| NEWS | Going Mobile Postal Service data shows massive relocation in the Valley. BY MIKE MADRIAGA W e all know Arizonans are on the move. That much is plain from all the out-of-state license plates seen around town, and it’s reflected in soaring housing prices, too. But the best measure of just how mobile the state has become is seen in change-of- address data kept by the U.S. Postal Service. Last year alone, the post office took in 1.9 million change-of-address (COA) registra- tions in Arizona. Arizona ZIP codes had 980,000 new inbound registrations, while 935,000 applicants told the postal service they were leaving their Arizona ZIP code. People file COA forms when they move their primary address. It is a minutes-long procedure done inside a Postal Service facility or on the USPS.com website. It results in a request that the post office reroutes all the applicants’ mail and parcels to a new address for all or selected individuals. Phoenix New Times analyzed 2021 COA data released by the USPS in January. The data show that the mass migration was driven by out-of-state workers seeking cheaper housing where they could work remotely. But not just that. Snowbirds are returning to the Valley, in part because of relaxing travel restrictions, while skyrock- eting rents are forcing many people to move within Maricopa County. In 2021, more than a million individuals moved within the Phoenix metro area. It’s a staggering number. The population of the entire county is 4.4 million, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, meaning more than one in five Phoenix residents pulled up stakes last year. The city of Phoenix alone had 352,000 change-of-address registrations, while Mesa had 162,000, and Surprise had 46,000. Since the pandemic started in March 2020, metro Phoenix became the new hub for many California and Washington state transplants. Many kept their out-of-state jobs, wages, and benefits, but dramatically lowered their cost of living. With the lock- down, they joined the new norm of working remotely. Another thing some transplants kept 8 were their out-of-state license plates while they put off their change-of-address process. It’s a challenge to register and insure a vehicle in Arizona without claiming local residency. And while many of us might assume the 44,000-plus net COAs in Arizona are related to the out-of-state drivers bogging down rush hour traffic, most moves in metro Phoenix are likely made by fellow Maricopa County residents. In July 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that nearly 5 percent of the U.S. population moved within the same county, almost 2 percent within the same state, and 1.4 percent to a different state. The Postal Service’s COA data breaks it down further. For each ZIP code, it tracks inbound and outbound COAs monthly, as well as total registrations by businesses, families, and individuals, and which are permanent and which are temporary. It’s no surprise the 1.6 million-plus resi- dents of the city of Phoenix pulled the highest address-change registrations, with about 170,000 families, individuals, and businesses coming into the capital city’s ZIP codes, while nearly 180,000 moved away. It’s by far the biggest city in Arizona. Some people or businesses relocate within the same ZIP code, but the Postal Service does not report those figures. Business Changes Still, the data hints at business migration patterns in metro Phoenix, as they grappled with the economic turmoil of the pandemic. In March 2020, the number of busi- nesses leaving a ZIP code spiked to its highest number of the year. A year later, when Governor Doug Ducey lifted the remaining COVID-19 restrictions on Arizona events and businesses in March 2021, the highest amount of incoming busi- ness COA registrations transpired shortly after, throughout April. To be more specific, the city of Phoenix showed a sharp decline in the total of new inbound business registrations, especially in the 85016 ZIP code, the Biltmore area. Anthony Shields Anthony Shields and his wife made a COA from Wichita, Kansas, to Mesa, where they purchased a house. The upscale district is bordered by Lincoln Drive, north of the nearly 100-year-old Arizona Biltmore resort, a little past State Route 51 on its west, Thomas Road to its south, and North 32nd Street to its east. A little more than three years ago, the Biltmore area pulled the highest amount of incoming business address changes throughout the county in a month. There were 787 registrations in March 2019 alone. The area has many international eateries and quirky mom-and-pop shops sprawled within the corporate buildings, big box stores, restaurant chain diners, condos, and homes. But like every other city in America, after Ducey issued an executive order on March 20, 2020, to close down bars and restrict restaurant services to takeout and outdoor dining, everything in the Biltmore area flipped. “Well, it was tough,” said Rich Bock, who has owned and managed Giuseppe’s on 28th Street for more than 15 years. “After the shutdown, one business after another closed down.” Giuseppe’s is a popular Biltmore area Italian restaurant in the Sprouts Farmers Market strip mall on East Indian School Road and 28th Street. The restaurant was featured in the New Times’ 2016 edition of the Best of Phoenix issue and on the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives show on the Food Network. Bock said he considered joining his neighbors in closing the restaurant’s doors. But he didn’t leave and pursued the takeout option instead. Sales dropped to about 50 percent of normal, just enough to keep the family business going until 2021, Bock said. Many of the restaurants in the area weren’t as fortunate. They couldn’t stay in business solely with takeout >>p 11 Condemned Arizona’s clemency board is unfairly stacked with cops, lawyers in death row appeal claim. BY KATYA SCHWENK T he clock is ticking for Clarence Dixon, a 66-year-old man the state of Arizona plans to put to death in a few weeks. Attorney General Mark Brnovich has issued a death warrant for Dixon, setting his execution date as May 11. It would be the first time Arizona has carried out the death penalty in eight years — after a badly botched execution drew heightened scru- tiny and legal challenges to the program. But Dixon’s attorneys have launched a new challenge to the state’s plans, in a special action suit filed last week in Maricopa County Superior Court. They argue the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency — a body that has the power to recommend Dixon not be executed — is made up of too many cops and violates the law and Dixon’s legal rights. Dixon was sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin. He is one of 112 people on death row in Arizona. Bowdoin was sexually assaulted and killed in 1978. She was found strangled and stabbed to death, alone in her Tempe apart- ment. For decades, no one had answered for her death. In the years after Bowdoin died, Dixon had been convicted of raping another woman at knifepoint. He was already in prison for life when a jury handed down a death sentence in the Bowdoin case. DNA evidence connected Dixon, Bowdoin’s neighbor at the time, to the crime. Bowdoin’s family has voiced support for the death penalty in Dixon’s case. His attorneys have called the state’s decision to execute him “unconscionable.” Dixon, they argue, is now frail and blind. He has a long history of mental illness. He suffered abuse as a child. He’s also a member of the Navajo Nation, which opposes the death penalty on cultural and spiritual grounds. An elderly, disabled man who has been in prison for many years, Dixon could be a relatively strong candidate for clemency. His attorneys have asked for mercy, given his current state. But Dixon will face a board made up almost entirely of former law enforcement officials. As his attorneys emphasize in a recent filing, three of the four board members have a combined 85 years of experience in the profession. >>p 13 APRIL 21ST– APRIL 27TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
