Listen Up, Folks! Here's An Idea for Downtown Transformation > Invite BYU

[Updated 12 June 2016]

Happened to catch a quick sound-byte on the radio - here's a link to tune in to the entire promotion titled 

Mesa Hopes New ASU Campus Spurs Downtown Growth [with word "hope" emphasis]

By  Lauren Gilger

Published: Thursday, June 9, 2016 - 2:44pm

Updated: Thursday, June 9, 2016 - 4:25pm

with Jeff McVay on KJZZ this afternoon for more media hype where he mentioned the LDS Temple as one of the downtown's "great amenities" stating it was the first one constructed in the United States outside of Salt Lake City . . . so, following that forward-thinking to run off a list of amenities [usually used to promote real estate] instead of proposing a Pie-In-The-Sky scheme for an ASU Downtown campus here that would devour and radically transform downtown Mesa just like ASU devoured downtown Tempe with fast-food joints, boisterous bars and booms for private developers in student housing 

QUESTION: Is this the kind of transformation we can believe in? ...or the kind of transformation everyone wants?
Just another one of those slick-and-quick Fiascos from City Hall that would spend over $100 Million of taxpayers' money targeting at attracting only one specific demographic - so-called Millennials? 

Are we not a multi-generational group here in Mesa?
[and who needs to make "a deal with the Devil to import transient students??]

Why not really put Mesa on the map and establish a satellite campus here for Brigham Young University??

. . . THIS  would be the perfect marriage to continue the faith, education, heritage, religion and traditions of this city's founders and pioneers and their descendants [sometimes numbering over 100 from just one "founding father"] who have established an active network of LDS faith-based wards and stakes in all of the six election districts here in Mesa. It is not infrequent that many of those elected - the Mayor and six Mesa City Councilmembers - to serve the public interests in the diverse city's population also served as bishops and presidents of LDS stakes. Other religions organize as parishes for congregations of believers who are less active in local politics and usually do not vote as an entire bloc or ask for high voter turnout to support certain selected candidates.

 

The demographics for the student body enrollment would certainly fulfill all the desires to attract millennialls here [see description below]

• BYU is recognized as one of the best private religious universities in the U.S.
• Many elected government officials and employees inside City Hall have earned Bachelor's and/or Master's degrees from this institution of higher learning.
• Its reputation for department and program excellence goes unchallenged.
• Its athletic department [Mascot Cosmo The Cougar is shown in image] is strong.
• Financing the construction would be a cinch since many of the descendants of the pioneers who have earned fortunes in agriculture, business and commerce, and real estate development are certainly generous individuals.

Having BYU students here would, in addition, relieve some of the concerns about rowdy and drunk students, and issues of public safety.

 

 

 

According to Wikipedia  Brigham Young University (often referred to as BYU or, colloquially, The Y) is a private research university located in Provo, Utah, United States.

It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and, excluding online students, is the largest of any religious university and the third largest private university in the United States, with 29,672^[5] on-campus students.^[9][10][11] Approximately 99 percent of the students are members of the LDS Church, and one-third of its US students are from Utah.^[12]

Students attending BYU are required to follow an honor code, which mandates behavior in line with LDS teachings such as academic honesty, adherence to dress and grooming standards, and abstinence from extramarital sex and from the consumption of drugs and alcohol.^[13] Many students (88 percent of men, 33 percent of women) either delay enrollment or take a hiatus from their studies to serve as Mormon missionaries.^[14][15] (Men typically serve for two-years, while women serve for 18 months.) An education at BYU is also less expensive than at similar private universities,^[16] since "a significant portion" of the cost of operating the university is subsidized by the church's tithing funds.^[17]

Some may ask:  Why BYU?

 ......but I say Why not?