15 Feb 16th–Feb 22nd, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | cONTeNTs | feeDBacK | OPiNiON | NeWs | feaTuRe | NighT+Day | culTuRe | film | cafe | music | bully him into selling the property,” said Jordan Greenman, a land-use attorney representing Palmer. “Which is what they tried to do many times in the past — and failed.” The ‘Cow Guy’ To many of the 24,000 students who take classes on GCU’s campus, Palmer is known simply as “cow guy” — an enigmatic and at times threatening figure. “The view of Gail is that he’s crazy, dangerous, stubborn,” said Andrea Barrios, a film production student at the university. Students whisper that Palmer was offered millions of dollars for his land and refused to sell and that he chases trespassers away with a gun, she said. A thriving ecosystem of TikTok videos documents the “swamp cows” of Grand Canyon University and their myste- rious owner. Yet in person, Palmer is less curmud- geonly than you might imagine from an elderly landlord fighting with a powerful neighbor. He has a wry sense of humor, and laughed often at GCU’s distaste of his property. He is deeply Christian, a quality he does not find in GCU. “Those kids,” he said of the students. “Their moms and dads think they’re going to a Christian organiza- tion. But they’re a bunch of crooks.” Palmer spoke to New Times in January, sitting in the empty living room of one of his duplexes along Colter Street. The place was being remodeled for new tenants. It was one of the first days of the spring semester and the street — which visitors access after stopping at a GSU-staffed guard shack — was flooded with students. As Palmer looked on, a group of five people on skateboards grabbed each other’s hands and fanned out across the street like a daisy chain. “Look at this,” he said, shaking his head. As Palmer spoke, he spread a large map across the floor: a bird’s-eye view of the neighborhood. On it, he traced the contours of GCU’s domain, which stretches west to east from 35th Avenue to Interstate 17, between Camelback Road and Missouri Avenue. From here, Palmer pointed to the center of the campus along Colter Street to a small, rectangular lot — his own property with the cows and the rentals. It was, he said, “right at the center of the bullseye.” Palmer grew up on this piece of land, although now he lives nearby. His family moved to the lot in 1949, when he was 10 years old. His father, a welder, set up a workshop on the land. It wasn’t until two years later, in 1951, that Grand Canyon College moved into the 90-acre lot next door. Palmer was there first. Once, much of the land that is now GCU’s campus looked like Palmer’s prop- erty today — small farm properties with livestock and a house or two in the front. “This was way out in the country, way, way out,” Palmer said. The city eventually reached it. So did GCU. Aided by skyrocketing online enroll- ment, GCU has embarked on an “aggres- sive” spree of real estate purchases over the last 10 years. “As far as I’m concerned, they want to own Camelback to Missouri, 35th Avenue to I-17,” said Shirley Dieckman, the volunteer leader of the Alhambra Neighborhood Association, who has lived just south of GCU’s campus for more than 40 years. “And they’ve pretty much bought it all. Except for Gail,” she added. Other holdouts do remain: Colter Commons, an affordable housing apart- ment complex mostly for seniors, Woe from p 13 Gail Palmer points out the GCU campus surrounding his property on an aerial photo of the area. Katya Schwenk >> p 16
