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Situated in the southwestern part of the United States, Phoenix is Arizona’s capitol and the fifth largest city in the United States, with almost 1.5 million residents and growing. The city takes up more than 500 square miles, geographically exceeding Los Angeles. Phoenix has more than 300 sunny days a year and an average temperature of 74 degrees – an unbeatable combination that has made the city a prime destination for tourists, business and industry. The city enjoys a Standard & Poor’s bond rating of AA+ and is the center of a $50 billion regional marketplace. Motorola, Intel, Honeywell and Boeing are among the companies that have major operations here.
The development of Phoenix since 1950 has been the most spectacular. Consider that at that time, Phoenix had an area of 17.1 square miles and a population of 106,000 that placed it 99th among American cities.
Today, the city covers almost 470 square miles and has a population of 1.15 million, ranking it seventh in the country. While Phoenix is the corporate and industrial center of the southwest it has not forgotten its past, and it has retained its long-time reputation of friendliness and concern of its citizens for one another and their government.
This has been attested to by the National Civic League, which four times since 1950 selected Phoenix as an "All-America City" in competition with hundreds of other cities and towns across the nation.
The hallmark of an All-America City is the extent that its private citizens get involved in the workings of their government. Thousands of citizens have served on various city committees, boards and commissions to assure that major decisions are in the people's best interest.
Since 1950, the residents of Phoenix have shown their faith in city government by approving bond issues totaling about $3.5 billion for necessary improvements in urban facilities and services. The 1988 Phoenix bond election, which authorized the issuance of more than $1 billion in bonds, is one of the largest general-purpose municipal bond elections ever.
Currently, more than $1 billion in public and private projects are under construction or planned in the city. |
