Definitely READ THE ENTIRE COLUMN
Paving Arizona
". . . We've lived through all this in central Arizona. And yet, the state's transportation policy remains entirely focused on this mid-twentieth-century method. In addition to the externality costs of sprawl — wasteful infrastructure, lost farmland and pristine desert, and increased air pollution — six of the ten worst cities for smog in the nation are in metro Phoenix — we now confront human-caused climate change, driven by vehicle emissions. . .
Why is Arizona continuing down this, er, road? The simple answer is that the various interests I call the Real Estate Industrial Complex depend upon constant highway building and expansion to make otherwise useless land valuable for the Ponzi scheme of continued sprawl. The poster child for this low-quality mess is Hunt Highway in Pinal County, where supervisors recently approved a new subdivision even though the privately run sewer "system" is a disaster. The petty fees raked in by localities are nowhere near enough to cover the infrastructure costs, much less the externalities.
The Real Estate Industrial Complex controls political power.
It even controls the language used in the media. E.g., massive sprawl subdivisions and shopping strips are "master planned communities." Gated properties are "gated communities." Houses are "homes."
Thanks to the Big Sort, a majority average Arizonans wouldn't have it any other way. Driving a hundred miles a day to accomplish what I can do within six blocks in downtown Seattle is not merely "normal," it's a God-given right.
God help us.
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RELATED CONTENT ON THIS BLOG
17 October 2019
Fast & Loose Times For Latter-Day Maricopa County >
Maricopa County is growing fast - some say the fastest growing county in the country and Mesa is the fastest-growing city. . . and it looks like the time is here (and way overdue) for one more major scandal the way things are going now when there's so much temptation from all that fast growth
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As you can see in "Family-Guy" Maricopa County Assessor Paul D. Petersen's job description in the image above The Assessor notices and administers over 1,7000,000 real and personal property parcels/accounts with FULL CASH VALUE OF MORE THAN $508 Billion in 2018. According to all rosy reports so far for 2019, it is way more than that now - by leaps and bounds and annexing more lands with increasing values.
Hard to believe former AZ Governor Jan Brewer said this >
(screen-grab from a report by all people The Rose Law Group Reporter)
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Hard to believe former AZ Governor Jan Brewer said this >
(screen-grab from a report by all people The Rose Law Group Reporter)
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16 October 2019
Flock it!
That's exactly what not one but two different East Valley Tribune Staff Writers did - used the word flock as in "firms flock to region" in 2018 and "firms flocking to Mesa's tech corridor" once again in 2019.
To cover all over with small particles.
In these two particular cases it was (1) pouring jobs, and (2) data firms that were doing the flocking. . . or was it transcribing dictation?
Speed-writing and doing just what they were told as staff writers for the corporate-owned Times Media Group, the mass communications conglomerate who owns, operates and publishes the East Valley Tribune
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That's exactly what not one but two different East Valley Tribune Staff Writers did - used the word flock as in "firms flock to region" in 2018 and "firms flocking to Mesa's tech corridor" once again in 2019.
To cover all over with small particles.
In these two particular cases it was (1) pouring jobs, and (2) data firms that were doing the flocking. . . or was it transcribing dictation?
Speed-writing and doing just what they were told as staff writers for the corporate-owned Times Media Group, the mass communications conglomerate who owns, operates and publishes the East Valley Tribune
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13 October 2019
Mesa-Native & "Family Guy" Paul Petersen Now In Federal Custody
< Here's the almost 'picture-perfect' portrayal usually put out there for public consumption by politicians or officials here in Mesa and Maricopa County - everything is happy, Happy husband with a good job, happy wife, two or more (3,4,5,6,7+) happy children, happy sun-dappled day with a golden glow all over. Life is good. Everything is wonderful - just looks great to create that clear veneer of credibility. "Mesa is a great place to raise a family and to live, work and play".Happy days are here again! What more could anyone want? Apparently Paul Petersen, elected as the Maricopa County Assessor, wanted more than his public day job - one of the most coveted positions responsible for over $500M in personal property and real estate valuations in a county that is no stranger to land fraud.
Petersen didn't get snagged for anything in that ripe field of schemes that's toppled so many politicians here, at least not yet. Most of the time it's somehow 'over-looked', conveniently with eyes cast-aside, deniable condoned or generally accepted as just the way we do business. No questions asked. Everybody gets their cut one way or another. __________________________________________________________________________
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