What's Next Mesa? Mesa City Hall Hiring For Community Wealth Building??

Let's put Mesa Mayor John Giles in-the-saddle and in the spotlight for this post and ask what he might be doing to include everyone in wealth building . . .is it just for a selected few in the upper 10% or 1% upper-income levels or so-called 'angel investors' throwing money into holding companies or swooping down on distressed areas for redevelopment or innovation or when nearly those who have-less and almost all minorities too often fall into an "Opportunity Gap" in so-called "Opportunity Zones" to suffer from unemployment or are pushed into low quality, service-sector jobs that don’t give them the opportunity that they need.
QUESTION: In next year's budget planning is there a strategic policy decision and funding for Community Wealth Building?

Here in Mesa we get AZ State Senator Bob Worsley, rarely seen in public, coming out as a private real estate deal-maker and speculator who's been working behind-the-scenes for years with close cohorts, 'friends-and-family' buying up multiple properties on Main Street to effectively get monopoly control of the real estate market downtown during the past few years making unsolicited developer proposals.

In some cities like Richmond, Virginia, there's an Office of Community Wealth Building, the first of its kind in the nation. . . a wave of cities are now responding with new dedicated government offices or programming for community wealth building, starting in the rest of Virginia.
Here in downtown Mesa - referred to in this blog as 'The Old Donut-Hole', we get Mayor John Giles with a group who have set up a wealth creation investment fund for the few, joined by W Tim Sprague at the left who's a partner with Worsley and Worsley's AZ State House campaign manager Kent Lyons in holding companies, to transform downtown into their own vision of delivering capital gains. Two years ago, taxpayers rejected paying for their ploys. Now it's a gamble and a risk
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“The first step is to call it out, . . . This isn’t fictional. Sixty years ago, there was intentionality around redlining and segregation that led to concentrated poverty. And here we are in 2018 receiving the byproduct of those intentional decisions …   
It’s up to us to be just as intentional about solving these problems.”
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City Halls Now Hiring for Community Wealth Building

By Aaron Ross Coleman | April 13, 2018

". . . Being intentional about what to do and who are the beneficiaries can mean combining new and old techniques for understanding how to build community wealth with the necessary intentionality. The Richmond office uses its social media presence on Facebook to facilitate conversations between constituents on topics addressing racial discrimination in housing and voting rights. They also offer an open-ended, constituent-driven weekly conference call listening session, where any resident can call in and discuss issues ranging from living conditions in public housing to the difficulties of finding a job . . .
Gordon says this community engagement helps his office move beyond the paternalism that often hinders equitable policy-making. “I wanted to add the voice of the people on a consistent basis — anyone can call,” says Gordon. “We know that people understand that if they want to express how things are going, they can speak with us … We need to trust them.”
. . . Elsewhere in New York, similar programming is underway. In New York City, the Department of Consumer Affairs recently expanded its Office of Financial Empowerment’s Community Wealth Building programming to increase the financial health and quality of life of New Yorkers with low- and moderate-incomes. . .
“This means working collaboratively to support community partners and residents and to create more opportunities for inclusive ownership for all New Yorkers,”

READ MORE > Next City 13 April 2018 

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Aaron Ross Coleman is a freelance writer from Atlanta, focused on the intersection of economics and racial inequality. Based in New York, he is a Marjorie Deane Fellow at New York University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Aaron has his B.A. in Political Science from Fort Valley State University. His work has appeared in CNBC, Rewire News, The Huffington Post, and other publications.