Whose Mesa? Giles On A PR Gambit > Citizen Question on 2020 Census Count "A Real Threat To My City"

His City? That's an outrageous claim from the current mayor here in Mesa. What's Hizzoner up to now in another image make-over as champion of "Everyone counts", but only when what counts is the possible loss of federal funds. The real threat in 2020 is to losing his political career, with a track record here in the past four years of dis-counting the interests of fast-growing minority groups. The city belongs to everyone
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 Let's see what Laura Gomez, an investigative reporter for The Arizona Mirror has to say in an article yesterday. First - and probably more than most 'news contributors' or 'staff writers' in mainstream corporate East Valley newspapers - Laura Gomez has credentials:

". . . In 2017, Laura traveled the length of the U.S.-Mexico border for “The Wall,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning project produced by The Arizona Republic and USA Today Network. She was named Best Investigative Reporter by Phoenix Magazine in its 2018 newspaper category and has been honored by the Arizona Press Club for Spanish-language news and feature reporting. She is a native of Bogotá, Colombia and lived in Puerto Rico and Boston before moving to Phoenix in 2014. . .

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Mesa Mayor:
Citizenship question on census ‘a real threat to my city’
by Laura Gomez Last Updated: June 13, 2019 1:39 pm
"Mesa Mayor John Giles spoke against the controversial citizenship question being considered for the 2020 Census during a press call Wednesday organized by the Leadership Conference Education Fund *, a civil rights and research group.
“It is hard to imagine anyone that would think this is a good idea. An undercount doesn’t really serve anyone,” Giles said. “It is a poor decision to try to include this question on the census.”
Giles, a Republican, said the addition of the question is a “real threat to my city” because it will result in an undercount of residents and lead to less political representation, less funding for city services and bad data. . .

Who's an Idiot?

“If I don’t have the proper amount of funding I need to provide emergency services, parks, and education and all the other great things that my local government provides …. It’s very important for me to be outspoken, and (I’m) doing all that I can to strive for a complete count in my city,” 
OUTSPOKEN?? ...or just an attempt to re-invent himself
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Blogger Note: Note how Giles tries to make his statements personal - how many times is it "I" and "my" ???
Arizona - and the City of Mesa - are notorious for discrimination and exclusion. Segregation has a long history here > The hard fact is that are consequences.

Here's John Giles in the spotlight and hot seat in a recent episode of Arizona Horizonte featured on ASU PBS in another of his serial appearances - it's all about money when you get down to the nitty-gritty, citizen or not?



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* What is the Leadership Conference Education Fund?
Website: https://civilrights.org/edfund/

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Is John Giles all-in for this?

CAP Ideas 2019:

Creating an All-In Economy

Posted on May 28, 2019, 1:48 pm 

Source: American Progress.org       

This year at the CAP Ideas Conference, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR); Darrick Hamilton, executive director of The Ohio State University’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; and economist Betsey Stevenson chatted with Center for American Progress President and CEO Neera Tanden about what an all-in economy looks like:

•  a moral and just economy where Americans invest in the success of children of all socio-economic classes
• where generational wealth can be attained regardless of race or ethnicity
• where women don’t have to choose between working and raising a family
• and where the social welfare of everyone from every background is upheld

LINK TO VIDEO > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVpoGvaBJ6E 

CAP Ideas 2019: Panel - Economy For All

Published May 25, 2019

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Post Notes from Laura Gomez:

• Mesa is the second largest city in the metro Phoenix area, with a population of almost 500,000. Almost 12% of Mesa’s residents are foreign-born, and 21% of its residents are Latino.
• Latino, black and Native American populations have been undercounted in previous censuses, but a recent study shows the citizenship question could lead to the worst undercount of black and Latino people in the U.S. since 1990.
• Another study shows Arizona will likely have the highest undercount of any state because a high rate of Hispanic residents, who account for 31% of the state’s population, have skipped the citizenship question in other census surveys.

The Trump Administration is pushing to include the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” in the 2020 Census, arguing it is needed to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.
However, recently filed court documents suggest that the addition of the question has purely political aims. There are several lawsuits challenging the inclusion of the question, and the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in by the end of June.
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Laura Gómez

Reporter Laura Gómez Rodriguez covers state politics and immigration for the Arizona Mirror. She worked for The Arizona Republic and La Voz Arizona for four years, covering city government, economic development, immigration, politics and trade.

In 2017, Laura traveled the length of the U.S.-Mexico border for “The Wall,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning project produced by The Arizona Republic and USA Today Network. She was named Best Investigative Reporter by Phoenix Magazine in its 2018 newspaper category and has been honored by the Arizona Press Club for Spanish-language news and feature reporting. She is a native of Bogotá, Colombia and lived in Puerto Rico and Boston before moving to Phoenix in 2014.