This is An Equal Opportunity Blog: Open to Everyone

Your MesaZona reporter gets streams of news, updates, alerts and information everyday from different sources and is happy to disclose them, including

The Mormon News Report

For those of you who can't read the fine print, it says: YOUR DAILY DOSE OF MORMONISM

Facing Retirement/NOT? Bankrate.Com Advertises Loans and Rank$ Mesa #1 + AARP Score: 45 out of 100

View from downtown Marriott

FORGET ABOUT RETIREMENT: No Such Thing!
The New Urban Downtown Mesa is looking for active people of all ages who not only invest their money but their time, experience and energy to regenerate where and how we live: it's your choice to engage in the opportunities of a lifetime right here + right now

Tricky advertising campaign: yes, statistics do exist, but as a word of caution - and this is directly from their advert spluge -  " . . .  anyone looking to move would be well served to do their own research to make sure they know what they're getting into . . . "  and a word from your blogger: Don't Swim with LoanSharks

Bankrate.com

Any number of people have justifiably been questioning the effectiveness of lists like Bankrate's that use just a few broad categories to assess whether an area is suitable for retirement. The  AARP Livability Index, an online, interactive resource which takes into account 60 factors, is regarded as a better tool for determining cities where to live. It was the result of a survery of 4,500 Americans aged 50 and up who were asked about what aspects of their communities were most important to them. You can play with it, check your community, compare to neighboring communities, as well as look up cities that you might think you want to retire to.

Bankrate listed Mesa, Arizona as the best place to retire, but the AARP Livability Index gave Mesa an overall livability score of only 45 out of 100,

 

The biggest takeaway from this ranking is simply that these statistics exist, and can be used to attract banking customers.
Keep in mind that The New Urban Downtown Mesa is the location for a number of banks as well as a number of both residential and commercial real estate offices that have been here for years - why not see them first?  

Shop Local Downtown Mesa First 
for financial services and real estate.

Encore on First West: Phase II Infill Project in The New Urban Downtown Mesa

Phase II: Encore on First West @ 47 W First Avenue,

This ongoing 44-unit construction project is a good example of form-based zoning, an urban infill project on long-vacant City-owned property, transit-oriented development and public-private partnerships creating new urban downtown areas in Arizona

A week after it happened, here's an online press release from the construction company:
Weitz announces groundbreaking of Encore on First West

May 14, 2015

http://www.weitz.com/2015/05/encore-on-first-west-breaks-ground-mesa-ariz/ 

The same day @ 1:24 p.m.  on March 14. 2015 - again another week after the Weitz Construction crew bulldozed down landscape plantings on the west perimeter of Encore on First  - rosemary shrubs, 50-ft perimeter plantings of Hopseed bushes, 12 Southern Live Oak trees, and 30 blooming yuccas - another announcement came from Yahoo Finance via Phoenix Business Wire http://finance.yahoo.com/news/encore-first-west-breaks-ground-172400165.html

Encore On First got a RED 2014 Award

. . . Still no announcement from the City of Mesa about "a groundbeaking". 

How does your blogger know that May 6, 2015 was "ground-breaking day" for the new 44-unit Encore on First West? 

Residents were given "immediate notice" to move their cars from the west side of the parking lot out of the open spaces or under the carport - about 28 spaces - since that area would be turned into a construction site, without being told when that exact day would be. 

For over a month now construction crews have been arriving early, between 5:30-6:00 a.m., running large heavy duty equipment making loud noise, removing the carport structure and the paved blacktop area, dirt in-haul and out-haul, pounding out concrete pilings that shake the structure of this building, and working hard to grade and level what used to be a water retention basin on the side of the carport. Foundation excavations for concrete building supports are a work in progress in the first weeks of June

Site Preparation on Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Even before new construction started, open balconies on the westside and southside of Encore on First received airborne dust and dirt from the two empty city-owned large lots with frontage on the eastside of Macdonald south of First Avenue - one is black-topped but nonetheless is a catch-all surface for dust that just blows into balconies, and the other is open-surface without vegetation covering that can create an even greater dust hazard/risk or unhealthy side effects for those residents that have breathing or lung issues.

I'm all for progress, but let's keep in mind the overall well-being and quality of life for occupants of transit-oriented development

Dust hazard? do something about it: minimize. Loud Noise Pollution? what do you do?

Phase I unit called Encore on First was completed in mid-November 2014, receiving an Arizona Real Estate Development [RED] Award for Best Multi-Family Project under 250,000 Sq. ft. RED 2014 Award for Encore on First.
 [Hover over or click-on link to read the original article]

According the AZBigMedia report, "Encore on First is one of downtown Mesa’s first private sector investments in nearly three decades, . .  It is an 81-unit, transit-oriented apartment community for independent seniors who desire a walkable lifestyle. The site is all about location, which is benefited by several civic amenities ...The building mixes the urban landscape setting with metal wall panels, colored glass landscape panels and white steel elements with a more tranquil rural look with a pocket park and reflecting pool. The building is built to attract residents and to catalyze future developments on the building and the surrounding area . . . sustainable resources include a 60 KW solar plant located on the roof that is tied into the City of Mesa’s downtown power grid, electric vehicle charging stations, LED lighting and high-performance windows and appliances."

Todd Marshall, the president of Urban Development Partners, says the company was founded with a passion for infill development and the belief that urban redevelopment is both an opportunity and a responsibility to create a diverse and sustainable community.

