On The Media Takes On The Media, Polls + Poverty

Thank you WNYC, and especially Brooke Gladstone
Hit the link and listen >> http://www.wnyc.org/shows/otm/episodes

Got 5 Minutes? Help Shape ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan

Arizona Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 10/26/2016 02:26 PM MST. 

 

 

 

If you would like alerts on this and other ADOT news, sign up above to receive  GovDelivery notices.

Got five minutes? You can help shape ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan Interactive online survey available until Nov. 11 lets you rank what’s most important

PHOENIX – In transportation, ADOT is constantly looking ahead. What needs will emerge over the next 25 years? What new technologies will influence how our transportation system operates? How will we fund necessary improvements? One of the ways the Arizona Department of Transportation looks to the future is “What Moves You Arizona,” the Long-Range Transportation Plan we up-dated every five years. They need your input to do that. ADOT has developed an interactive online survey that’s easy and engaging. It gives you the opportunity to rank six transportation priorities: preservation, expansion, safety, technology, accessibility, and maintenance and operations. You get a budget and determine how much of it you’d allocate for each priority. Then you decide tradeoff scenarios that further define your priorities. This survey lets you experience what we face as transportation planners: setting priorities and making difficult choices with limited resources.  Those who’ve participated so far have ranked safety and expansion highly. And when it comes to managing funds, preservation and expansion get the most dollars for transportation investments. ADOT wants to hear from more of you! The survey is available until Nov. 11 at whatmovesyouarizona.metroquest.com. It only takes a few minutes and can be completed on a computer, smartphone or tablet. A Spanish-language version of the survey is also available via the link. While ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan isn’t project-specific, it does identify investment priorities based on current and projected transportation funding over the next 25 years. It’s up to the public, policymakers and communities to tell ADOT what’s important to them throughout the long-range planning process, and to prioritize projects and funding. Visit azdot.gov/WhatMovesYouArizona for more information on ADOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan and to leave a comment. The website also lists study milestones, including a full summary of 12 workshops held earlier this year around the state.  The final version of the plan is expected to be complete in early 2017.       Uploaded on May 26, 2010 Views: 352 Part of a commitment to looking into the future, and working with all stakeholders to build a plan, ADOT community outreach staff from across the talk about the challenges, opportunities and critical need for public input into the process. (An award-winning video.) Category News & Politics

6.6 EARTHQUAKE/ITALY/TAU NUTRINOS

Published on Oct 30, 2016

SAN GRASSO UNDERGROUND LABORATORY, ITALY. OPERATION OPERA AND ICARUS.http://www.BPEarthWatch.Com
https://www.youtube.com/user/paulbegl...

Local First > Talented Documentary Film-Maker Bruce Nelson To Honor Mesa Veterans In New Project

 

One of the missions for this blog site it to encourage and support Creative Place Making here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa.
Back in March of last year there was a post about the Washington Escobedo Neighborhood in a feature about new initiatives regenerating a dark chapter in Mesa's history: segregation, neglect, demolition but more importantly re-building our diverse communities.
Many people have played active and engaging roles creating public and private partnerships, among them Gorman Construction Company and Bruce Nelson who was bred, born and raised here.
His previous two documentaries have been well-received and financially-supported by both individuals and local organizations.

Film screenings have taken place at the world famous Nile Theater here on Main Street since 1924, adding to the cachet and reputation of this arts-and-entertain venue.
The Nile Theater opened in 1924, as a “For Whites Only” theater it was owned by Menhennet, Nace, and Rickards as the prim-ere movie and live venue in Arizona. It hosted talkie films, silent short films, minstrel shows, vaudeville companies, and local community performances.
The Nile was segregated around the early to mid-1930’s. Now under the management of the Mantooth Group, the new Nile Theater is shamelessly taking the Arizona music scene by storm. Historically known for its voracious appetite for memorable hardcore, punk, metal, and rock shows, the “World Famous” Nile Theater is streaming precious life-blood into the desert one incredibly kick-ass show at a time. Your music. Your venue. Our community. Own it
Bruce has a new documentary in the works now that is currently raising funds for production

Current Project

Washington-Escobedo Veterans of WW I and WW II Exhibition and Documentary

Project overview

Actor/filmmaker Bruce Nelson is currently in pre-production to create a documentary film and historical exhibit about the African American & Latino Veterans of WW I and WWII who lived in Washington-Escobedo in Mesa. The exhibit includes personal family photos and newspaper articles about this group of unknown Veterans. The exhibit will be on display at Mesa Pubic Library (Main Branch downtown) and The Escobedo-Heritage Room located in the Washington-Escobedo Community to celebrate Black History Month 2017.

