How much do you like to walk in 110-degree heat? If you’re a resident of the city of Phoenix, you may need to start getting used to it if the city council gets its way.
A proposed ordinance in Phoenix is looking to significantly reduce the minimum number of parking spaces it requires for apartments. Currently, Phoenix requires a minimum of 150 parking spaces for every 100 one or two-bedroom apartments. Under the proposed ordinance, that number would decrease to 125 spaces. But that’s not the end of it. For new affordable apartment complexes near light rail stations, the requirement for most would be reduced to zero! Yes. Zero parking spaces at an apartment complex. Have you caught on to their agenda yet?
If you’ve been keeping score, you already know that—in just this year—climate change zealots have been seeking to prohibit gas stoves; put limits on things like lawn and garden equipment, motorized boating, and water heaters; and ban the internal combustion engine. Now, this latest attempt to reduce parking spaces makes it clear. They want to force you out of your air-conditioned car to walk in 110-degree heat with your reward being to wait for a bus or light rail—all the while hoping that you don’t develop heat stroke. Then, once you’re riding on whatever form of public transit you’ve been forced to use, you get to hope that you won’t be assaulted or victimized on a system of transportation that’s seeing an increase in crime. Finally, you’ll get off said public transit and be rewarded with yet another long walk in 110-degree heat. (But at least it’s on Phoenix’s “cool” pavement. Oh wait. It turns out, that’s making people feel even hotter.)
Remember when they said, “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy”? They’re certainly doing everything they can to make the first part a reality. But there isn’t a soul in Phoenix who would be happy walking around the city during an afternoon in July.
All this nonsense is aimed at their agenda to turn Phoenix into a 15-minute city, and they’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Case in point, meet Phoenix’s Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari who recently took to Twitter to hype the proposed ordinance and the 15-minute city concept—where cars will be phased out and everything you need will supposedly be available by foot, bike, or public transit. Of course, if Ms. Ansari is so passionate about Phoenix becoming a 15-minute city, perhaps she’d be willing to lead by example. Why doesn’t she give up her car, walk to the bus stop every day in 110-degree heat, and ride the public transit that she believes is so safe?
But she won’t. And none of the liberal elites pushing this plan will either. They will continue to use their own car and park in their premium parking spots while all of us regular folks are left to deal with these outrageous policies.
They hate how we live and how we get around, and now they want to make us miserable until we surrender to their climate change agenda. But with the proposed parking plan up for a vote sometime in September, there’s still time to fight back. Stay informed. Build a passionate argument based on facts. And make your voice heard. Tucson residents recently defeated a similar attempt to create a 15-minute city by voting down Prop 412. Now, Phoenix should follow their lead.
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