This is why America is such a sick, sad country. This guy's neighbors sound like horrible people, but I have no doubt that there are many like them in every American city. What sort of depraved mindset does it take to call someone growing their own food an "eyesore", while garish billboards lining the streets are considered perfectly acceptable?
As Kunstler has pointed out, Arizona's population is one of the most likely areas to shrink during the coming energy crunch.
In the meantime though, why not use the water that's available for something worthwhile like growing food? I see nothing sad about using technology for such an end, provided it isn't causing harm in some other way. (Arguably, anything that burns fossil fuels is harmful because of the pollution, but I still say using it to water food is better than 99% of other common uses.)
What I refer to as sad is the apparent fact that most Americans have been so conditioned into a state of alienation that the very sight of someone growing their own food to eat makes them go "eewwww, ugly," and then try to run to mommy (i.e. government) to "protect" them from the sight of truth. If that guy's neighbors had half an ounce of sense, they'd be asking him how he does it, so they could try doing the same thing in their yards.
That way, even when the water stops being delivered, they'd have a few useful skills they could take with them when they move someplace where there's more "natural" water.
I think Arizona is actually in one of the best positions to deal with an energy crisis. They already have a major sources of water power with the Hoover Dam (over 2000 megawatts of power generation) and a whole lot more. In spite of desert terrain, they have access to plenty of water with the Colorado River snaking its way through.
Plus, they recieve tons of solar energy and very little cloud cover, so if they invest in a solution like this, I think they're in a perfect position to thrive in a oil independant economy.
Their main problem is they're pumping up too much ground water. This is causing large sinkholes, but if their population keeps growing, sinkholes will probably be the least of the problems that pumping up too much water will cause.
If my memory serves correctly, I believe Arizona was once primarily home to the Hopi and Navajo, both of which were farming tribes, so agriculture in that region certainly isn't out of the question, it's probably more a matter of what scale of agriculture the land the can support.
I agree that Arizona isn't an uninhabitable part of the United States, but there the way Phoenix is built is not sustainable -- it's an automobile city if there ever was one. Also, I question how many people would live there without air conditioning.
I think everyone's in agreement that billboards aren't perfectly acceptable, but through corruption and bribery, they are amazingly still legal in most of the country.
But there seems to be some contention that a wal-mart parking lot isn't an eyesore. What about the eyesore of a fast food joint that's almost certainly just down the street? Again, these are eyesores, but they're accepted because they're corporate eyesores.
The reason they're going after this guy isn't that his house is an eyesore -- that entire neighborhood, from the pictures I saw, is an eyesore. They're going after him because he hasn't bribed the local governments.
by Zan Lynx (2005-10-05 15:38)
Part of the sad part of the article is that the man in question is in favor of naturally grown food. But, he's living in a desert and artifically watering that garden.
I do know that plenty of Arizonans waste water on lawns and fountains and swimming pools, but it's still funny to claim to be "natural" living in the middle of a city that would die without plenty of technology.
Oh, and the billboard thing. Phoenix and several surrounding cities heavily tax any sort of sign. This tends to discourage them.