The documentary will screen at the Mesa Library Main Branch and world famous The Nile Theater in downtown Mesa. Nelson is a local actor /filmmaker whose documentary North Town was screened at the Mesa Arts Center in June 2015 and at the Mesa Library in February 2015. North Town: Heritage of A Black Community is about the once segregated African American community in Mesa. His current documentary Nile Theater is about the world famous Nile Theater in downtown Mesa and is an official selection of the Jerome Indie Film & Music Festival and the Long Beach International Indie Film Festival

Nelson has received a small grant from Gorman & Company of $500.00. Nelson is seeking your financial support. The budget for the project is $6,700.00 the funds will be used for the production cost. i.e. producer, writer, director of photography, lighting design, sound design, editor, photo copies, camera rental, etc. Any amount would be greatly appreciated.

Please consider encouraging and supporting this local talent
Here's a link for more information and to make  a donation > http://nebproduction.com/projects/

Re: Question 1 on Nov 8 > ONE WEEK TO GO VOTE NO

It is wrong for many reasons, some of which are exposed here by one candidate in the only open campaign for Mesa City Council District 2, Jeremy Whittaker.
He's been featured in a number of posts on this blog site.
Other posts here have grappled with issues of politics here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa - anywhere there are people there are politics; that's what the word means.
Your MesaZona blogger is thrilled and excited to report that this blog has received over 64,000 views to date.
You don't get news, information and opinion like this anymore.
So let's get on with it ... [link to source after excerpts]



Jeremy Whittaker @ City Hall Plaza

Why I do not support the Mesa Question 1 which is a massive 23% tax hike
My opponent supports raising Mesa sales tax by 23%.  This must be approved by voters and will be on the November ballot.  There are primarily three reasons why I do not support raising the Mesa sales tax from 1.75% to 2.15%.  When a government entity whether it be city, county, state, or federal says they want to raise our current tax rate by 23% everyone should be paying attention.  The first reason is a lot more simpler than the other two.  We should not be bundling public safety and education when asking voters to approve a 23% tax increase.  The second reason is multiple studies show we are in a higher education bubble.  When this bubble bursts one has to ask if the city of Mesa has built in protections against the higher education occupants of these buildings that we’re all subsidizing with our tax dollars.  Xavier just did this same exact thing in downtown Gilbert and the taxpayers in Gilbert were left footing the bill – http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/gilbert/2016/05/31/gilberts-saint-xavier-university-close/85207474/.  The last reason I do not support this 23% tax increase a little more difficult and will take some time to explain.  In summary we have a special interest group buying our city council candidates.  They buy them because they can then use them, once elected, to raise taxes rather than address the insolvent public safety pension system.  This needs to be fixed at a state level.  Instead of dealing with the reality that they bankrupt the system they would rather raise taxes and force our city into more debt through unfunded liabilities.  I believe we need to face this issue head on.  But we cannot do this without first addressing that the leaders of the system have purchased our council candidates.
Why this is another taxpayer bailout
I will preface this by stating that our public safety personnel are critical to a well-functioning city but the problem is their leadership has failed them. Unfortunately, the money is gone and nobody wants to talk about it. As we’ve come too familiar with in politics we just try to patch the issue.  The problem is with the PSPRS (Public Safety Personnel Retirement System) management. We as taxpayers in Mesa and every other municipality have already funded the retirement system through taxation. So much so that in the early 2000’s it was almost 130% funded. The pension was gambled away and all of the assets were put at risk. Now to date it is somewhere around 50.13% funded and that is assuming a 7.5% annualized return, which is also not realistic given central banks imposing negative interest rates around the world.  Some estimates have said this system is as much as $49 billion in the red.
We should ask, why are none of the politicians and leaders of PSPRS watching out for the beat cop and firefighter who risk their lives every day to protect us?  Our leadership has bankrupt their pension and if elected I would demand we investigate and file a lawsuit against those who have a fiduciary responsibility to watch out for our public safety workers.
These men and women risk their lives every day.  The last thing they should have to worry about is if their pension is going to be there when they’re done serving our community.

