European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1969, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Las vegas is said to be surrounded by Howard Hughes inset and he is spending millions to change the sin City image. Three cities Bloom now in the lonely deserts of the Southwest United states each a new land of health and Money each with a vague Chance of becoming part of a new us Percita in the wilderness. All they really need is water in Anarea where there is not enough water to go around. There never , before world War ii these towns Phoenix Las vegas and pal Springs were Only shadowy promises. Phoenix barely 15 Square Miles then was ringed with Citrus lettuce dirt roads Cactus some dude ranches an barely 85,000 people huddled in the desert  vegas was Little More than a few blocks of new casinos learning to live with a nine year old Law that legalized  Springs was a Lively Little strip a movie Star Haven a two year Oldtown straddle an Indian reservation. Today some 30 years later each of these oases is a caricature of its past aching with the stresses of modern Page 12 by John Harbour a staff writer growth and their own Western eccentricity. Ouk rounded by satellite towns Phoenix is one vast suburb in search Ofa City. Surrounded by Howard Hughes Las vegas is a dazzling welter of Neon in search of a suburb. And gentle Palm Springs Little More than a suburb it self is surrounded by 98 local indians who hold almost 22 per cent of he  Federal government gave it to them nearly 100 years ago and now the won t give it Back. These three cities form the Points Ofa Triangle reaching across purple Moun Tain and Golden desert a sunlit Golden Crescent through Nevada Arizona and  have air conditioned the desert carpeted it with Green lawns stud edit with swimming pools and sprawling ranch Stylo Homes. Yet each of these booming Western towns wants to be something it in t. Phoenix is wrenched with change. In less than 10 years 500 Industrial Plant moved into town. Manufacturing now outstrips the tourist Trade 4-to-l. New people come to Phoenix for jobs More than for the Sun. They have created acuity on wheels built around More than 100 bustling extravagant shopping Cen ters a City of near strangers where six out of 10 families moved into new Home sin just six years. Las vegas is a High living nightclub with a desire to Settle Down its grocery stores dry cleaners and casinos reopen around the clock. The Only machines that Don t offer instant wealth Are the Public telephones and the Park ing meters. Long legged show girl strut through the late morning shows in this new entertainment capital of America. Jilt is really two towns in one the strip people who mix the drinks run the tables count the Money fix the slots and the other people who work9 to 5 in offices and stores a Middle class lights out at la kind of people who resent out of towners asking them How it is living in sin City Palm Springs the Mecca of movie stars and presidents has a reputations a swinging town but the swinging is More Largo than go go More Golf than nightclub. It is a town where one of four homeowners lives somewhere Els most of the time where expensive Homes Are built around dining rooms where the Day begins with tee off time. It has 21 Golf courses 3,900 swimming ools and of course the surrounding indians but Down the Valley and mov ing toward Palm Springs like the . Cavalry Are a series of new Small towns a possible Omen of the future. Phoenix Las vegas Palm Springs each of them grows and grows and grows. Spilling into their Sandy valleys they have tripled their population since 1950. The Las vegas Valley has More than half the people of Nevada. Metropolitan Phoenix has More than half the people of Arizona. And Palm Springs in t half As big As it could be. The less than l i million people of these three valleys Are Host each year to Over 18 million tourists nearly Simillion in Las vegas alone. Palm Springs with a resident population of some 23,000, booms to 50,000 at week  people who come for the fun or the Sun Are inclined to stay. These three valleys Are catching the Supe City Back lash the disillusioned smog weary expatriates of the West coast and mid West. Displaced californians Are the big Gesl single immigrant group to Boom gig Phoenix. Displaced chicagoan Are next. They May be bringing the seeds of anew Supe City with them. Metropolitan Phoenix is gaining 25,000people a year. Quiet Scottsdale outside Phoenix had 10,000 people in 1960. It has 65,000 now. We Are a City of strangers says mayor Bud Tims. Thelas vegas Valley expects 60,000 a year for the next 12 years. Palm Springs an the Coachella Valley Are growing by 5,000 a year. But new Homes and new people Don t change old problems. In Palm Springs the White Man thinks it s an Indian problem. The Indian thinks it s a Pale face problem. The indians say after All we did t invite them  Agua Caliente band of indians have been there so Long no one know when they came. The Spanish found them scratching out a Bare existence in the desert and named them for the hot Waters. In the 1800s the White Man surveyed the land broke it up into one mile sections drawing his Grid lines Over the desert Valley and rising mountains. When he decided to build a rail Road he gave every other Square mile Section to the company which sold theland to pay for track. Color these sections  the great White father per haps for conscience gave the Section sin Between to the Agua Caliente As a reservation. Color these sections red. The movie stars and the wealth discovered the Solace behind the san Jacinto mountains which shelter pal Springs from the noise and sprawl of Southern California. They built  1938, they created a City on this wild Checkerboard and called it pal Springs. The City grew. The White Man Builtin his land. Largely the Indian land Lay  1959, the Federal government Al Lowed Indian lands to be broken up int individually held plots which the indians could sell or rent Secretary of the Interior permitting. Since then the indians have sold. 30 per cent of their  they really need is water in an area where there is not enough water to go around. 