His son Norman Chandler, 1899-1973, b. Los Angeles, joined the Times as his father's secretary and became general manager (1936) and publisher (1945). Under his leadership the paper changed and expanded; it became one of the leading newspapers in the region, led the city in circulation beginning in the late 1940s, and also achieved national stature. Norman Chandler also moderated the paper's conservatism some. He also headed the Times Mirror Company, the newpaper's parent company, which became the publisher of reference books, bibles, and other books as well as additional newspapers. Dorothy Buffum Chandler, 1901-97, b. Lafayette, Ill., married Norman Chandler in 1922 and became one of Los Angeles's civic and cultural leaders. She spearheaded the fundraising that led to the building of a new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a general rejuvenation of the city's performing arts.
Their son, Otis Chandler, 1927-2006, b. Los Angeles, began at the Times as an assistant pressman on the late-night shift, worked as a reporter and an executive, and became the publisher in 1960. Hiring the best available reporters and editors, increasing the paper's coverage, and greatly moderating its generally conservative stance, he made the Times a journalistic force on par with the New York Times and the Washington Post. Chandler retired as publisher in 1980, but his influence on the family media empire remained strong until the Times Mirror Co. was sold in 2000.
See D. Halberstam, The Powers That Be (1979, repr. 2000); D. Alef, Harry Chandler: Man with the Midas Touch (2009); D. McDougal, Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L. A. Times Dynasty (2001).
See his collected early works, ed. by M. J. Bruccoli, Chandler before Marlowe (2d ed. 1973); Stories and Early Novels (1995) and Later Novels and Other Writings (1995), both ed. by F. MacShane; his letters, ed. by F. MacShane (1981), The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction, 1909-1959 (2001), ed. by T. Hiney and F. MacShane; biographies by F. MacShane (1976, repr. 1986) and T. Hiney (1997); studies by J. Speir (1981) and W. Marling (1986).
See biographies by W. C. Harris (1917) and M. K. George (1969); T. H. Williams, Lincoln and the Radicals (1941).
(born Dec. 17, 1796, Windsor, Nova Scotia—died Aug. 27, 1865, Isleworth, Middlesex, Eng.) Canadian writer. He served in the legislature of his native Nova Scotia and later served as a judge of the Supreme Court (1841–54), where he maintained the strong conservatism that informs his writings. He moved to England in 1856 and was a member of Parliament from 1859 until his death. He is best known for creating the character Sam Slick, a Yankee clock peddler and cracker-barrel philosopher whose escapades first appeared in the newspaper Nova Scotian and were later published in The Clockmaker (1836, 1838, 1840) and other volumes.
Learn more about Haliburton, Thomas Chandler with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born July 23, 1888, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died March 26, 1959, La Jolla, Calif.) U.S. writer of detective fiction. Chandler worked as an oil-company executive in California before turning to writing during the Great Depression. Early short stories were followed by screenplays, including Double Indemnity (1944), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and Strangers on a Train (1951). His character Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled private detective working in the Los Angeles underworld, appears in all seven of his novels, including The Big Sleep (1939; film, 1946 and 1978), Farewell, My Lovely (1940; film Murder, My Sweet, 1944, and Farewell, My Lovely, 1975), and The Long Good-Bye (1953; film, 1973). Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are regarded as the classic authors of the hard-boiled genre.
Learn more about Chandler, Raymond (Thornton) with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born Dec. 9, 1848, Eatonton, Ga., U.S.—died July 3, 1908, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. writer. He became known as a humorist in his pieces for various newspapers, including (1876–1900) the Atlanta Constitution. He created a vogue for a distinct type of dialect literature with “Tar-Baby” (1879) and later stories that drew on folklore and featured the character Uncle Remus, a wise, genial old black man who weaves his philosophy of life into tales about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other animals.
