Mayor John Giles: What A Diverse Guy! Spotlight on Light Rail One Day + Spotlight On Hunger on Saturday+Family Dollar

Your blogger is a regular patron of Citizen Thrift. A couple of months ago something amazing happened - it just became better under new management. Walked in today doing the usual re-think/recycle/re-use/re-imagine routine, buying some marble pieces at a buck a piece to turn into cutting boards or cheese boards - other people were buying them to make countertops or resurface floors and walls. The salesperson said stop by for our Re-Opening ... the mayor will be here.

When new management took over, space in the back became a food pick-up area, the details of which I didn't know until a conversation was started with the manager remarking about the transformation.

You can pick up on all the details and good deeds from "People of Good Will" - no NOT Goodwill Industries - by reading an entry on Mayor John Giles blog with his monthly 
Spotlight on Hunger > NextMesa: the Mayor's Blog

The building is located on the SEC of Stapley & Main Street. 
For history buffs that is the same location as one of the first "shopping centers" that began attracting customers away from Main Street. You can see the adaptive-reuse of one of Mesa's first shopping centers.
Another Re-Opening: On the way there if you're heading from downtown, take notice of the new location for Family Dollar at the SWC of Miller & Main.

Mayor Giles is DA MAN: Rubbing elbows with Apple Execs in Cupertino, California, mixing at National Mayors' Conference in Washington, D.C, and now making the time with a Spotlight On Hunger - earning frequent flier miles in some cases, and earning political points showing concern for those on the other end of the economic spectrum - in his own words "Doing Good Stuff"

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.

What's Up Mesa? . . . What's Next is Missing a Few Players: Where's The Public in Politics?

Economic Development Advisory Board Meeting June 2, 2015

Politics  
(from Greek: πολιτικός politikos, definition "of, for, or relating to citizens") is the practice and theory of influencing other people.

Citizens who don't exercise their right to vote - or even bother to register to vote - or take advantage of the fact that yes, we do have the right to participate in a democracy and, yes again, that we are free to express our opinions, to go to meetings, to exchange ideas with people in government, and support those people and ideas to move our mutual agendas forward -are missing out of what politics is all about.

Rich Adams, sitting at the center, is  the GPEC Rep who was presiding at today's meeting, remarked that he had not heard a comment from the public in the last ten years. [Apologies to the EDAB members sitting on the left side who aren't included in the image.]

The Economic Development Advisory Board "shall act as the advisory board" - got that? - to the Mesa City Council on matters pertaining to economic development, including

• setting goals
• planning strategies
• marketing the City of Mesa to attract economic development 
• recruiting, retaining and expanding economic development

 Your blogger changed the static nouns used on the city committee's webpage into active transitive verbs since the board is tasked with "shall act"

Is this "a catchy phrase"? or ready for the recycle bin?

Mayor John Giles talked at length about his proposed NextMesa campaign, encouraging people to come up with ideas.

I don't mean to be hypercritical, but it looks like a set of nesting tables - what is that?

Successive 3-tier flat-line growth on disconnected forms with a downside slope getting bigger for each next stage? 

Go to the Mayor's NextMesa blog by hitting this link: mesamayor.com

You can find who the EDAB members are, what their affiliations are, and how to contact them by going to this link: http://mesaaz.gov/city-hall/advisory-boards-committees/economic-development-advisory-board

OK ... What are you having with your cake?

Advertising Branding Campaigns - and corporate support for social justice - are coming out this month with a series of well-placed endorsements. 

Here's just one:
The Maytag Man ✔ @TheMaytagMan

Proud to be in any home. Happy #Pride Month.

7:19 AM - 1 Jun 2015

Maytag took a strong stand in favor of LGBT rights with a tweet Monday showing its beloved repairman calling for "equality and cake for all" on the first day of LGBT Pride month.

The rainbow-colored cake held by the Maytag man alludes, of course, to those bakers who have refused to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples on the grounds that doing so would violate their religious beliefs.

Way to go, Maytag.

Matt Salmon [R] AZ 5th CD

Believe It or Not:  

Arizona 5th Congressional District U.S. House of Representatives Republican Matt Salmon, who represents the City of Mesa as part of his constituency] appeared on MSNBC this morning. Recorded live at 07:09 a.m. [18:00 minutes] with link supplied by his press office

http://salmon.house.gov/media-center/videos/rep-salmon-joins-morning-joe-to-discuss-the-usa-patriot-act 

SALMON: "And -- and I think that we can have our cake and eat it, too, Joe. We have for years and years and years."

He appeared on "Morning Joe"  . . . just a coincidence that these two items were out in the media within 10 minutes of each other???

Matt Salmon, like Mesa Mayor John Giles attended public school in Mesa, Arizona . . . maybe they forgot a history lesson from The French Revolution, giving birth to  Liberty & Equality rights that were written into the U.S. Constitution? 

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.

HIGH POLLUTION ADVISORY FOR OZONE TODAY + A "Longer-Than-Normal" Ozone Season

Press Release:

ADEQ is issuing a High Pollution Advisory (HPA) for ozone for the Phoenix metropolitan area for Friday, May 29, 2015 PHOENIX (May 28, 2015) – The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is issuing a High Pollution Advisory (HPA) for ozone for the Phoenix metropolitan area for Friday, May 29, 2015 . . . and a longer-than-normal ozone season.

Longer-than-normal? Ya mean the new normal when we accept extended periods of air contamination and don't do enough to reduce the sources of breathing unhealthy are? 

Read the High Pollution Advisory [hover and click-on leak or use your touch-screen]

ADEQ is a regulatory agency whose goal is to ensure federal clean air standards are achieved and maintained for the residents and visitors of Maricopa County. 

While the department states it "follows air quality standards set forth by the federal Clean Air Act", the facts and evidence do not support that claim: Maricopa County has a long record of non-compliance with the Clean Air Act ... they're blaming high pollution on the weather when the sources are on the ground with emissions from automobiles and industrial processes and dust in the air from construction.

From April-October it's gonna be a longer-than-normal ozone season

.

Art Assets & Good Bones? It Takes More Than That To Build a Better Downtown

Comic from Build a Better Downtown

The image here is from a May 20, 2015 post "Cindy Ornstein's Love Letter to Mesa" on another blog about Mesa Build A Better Downtown Mesa.
Please hit the link and read the whole article

Cindy Ornstein is the Arts and Cultural Director for the City of Mesa and the Executive Director of the Mesa Arts Center. 
She oversees the Arizona Museum of Natural History, the I.D.E.A. Museum, the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, and cultural events in the City of Mesa.
According to the post, Cindy got the job after an interview in 2010, not having seen Mesa or been to Arizona before that.

Put Some Meat On Those Bones!

Good Bones …  

It takes more than ‘good bones’

That's a phrase I've heard and used more than once.  It is admittedly casual and ill-defined.
In real estate it's usually used in the “distressed” property market that is our reality today.

The problem with the entire notion of good bones—to draw a further anatomical analogy—is that it lacks any discussion of the viscera: the bloodstream, neurology or fascia that flesh out, protect and inhabit this skeletal system. 

Cindy is quoted saying " . . . we manage facilities that are literally owned by the public. My mission is for every citizen to feel pride, ownership and engagement with these assets and resources. . . . It is really about finding the things that are going to be most effective, . . "
[See how the names of bones are turned into a visual in the image to the left]


A city with "good bones" would be one that is well thought out and works well for the people who live there.
Or, does saying that "Mesa has good bones" mean that we have an impressive infrastructure supporting our transportation network?