Roadrunner Lake Resort
Wednesday, 19th October 2005 by Alex Turnbull
Just outside of Scottsdale, Arizona, lies this totally bizarre little patch of buildings. Sitting isolated out in the desert, these structures are packed into perfectly regular square... and as far as I can see, for absolutely no good reason - there's loads of space!
Switching on map mode reveals that this is Roadrunner Lake Resort, which makes me wonder, where's the lake? Anyway, it seems that this is a retirement community, so I guess all the wrinklies have been packed off into the desert... presumably so they won't bother their children too much with all that 'being alive' stuff.
Thanks to Ivan Medovikov.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Looks to me like they are doubble wides in a “trailer park” I like how trailer parks are always called “resort” or “estates” like they are a good place to live.
disgusting! sprawl at its worst!
I wouldn’t call it sprawl, considering that there is barren land all around it.
That dark form in the middle is most likely the lake. (It doesn’t take much water there to get a designation.)
If you scroll one screen down and one screen left you’ll see more of the same. Keep looking around the area and you’ll see normal houses packed in like saurdines. The square area appears to be a good example of maximizing the use of 40 acres.
looks like someting out of Sim City 🙂
Sim City, that’s what I was thinking… it’s so strange.
That looks exactly like how I built a few cities in SimCity! Only, I put a nuclear power plant in the middle. Maybe that’s what’s hidden beneath the dark blob on the center?
Jon, this is a brilliant example of sprawl. In four or five years it’ll be surrounded by more of the same. There’s only a few acres between this development and a whole swath of vast, lifeless suburbs. Remind me never to live in Scottsdale. Or Phoenix, for that matter.
This is definately NOT an example of impending sprawl, much less a briliant one. This trailer park was established 30 years ago and it isn’t likely to have many new neighbors. It sits on the land of the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, which is largely a farming community. With a few exceptions, the Indians in the Phoenix area traditionally have not sold land to developers. The exceptions that I know about are on the fringes of the reservations, usually for shopping malls and freeways to serve the existing population that borders the reservations. Only a reckless gambler would put money on the surrounding land not being cotton, alfalfa or corn farms for the decades to come.
Check it ou here is a pepsi wave pool, no wonder so many people want to live close to this!
View Placemark
Big Surf water park is discussed here: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/2005/04/16/big-surf-mo/
Way too may miniature humans there! When I was in High School we would go to Saquaro Lake north of the valley to escape the summer heat. Everyone would gather on the river south of the dam and float down in tubes or jump off the steep cliffs. View Placemark
This is not sprawl. If anything it is an example higher density residential development.
Sprawl? No, check out the rest of the Valley for the sprawl.
This little community is smack dab in the middle of the reservation. That’s why it’s so isolated.
Seeing this part of the valley from the air at night is a hoot – lights as far as the eye can see, then complete darkness in a line where the reservation is.
Otter
http://www.roadrunnerlakeresort.com/
Contrasting opinions withstanding, I still call this sprawl. Trailer parks are the products of suburban sprawl–the “sprawl of sprawl,” if you will. This place would not exist if not for the thousands of acres of suburbs, Wal-Marts, Best Buys and strip malls that are a mere five-minute drive away. Maybe “resort”, maybe “community”, maybe “isolated”, but certainly not smart development.
I think the problem with these areas are there’s SO MUCH land. Nothing to stop these developers. Check this out:
Phoenix sprawl provides a similar picture [to San Jose]: while its population grew 132% from 1970 to 1990, its urbanized area grew by a similarly significant 91%. Of course, Phoenix has a lot of catching up to do in the growth management realm: From 1950 to 1970, while its population grew 300%, its urbanized area grew by an incredible 630%. (US Census Bureau, sierraclub.org)
and
http://sciencebulletins.amnh.org/bio/v/sprawl.20050218/
Geoff What a great link. All you Satellite fans should check it out and watch the video there. We might all learn something instead of prattling on about alien invasion for months on end.
Geez … sprawl is such a dirty word! And of course you have to throw in that evil WalMart for the cause of all our evils. In this country we have the right to own land and develop it as we like (within reason and government codes and zoning). What’s the alternative – let government decide where we can live? If that’s what you like then go in a time machine back to the USSR and live under communist rule. Otherwise don’t complain about where people choose to live, especially when they are spending their own hard-earned money.
Geoff! How did you find the Roadrunner Lake Resort? I looked for ages! Obviously I never thought to just try the most likely URL of course… Nice one, thanks 🙂
Here is one possible reason for the strange layout of the structure: Senior living places are sometimes set up so that people do not get lost while walking. For example, someone with Alzheimer’s or other issues with memory can walk around without wandering too far out of safety.
Matt,
I’m certainly no Communist, and I find deep problems with communistic systems. In fact, I completely agree with you. We must develop, as you said in your own words, “within reason and government codes and zoning.” Smart planning and zoning will lead to smart development. I’m still waiting. But sprawling suburbs are certainly not smart. And neither are clustered and cramped housing projects, either. There’s a happy medium somewhere but it’ll be hard to attain, if not impossible. What we must realize is that outlandish sprawling development is a bad idea–it uses far too many resources (economic, energy, natural) in addition to being taxing on the human psyche. There’s lots of problems, and it’ll be hard to find this so-called “happy medium”, but I’m certainly not promoting some sort of leftist or communist philosophy. There’s no denying that there’s some deeply-rooted problems with suburbanization, and thankfully the upcoming generation of urban developers seems to realize this. We’ll see what they come up with….
If you look at the other similar developments in the area, this one looks like it was isolated away from the others on purpose, like a leper colony or where mothers-in-law are sent.
Geoff, you don’t own a house. how would you know about the economy of sprawl. go ahead and sit in your studio apartment and condenm the masses. when you invest in a house and become apart of society, then we’ll see your view on sprawl.
Re. peter vs geoff and sprawl I have never poked myself in the eye with a sharp stick but i know its really gonna hurt…..! Is there a similiar law to Godwins that involves calling someone a communist and saying stuff like “…if you like it so much why dont you go and live there”. McCarthy’s Law i suppose
No good reason? It’s called zoning, moron. And God forbid that hardworking people should be able after 50 years and sweat and toil to claim a little piece of retirement and relaxation in their golden years with other good people. You won’t know that sensation, I’m relatively sure, as your kind of condescention usually results in people like you spending their “wrinklie” years alone. Asshole.
What are you people crying about! I wish I had a place there instead of looking out at the snowbanks here and -10 outside. Want to see what it really looks like? go to Google Earth Search and Zoom in, then go anywhere along the 49th and compare!
Hey, that’s where my grandma used to live (as is earth in general)! There’s a casino across the street from it now due to it all being Indian land, the appropriately named Casino Arizona.
It’s a pretty cool place when you want to goof off for a couple month’s in the winter, it’s not for the faint of heart, oh yeah, you have to be 55 or older. Also has a casino 1/2 a mile down the road….