In this chart (to the right) you can see this system used to be fully funded in 2003. Now in 2015 it’s 48% funded.  This is almost $6.6 billion dollars in the red.
Keep in mind this is assuming the system can return 7.5% a year.  Since 2002 it has barely cracked 5%

This loss of capital by the pension management has created a huge unfunded liability for the city, as the city is on the hook to refund these lost funds. This also becomes apparent when you look at the skyrocketing cost of hiring a new public safety official. This simple chart shows the drastic increase in cost for a public safety worker over the last 10 years. The majority of this is due to the pressure of the pension system in which the funds were gambled away by the leadership.  I should be clear, this is not the fault of the men and women who defend our city every day.  This is the result of reckless gambling by the leadership of this system.  The state legislature needs to fix this before it is too late.  

Did the state legislature make this problem worse?
As bad as this situation is the state legislature this year passed SB1428 which allows for new public safety workers to opt out of the pension system and into a 401K like program or tier.  This relinquishes their responsibility to support any public safety worker hired prior to 2012. If you are a public safety worker and were hired prior to 2012 you should be paying attention to what this does.  

It does not take a highly intelligent person to figure out what happens to a pension system when it’s 49% funded and $6.5 billion in the red and new public safety workers can opt out. The system gets top heavy when older workers retire, then the system collapses. Here is an example of what happened when the city of we got rid of the elected official retirement pension or EORP. It took 2 years but the you can clearly see as the older workers retired the unfunded liability jumped off the charts. Luckily the membership in this system is EORP pension is low. That is not the case with PSPRS which is billions of dollars.  Furthermore it is important to note that the new hires under SB1428 are only responsible for their own tier of unfunded liabilities.  This almost guarantees the system will collapse and municipalities around the state of Arizona will be on the hook for billions of dollars of lost money.  Public safety workers hired prior to 2012 will be hurt the most.  As soon as this system begins to collapse the municipalities will all push back and will have no choice because of the strained budget.  We have got to demand that a full investigation is done to recover the funds that were gambled away.  Our public safety workers deserve better.  They should not be risking their lives every day only to find out their pension will not be there one day.
Should the special interest groups be able to buy city council candidates so they vote to raise our taxes?

To “fix” this issue the current leadership has decided they will buy the City Council and raise taxes by 23%.  This is typical of any politician.  If you can’t fix it let’s just keep taxing people until they can no longer afford to live.  If we do not demand accountability then what stops this reckless investing from bankrupting the system a second time?
This is apparent in the public safety “question 1” which is being proposed in November to raise sales tax 23% from 1.75% today to 2.15% if it passes(more info). What system is allowed to risk billions of dollars of assets and if it is all lost allows for taxpayers to keep replenishing it?
There is no responsibility and accountability here and PSPRS might as well keep investing in the riskiest of assets.  If they do well they make a great return.  If they don’t the taxpayer simply pays for the losses.  
This is why the public safety management fundraises and spends thousands of dollars buying city council members every election, this is an example of special interest groups on a local level buying candidates who support raising our taxes for their own special interests.  
This is what is wrong with our government today.

For more information and details
Go to this >> http://www.jeremywhittaker.com/direct/23-tax-increase/?gclid=COXVhvL4g9ACFUxsfgod1LYLSg

Work-In-Progress: Historic Adaptive Re-Use of The Alhambra Hotel > Regenerating The New Urban DTMesa

Community Development Partners and Venue Builders are collaborating to turn what was once one of the best hotels downtown into student housing for Benedictine University, The $3,287,381 project is moving ahead quickly on the east side of MacDonald Street between Main Street and First Avenue, where owner Bill Wahl at Mesa Typewriter Exchange [in business for over 60 years] used to think nothing was ever going to happen . . . until a new generation of developers with new thinking took an interest in Mesa.
It's a good example of small and incremental investments in urban planning/development keeping what's unique in the city's history, while responding to shifting demographics to meet a need to provide housing for students enrolled at BenU, 19 of whom currently in hotel contract-housing. In January at the beginning of the next term, accommodations for 30 students will be ready for move-in, according to Christian Hume of Venue Projects on a recent on-site visit.

The development team has worked closely with the State Office of Historic Preservation, learning that the original building footprint was what you see spanning the left three window-areas upstairs and ground floor.
Decking and railing was recently started last week for the 2nd floor balcony, providing a nice view of Mesa's skyline.
Brickwork got a lot of attention and work, sand-blasting and repair on all four sides, with plans for stucco in certain areas.

According to Christian, the crew was surprised to discover that there are five  buildings on the property, with extensions added over the years.
As you can see in the foreground to the left, the post-and-lintel construction inside the entryway to the right is part of the original building. The archway farther inside is from another era.
Note the original high ceilings and new framing for walls.