Learn more about Harris, Joel Chandler with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born Dec. 9, 1848, Eatonton, Ga., U.S.—died July 3, 1908, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. writer. He became known as a humorist in his pieces for various newspapers, including (1876–1900) the Atlanta Constitution. He created a vogue for a distinct type of dialect literature with “Tar-Baby” (1879) and later stories that drew on folklore and featured the character Uncle Remus, a wise, genial old black man who weaves his philosophy of life into tales about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other animals.
Learn more about Harris, Joel Chandler with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born Dec. 17, 1796, Windsor, Nova Scotia—died Aug. 27, 1865, Isleworth, Middlesex, Eng.) Canadian writer. He served in the legislature of his native Nova Scotia and later served as a judge of the Supreme Court (1841–54), where he maintained the strong conservatism that informs his writings. He moved to England in 1856 and was a member of Parliament from 1859 until his death. He is best known for creating the character Sam Slick, a Yankee clock peddler and cracker-barrel philosopher whose escapades first appeared in the newspaper Nova Scotian and were later published in The Clockmaker (1836, 1838, 1840) and other volumes.
Learn more about Haliburton, Thomas Chandler with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born July 23, 1888, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died March 26, 1959, La Jolla, Calif.) U.S. writer of detective fiction. Chandler worked as an oil-company executive in California before turning to writing during the Great Depression. Early short stories were followed by screenplays, including Double Indemnity (1944), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and Strangers on a Train (1951). His character Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled private detective working in the Los Angeles underworld, appears in all seven of his novels, including The Big Sleep (1939; film, 1946 and 1978), Farewell, My Lovely (1940; film Murder, My Sweet, 1944, and Farewell, My Lovely, 1975), and The Long Good-Bye (1953; film, 1973). Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are regarded as the classic authors of the hard-boiled genre.
Learn more about Chandler, Raymond (Thornton) with a free trial on Britannica.com.
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Most of Chandler's economy was successfully sustained during the Great Depression (a second San Marcos hotel was canceled due to the Depression however), but the cotton crash a few years later had a much deeper impact on the city's residents. Later, the founding of Williams Air Force Base in 1941 led to a small surge in population, but Chandler still only held 3,800 people by 1950. By 1980, it had grown to 30,000, and it has since paced the Phoenix metropolitan area's high rate of growth, with vast suburban residential areas swallowing former agricultural plots. Some of this growth was fueled by the establishment of manufacturing plants for communications and computing firms such as Motorola and Intel, but despite the inclusion of many large businesses, Chandler is often considered a bedroom community for the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.
Chandler is located at (33.303237, -111.841328).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 58.0 square miles (150.2 km²), of which, 57.9 square miles (149.9 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km²) of it (0.17%) is water.
Chandler has reached its physical limits save for some remaining county islands and cannot expand outward anymore due to being bound in by the Gila River Indian Community, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, and Phoenix.
As of the census of 2000, there were 176,581 people, 62,377 households, and 45,410 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,050.5 people per square mile (1,177.7/km²). There were 66,592 housing units at an average density of 1,150.4/sq mi (444.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 76.19% White, 3.48% Black or African American, 1.20% Native American, 4.22% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 10.76% from other races, and 3.01% from two or more races. 21.99% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Following the 2000 census, Chandler has remained one of the fastest growing cities in America, reaching population growth above 20% since this time. Growth is expected to subside within the next ten years due to fixed borders with Pinal County and the Gila River Indian Reservation to the south, Mesa and Tempe to the north, Phoenix to the west, and Gilbert to the northeast.
There were 62,377 households out of which 41.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.5% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.2% were non-families. 19.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.26.
In the city the population was spread out with 29.8% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 38.0% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 5.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $68,416, and the median income for a family was $82,720. Males had a median income of $44,578 versus $31,763 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,904. About 4.6% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.7% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over.
Mayor: Boyd Dunn
Vice Mayor: Lowell Huggins
Council Members
Chandler is noted for its annual Ostrich Festival Initially, agriculture was the primary business in Chandler, based on cotton, corn, and alfalfa. During the 1910s, there were ostrich farms in the area, catering to the demand for plumes used in women's hats of the era. This demand ebbed with the increasing popularity of the automobile, but the legacy of the ostrich farms would be commemorated by the Ostrich Festival. The Chandler Center for the Arts, a 1,500-seat regional performing arts venue, is located downtown, and the Arizona Railway Museum is at Tumbleweed Park.
