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Young Girls Dish on South Phoenix

            On a walk near Roeser Road and Central in South Phoenix, my research team ran into two young girls walking along the road.  They looked like they might have been walking home from high school.  We ran over and asked if they would talk to us for a short while about their neighborhood.  We explained we were from the Arizona State University on a stroll around the neighborhood and trying to learn about life in South Phoenix.  They were excited to talk to us, but first, one of the girls wanted to clarify exactly what we were doing.  She said, “Let me get this straight.  You’re walking around the streets of Phoenix for a class?”

            We all shook our heads.  That signaled an immediate rush of information about the neighborhood.  The same young lady that wanted clarification said that she was originally from California and things here were very different from her home town.  The other girl had lived in South Phoenix all her life and said that it was a “pretty good neighborhood”. 

            They talked about all the recent changes of new shopping centers and beautiful homes.  The new shopping centers were exciting, but the talk of new homes took on a gloomy tone.  The young lady from Phoenix was not sure how all this would play out.  She expressed concern that soon there would be many people who could not afford to live here any longer or that families would get discouraged by the changes and move away.  She was not sure if she would be able to live in the neighborhood when she got out of high school and began her career.  The evolution of her narrative spoke to the power of the “class remake of the central urban landscape,” that Neil Smith related in Is Gentrification A Dirty Word?(p.39). 

            In the course of the discussion, the Phoenix girl explained that she was learning in school, about how the government could decide to take someone’s home and give it to a developer.  The California girl disagreed and said no one could do that.  They argued about the possibility for a few seconds before getting confirmation from our group about the recent Supreme Court decision involving eminent domain.  We confirmed that the government could condemn one property and give it to another private entity for development.  That was a little more information than they wanted to know.  The Phoenix girl continued to explain in general terms, a possible course of events for poor people caught in a changing neighborhood, while the California girl shook her head in disbelief. 

            Both these young girls were fearful about the possibility of loosing a home.  One clearly wanted to stand and fight because she figured such an action was wrong and the law would be supportive of her position.  However, the Arizona girl had already seen the subtle, insidious approach of private development through gated communities and inflated home prices.  She related stories about relatives who no longer felt welcome in their own neighborhood.  Her questions echoed that of a young girl in Teclo Garcia’s February 25, 2005, Arizona Republic story about our Learning From South Phoenix class, who asked, “What do they have to hide?” and “What are they scared of?”  

            We thanked the girls for taking time to talk with us.  They shared that they were on their way to a convenience store down the street.  The girls informed us that this store and another on 16^th Street and Baseline are where all the teenagers go at night to meet with other teens.  She explained that after they got ready to go out, they would go up to one of those two stores and hang out in the parking lot until someone they knew drove by.  They would talk about what was going on in the neighborhood and decide on where they wanted to go.  That might be a local dance club or party. 

            We all looked down Roeser to the store and noticed there were already some people in the parking lot.  The girl from California said that as soon as all the kids got out of school there would be a crowd.  When we mentioned that they both looked school aged the girl from California stayed quiet, but the other said she went to a local high school.  The girl from Phoenix agreed that there would be a big crowd soon.  She added that everyone would be doing one of three things while waiting to hook up, smoking a blunt, drinking a 40, or getting in a fight. 

            The research team tossed around hanging out in the parking lot for a while, but we were not sure about the volatile atmosphere of kids ready to bust loose on the weekend.  Also we looked glaringly out of place in this crowd with our pale faces and conservative dress.  In the end, we continued our walk and watched the girls as they continued their’s.  When they got to the convenience store, they went inside.  It looked more like a liquor store, with signs covering the outside that advertised alcohol bargains.  It seemed like an ominous place for two bright young women full of energy and excitement.