2 more shots looking down the long east-west corridors on the first and second floors

Group from BenU on a site visit last week.
Note original ceiling details and hall entrance

Student rooms under construction on 2nd floor - railing marks stairway entry from groundfloor

View from south side into patio area

You Don't Get News Like This Anymore: Thanks for Over 64,000 Views, Dear Readers

What else can your MesaZona blogger say? . . . your interest is appreciated
Truth be told : This blog site is blessed to attract viewers here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa.
It is both thrilling and exciting to publish news, information and opinion online.

Mission: To make you think [whatever it takes]

No FOG juice sold here

Pie Gets Pissed Like Your MesaZona Blogger! Love Democracy!

We need to get involved!

Published on Oct 30, 2016

Views: 2,487

Brexit means Brexit! Why? Because democracy means democracy.

From City of Mesa Newsroom: Early Voting Deadline Ends Friday Nov 4

Early voting in person ends Friday Nov. 4

10-27-2016 at 11:33:32 AM Early voting ends for the General Election on Friday, November 4. Voters may visit the Mesa's City Clerk's Office to vote in person until Thursday, Nov. 3 as well as dropping off your signed ballot on Monday, Nov. 7 and Tuesday, Nov. 8 (Election Day). The City Clerk's Office is located at Mesa City Plaza, 20 E. Main St., Suite 150. Office hours are Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Election Day, you may also drop off your ballot at any polling location, including the following locations (near the Mesa City Plaza), before 7 p.m.: American Legion Post #26 505 W. 2nd Ave. Mesa, AZ 85210 First Presbyterian Church 161 N. Mesa Drive Mesa, AZ 85201 Maricopa County Recorder's Southeast Mesa Office 222 E. Javelina Ave. Mesa, AZ 85210 You may also visit www.recorder.maricopa.gov/pollingplace to find your assigned polling location on Election Day. For more information, call the Mesa City Clerk's Office at (480) 644-4868 or visit www.mesaaz.gov/city-hall/city-clerk. Public Information and CommunicationsContact: Kevin Christopher Tel. 480-644-4699kevin.christopher@mesaaz.gov

YUGE $750 Million Multi-Unit Apartments Buys + New Initiatives To Invest in Seniors Housing/Medical Properties

Blackstone Group LP's Blackstone Real Estate Partners, the world's largest real estate investment firm, is purchasing a 16-property apartment portfolio in the U.S. from affiliates of Bridge Investment Group Partners. The total price for the transaction, including transactions three of the properties still pending closing, has been reported at $750 million. [Viletta location in Mesa]

News of the deal was first reported by IPE Real Estate and picked up by SNL, an affiliate of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Twelve properties, totaling 4,024 units, sold, per public record, for a total price of $553.375 million, or an average of approximately $138,000 per unit across the portfolio, with prices ranging from $75,355 per unit for the 352-unit Viletta in Mesa, Arizona, to $252,842 per unit for the 264-unit Presidio at Rancho Del Oro in San Diego.

 

In addition to these properties, there are also properties owned under contract and expected to close by the end of November, including the 496 unit Redlands in San Bernardino and the Ellicot’s Crossing and Pinnacle Grove apartment complex in Phoenix.
The acquisition was financed with a combination of new Fannie Mae debt and assumed Fannie Mae loans on several of the properties in Washington.
ROC II, a closed-end private equity fund managed by Bridge Investment Group Partners, was the seller.

Earlier this month, Bridge Investment Group Partners in conjunction with its subsidiary, ROC Seniors Housing Fund Manager, announced the launch of a new initiative to invest in selected seniors housing and medical properties assets.
ROC Seniors will focus primarily on independent living, assisted living, and memory care investments in markets with favorable long-term demographics and a demonstrated need for the quality services provided by ROC Seniors and its partner managers.
“We continue to source attractive value-add opportunities in the fragmented seniors housing sector that fit well with our strategy of modernization, technological updating and the implementation of state of the art, caring service and accommodation for our growing US senior citizen population,” said Phil Anderson, CIO of ROC Seniors.

