Paradise Lost! Westgate City Center development thankfully collapses under a pile of bills.

  Too beautiful for this world!  All beauty fades eventually and every dream must end.  And stuff like that.

Rebekah L. Sanders over at the Arizona Republic reports that another bloated, gaudy consumer/workers paradise has lurched into bankruptcy and repossession.  This isn't the first one in Phoenix since the crisis began to get into trouble and it probably won't be the last considering where the economy is headed.  But if you've ever been there, you'll know that this place in particular is hilarious.

I used to deliver there for work and it was big on this artificial, corporatized "live, work and play" nonsense.  "I can see my loft from here," said the giant wall-sized youths on the signs, conveniently plastered over the windows of empty, dust-gathering chain stores. This place was a cheap corporate facsimile of a copy of a sketch of the old neighborhoods of old, just with everything that made those kinds of neighborhoods interesting and worth living in stripped out.

With the piped in easy listening mall music reaching up to the balconies of the "loft-style" apartments, surrounded as they are by one crap corporate chain after another and their zombie-like patrons most days, Cardinals fans eight days a year, and shitty arena rock douches on the other weekends, I often wondered just what kind of crap demographic they hoped to attract, and just how they intended to cut them down from the balconies before 10 AM business hours when they finally were overcome by the vacuousness of their surroundings and hanged themselves.

Good riddance.

Part of Glendale Westgate City Center repossessed by lender

The developer who launched Westgate City Center, the landmark sports-and-entertainment complex that helped transform Glendale, has officially lost ownership of the major part of the development.

The core of the Ellman Cos.' project, outside University of Phoenix Stadium and Jobing.com Arena,was repossessed Monday by the lender, iStar Financial, after it failed to sell at a foreclosure auction for a reserve price of $40 million.

The 33-acre property, which features restaurants, shops and an AMC movie theater along with Bellagio-like fountains and Times Square-style billboards, was designed as a suburban sports, entertainment and commercial hub to rival downtown Phoenix.

The remaining land owned by Ellman Cos., 95 acres of mostly parking lots slated for future development, is scheduled for foreclosure auction in November by lender Credit Suisse.

The auction is the latest blow to Glendale's prestigious sports district and another example of how the city has been shaken by the economic downturn.

The Phoenix Coyotes went through bankruptcy two years ago and still have no permanent owner. Now Westgate, at Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue, has been taken away from Steve Ellman, the city's development partner for more than a decade.

Westgate's opening in 2006 was like a launch party for the West Valley, with excitement brimming about the region's future as the flashy complex rose out of farm fields.

The Coyotes played next door, and the Arizona Cardinals had just moved in nearby.

Ellman, the chief executive of the company, called Westgate his favorite project.

At the time, a planning expert had cautioned the project was a gamble that relied on synergy between sports fans and shoppers.

...

 

Blood Sport: A Brief Look at the Sometimes Violent Resistance to Public Funding of Sports Stadiums in Arizona

“I will say I’m sorry I shot you the day you stand before the court and admit what you did was an act of violence.”

Those were the uncompromising words Larry Naman, a 57 year-old homeless man with what up to that point had been a clean criminal history, said to County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox at his sentencing in July 1998. Angered over the political hi-jinx that led the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to approve a sales tax to fund the downtown Diamondbacks stadium on a 3-2 vote (Wilcox was the tie-breaker), Naman had almost a year previously walked into a public meeting and shot Wilcox in the ass with a .357 revolver.

With the return of the public financing debate now that the Phoenix Coyotes are up for sale, it's worth looking back at the contentious and sometimes violent history surrounding local capitalist's drive for publicly-subsidized profit. On more that one occasion Arizonans have taken violent action in response to both the blatant undemocratic process of capitalist development and the obvious hypocrisy of capitalists enriching themselves on the public dime.

Attacking the capitalist dictatorship

Following the shooting, Mary Rose Wilcox said she wasn't surprised it had happened, given the controversy of the vote, which itself had circumvented a previous public referendum, passed by a 2-1 margin, forbidding the raising of sales tax for the express purpose of building public sports facilities valued at over $3 million without a public vote. That law had passed as a result of public outrage following the city of Phoenix's massive subsidy of the Phoenix Suns stadium downtown, a facility the Suns shared with the Coyotes until they moved to Glendale to cohabitate with the Cardinals in what eventually became known as the University of Phoenix Stadium, itself built as another publicly-financed project.

