European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 5, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine mayor Margaret Hance Phoenix has a poverty pocket larger than the entire area of Many Eastern Sun new York times Tim Koors 3 Salt River separates South cites depressed from the rest of by John Herbers new York times population in that prototypical by thriving Sun Belt has risen by a third since 1970 and the cites economic base is getting progressively but Phoenix has a 40milesquare pocket of poverty larger than the entire area of Many Eastern Cit according to mayor Margaret the cities of the Southwest Are growing and the Indus trial cities of the North Are even faster than pre census estimates had in some they Are facing the same Many of the cities of this Region in common with their poorer counterparts in the Large areas of poverty and decay that have spread and become More isolated As the Middle class has moved progressively farther from downtown although the Sun Belt cities Are fiscally stronger than those in the the Prospect of declining Federal Aid has ominous overtones the which has been documented by several studies for the Brookings institution in is not the Lack of wealth but the Means of using it to help needy areas in the face of Adamant opposition to tax the tax revolt was Well under Way in such states As Arizona before it splashed onto the National scene in when California voted a drastic cutback in prop erty to fill the Western like cities have become increasingly dependent on Federal even As they continuously and ritualistically condemn in the words of an Arizona state University study titled Phoenix the new Federal Federal has been declining slightly since and everyone agrees that More drastic reductions lie the tax revolt that was under Way in Arizona five years ago has now reached every level of govern including the Prospect is for reduced City and there Are indications that the Burden of cuts in Many southwestern cities will fall heaviest on the pockets of studies conducted for the Brookings institution of the Impact of Federal Aid in Phoenix and new Orleans showed that much of the Money went into programs for the James writing on the Brookings findings in Texas business said that minority constituent groups in Houston and new Orleans might be Able to Force local government to make up for at least some of the loss of Federal Money in poor but in Phoenix and Tulsa they appear to Lack the political strength to do mayor Hance says that if All Federal Aid were stopped she would try to minimize the effect on such Basic serv february 1981 ices As police work and that the City has been moving to minimize its dependence on the poor Are a not a she said in an interview published last summer in for if Washington cannot afford these we certainly local people do not feel that welfare programs should be financed by local the 40squaremile poverty pocket known As South Phoenix is Home for most of them hispanic Blacks and it is an area of old farm vacant lots and some recently built Low income All within sight of the cites gleaming downtown sky South Phoenix is separated from the rest of the City by the Salt River and interstate it has few big jobs or services Over the years these have moved farther away with the prospering population gains in Western cities vary census figures for 1970 and 1980 show that Houston and Tuc for grew by 26 percent each and Albuquerque by while Denver lost 5 percent and is Down to even while it is booming As an Energy but the same phenomenon occurred almost every a thinning out of close in the cities that showed the big population gains expanded their boundaries to encompass the new areas of they All face the enormous expense of providing capital improvements and services for areas of less population density and in Phoenix had a population of within 10 Square now it contains 325 Square Miles with for each Square and the City Council was still annexing new territory in Phoenix has spawned neighbouring cities of vast sprawl and Paradise among As the City expanded in the 1970s and the Cost of government the introduction of Federal funds in a City that had Long scorned such assistance permitted the continuing of Low tax in Only percent of the cites total revenues were from but by the Peak year for Federal Washington was providing 25 percent of the Phoenix budget and More than 30 percent of its operating in the City Council enacted a 1 percent increase in the sales but six months later the voters nullified it in a special referendum called by a citizen while some Sun Belt cities used Federal Aid mostly for purposes other than Basic Phoenix funnelled most of its funds into such departments As fire and Street in a Brookings John Stuart Hall calculated in 1978 that the City would have had to increase its own tax Effort 66 percent to replace Federal funds for operating the stars and stripes Page 13