Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City

Ross (Fast Boat to China) examines the efforts toward and obstacles to sustainability for Phoenix, Ariz., a city dependent on imported water and driven by the boom-and-bust economy of land speculation. On the site of the Hohokam culture, which fizzled out in the 14th century when stressed by drought and floods, human devastation of the ecosystem, and inability to absorb an influx of immigrants, Phoenix seems eerily bent on repeating the mistakes of its predecessors. With an open eye and a progressive proclivity, Ross reveals fascinating inconsistencies and contradictions in the current push and pull between resilience and self-destruction: Matthew Moore, an artist-farmer, runs two farms, a 50-family CSA and an industrial agricultural operation. Artist-activists refashioning a vibrant, livable inner city “thrilled advocates of the Creative City”—until the popular Friday artwalks became too creative and “the police showed up en masse, and on horseback” to intimidate participants. African and Latino communities, both suffering from monstrous pollution thrust on low-income neighborhoods, have trouble joining forces because of long-term tensions between them. Ross’s conclusion—that if sustainable urbanism is “not directed by and toward principles of equity, then they will almost certainly end up reinforcing patterns of eco-apartheid”—is a bracing challenge. (Nov.)