8,000 City acres and leased an of percentage runs from 2 per cent fora restaurant to 25 per cent and More on a Mercial  be . Federal government oversees Indium transactions. The indians pay Noi Cane tax on proceeds from these they pay no real estate tax. Thestain of California has been Able to tax on Jim the  k 98 members of the band netted $86ljdoo from their holdings last . Got Little of the Money. Homer so these three desert cities wrestle with their identities and problems that no one else has. They grow and grow always wanting to be More than their circumstances will Aloiv. Ins head of the local office of the Hunfau of Indian affairs says that rely the Agua Caliente Are land but Money  vegas has a great White a too. He was a Little late in com it millionaire toolmaker Pilot Man Semi scientist Howard is is a Man for All reasons. He a Strong psychological effect. Las s thinks of him As Wyatt Earp a. Rockefeller or no. 36 on the the wheel depending on individual . In some mysterious Way is has Given the Valley the ideas come to make it Safe for Middle  Valley has lived Well on the Gam and tourists but it s a nervous by the time you get to Phoenix the wide open spaces will probably have fallen victim to the City s relentless expansion. Way to live. It s not that Las Vega would Ever dream of giving up Gam bling. After All it pays the taxes. But citizens think of other things now. It happened before Hughes came. The new people who entered the Valley formed civic groups a league of women voters and a solid if unorganized Vot ing bloc. Politicians saw the signs clearly. Maybe it was in the observers from the league of women voters the ladies nobody knew at the planning meetings and the county commission meetings. Do you have anything to say Madam someone asked. No i m just an observer the lady an swered. And she went Home and wrote her report. It really bugged the politicians said one league worker. Things have changed As much in attitude As in fact. One politician says that anyone who has the slightest connection with the strip could never be elected now. And when people talk a outgrowth today they Don t necessarily mean another Casino another  talk about Homes Industrial Parks electronics aircraft the kind of thing Phoenix has. One City official estimates that the casinos will keep the one third of the Las vegas action they have now but other enterprises will grow numerically greater. Against this backdrop entered Howard Hughes who for years had secluded himself at Home and in  Money was visible his plants and planes but not Howard Hughes. Then the world s most private Man came to one of the world s most Public places. In a country where the Federal government owns 98 per cent of the land Hughes holdings Are impressive. He owns the big private Airport to the North hotels casinos a 27,000-acre Range and a ranch to the West. You can see his land but you still can t see Howard  Hughes people administrators and engineers seem to be Tak ing inventory. They Are looking into Val Ley problems like sewage disposal and water Supply. They Are working with the boy scouts and they be bought expensive Homes. He s Here to stay says mayor Oren Gregson. All Hughes has really promised i some kind of Industrial Effort some place some time. But people have glimpsed at least the ghosts of his plans a huge Airport to handle super sonic traffic for the whole Southwest a suit funding Industrial Complex of air Craft oriented Industry an attempt to attract families to the gaming resort Sand provide non gambling activities for  the strip lures More tourists1968 was its biggest year  tourism costs. It Means says Phoenix Natty mayor Milton Graham that you have to spend Money where your people Aren t. The tourists Trail to Phoenix is Well paved but the City is in desperate need of an expressway sys tem itself. The alternative for a Cit where nine out of 10 Homes have at least one car is economic strangulation and factionalism says the mayor. He Hopes a convention Center will make downtown Bloom again As Well. Today it has become a haunting image of the flight to the suburbs. Its empty store fronts and vacant buildings have a ghost town look. A City without a heart is not a City says the mayor. It s Justa lot of people. That s not what we want. That s Why we re trying to pump up downtown. We have to have a heart for the financial Community and  these three desert cities wrestle with their identities and problems that no one else has. Picturesque Scottsdale outside of Phoenix ruled that All City employees had to live in town. But the town was so expensive the  t afford to live there. The Rule was changed. So realities clash with these desert dreams. They grow and grow always wanting to be More than their Circum stances will allow. Upit a 1949 Aerial photo of Palm Spring shows Checkerboard pattern of City with the vacant plots owned by indians. The movie Star Paradise now has 3,900 swimming pools. The stars and stripes sunday Jan conf 26, 1969 the stars and stripes Page 13