For more information, see CoStar Sale Comp ID: 3725544

Source: CoStar Group News Article

Go Here >> Think Like A VC [includes great infographics]

This is THE must-read book, according to some of the world’s top startup investors    

By Shawn Langlois

Published: Oct 25, 2016 6:02 p.m. ET

For the past couple of years, the “Twenty Minute VC” podcast has been picking the brains of “today’s most successful and inspiring” venture capitalists, with the aim of dropping knowledge on those looking to make their own mark on Silicon Valley.
As part of the popular program, host Harry Stebbings asks his guests for their favorite books. The picks range from classics, like “The Old Man and the Sea” and “The Catcher in the Rye,” to more obscure nonfiction, such as “The Second Bounce of the Ball: Turning Risk into Opportunity.”
The Ramen Profitable blog’s Joe Hovde, a big fan of the show, was so fascinated by their array of selections that he crunched the numbers to determine which books and authors have actually stood out the most over the hundreds of episodes.
He created a series of infographics to summarize the results (click here for the interactive versions), starting with this one:

 

Source: MarketWatch

 

 

Time To Re-Think Our Shared Past? Pioneer Park or Peoples' Park

Public sculptures in the New Urban DTMesa may be frequently cast in bronze, yet at the same time it is good not to keep from the public vision "those who came before" . . . History means different things to different people.
Take for example the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of The New World by Christopher Columbus back in 1492.
It's what we were taught, right?
Your MesaZona will leave it to readers to THINK MORE about the great city we call home and keep in mind this was home to many people before the pioneers arrived late-on-the-scene in the mid-1850's.
We simply cannot ignore all the centuries before that.
The "pioneers" were latter-day arrivals.

or this

Keeping What Is Unique: Alternatives to Teardown Thinking



For a city that experienced much of its growth with the advent of cars and A/C, Phoenix's truly 'historic' building stock was quite limited until recently. Extremely restrictive zoning, rigorous reuse codes, and a constant insistence at reinvention have then done few favors to a city reticent to engage with its own history.
How do we now get in touch with our historic bones and build a culture of preservation?      Phoenix's historic preservation history has been checkered at best, with remarkable buildings by world-renowned architects, as well as local gems, equally considered ready for the bulldozer. Until recently, hyper-restrictive zoning and planning, the primacy of the automobile, and downtown construction schemes all took primacy over preserving historic buildings and culture.

For(u)m brings together a journalist, an artist/academic, an architect, a government official, and a developer to discuss how we got to this point, and how we turn around.

 

Featuring:

-Adriene Jenik, ASU Herberger Institute for Design & the Arts

-Eddie Jones, Jones Studio

-John Dougherty, Investigative MEDIA

-Bob Frankeberger, Arizona State Historic Preservation Office

-Michael Levine, Levine Machine LLC

 

Page link >> here

 

*Active For(u)m members receive discounted admission 

**Unmetered street parking N of Roosevelt Third-Seventh streets; Metered street parking on Roosevelt and south, Fourth-Seventh streets

What reality are you creating for yourself? | Isaac Lidsky

Published on Oct 27, 2016

Views: 53,043

Reality isn't something you perceive; it's something you create in your mind. Isaac Lidsky learned this profound lesson firsthand, when unexpected life circumstances yielded valuable insights. In this introspective, personal talk, he challenges us to let go of excuses, assumptions and fears, and accept the awesome responsibility of being the creators of our own reality.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.
Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate

Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews
Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED

AURORAS PENETRATING DEEP INTO EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE!/RADIATION.

Deep space radiation?

Published on Oct 28, 2016

Views: 28,133

Cover Aurora Image Taken by Kristin Berg on October 26, 2016 @ Troms�, Norway
Our Website, http://www.BPEarthWatch.Com
http://www.SpaceWeather.Com

How-To-Make Solar Appealing > Elon Musk unveils ‘Solar Roof’ (2016.10.28)

Published on Oct 28, 2016

Views:138,466

During a press event at Universal Studios in L.A., Elon Musk announces that Tesla will build and sell its own line of solar panels with integrated batteries. Coupled with the also unveiled PowerWall 2, it will allow residential homeowners to replace their entire roof with solar panels, making it much simpler for homes to be entirely powered by solar power.

Overview:00:00. Why solar04:02. PowerWall 2 introduction06:40. Solar roof introduction

O No! PBS Gets Nailed

Strange, your MesaZona blogger was thinking the same thing, but didn't dare write about it e.g..happy someone named Paul Street did and he goes right at it for three pages.
Here we go!
Source: TruthDig
The ‘P’ in PBS Should Stand for ‘Plutocratic’ or ‘Pentagon’ Posted on Oct 27, 2016

