Out of 100 Cities Nationwide Mesa Parks Ranked In The Bottom 10

So, how’s our city’s park system, if it’s one of the 100 to appear in the index, rank? Better or worse than you expected? Where was there room for improvement?
Just released is a report for urban park systems in the country per the Trust for Public Land (TPL)’s annual ParkScore rankings, an index that ranks urban recreational spaces belonging to the 100 most populous American cities.
Residents of Mesa will have to scroll way down - to the bottom ten - to see how the city gets ranked.
The ParkScore® index measures how well the 100 largest U.S. cities are meeting the need for parks
http://parkscore.tpl.org/

The ParkScore methodology is based on three key criteria. Park Access uses advanced GIS mapping technology to determine how far a city’s residents must walk to access the nearest public green space. Park Size takes into consideration both the median size of a unit within an individual park system and the total amount of land within a city that’s dedicated to parks.

Finally, the Facilities and Investment category combines both a city's park spending per resident and the availability of a quartet of aforementioned park amenities: dog parks, playgrounds, basketball hoops and recreation/senior centers
.
Take a look at around 7 o'clock - for Mesa it's $28.6 Millions of dollars.

Mesa = 91 out of 100

While it’s true that a low ParkScore may yield a fair amount of hand-wringing for park officials in the cities that place close to the bottom of the list, the TPL sees the rankings — described as “the most comprehensive rating system ever developed to measure how well the 100 most populous U.S. cities are meeting their residents’ need for parks” — as a tool that poorly-ranked cities can use to help better themselves in key areas and, in turn, move up the list.
Link for Mesa >> http://parkscore.tpl.org/city.php?city=Mesa

Explore an interactive map from this link

Park Facts:
Park acreage: 2,521 acres
People served per park acre: 183
Oldest municipal park: Pioneer Park, est. 1947
Largest municipal park: Red Mountain Park, 582 acres
Most-visited municipal park: Riverview Park


City Stats

• City area: 83,578 acres
• Median park size: 2.6 acres
• Park land as % of city area: 3.0 %
• Spending per resident: $69.96
• Basketball Hoops per 10,000: 2.6
• Dog Parks per 100,000 Residents: 0.4
• Playgrounds per 10,000: 1.4
• Recreation / Senior Centers
  per 20,000 Residents: 0.2
• Population density: 5.5 per acre

You can download Maps and tables here >> Access to Parks by Age and Income http://parkscore.tpl.org/ReportImages/Mesa_AZ.pdf

VIEW FULL RANKING ANALYSIS HERE
Using mapping technology and demographic data, we determined how well each city is meeting the need for parks.
You can learn more with in-depth city profiles …
… or compare multiple cities.
We scored cities in three categories. Learn more about the ParkScore^® methodology.

OTHER RESOURCES AND LINKS


New tool: http://gis.mesaaz.gov/ParkFinder/

http://www.mesaaz.gov/things-to-do/parks-recreation-commercial-facilities/parks

http://www.mesaaz.gov/city-hall/office-of-management-budget/major-funds

Maria Polletta: Spotlight on The Human Cost of Escalating Land Values

Residents Speak Up @ City Council Meeting

An updated Preface to this post:
Please watch the video that was included in Maria Polletta's reporting . . . According to Robert's Rules of Order, comments from the public are invited and they are heard for three minutes - however if there is to be further action by the City Council, a motion must be made to place that item on the next meeting's agenda. There was no such action, only that the item "would be looked into".
In the detailed and approved minutes for this session "Mayor Giles apologized to the residents and said that the Council was unable to discuss their concerns because the matter was not agendized."

See this link: http://apps.mesaaz.gov/meetingarchive/ArchiveDocuments/ClerkDetailedMinutes/June%201,%202015%20RGL.pdf

Mobile Home Park Mesa Royale is turning out to be "a not-so royal mess" for the City of Mesa, after ignoring a point in a decade-old 2004 Housing Master Plan.
What's the benefit of all these "Master Plans" when the city only takes action on "a case-by-case basis" and nobody speaks up to raise attention at public meetings directly with city officials?
In that so-called Housing Master Plan, Mesa officials were highlighting the city's larger-than-average amount of manufactured-housing stock — much of it concentrated along the Main Street corridor — and the problems it could create. At the time, the city had 63 mobile-home parks with nearly 14,000 manufactured units.