The University of Phoenix project passed by county referendum with a narrow 52% approving. In the case of the Phoenix Suns arena, the city eventually swallowed almost 40 percent of the tab, and Maricopa County residents covered the vast majority of the funds for the Cardinals new West Valley home. The important fact to remember with regard to Naman is that, after the initial public outrage over the Suns stadium, and despite the successful referendum restricting public financing, nevertheless when major league baseball came touting an expansion team in 1994, the legislature deliberately transferred responsibility for the stadium's construction to the county and the city of Phoenix specifically in order to circumvent the law and the popular will.

Facing 21 years in prison at his sentencing, Naman, unrepentant, spoke for 40 minutes, denouncing the move to build the stadium. "I shot Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox to try to put a stop to the political dictatorship of Jerry Colangelo", he said, referring the Phoenix sports big shot and Diamondbacks owner. Colangelo had earned the public's ire by refusing to participate in ownership without a public subsidy. When interviewed by Kevin J. Delaney and Rick Eckstein for their book Public Dollars, Private Stadiums, Colangelo put it this way: "There was a tax on the books, the tax was going to expire, baseball was thinking about an expansion, and there was a window. There wasn't time to build a lot of public support and take it to a vote... Nor was I interested in going through that whole process [emphasis mine]." Speaking to reporters, Naman said he'd have shot Colangelo, too, "if I had seen him."

Twelve years later, this December, Naman walked free from prison, a model prisoner without even a single disciplinary mark against him. Wilcox remains unrepentant, although in 1999 she conceded that perhaps future expenditures ought to go up for a public vote. "I had hooked a very good jobs program to our stadium [proposal] — about 3,000 jobs and about 60 percent for a low-income and minority district like mine is," she said. Colangelo and his rich buddies got to feast at the public trough and we got some jobs hawking popcorn that costs more than the hourly wage of the seller.

Waste not, want not

On April 1st 2011, just a few months after Naman's release, and in the midst of capitalist crisis, police allege that an angry Mesa water treatment worker, 43-year-old Robert Olson, armed with a pistol, walked through the city's otherwise deserted Deerfield Wastewater Treatment Plant shutting down critical operating systems one after the other. If the sewage wasn't properly treated, methane gas could build up, potentially leading to a huge explosion at the massive facility. A few hours into his sabotage, after downing some margaritas and beers that he had brought with him, Olson called 911 and following a couple more hours of negotiations, he surrendered to police. He told the cops that by his actions he wanted to show the city that “employees had power.”

On the phone with the 911 operator, Olson said, “I am an operator at the Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant. I have basically taken the plant hostage." He lamented having to file for bankruptcy and a life where he felt like he had been walked all over without ever standing up for himself: "You've got the angel on one side and devil on one side I feel like the bad side is starting to take over. I have been a doormat most of my life, I've taken people's crap and never said anything." That's certainly a common enough feeling under capitalism's dictatorship, even in "good" times.

Now charged with terrorism, court documents begin to paint a picture of what may have motivated the accused civil servant in his late-night sabotage. Olson had transferred from the Avondale water treatment division on the west side of town three years ago in order to work closer to home and spend more time with his family. But not long after moving jobs, the pain of the economic crisis began to bite in Mesa. Determined to foist the cost of the crisis onto workers and the poor, city officials imposed first a pay cut and then a pay freeze on Mesa workers.

“Omigosh,” said neighbor McCaffery when questioned by the East Valley Tribune. “He’s a heckuva a nice guy. I knew he was struggling with his house that went into foreclosure and moved his family in with his in-laws, but I didn’t realize he was having other problems. He was such an easy-going guy, and didn’t have trouble with any of the neighbors. I can’t picture Rob doing anything like that. I hope he’s not in too much trouble.”

One can't help but notice the "welcome to the new normal" nature of that comment, where a foreclosure and moving in with your wife's family barely merit as serious problems in the current economy. But the tribune reports that health care costs began to take a toll as well. And while the pay cut, foreclosure, life at the in-laws' crowded house and health care premiums may have been problems Olson could deal with, the city's pending deal for a new spring training facility for the Chicago Cubs really stuck in his craw. On the day of Olson's protest against wage cuts, the Arizona Republic reported that the city's cost of the new Cubs training facility could run to $84 million.

A coyote is both a predator and a scavenger

Meanwhile on the other side of the Valley of the Sun, at the time of this writing the city of Glendale struggles to close a deal to keep the local pro hockey team, the Coyotes, in their gleaming, spaceship-like two hundred million dollar desert arena. The deal centers around a secretive 40 year-old investment fund manager, Matthew Hulsizer, who, if the sale goes through, will be outright gifted $100 million directly from the city's coffers (raised through bond sales), and then guaranteed a further $97 million in future revenue for agreeing to take over and operate the venue. Not bad for a sale valued at only $170 million! According to my math, that's a $27 million dollar profit just for existing!