Since 2003, more than 2,900 jobs and investments totalling $3 billion have been created along the Price and Santan freeways, between Arizona Avenue and Gilbert Road in the so-called South Arizona Avenue Corridor. Three shopping malls provide a "strong attraction" to such an open-ended, high exposure trade area: the 1.3 million square-foot Chandler Fashion Center, opened in 2001, has spurred on several courts and laneway developments. In the southern end of the Corridor, Wal-Mart is expected to draw business from as far south as the Hunt Highway, bringing with it a "large consumer population" which will improve "the image and perception of the area" in the mindset of many Greater Phoenix residents and state commercial retailers. The northern portion is "attractive [enough] and possesses the historic character" for success, which "can be grown to the south".
Education alternatives include charter schools, Christian schools, parochial schools, magnet schools, as well as "traditional" academies.
The Chandler Public Library (CPL) serves Chandler and the greater Phoenix East Valley. The main branch is located in downtown Chandler, with three additional branches located throughout the city: Sunset, Basha High School, and Hamilton High School. Basha and Hamilton branches are shared-use facilities located on high school campuses.
As part of a family literacy project to encourage literacy and library use among families who live in public housing, the Chandler Public Library visited three public housing locations to offer a four-week series of programs at each.
The Chandler Community Services Department serves Chandler residents in a variety of ways by providing recreation, fitness, cultural, artistic and educational opportunities along with classes, programs and special events. The Community Services Department, located in Old Downtown Chandler, operates the community center, senior center, dozens of local neighborhood and community parks, two recreation centers and six aquatic centers.
Chandler's recreational offerings provide residents and visitors with different interests and skill levels with the facilities to participate in many sports, activities and hobbies. The department publishes a quarterly recreation magazine called Break Time that is distributed free at many city facilities, through a free subscription service and at five Fry's Food and Drug in Chandler.
A sampling of programs available through the City of Chandler Community Services Department and its Recreation and Aquatics Divisions include: swim lessons; Arizona Travel Series; junior tennis clinics and leagues; youth classes and programs; youth sports; after-school teen recreation centers; summer youth sports camps and arts camps; fitness classes; group aerobics and dance classes; nature and sustainable living courses; adult classes, sports leagues and outdoor recreation programs; senior adult classes and programs; therapeutic recreation and Special Olympics programs for disabled youths and adults.
The City's regional Tumbleweed Park hosts a variety of special events throughout the year, including the annual Ostrich Festival, the Fourth of July Fireworks Festival and the second annual Day of Play presented by Coyotes Athletic Centers that will be held Saturday, October 18, 2008 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
On Sept. 6, 2008, the national non-profit organiztiona Kaboom! based in Washington, D.C. announced that Chandler was a 2008 Playful City USA community. There were 67 cities selected nationwide and Chandler was one of 26 to repeat the honor from last year. Chandler was recognized for taking an innovative approaches to make play a priority throughout the city with its many recreational amenities, parks and aquatic centers.
The Environmental Education Center at the Chandler Heights Community Facilities, a shared-use site with the Municipal Utilities Division and the Chandler Police Department, recently won Valley Forward's prestigious Environmental Excellence Award in the category of "Site Development and Landscape for Parks."
A list of the City of Chandler's Recreation facilities includes:
Chandler is served by three limited access highways:
, are along the city's Price Road Corridor. Air Products' industrial pipelines located there are unique to the metropolitan area. South of Pecos, the freeway borders the Gila River Indian Community. 2008 4-X World Champion 2008 U.S. National DH and 4X Champion 2007 U.S. National Dual Slalom Champion 2005 U.S. National DH Champion

the stadium (Compadre Stadium), built in 1985, still stands as of 2008, unused and in a state of disrepair after only being used for twelve seasons.