THE 1987 PEIRCE REPORT ON GREATER PHOENIX

In 1987, Neal Peirce and a team of journalists produced a deep-dive series of articles on the civic, economic, and social strengths and weaknesses of the Greater Phoenix area. These articles — collectively known as the “Peirce Report” — ran in The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette in February of 1987, and generated a robust local debate about how to make the Phoenix region work better. It was the first of more than two dozen Peirce Reports that Neal and his colleagues would go on to write in cities across the United States.

• Download a scan of the 1987 Peirce Report as it appeared in The Phoenix Gazette.

• Read a plain-text version of the 1987 Peirce Report and sidebars. 
• Watch a 1987 interview with Neal Peirce on Horizon, the local PBS station’s public-affairs program.