Millionaire Matthew Hulsizer (center) watches a Coyotes game

After graduating from uber-expensive Amherst College (nearly 50 g's a year at current rates!), according to the Chicago Tribune, Hulsizer started off his career in what was once called the "the biggest securities firm no one had ever heard of," O'Connor & Associates. After working there for some years, he moved on to open with his wife their own investment firm called Peak6, which he started with capital provided by others, including the O'Connor brothers and "family". It pays to be where the money is.

And, starting in the 90's, as the economy increasingly financialized, the money likewise moved to firms like Peak6, "one stop shops" that would deal in all sorts of arcane financial instruments, including the infamous derivatives that triggered the financial crisis in 2008. But don't worry, Hulsizer has come through it all right. No foreclosures on his horizon. His lakeside mansion is as comfortable as ever. And with a guaranteed profit out the gate of $27 million on the deal, I think he's going to be very happy with his life going forward either way, even if those pesky conservatives at the Goldwater institute get their way and squash the deal.

For Hulsizer, owning a hockey team would be a dream come true, probably a lot like getting rich is a dream come true, too (assuming he wasn't born rich, as it seems he likely was). Secretive though he may be, Hulsizer has been quoted remarking about his love of the game and how he played hockey a bit himself. "I'm a hockey fan, a hockey coach and a hockey player and I would like to join the club," he told USA Today. The Business Insider writes that "[Hulsizer] actually played hockey at Division III Amherst College and is currently a registered USA Hockey coach in Winnetka, Illinois."

But how surprising is it for the dreams of the rich to come true? Hardly at all, naturally. Hockey is Hulsizer's hobby and his fortune accommodates him. And if not his fortune, then the public largess will take cover it. After all, for him merely having the wealth is good enough -- he need not actually spend it! But what about the rest of us? What about the Naman's and the Olson's out there? Foreclosed on, homeless, cut wages, hiked premiums, dislocated families, all as a result of the machinations and profiteering, often at the public trough, of folks like Hulsizer and Colangelo, and facilitated by politicians like Wilcox.

The sun sets on Arizona

In Arizona over the last several years, the main thrust of general working class resistance has emerged from the migrant/Latino community. It was they who boldly went out on general strike in 2006, long before the crisis began to nip at the picket fences of white suburbia. Most white people's homes were still accruing value month upon month at that point, but with wages still stuck in neutral for more than a decade, the white working and middle class unfortunately increasingly turned towards using the law to restrict the labor market in hopes of extracting wage increases or protection for themselves from capital's ravages.

Just this year, however, the Arizona capitalist class finally balked at further restrictions, indicating a split with its temporary alliance with the white working and middle class, the signs of which we recognize in the slashing of budgets across the board and the imposition of austerity even on the white middle class. Rising up through their political organ the Chamber of Commerce the capitalists vocally shut down a new bevy of anti-immigrant laws.

We can look back now and point to the utter failure of the strategy pursued in the last decade by the organized and mobilized section of the white working class. With what is probably well over a hundred thousand Mexican and other workers who feel similarly threatened by the reaction in Arizona having exited the state with their families since SB1070 passed (double digit decreases in enrollment at public schools are one indicator amongst many), the magic has not returned to the Arizona economy. The employment numbers are not predicted to return to "normal" until mid-decade. Wages, where they are not frozen, are decreasing across the board.

And the housing market remains stuck in the doldrums, not because Mexicans were building houses or taking jobs from whites, but because there were too many houses built in a bubble whose inflation as well as inevitable deflation benefited a small class at the top of the Arizona economy. Builders, developers and bankers received their bailouts and guarantees, but none of it accrued to the working class in any permanent way, as naturally it wouldn't without a militant working class in motion to demand it. So lacking that, millionaires like Hulsizer clean up while folks like us get the shaft.

To think in a time of massive advances for the capitalists and of retreat for the working class, that a strategy of defending white privilege over class solidarity would lead anywhere but to a hardening of already existing divisions that could then be further exploited by the capitalists was worse than naive, it was in fact the sad default class politics of the white working class playing out. This leaves us in a situation where the white working class in Arizona has isolated itself, even organized in opposition to the rest of the working class, believing that its cross-class alliance with the rich would protect it in the long run. Clearly it has not.

