TekindusT 3,809]

Please avoid bumping forum threads with no recent activity, it is against the site rules.

 

In order to prevent future bumps, this thread will be locked. If N106 wants to keep with this CJ, please send me or any of the CJ moderating staff a PM and it will be unlocked.

 

- TekindusT (CJ forum moderator)