Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego was wrong. If you move to Arizona, you will die of thirst

The late Edward Abbey, author of “Desert Solitaire,” an icon, anarchist and archangel of the American West, would be soooo disappointed in Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.

The mayor had the perfect opportunity to do what Abbey tried to do most of his life — convince people not to move here.

And she blew it.

Worse.

She tried to do just the opposite.

Gallego could've scared off Midwesterners

Gallego went out of her way to counter what she described as sensationalized media coverage of Arizona’s groundwater shortage.

We’re talking about the kind of reporting that might frighten away land developers, factory owners, home-building conglomerates and Midwesterners.

In other words, just what we need.

And Gallego purposefully tried to correct it.

Not long ago the state announced it would no longer approve construction for new housing developments if they are to rely only on groundwater.

That’s because an analysis shows that the state would have 4% less groundwater than expected over the next 100 years.

National news glossed over key points

News operations outside of Arizona ranging from CNN to The Washington Post, to The New York Times and more, sort of glossed over the 100-year bit.

And the relatively small 4% bit, and the fact that we’re talking, essentially, about developments on the far, far west side and far, far east side of the metro area, and made it seem, in a teeny-tiny way, that if you move to Phoenix … you will die of thirst!

Mayor Gallego acted as if such an implication is a bad thing.

Among other things, she said, “It seems in some ways like there’s criticism for us for doing planning and smart development.”

She added that the city’s careful water planning “is a strength, not a weakness. I do not think that Phoenix is getting proper recognition for our leadership in water.

“Our policies have become models for other communities. I want to make sure we do a good job explaining … that businesses should be excited to do business in a data-driven city."

Metro Phoenix is already big enough

No, they should not.

Phoenix is already America’s fifth-largest city. That’s plenty big enough. Too big.

And, as Edward Abbey once wrote, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

Buckeye, Queen Creek: Try to calm public about home construction

Abbey came to the Southwest to be by himself. Many of us came to be with others, to fill the desert with houses, schools, bars, restaurants, bookstores, gyms, museums, ballparks and so on.

Enough already.

Besides, there is a simple way to preserve water. Or, as Abbey put it, “There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, of water to sand, insuring that wide, free, open, generous spacing among plants and animals. … There is no lack of water here, unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.”

'Nobody ... would want to live here'

Gallego is a competent, articulate mayor, and I’d guess that Arizona’s chamber of commerce types have been sending her reassuring pronouncements to business interests and others all over the country.

That’s too bad.

If we genuinely loved the desert paradise we’re blessed to live in, we’d send fliers to citizens in every state in the nation, purchase paid advertising on every broadcast network, and plaster on every social media outlet a description of our sacred, arid utopia something that Abbey wrote.

It goes:

“In Arizona, the trees have thorns and the bushes spines and the swimming pools are infested with loan sharks, automobile dealers and Mafiosi. The water table is falling, and during a heavy wind, you can see sand dunes form on Central Avenue in Phoenix. We have the most gorgeous sunsets in the Western world — when the copper smelters are shut down. I am describing the place I love. Arizona is my natural native home. Nobody in his right mind would want to live here.”

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

For more opinions content, please subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix mayor was wrong. If you move here, you will die