And now, as the chickens come home to roost for white working and middle class families in Arizona, as predictably they would, they now have nowhere to go to express their anger but into the arms of further reaction like the Tea Party on one hand or into isolated acts of violence and sabotage on the other. Even the professional mediators, bargainers and recuperators of the left offer nothing. That's a poor excuse indeed for the broad-based resistance that is necessary and might potentially give such acts a broader meaning beyond that which resonates only with the singular atoms, millions though they are, of screwed over Arizonans consuming its message as individuals in isolation. In circumstances of rising class struggle hopeless lone wolves become transformed into militants for their class as their opportunities for meaningful struggle multiply. These conditions not not apply today.

But with the crisis deepening and individuals feeling their backs increasingly against the wall, unless the white working class can wake up and betray its racist instincts by recognizing its common struggle with other people, we can probably expect more of the same isolated lashing out, which even if it can sometimes inspire with its fanatical rejection of compromise or dead-end bourgeois politicking, can never replace a working class movement determined to topple capitalism and the state.

The Suns of Anarchy

by Jon Riley

It's that time of year again, the NBA playoffs are in full swing, and we at PCWC are closely following our favorite sports team, the Phoenix Suns, as they battle it out with the San Antonio Spurs in the Western conference semi-finals. Game two was tonight, and it was a fantastic game, and not just because the Suns took down our biggest rivals for two games in a row ("rivals" may be too kind to describe the vitriol Suns fans reserve for the Spurs, "immortal enemies" may be a better fit), but we're pleased for their actions off the hardwood. Yesterday the Suns organization came out against the racist bill SB1070, sponsored by state senator Russell Pearce, signed into law a couple of weeks back by Governor Brewer, and the focus of numerous protests locally, and solidarity demonstrations, rallies, walkouts, boycotts, and direct actions across the US.

Thousands march against SB1070 during tonight's game

In an act of solidarity with the state's immigrant and Latino communities, the Suns donned their "Los Suns" jerseys, originally worn as part of the "Noche Latina"promotion, tonight it was an act of defiance to the terror being spread by the reactionary and white supremacist political and social forces at work in Arizona. Suns general manager Steve Kerr made the Suns' case at a press conference yesterday:

"It's hard to imagine in this country that we have to produce papers," Kerr said. "It rings up images of Nazi Germany. We understand that the intentions of the law are not for that to happen, but you have to be very, very careful. . . . It's important that everyone in our state and nation understands this is an issue that needs to be explored. So, we're trying to expose it."

While the announcement came from the Suns front office, team owner Robert Sarver said the decision to challenge the new law came with the final approval from the players. The Phoenix Suns players came to consensus to wear the Los Suns jerseys, and stand in solidarity with Arizona's Latino community, a bold move in these days as the social tension is ever so present.


Suns point guard Steve Nash, winner of two MVPs with the Suns, and one of three foreign born players on the roster, has earned a reputation for his political stance. During the opening days of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Nash caught a firestorm of criticism after taking a very unpopular stance against the war, and it's encouraging to see him step up once again, this time in defense of the state's Latino community:

"I don't agree with this bill, I don't agree with the spirit of the bill or the message it sends, not only to people in our community but how it represents our community across the country and the world.

"I think the bill opens up the opportunity for racial profiling, racism. I think it puts the police in an incredibly difficult position that isn't fair to them. It's an infringement on our civil liberties to allow the possibility for inequality to arise in our community."

Other Suns spoke out on the bill as well, Grant Hill, Amar'e Stoudamire, and coach Alvin Gentry, even our long term rivals are in support of the stance against SB1070. Spurs coach Greg Popavich had this to say in defense of the Suns management and players:

"It's kind of like 9/11 comes, and all of a sudden there's a Patriot Act, just a knee-jerk sort of thing, and it changes our country, what we stand for. This law smacks of that to some degree. So, I think what he's doing . . . is very wise and very correct."

To be clear, I hate the Spurs. Hate 'em. Their bad behavior in previous playoff series with the Suns was just as despicable as the notoriously poor officiating from the refs (or was it something else at work?), but I will reach across the aisle on this, they should be commended for supporting the Suns stance. Popavich and the Spurs will show a little solidarity with AZ on the hardwood by wearing their own "Los Spurs" uniforms during one of the next couple of games in San Antonio.


For those outside of the valley, I'm not saying this is a perfect political moment, we get very few of those after all, but it is a moment to build momentum from. The Suns are run by a bunch of billionaire and millionaire investors, the players themselves are millionaires, I understand that. However, the significance of this should not go unremarked by anti-authoritarians, regardless of your inclination towards professional sports. The Suns are a staple of life in Phoenix, they were the city's first professional sports club, many a Phoenician has fond memories of their grade school class receiving free tickets to Suns games at the old Veterans Memorial Collesium ("The Mad House on McDowell"), and the greatest season of all, the 92-93 team led by Charles Barkley who took it all the way to the NBA finals to challenge Michael Jordan and the Bulls.


