“Big Yellow Taxi” or “They Paved Paradise and Put in a Parking Lot”

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
Then they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot …
Joni Mitchell (1970)

Joni Mitchell arrived in Hawaii for the first time at night so the next morning she runs to the window throws back the curtains to see green, lush hills, the Sugarloaf mountains with white birds flying low and Myna birds all over the place and right in the middle of all of this was a huge parking lot. She found such irony in what she saw that she wrote a song about it. As I captured the images in this series I was struck by the lyrics of this song and how it echoes the enormous change that is occurring in my neighborhood, the Ahwatukee foothills.

“They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum.”

Not only will the desert preserve be critically impacted but the desert flora that is not destroyed by the construction will be tagged and relocated elsewhere.

The foothills are separated geographically from other areas north of the city by South Mountain and the South Mountain Preserve. The foothills, is a fairly quiet residential community nestled at the base of the South Mountain surrounded by the beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Because it has few access points available it is also known as the world’s “largest cul-du-sac”. The foothills community has already been significantly impacted by the construction of the Loop 202 (South Mountain Freeway). It will be a main thoroughfare for semis, tractor trailers, and heavy freeway traffic seeking to bypass downtown Phoenix. It is expected to run along South Mountain on Pecos Road. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has been working on a master freeway plan that was approved by voters thirty-one years ago in 1985 and the South Mountain Freeway is the last portion of the entire Loop 202 freeway system to be constructed.

In the last year ADOT acquired properties and began to demolish an entire subdivision of homes. It is expected that ADOT will soon begin its demolition of additional homes and a large community church that is located near Pecos Road as they prepare for the next phase of the freeway construction. There has been a number of organizations protesting the construction of the freeway and voicing their concerns in a renewed effort to stop the construction. These organizations are emphasizing the adverse effects of the 202 Loopway with regard to the destruction of wildlife, increased air pollution, and increased crime that the 202 Loopway will bring to the foothills community.

My photographs capture the dramatic changes occurring to the foothills community and highlight some of changes that have happened and the impact to the community.