Wake-Up Mesa! Three Fails for Higher Education Initiatives

Ever since X-Mayor Scott Smith, who resigned from office here and lost his quest to become governor to Doug Ducey, brought the idea to attract educational institutions to downtown Mesa as part of H.E.A.T. initiative, there's been mixed results to say the least with the five lured here - sure they filled vacant or under-used buildings and were given the rave-treatment, Over-Hype and Hoop-La by both city officials and the mainstream media with exaggerated claims [wishful thinking] for the transformation of downtown, economic development, a big boost in retail sales with the word 're-vitalizing playing out nowhere.

Some might say disappointing, with overblown claims that Mr. Smith wanted to use for higher office. He didn't get there. The plans he had are just not delivering the hyped promises . . . now that he's the temporary CEO of Valley Metro he's trying take us all on "other ride" --- it'll be the gravy train for commercial real estate developers hitching a free ride on the back of taxpayers who - everyone - thanks to City Hall have a debt to pay off. 

BETTER GET OUT THAT URBAN DEVELOPMENT TOOL-BOX and just stop repeating what doesn't work - for your information that's the clinical definition of insanity.

Two out of five have re-located elsewhere and two are simply under-delivering results here in Mesa . . .  do taxpayers want more?

Starting June 1, 2106 - right in the midst of the Mesa City Council looking at multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded proposals by City Manager Chris Brady for an ASU Downtown Mesa "campus" - news was made by Xavier University in Gilbert that it would be "closing its doors".
Way to go, Xavier University! [shutting down in Gilbert]
Closing its doors on what?

The  university is closing its campus in Gilbert that was built with taxpayer money.
Gilbert officials took out revenue bonds totaling $37 million to design and construct the campus .
Its seems oddly strange that both mayor of the respective towns have chosen religious imagery to refer to the university campuses - John Giles saying "it's a perfect marriage" and John Lewis saying "it's a blessing".     
Come hell or high water - or unforeseen circumstances - we shall see how this goes                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
In this report from 2014 the news then for Gilbert has an eerie resonance with the same spin on the news here in Mesa in 2016
". . .  in 2015, downtown Gilbert will be welcoming a new type of business that will further invigorate the local economy while adding to the vibrant success of the Heritage district. . .
. . . a Catholic university based out of Chicago has signed off on the establishment of a satellite campus in Gilbert. The four-story building, which boasts more than 80,000 square feet of space and is projected to accommodate upwards of 1,000 students . . . Scott Powell, an economic development administrator for the town of Gilbert, said that the student demographic will provide a new marketing base for businesses downtown while adding to the success of popular establishments . . .
“When it comes to businesses directly around the university, they’ll see more foot traffic,” Willman said. “Directly overall, the positive impacts that a small university has really depends on what town that is. The university seems to be a way for Gilbert to flesh out its identity, in a sense. It’s definitely a good thing.”
In addition to the continuation of economic success downtown, the students at St. Xavier have the potential to spark a wave of small-scale shops and retail boutiques catered directly to the college lifestyle.
“I think [St. Xavier] will attract a new crowd of college-aged people that will really diversify the community down here,” said Gilbert resident Taylor Bergholz. “I’m downtown all the time, so it’ll be interesting to see what new restaurants or shops come out of the university . . . “The hope is that these students will drive the demand to put in space for new developments to come in,” Powell said. “The university and any new development that will come with it is definitely going to have an invigorating impact on the downtown economy . . ."