While we've been life long Suns fans, we don't mistake these acts of solidarity from the players or management with a developing anti-capitalist, or anti-authoritarian critique. Make no mistake, we see this for what it is, this is a multi-million dollar sports franchise weighing in on the very oppressive atmosphere in Arizona, and some may be speaking up because they recognize the egregious rise in racial profiling and detentions by police, others from the Suns organization probably see a profit incentive with a future Latino audience. If, however, there is some chance of a breakthrough during this playoff run, it's will originate from the commonality that sport offers us, the sense that we are all on the same side as long as we cheer on our team. So, yes, their decision to speak out is massive, but it's no cure all, we remain certain of the ability of ordinary people organize their own lives, to struggle, and to wage war on their oppressors on their own terms.

On a final note, I had a good laugh watching the evening news the other night as the racist politician Russell Pearce was interviewed by a Channel 3 reporter on his reaction to the Suns move against SB1070.

Reporter: Are you surprised that the NBA and the NBA teams taking a stance like this, do you think it's their place to?

Pearce: No it's not their place to. It's the rule of law, I mean, that's anarchism!

Ah, "anarchism" and "anarchy", time and time again this simple utterance by a blowhard politician is intended to strike fear in the hearts of every law abiding, god fearing, immigrant hating, patriotic American citizen, but there's a catch. See, when he calls the Suns' actions anarchism, or labels anyone opposed to his brand of racist terror as an anarchist, he is effectively saying that the common sense of the society is "anarchy." By his logic what the Suns are doing is anarchism. Those who speak out against Sheriff Arpaio are anarchists. All those critical of immigration policy, or law enforcement are obviously for open borders, against the rule of law, or so the logic goes. Everyone else is the anarchist. If only this were the truth.

Then again, perhaps we need not look too far. The kids are self-organizing and walking out of school, or the 90 cities across the USA had solidarity rallies against SB1070 and bills like it, are closer to the visions of a popular movement than we may give them credit for. We may all be anarchists now, in the eyes of the state, or the reactionary social forces, but the challenge we still face is how we can contribute to a popular anti-authoritarian common sense. The Suns position is certainly a step forward, but also not enough, the position against racial profiling is right on, but where is the defense of immigrants, legal or not? How far will we have push the limits of the debate before the mainstream acknowledges that comprehensive immigration reform (as it's proposed now) means the militarization of the border lands, and as a direct result the lands of indigenous people divided by the border wall?

At best we can thank the Suns for opening this void, but it's up to all of us to fill it, and to keep pushing forward. Reform will never deliver freedom or autonomy. The state will never concede anything to those demanding liberties beyond its own laws and constitution. So we forever look beyond compromise and the state.

No controls on movement, no borders, no militarization. It's a start.

***
For a previous writing on our pro-Suns and anti-authoritarian orientation/contradiction, I recommend checking out the old blog of PCWC member Phoenix Insurgent for some thoughts on the Suns, anarchy and basketball, and former Suns center Pat Burke.

I'd also recommend some of the writing from lefty sport writer, Dave Zirin, on this matter. Check out "A New Era: Here Come the Suns", an essay he wrote a few days back, I've posted it over on the Resistance to SB1070 blog, a little side project of ours dedicated to recording the struggles against SB1070 and other forms of resistance to controls on movement.

GO SUNS! BASKETBALL KNOWS NO BORDERS!

PCWC interviews Chris from Propagandhi

A few weeks ago after tabling the show, PCWC got the opportunity to interview Chris, the singer and guitarist for the great anarchist punk band Propagandhi. We had tons of questions in mind for him, but knowing his enthusiasm for hockey, we decided to limit our discussion to sports and anarchy. PCWC has an unofficial anarchist Phoenix Suns supporter group, so we are very interested in the relationship that anti-capitalists have to professional sports.

Our set up at the Propagandhi show

Chris was very generous and even stayed to chat long after our camera's battery died. If you haven't yet, you'd be doing yourself a favor by getting your hands on a copy of Propagandhi's newest album. Unlike a lot of bands from the early Fat Wreck Chords days, they continue to challenge themselves and to put out interesting, quality music.

Anyhow, being anarchists and therefore procrastinators, we have only now gotten around to editing the footage and putting it on the interweb. We hope you enjoy it.