Report Card on Arizona Infrastructure: Every Day Every Citizen Uses Infrastructure

from Arizona Builders Exchange

Looks like it's "that time of year" to produce rankings and report cards . . .
this blog has posted two recent articles about Mesa: one on its management of fleet operations and another on ratings for those looking at retirement in the financial services market. Take good look at this one
 http://azbex.com/arizona-gets-a-c-on-its-infrastructure/

Image from Arizona Builders Exchange

Arizona Gets a ‘C’ on Its Infrastructure

Beating the National Score of D+ Doesn’t Allow for Complacency

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Matthew Roy in Economic Development // 0 Comments

By Rebekah Morris for Arizona Builder’s Exchange

How are retirement and infrastructure inter-related?

Recently, the Arizona section of the American Society of Civil Engineers released the statewide report card for infrastructure. Arizona landed a C grade overall, but the D+ on Roads highlights the need for continued investment. Less than half can be maintained with current levels of funding.
Not only are we as a state not funding what we currently have built, but Arizona is not planning for growth and improvement in service levels
The ASCE presentation likened planning for infrastructure costs to planning for retirement: The longer you wait, the more expensive things become. 
Every penny we spend in infrastructure now saves costs in the future.

WHAT CAN YOU DO CITIZENS OF MESA? Get on-board to sign a petition.

Action on this was delayed for a month, with the new deadline now June 30, 2015.

Take action today: #SU4T

Sign petition online >
http://www.standup4transportation.org/contentform.aspx?page=Media 

Way to Go, Mr. Mayor: Great Show for Valley Metro Light Rail Transit

Here's the MUST-SEE REVEAL promised in the Press Release from Valley Metro for the 5th Milestone Celebration of the Central Mesa Extension Project that took place in front of City Hall Plaza at 9:00 this morning.

With a great deal of hoopla and fanfare, John Giles summoned four members of the City Council  to appear with him and shout out "Move That Train!

John Giles, Downtown Cheerleader

Members of the Mayor's Youth Corps had been stationed on the platform hidden between an eastbound light rail car and one headed west. When the City Council and mayor gave the shout, sure enough the eastbound train moved out of the station to reveal "the secret announcement" to the roar and pleasure of the crowd at City Hall Plaza.

John Giles is gaining points in showmanship and getting media savvy for being such a mild-mannered and calm guy. He rises to the public celebration fulfilling the promise of light rail transit made under his predecessor Scott Smith with his tactic of "Under-Promise & Over-Deliver" . . . The contractor for Valley Metro's CME received a significant incentive bonus for getting the job done way ahead of schedule.  Who knows? The New Urban Downtown Mesa might become the Arts & Entertainment District that so many stakeholders, both public and private, have invested in already. Light rail is one part of the infrastructure as a people-mover for visitors [who arrive and leave] to attend events. The big institutions can do visitor counts in the millions to attractions downtown, but admittedly increasing a higher-density, low-impact regeneration of downtown Mesa's resident population of about 3,000 deserves some attention with everything else.

Rob Antoniak

Events are not just what people you see in the spotlight or you see in the news. There are a lot of people "behind-the-scenes" to make sure these celebrations go smoothly.

Here's Valley Metro's Community Outreach Director for the Central Mesa Extension Project, checking up on a small detail for the sound system at today's celebration.

Davis Entertainment, a business at 37 W Main Street, set up the sound systems starting at 7:00 a.m.

Link > Davis Entertainment

Downtown Rendezvous, located in the lobby and back terrace of City Hall Plaza, provided catering and refreshments.

Heads UP! Eyes on Another LRT Milestone + A Major Announcement

According to a press release from Valley Metro yesterday on Friday, May 29th,  there will be a celebration to mark the arrival of light rail trains in the New Urban Downtown Mesa in front of City Hall Plaza Wednesday, June 3 @ 9:00 a.m. - good time to beat the heat and avoid the high pollution.
Read the whole press release here> Central Mesa Extension Celebration

This is the 5th Milestone Event - with a promise of a MUST-SEE SECRET REVEAL YowZa! 

Spoiler Alert: KPHO ABC 15 may have popped the cork ahead of time for Wednesday's celebration in a report about empty trains running during testing phase - take a look at Mesa Mayor John Giles keeping up with the empty light rail trains. Rumors are that service operations, with LRT riders on-board, will start before Labor Day
http://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/light-rail-extension-nears-completion-in-mesa 
Please note that the arrival is just that - the extension is going through safety-testing along the route on Main Street that will done on an as-needed schedule, according to an email from Rob Antoniak from Valley Metro.
Haven't seen a news release from the Mesa Now City of Newsroom maybe because the offices are closed Fridays.

Here's A Vision: Light Rail on Main Street inThe New Urban Downtown Mesa

It's taken from a article by a Distinguished Professor of Architecture, Michael Sorkin City College of New York. Hit this link:  City Limits: How Localizing Is the Key to Our Urban Future

QUESTION: How does a vision like this get localized?
Although many people have questioned building light rail tracks running "right through the heart of downtown Mesa", when it could have been planned on the path of earlier railways from Mesa to Tempe and Phoenix on what is now University Drive, it will now become a warp in weaving the urban fabric important to both the original "One-Square Mile" extending for blocks on/off and north/south of Main Street while creating a long-range transportation corridor.