"The availability of these affordable properties is an asset to lower-income households," planning officials wrote in the city's 2004 Housing Master Plan . . . " 
Now the City of Mesa recommends the best option is clearing the property by bulldozing, after 100+ residents get evicted
Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo, now the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens board chair, cautions now that it was a warning that somebody needs to be paying attention to this. ... This property has been on the city's radar screen for decades, so for there to be such a delayed, reactive response on everybody's behalf doesn't behoove our community."

The City of Mesa has a double standard - one for investors/developers and a different one for residents who live on land for years paying rent for the only housing  they can afford. The City of Mesa provides direct financial incentives for investor-developers , discounts on utilities, tax relief, providing millions in infrastructure, but in this case . . .  Maria Polletta quotes this:
City Manager Chris Brady said Mesa is indeed trying to help, but it can act only as a facilitator, not as a direct provider of financial aid or other services.
 
Here's a link to the excellent reporting in yesterday's Arizona Republic http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2015/06/15/mesa-royale-mobile-home-park-decision-human-cost/71235678/

Here's a link on the same subject written IN SPANISH by Maria Polletta and Laura Gomez on June 5th from La Voz: Translation = Hundred of Families in Mesa Face Imminent Eviction

Cientos de familias en Mesa enfrentan desalojo inminente 

Good News: People Speak Up in A City Council Meeting

Your blogger admittedly cannot be everywhere all the time. Fortunately there are a diverse group of other "reporters" who write about politics and community life from different angles.
I especially respect an organization named Vox [hit the link or hover over it] whose mission is to explain the news by providing context.
Let me provide readers with a context for the word "Vox" and a subtext to highlight the benefits of public education in schools.
It's about understanding democracy and learning "foreign languages".
DEMOCRACY: A system of government in which power is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through freely elected representatives . . .  In most modern democracies, the whole body of eligible citizens remain the sovereign power but political power is exercised indirectly through elected representatives; this is called a representative democracy.

 Vox Populi is a Latin phrase that literally means voice of the people.
The message on this blog media: Speak up People

Your MesaZona blogger frequently watches video or streaming clips of meetings produced by city-owned Channel 11, taking notice that there are very few Mesa residents attending meetings while the official notices for agendas of those meetings always state, as required by law, that Public Comment is Invited. [just fill out a blue card when you go in].
In an earlier posting on this site, the presiding official for an Economic Development Advisory Board meeting [who's also representing GPEC, Greater Phoenix Economic Council] stated that he had not hear a public comment in over 10 years! Your blogger was one of three members of the public who bothered to attend the meeting, where it was clearly stated by the mayor that he needed ideas.
Another topic under discussion was the further extension of Valley Metro Light Rail Transit from Mesa Drive to Gilbert Road - soon enough, Maria Polletta, a reporter for The Arizona Republic published an article on a very active City Council meeting involving residents of a mobile home park directly on that proposed route who might be displaced by a real estate developer seeking to cash in on escalating higher property values directly connected to the expansion of public transit that's paid for with federal/state subsidies, city bond financing and taxpayer dollars. Due to a combination of circumstances 100+ people who live at Mesa Royale in mobile homes might get displaced for certain questionable regulatory reasons from a property valued at over $2 Million dollars. 

See "democracy in action" with Maria Polletta's reporting - it's got a video clip of Mesa Royale residents showing up at a City Council meeting. Democracy in action: Oh Yeah! 
Watch the whole video and see the reaction of the Mesa City Council to people speaking up about the impact of real estate development on their lives - this could get spicey and dicey
Go to this link: 100 families may be out at 'unfit' Mesa mobile-home park

Maria Polletta: Graduate of Cronkite School of Journalism, roots in Venezuela
From her profile on Muck Rack

Mesa Politics reporter for The Republic & @azcentral. 

Die-hard Sun Devil with scarlet-and-grey roots. If it's not spicy, I'm probably wasting my time eating it.

From her profile on USA Today

As The Republic's Mesa issues reporter, Maria Polletta covers politics and public money, non-profits and community life in Arizona's third-largest city. She started on the paper's breaking-news desk in 2009 and has done a bit of everything since, from a stint on the copy desk to several months on the national Fact Check team. As a beat reporter, she has covered the Phoenix metro area, central Phoenix, Chandler politics and Mesa growth and development.