Phoenix Worst Air Quality in the Nation Today

[kairos12]

Maricopa County issued a No Burn Day notice and people responded by lighting up their chimneys.

Maybe Arpaio should quit chasing brown people and go after the a-holes creating the brown cloud.

New Years rant over.

[pangaia]

1. What causes the bad air in phoenix?

[kairos12]

2. The cause today is mainly wood burning fires.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

4. Exacerbated by is not the same as caused by n/t

[kairos12]

6. Thanks for the clarification.

I will recall the difference when I refill my inhaler.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. Sorry you're having issues

but words do have meaning, no?

[pangaia]

16. Ok you guys, both of you. Stop it.. Just play nice. :>)))

So exacerbated by wood burning.

Do you know what other causes? Just curious. :&gt )

[pangaia]

17. OK oyu guys, both of you. Play nice. :>)))))

So exacerbated by wood burning.

Do you know what other causes? Just curious. :&gt )

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. Republicans.

[pinboy3niner]

5. Sheriff Joe talking out of his ass

[rufus dog]

9. It is similar to a problem Denver sometimes has.

Air inversion, the cool ground temperature is trapped by a warm layer above. A ceiling is basically created and with low or lack of winds the cold trapped air picks up the pollution and sits.

Phx sits in a valley so it happens often.

That and republicans, lol.

Being from there, and knowing a lot of ignorant assholes from there, I can see them getting a notification and immediately sparking up the fireplace.

This is a city that lost a Super Bowl because they refused to vote for MLK day. Greg Gumbel, a black sportscaster made the comment that they would lose the game about a month before the election. (Along with about 100 others) That was all it took, the ignorant racists claimed they weren't going to let some New Yorker tell them what to do. Sound familiar!

[strategery blunder]

10. Lots of things

Phoenix has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation over the last fifty years, and they responded by building more and more freeways to the point the urban sprawl resembles mini-LA. They spent the entire 80s, 90s, and early 2000s building more freeways in a desperate scramble to handle the growth. Now the lack of urban planning is biting them in the ass hard.

Moreover Arizona, being the Republican state that it is, would not adapt California-style pollution regulations in a million years. Their voters balk at paying taxes so funding any mass transit other than a decrepit bus system for teh poors was a pipe dream for a long time (this is beginning to change now, but they are only now over the last decade starting to build the bare bones of mass transit from nothing, they have nothing like the well-developed subways of the East Coast or Chicago). Worse, a large subset of Maricopa county voters are the type that would deliberately buy gas hogs just to spite "teh libruls" (keep in mind this is the same jurisdiction that keeps re-electing Joe Arpaio even though said sheriff costs the county taxpayers TENS OF MILLIONS in paying out civil rights violation suits).

Oh, and mountains ring the city. They literally form a semi-circle around about the east half of the metropolitan area, there's a small mountain range on the south of Phoenix proper, and I believe there's another mountain range off further to the west. Phoenix isn't called "Valley of the Sun" for nothing. All that means is that pollution gets trapped in there, even worse than LA. At least LA has an ocean on one side.

(Edit: The poster above explained the temperature inversions far better than I can, but the geography described above makes the inversions worse than LA when it comes to trapping pollution near the ground.)

Ironically Arizona used to be a place that doctors recommended for people with respiratory issues, because other than dust there was not much in the way of respiratory irritants. Not anymore!

[rufus dog]

11. Lol, I see you have the same general opinion of Phoenicians

I grew up there, remember my dad being proud when they hit one million people in the late 60s.

When I left after college I think it was two million. My dad always hoped that as more people moved in from the Midwest it woulld become more liberal. Halfway through college I figured out it would never change. In the thirty years since I left it has more than doubled again, still the same.

Texas and AZ will go blue at about the same time, the same time as Alabama and Mississippi.

[strategery blunder]

12. They actually did start building some light rail recently

but it's definitely too little, too late by far. I was surprised when they started, though.

And I'm dreading going back because I'm sensitive to air quality too, but I can't put it off forever because most of my family still lives there. :/

[rufus dog]

13. I think the President of ASU had a lot to do with that

The main campus is connected to the Downtown Phx campus. I think the plan is to connect with ASU West (stops at the old Christown Mall at 19th and Bethany now, but it looks like they are continuing north on 19th) and ASU East Valley.

I understand the unique problem with the heat, it would be hard to use the rail if you worked a quarter mile or greater off the line.

There actually some improved areas, Downtown Tempe is redeveloped with housing, business, and retail all together. The old Roosevelt section downtown has some decent coffee shops and bars so people can live and hang out in the same neighborhood, but as you stated the sprawl is mind boggling.

[strategery blunder]

14. That somehow doesn't surprise me

Tempe was always Maricopa County's island of sanity

I wasn't too familiar with the particulars of the light rail because it started after I had already moved on. It came up when I was booking a plane ticket to visit my family one year; my parental unit mentioned taking light rail from the airport and I was like "WTF? Since when did Phoenix have light rail?" That was three years ago I think.

You seem to be more in the loop when it comes to the area than I am. I'm kinda low income so I can't afford to visit often.

[ChazII]

15. The air quality

was the worst I have seen it in a very long time. The mountains were hardly visible in my part of the valley. (North Tempe/ASU area)