By Paul Street

What might seem more surprising, perhaps, is the remarkable extent to which the “P” in PBS often seems to stand for “Pentagon,” or perhaps “Presidential,” when it comes to foreign policy content. Whatever the global issue of the day or week, “NewsHour” anchors and their invited “experts” can be counted on to report and reflect in accord with the doctrinal assumption that Washington always operates with the best of intentions. They almost uniformly treat the U.S. as a great, benevolent and indispensable force for freedom, democracy, security, peace and order in a dangerous world full of evil and deadly actors.
The show’s invited commentators are drawn primarily from the nation’s imperial establishment. They are commonly current or retired insiders from within the Pentagon, the White House, the “intelligence community” and/or the nation’s elite network of foreign policy think tanks: the Council on Foreign Relations (the granddaddy of all U.S. ruling-class think tanks), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Aspen Institute, the Atlantic Council, the Rand Corp. and the Hoover Institution, to name a handful. “NewsHour” anchors and guests generally agree that the United States’ officially designated enemies are malevolent bad guys who need to be contained, controlled and even attacked by the ultimate good guy, Uncle Sam.
Not surprisingly, the long and ongoing record of U.S. imperial arrogance and criminality (more on that below) is swept down George Orwell’s memory hole even as new entries are added to the ugly registry. When reported by the “NewsHour,” horrific crimes committed by the U.S. military are always treated as well-intended mistakes. Along with the rest of the mainstream U.S. media, the “NewsHour,” according to a Diana Johnstone article in CounterPunch, “insist[s] that Russia deliberately bombs hospitals, etc., whereas if we do it, it is, of course, an accident.”

Watch & Listen to This First Public Conversation [Video]

Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky Have Their First Public Conversation (Video)

Posted on Oct 26, 2016

Source >> http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/49792

Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky had an important discussion about America’s current “electoral extravaganza,” climate change, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and several other topics during an hour-long interview.
- Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata 

Council Study Session - 10/27/2016

An unusual session - did they get a pep-talk ahead of time?The lower chamber room was chock-filled with people for a change when usually members of the public can be counted on one or two hands.
Frequently those with an interest in what's on the agenda or for discussion turn up to fill the seats.
Published on October 27,2016
Views: 6

Part One: Low-Impact Development + Greener Streets > Changes in The Urban Landscape

Sometimes small and incremental changes on-the-ground in what used-to-be vacant or un-used parcels of land here in the New Urban Downtown Mesa don't get the attention they deserve when going after "big deals" takes priority with certain planning and economic development strategies - and quality of life issues - get realized in one way or another either from the top-down or bottom-up or somewhere in-between, in different directions close to Main Street.
It's fertile ground for what catches the eye on the sidewalks.

Let's start off in front of the Mesa Urban Garden at 212 W First Avenue, where a group of people three years ago wanted to make some changes harking back to the days when the original One-Square Mile was zoned for "urban farms" to encourage gardens and trees when water from the canals ran in open ditches. Fast-forward to now - looking west to see an installation outside of MUG.

Turn 90 degrees and you see what's happening - it isn't a mega-million "big deal". In fact it's filled with many small wonders.

Take the time to walk-around First Avenue east of country Club Drive and south of Main Street - take your own sweet time

Amplifying A Press Press Release > Say What? A Capella Groups? Pop Culture Phenomenon @ MAC !

Here's the press release

/Watch in featured video
VOCALOSITY – THE ACA-PERFECT CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Performing Live at Mesa Arts Center Nov. 18, 2016

Oct. 25, 2016 (Mesa, AZ) – Tickets are now on sale for VOCALOSTY – THE ACA PERFECT CONCERT EXPERIENCE playing at Mesa Arts Center on Nov. 18, 2016 at 8 p.m. The 10 vocalists that comprise the new all-star a cappella group are James C. Jones, Hannah Juliano, Kelli Koloszar, Cheeyang Ng, Nattalyee Randall, Tracy L.J. Robertson, Bryant Vance, Nicole Weiss, Amy Whitcomb and RJ Woessner. Tickets are available at mesaartscenter.com, at the Box Office or by calling 480-644-6500.

 

ABOUT MESA ARTS CENTER
The Mesa Arts Center mission is to inspire people through engaging arts experiences that are diverse, accessible, and relevant. Owned and operated by the City of Mesa, Arizona’s largest arts center is recognized as an international award-winning venue. The unique and architecturally stunning facility is home to four theaters, five art galleries, and 14 art studios and an artist cooperative gallery. For more information, visit mesaartscenter.com.

Casey Blake

Director of Public Relations

Mesa Arts Center

Office 480.644.6620│Cell 480.390.1258

Casey.Blake@mesaartscenter.com│MesaArtsCenter.com