Phoenix is the nation's 5th largest — but is it a 'real' city?

A lot of kids who grow up in Phoenix think that one day they’ll move to a big city. Technically, that leaves few options in the U.S.

Phoenix is now the fifth-largest by population. Its land area exceeds New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. The number of people who live here lags those cities, and Houston, but surpasses all others.
 
But those looking for a "big city" don’t mean a place with more residents or square miles. People associate them with skyscrapers and trains and more than one busker playing electric guitar downtown on a Friday night.

As Phoenix well knows, big doesn’t equal urban. It's a concept I learned early as a Millennial who was born in the Valley suburbs, grew up downtown and spent a spell in Mexico City before coming back home.

Critics again called Phoenix out as one of the nation’s largest suburbs when the city surpassed Philadelphia in the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent population estimates. It’s OK that Philly fell in the ranking, they said, because at least it’s a "real" city. 
 
In terms of development, Phoenix looks more like a real city than it has in decades. Since it lost its top-five population spot in 2010, new apartments, university buildings and residents have transformed downtown. Neighborhoods outside the urban core are bustling with hubs of bars and restaurants. 
 
Phoenix has an estimated 1,615,017 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More people moved here from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016, than any other city in the country, according to the census. 
 
The flap over size raises a question: Will Phoenix ever have the cachet of cities such as Philadelphia, Seattle or San Francisco — or is that even our goal? 

The city is 'hiding in all that sprawl'

Phoenix falls short in some of the basic measures that give people the sense of a big city.

It anchors a metro area that doesn’t crack the top 10 in population. And the city itself is spread out.

An urban core that was once a cohesive neighborhood went through decades of tear-downs. The rest of the city was built for cars.

Phoenix has about 2,800 people per square mile of land, according to 2010 census data, which is on par with smaller cities such as Indianapolis or Fort Worth. New York City is nearly 10 times denser.

And while Phoenix has pieces of a real city, they’re “hiding in all that sprawl,” said Jon Talton, a former columnist for The Arizona Republic. The Phoenix native now lives in Seattle.

Neighborhoods don’t fit together in a way that gives people a sense of place, Talton said. Norterra is distinct from Ahwatukee, but they’re about 35 miles and two freeways apart.

Even central neighborhoods such as Willo or Cheery Lynn historic districts are nothing like Seattle’s Ballard or Los Angeles' Los Feliz, where you can spend a day exploring on foot.

And downtown, you might find full bars and restaurants but few people walking among them.

Phoenix also has struggled to present an identity synonymous with the city, especially challenging when the area only has about 150 years of modern history.

TAKE THE QUIZ: How well do you know Phoenix?

People love to talk about whether Phoenix should exist (who can forget being called the world's least sustainable city). But even many locals don't know why it's here. 

When you visit Boston or Philadelphia, you can't avoid learning their origins. The significance of every site is etched on plaques and marketed as an attraction. 

But how many people can name Jack Swilling, a Phoenix founder who built canals in the mid-1800s to bring farmland to the desert? Or know that Phoenix is so named because it rose from the Hohokam civilization that came before it?

And few institutions remain that tie us to our past. While the Phoenix Country Club and the city's rotary club both date back more than a century, traditions that bring the entire community together are fairly recent.

The APS Electric Light Parade, for example, stretches back three decades. That's a far cry from Philadelphia's Mummers Parade that goes back officially for more than a century. Chicago has dyed its river green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day for at least 50 years.

Even our sports teams are new. My generation is the first to grow up watching the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks play here.

Our oldest team, the Phoenix Suns, started playing in 1968. The Boston Red Sox were founded in 1901.

But youth does give Phoenix the chance to do things its own way. 

Bank One Ballpark, now Chase Field, was among the first to be built with both a retractable roof and natural grass. America West Arena, now Talking Stick Resort Arena, was lauded in the 1990s for the amenities no other arena offered, such as multi-level luxury boxes, attached premium parking and practice facilities.

The perceived lack of history is a quality city leaders have more recently flipped into a positive: Phoenix isn't bound by tradition.

Does Phoenix have culture?

Those factors feed the perception that Phoenix is devoid of culture. It's not true, but you may have to look closer to find it here than other cities. 

The most Instagrammed spot in Phoenix last year was the airport, according to the company.

Phoenix, though, has a few cultural engines that other cities don't, said James Ballinger, who retired as director of the Phoenix Art Museum in 2014 after four decades there. 

There's Frank Lloyd Wright's imprint on the metro area, he said. The Heard Museum, which showcases Native cultures and art, recently attracted the only North America stop of a Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition. And the Desert Botanical Garden is unique for its focus on the plants that grow only in Arizona. 

