EDITOR’S LETTER: Peaches and cream

For those of us who live a routine lifestyle, time flies by. Days blend together and fall off the calendar like peaches from a tree.

Nothing slowed the clock quite like the pandemic — the greatest disruption to our routines with lockdowns, time away from work and so much more. Perhaps that’s why — for me and many like me — 2023 felt so inexplicably fast. In many ways, we returned to normal. In other ways, we finished our adjustment to the new normal.

In any case, my first year in charge of InMaricopa really flew by! But that doesn’t mean we didn’t report a whole lot of news last year. We won our first Arizona Newspaper Association awards and published more than 1,400 articles for our largest audience ever. While 2023 feels like a blur, some of those stories will stick with me forever. Take a trip down memory lane in this issue as we reflect on the biggest news events of the year in Maricopa.

Now, we’ve been handed a New Year and there’s no telling what local storylines are begging to be uncovered betwixt the leaves of the 2024 calendar. It’s an election year in the city and the nation. Artificial intelligence is expected to proliferate and goad misinformation online. NASA will put another man on the moon, while COVID-19 will become endemic like the common cold.

Pantone named peach fuzz as its Color of the Year for 2024. Whether that conjures images of the juicy stone fruits that symbolize my southeastern home state or a, ahem, derrière — Pantone’s color experts say the muted blushy tone epitomizes the year ahead, describing it as “warm and welcoming.”

I’ve found Maricopa to be warm (literally and figuratively) and very welcoming. I have no doubt peach fuzz will aptly symbolize the coming annum as this city — now among the three fastest-growing locales in the west — continues to welcome more new neighbors.

And speaking of peaches — it doesn’t take an analyst of news trends to figure out Maricopans buzz more over new restaurant whispers than just about anything else, save maybe the 347 and all its woes. That’s why this edition contains a comprehensive local restaurant guide that’s certain to leave even the most fervid foodies salivating.

Truly, a champagne clink sums up this issue best — that’s why I put it on the cover. What could more adequately symbolize ringing in the New Year with a celebration of our city’s food and drink?

On the global stage, the coming year could be chaotic and unpredictable. Wars brewing in Israel, Ukraine, Guyana and Ethiopia, major elections in the world’s largest countries, rapid advancement of AI and insecure public health. It’s the Year of the Dragon, according to the Chinese zodiac, and that implies such anxieties. But it’s also the luckiest in the 12-year cycle.

We’ll see what the New Year brings for the world. In Maricopa, I’d say it’s all peaches and cream.

The January edition of InMaricopa Magazine is in Maricopa mailboxes and available online.