Morrison Institute for Public Policy Publications Archives

The U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent report shows Arizona has the second highest poverty rate in the nation. This shameful distinction calls attention to a long-standing social problem that has been exacerbated by challenging economic times. In this edition of Policy Points, authors Richard C. Knopf and Brian Simpson examine the increasing demand for emergency food assistance, hunger's impact on children, and the growing number of Arizonans experiencing need for the first time.

It’s been more than five decades now since Scottsdale incorporated as a city.During that time, the city emerged as one of the most well-known communities in the Western United States—or, as the local logan says,“The West’s Most Western Town.” From the 1950s onward, Scottsdale combined upscale resorts, an outstanding arts and culture scene, and a spectacular natural setting to create a cachet that few other cities anywhere in the nation could match. So powerful was the Scottsdale name that the city focused on competing nationally with other brand name towns, rather than operating within the context of metropolitan Phoenix.

For a century, Arizona has pursued prosperity through outward expansion of its urban areas. In metropolitan Phoenix and elsewhere, “growth” has meant developing raw land with new houses, new shopping centers, and new industrial parks--and the metropolitan “frontier” has moved farther outward from downtown every year. This has not been uniformly true, of course. Some cities--Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale especially--have been grappling with the question of revitalizing older urban neighborhoods for many years. But the “outside game” has been the predominant development pattern in the Valley of Sun for many decades. And the Phoenix region has played this game better than one might think, creating many high-quality master-planned communities, protecting lots of open space, using impact fees to build good infrastructure. In other words, Phoenix has used the “outside game” to create a region so attractive it continues to be one of the fastest-growing metropolises in America. But in order for cities to play a good inside game, Arizona must get serious about urban revitalization. And that will require big changes.

Fast Growth in Metropolitan Phoenix is the first product of a comprehensive effort to describe and analyze the region’s growth. The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy in Washington, D.C. presented the opportunity for this project to Morrison Institute for Public Policy. The story of growth in metropolitan Phoenix is a complicated, often surprising, tale. There is much to be proud of in the region. Yet there is also much to worry about, and much that needs to be done. Hits and Misses will have been successful if it becomes a catalyst for getting started.

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive statistics about firearm deaths in Arizona from 2015 to 2017. Morrison Institute for Public Policy partnered with the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety (CVPCS) to compile, analyze and report on all firearm deaths in a three-year period. Through the mechanisms of data integration and abstraction from death certificates, autopsy and toxicology reports, and law enforcement investigations, the Arizona Violent Death Reporting System (AZ-VDRS) as a National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) partner, seeks to contribute to public understanding of firearm deaths in Arizona. Understanding the scope and nature of firearm deaths at state and local levels informs local and state authorities, policymakers and other stakeholders.

COVID-19 has disrupted almost every facet of American life, but the pandemic’s economic impact has been especially challenging for some of Arizona’s renters. Prior to COVID-19, approximately one in seven Arizonans lived in poverty, which is defined as earning less than $13,000 a year for a single adult and less than $22,000 a year for a three-person family. More Arizonans are one crisis away from severe financial hardship and potential eviction than just Arizonans living in poverty. Preventing an eviction “avalanche” after Arizona’s eviction moratorium ends is critical to the state’s finances because the costs, shouldered in part by taxpayers, associated with eviction and homelessness can be staggering. While financial support from unemployment insurance programs, the federal CARES Act, and Arizona’s eviction prevention fund are helping some Arizonans navigate the initial economic fallout from COVID-19, there are still thousands of Arizonans on the brink who have applied for rental assistance and not received support.

Arizona State University's Morrison Institute policy analyst David Schlinkert is a doctoral student at ASU. He recently traveled to Florence Detention Center to observe an asylum court proceeding for one of his immigration policy classes where he discovered that for many asylum seekers, the purgatory of seeking asylum may seem more like an eternity, and the detention stay more like a prison sentence than any prospect or promise of safety and freedom.