Ballinger said he has seen tremendous expansion in the city's institutions since the 1970s, before there was the Arizona Science Center or the Children's Museum of Phoenix. Major investments came from bonds approved by voters.

MORE:The arts in Arizona

When I was starting elementary school, the Orpheum Theatre reopened after a years-long project to restore it to its 1929 splendor. Our teachers took us to watch the symphony, the ballet, and plays by Phoenix Theatre's Cookie Company, which included cookies and milk after the performance.

Still, it's a struggle for cultural organizations to keep up with the city's growth, Ballinger said. Phoenix doesn't have the endowments or big foundations to fund them the way older cities do, he said. 

"You don't have a long history of philanthropy," Ballinger said.

And the churn in the population here makes it hard to build a brand and audience, he said.

Too many people who live in Phoenix consider their true home somewhere else, Talton said. He also sees a lack of business leaders passionate about investing in the city, and others who see it as disposable.
 
“Loving a community is a very special thing, and we’ve lost some of that,” Talton said.

MORE:17 ways you know you're a Phoenix native

It's true that many classmates from my performing-arts high school moved to other cities with no plans to come back. But I also often run into others who are promoting local businesses, acting in plays, working in social services and trying to make Phoenix a better place.

Downtown emerges as urban option

And Phoenix looks different to natives who came of age since the last time it was a top-five city. The lifestyle we can live here was impossible for our parents. 
 
The first stretch of light rail opened at the end of 2008, a concept of transit so novel for Phoenix that my friends and I took it to our tropical-themed prom at Chase Tower.
 
Phoenix dropped to the sixth-largest city in 2010, the same year Macy Gray and Third Eye Blind helped celebrate the opening of CityScape. The massive mixed-use complex brought shopping and bowling to downtown Phoenix, and dining options to supplement Baja Fresh. 
 
Now, people regularly wait in line for 20 minutes next to alley dumpsters to hear music at an underground bar. Good luck finding parking during the monthly art walks on Roosevelt Row.

The New York Times even recently listed Phoenix as an option for a car-free vacation.

That doesn’t mean everyone lives downtown. Developers are still building hundreds of single-family homes on the city’s edges.

But some suburban-raised locals have discovered an urban pocket they hardly knew existed. West Valley native Brandi Porter said she was ready to leave Phoenix after high school for a “big city” like Seattle or New York, where transit and culture seemed so accessible. 

Porter, 24, instead decided to go to Arizona State University downtown and now works for a group promoting the city center. Five years after moving to the area, she said she’s glad she stayed, even if Phoenix will never be like those other cities.

There’s tons to do, Porter said, and the area is growing. Even better, the community is close enough to know the people creating the change.

“No one can deny the progress that has been made,” Porter said. 

More than real estate and sunshine 

It’s not the first time people have been optimistic that Phoenix has finally arrived. But at recent events, such as the groundbreaking of downtown’s only grocery store or the passage of a transit tax to expand light rail, leaders said it’s starting to look like a big city.

Talton said Phoenix has had urban victories, but warns against ignoring the challenges that come with growth. City officials also stressed that how Phoenix grows is more important than its population ranking.

People still come here for its relative affordability and sunshine, Talton said. But Phoenix won’t be competitive without addressing the lack of major company headquarters and universities for a city its size, or the impact of climate change on its future, he said.

Big companies such as Dial Corp. left the city over the years, and Phoenix still has a reputation for attracting warehouses and call centers.

Economic development leaders say that's changing. They tout the surge of tech startups and offices here, but real estate is still big business.

Because even with all the growth, only about 1 percent of Phoenix's population lives in the heart of downtown, according to recent estimates from Downtown Phoenix Inc. That increases to 6 percent within a 3-mile radius of First and Washington streets.

And for many, part of the city’s appeal is that it’s not Los Angeles or Chicago or New York.

Zoning hearings are full of people who like the large lots in Arcadia and south Phoenix’s agricultural character. People want properties big enough to keep horses on just miles from downtown. It’s why they moved here.

And many residents treasure the part of Phoenix's massive land area that's undeveloped desert. At more than 16,000 acres, South Mountain Park and Preserve is often cited as the country's largest city park.

Even in the city center, urbanization is often fraught. People don’t want to lose beloved businesses to high-rises, or be priced out of renting an apartment.

I met a group of 20-somethings this month who recently relocated to Phoenix and were checking out the First Friday art walk. One came from Boston to work here remotely. Another moved from San Diego, and a third turned down a job in San Francisco for a tech position here.

“Why?” asked the other Phoenix native in the group. Those are all great cities, we both thought.

They’re great but expensive, they said. Phoenix offered the sweet spot of big-city amenities at prices they could afford.

The ones that stay here might create a new definition of what urban living means.