[Image credit: architectmagazine.com]

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.

On Main Street: No Big Blockbuster Development - Ice Cream & Cookies For Now

New and small start-up business owners are taking advantage of events that attract people downtown [Yes, Hello People! the streets of Mesa need people on the sidewalks one way or another] by scheduling their openings when they know there will be more than the usual low counts of people on the sidewalks.

First Friday Nights Out is one of the low-cost event strategies in the Urban Redevelopment Tool Kit to bring more people to revitalize downtown areas outside of regular daytime business hours.

Way to Go Mesa + 
Way to Go Small Business Owners

MesaZona blog readers are encouraged to read other local online sites about the regeneration of The New Urban Downtown Mesa to find out more details that highlight new businesses that are opening On/Off Main Street.

Smitholator Cookies Creator

If you hover over or touch you screen on top right just below the navigation bar on the homepage out slides a vertical bar with LINKS FOR YOU TO USE: two of the best of those are a link to Ryan Winkle, who works with NEDCO, and a link to Build A Better Downtown, whose mission, funding and objectives are to encourage and promote the attractiveness of the downtown area for both budding entrepeneurs, residents and visitors alike.

I'm just one guy in a parallel universe encouraging the regeneration of downtown with more of individual citizens and downtown residents getting involving who isn't probably "mainstream" and who can't be everywhere all the time . . . it isn't a job for me.

The image to the right is taken from Build A Better Downtown Mesa

  . . . next, how about a corner grocery convenience store for people who live downtown? 

Unless there's a certain density of people living downtown with the required demographics that are used by national franchises to decide to open a new profit-making location, those that want "something like Trader Joe's" or "Sprouts" or "Fresh & Easy" will either have to wait until the downtown population increases increases by at least 500 or economic spending patterns tip the balance in favor of locating downtown, or crowd-fund or kick-start what they want. 
Hey! That's an idea isn't It? . . . 
Crowd-Funding or Kick-Starting a local neighborhood grocery/convenience store that's unique to The New Urban Downtown Mesa

The New Urban Downtown Mesa: Ideas City?

This posting is about another artist who is A SOCIAL ACTIVIST. [Readers of this blog are encouraged to read and watch Theaster Gates on a screen that pops up in an earlier post]. 

Readers are likewise advised that your blogger enjoyed life for many years inside The Big Apple, leaving Manhattan shortly after the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers - circumstances one could hardly imagine happening, but they did. He was there during the events of 2001 - What a Space Odyssey that was! - and now I'm here.

Too often we skim over or quickly scan words or initials: take for example "ozone" or "smog" or "HPA" or "precusors" or "ultraviolet radiation" - words and initials you see in an ADEQ Press Release, again in an earlier post on this blog. 

Sometimes it takes "a political stunt" by an artist to create a visceral response to a common man-made phenomenon: that HPA from ADEQ is one of many High Pollution Alerts

An Edible Geography piece from Nicola Twilley, the mastermind behind the smog meringue endeavor, offered a more compelling explanation for the whimsical treats:
"Our hope is that the meringues will serve as a kind of 'Trojan treat,' creating a visceral experience of disgust and fear that prompts a much larger conversation about the aesthetics and politics of urban air pollution, as well as its health and environmental effects

From The Huffington Post > Smog: A Frivolous Affair?

It's a Wonder-filled life: LRT reducing emissions of carbon monoxide - ya know, like from all those cars on the freeways getting to work by commuting from long-distance sub-urbs. 

Anybody ever think about 

what a day without cars might look like?

Jump Into The Jurassic! here in the New Urban Downtown Mesa? ... Get Off My Cloud

Received an announcement in the MesaZona inbox the other day from Kevin Christoper, City of Mesa Office of Public Information:
Your blogger's immediate question was: Why is an educational non-profit institution owned by The City of Mesa - or "literally owned" by the public - part of a pre-release media advertising campaign for a Hollywood movie? No one's impressed by dinosaurs anymore . . .and rather than jumping back into The Jurassic ... how about a jump into forward-thinking here in the New Urban Downtown Mesa?
. . . With reports of worldwide record-breaking revenues from the weekend opening I guess ya gotta say "We live in Jurassic World", Huh?
Mesa, AZ – Arizona Museum of Natural History, 53 N. Macdonald in Mesa, is celebrating the opening of the ‘Jurassic World’ movie with a special “Jump into the Jurassic” program Saturday, June 6 from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Try your hand at the Wheel of Time with our paleo-educator for a free ‘Jurassic World’ mini poster.  The museum will have children’s craft activities and a dinosaur touch cart available, plus lots of fun facts about the Jurassic Period!  We will have an enter to win contest featuring a prize pack including four free passes to the preview opening of ‘Jurassic World’ on June 9.  The contest will be in the lobby and no purchase is necessary.
Regular museum admission rates apply and members are always admitted free. Plan to come and enjoy a cool indoor afternoon jumping into the Jurassic! 

LOS ANGELES — In “Jurassic World,” scientists create a living theme park attraction called Indominus rex [a female dinosaur] by splicing the DNA of two very different species.. 
They are ecstatic. Behold!  
The glorious future, a ticket-selling machine.

But there are naysayers. 

Madness! 

This Franken-beast monster may draw crowds, but it is not natural. You cannot be two things at once.

excerpt from a review in The New York Times June 3, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/movies/in-the-shadows-of-a-giant-and-dinosaurs.html?_r=0