Funny stuff: the Phoenix New Times‘ Robrt L. Pela begins a new column, Surreal Estate, with a piece on the new faux-Italian apartment complex bordering the busy I-17 freeway. This reminds me of when I went apartment hunting back in 1994. Looking for places in the East Valley (Tempe/Chandler/Mesa), I used the Arizona Republic listings as a guide. Bad decision. Back then they used to run a weekly writeup on a local apartment complex — and week after week it was always some snooty high-end place in Scottsdale or Paradise Valley being profiled. Even worse was the fact that the profiles had the feel of superficial, relentlessly upbeat puffery (which describes just about everything the Republic publishes). Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading about whatever Pela can come up with for his column.
Related: Derrick Bostrom’s vintage Phoenix postcard collection.