Mesa History Museum image

Keep in mind that Main Street was once a parking lot as you can see from the visual to the left. Traffic patterns have since moved to highways, freeways, shopping malls, sub-urban sprawls, corporate and industrial parks, technology corridors, and Aerotropolis.

Open Downtown space is now available to plan a clear vision for how the new urban downtown will evolve that is not car-dependent

What you do not see in the visual above are no cars at all - you see light rail and a lot of green with people and activities on the streets.
You see low-rise higher density buildings and vertical gardens, not asphalt-covered heat islands.

It may be a stretch of the imagination to figure out how to localize here in the New Urban Downtown Mesa the features in the urban future envisioned by Michael Sorkin, so let's imagine and seriously get together at a "grassroots" level to regenerate not only the vision of our new urban environment, but make it the world around us. If New York City can transform an old rusty abandoned elevated railway into the High Line surely we can do that on the ground here on Main Street.

Your blogger used to walk by this every day in Central Park: it stuck in my mind

You might want to contact your local organization called ULTIMATE IMAGINATIONS and find out what the Downtown Mesa Association is incorporating into their vision ....
Ultimate Imaginations Inc

You may say I'm a Dreamer, but let's trust I'm not the only one!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Light Rail Train Testing on Main Street

According to information received from Valley Metro, another sign of progress in the Central Mesa Light Rail Extension Project will move forward soon with  train testing taking place beginning in May on Main Street, between Alma School Road and Mesa Drive. . . Watch for trains May 20-22

A section of trackway between Country Club and Mesa Drive has been designed as curbless, with rumble strips, to give an open appearance as drivers and pedestrians view the heart of Mesa’s downtown. At the same time that an "open appearance" might be a good factor in terms of design, some Main Street business owners your blogger has spoken with have concerns that without some kind of barrier vehicle drivers could easily cross over the tracks, attempting to make a U-turn between street intersections and, worst-case scenario with out-of-control drivers - crash over sidewalks and into their storefronts. 

Safety is Valley Metro’s top priority. 

Rules to Remember:

Obey all traffic signals

•  Obey all traffic signals
• Never stop or park a vehicle on the tracks
• Never try to beat a train through an intersection
• Be patient and do not accelerate through yellow lights
• Remember, it takes light rail trains longer to stop
• Look for flashing headlights
• Listen for warning bells and horns

UN-Covering Mesa: Light Rail Milestone

This blog doesn't attempt to cover Mesa - it's a dedicated initiative to discover the progress on The Regeneration of The New Urban Downtown Mesa.

To be clear, your blogger is not "an old root". 
He's a Latter Day transplant, somewhat like the pioneer Mormons who arrived here laying claim to the territory in the 19th Century in the original "One-Square Mile". 
Mesa today in the 21st Century is a multi-generational community evolving to become a Micropolitan area whose future will include mass public transportation.
Three articles on the extension of Valley Metro's Lightrail have already been posted here.  You can read them following this new entry. 
MesaZona blog connects with and features all different and local media that report news and information on the New Urban Downtown Mesa... here's a 1:16 minute video done by Mesa's one and only television station Channel 11 that was uploaded to You Tube on Wednesday March 25, 2015.
Channel 11's crew was on-location at the same time as your MesaZona guy on Monday from 1:00-2:00 for the Valley Metro Celebration for progress on the Central Mesa Light Rail Extension Project.
This video follows through on the theme of Old Roots New Growth - or Regeneration - as was done here in three different entries, and has live interviews with the Steve Banta, president of Valley Metro, together with Vice Mayor Dennis Kavanaugh, and Mesa Mayor John Giles who states  "The economic salvation of downtown Mesa is riding on this train" 
SAY WHAT?. . . the light rail trains are good people-movers for sure, with the Mesa Arts Center likely the biggest and best downtown attraction to bring people downtown for a few hours and then they leave

Pay attention since this video goes quickly ... and you might want to turn down your volume at the start.
                                              

New Urban Downtown Mesa is Changing Fast: Eyes on the Light Rail Route Today

What is it?

Keeping up with improvements and changes to transform the new urban vision for Downtown Mesa , this blog  -a news, opinion and information source - featured an on-the-spot report for the Valley Metro Celebration of the station progress of the 3.1 Mile Central Mesa Light Rail Extension Project at Mesa Drive just two days ago and got it up online the same day. As you can see by the image on the left, other stations are getting their eye-catching public art installed.

People in Downtown Mesa can't miss this: Construction crews have raised another monumental public artwork as work moves ahead on the station platform at Center Street, the soon-to-be second stop in Central Mesa Light Rail Extension Project when the light rail trains start running.

Is your blogger becoming an all-in cheerleader for progress??