New Cities Summit 2015 Jakarta: Highlights Film

Back To The Future: Discover Mesa All Over Again

Valley Metro is shifting gears and getting a big advert campaign on-track and online [maybe "jump-starting" to use one of Mesa Mayor John Giles favorite words, but we're dealing with a new no-emission and quiet technology here and now, not a crank-up car]
Link to click >
 Central Mesa Lightrail Opening Celebration

Plans are already in the works for expanding Valley Metro farther east to Gilbert Road 
[See image to the right]

What a Great Day for Downtown Mesa!
Who's to say how many people might be in downtown on Saturday August 22nd??
Thousands? Valley Metro won't estimate a certain number - just that it's difficult to predict, and they are planning and preparing for a good crowd and plenty of activities for all ages.
Commemorative passes, good for lightrail transit only, will be handed out at all stations from 9 - Noon
Valley Metro trains will run on a normal Saturday schedule with the Central Mesa Extension opening at 9:00 a.m.
On Saturday night, the last full trip of the day begins at 2 a.m., arriving at the opposite end of the line at 3 a.m. Sunday morning - that's according to this link from Friends of Transit Light Rail Schedule
A lot of people might be wondering when the last lightrail train will be leaving downtown

The Downtown Mesa Association is working to plan related promotions on Main Street with some Facebook postings at this early time for Night Market.

NEDCO will soon be announcing what it has been collaborating with its community partners for transit-oriented economic development, arts and culture and Creative PlaceMaking all around the New Urban Downtown.

Individual businesses have agreed to open early and stay open late - your MesaZona blogger talked with the owners of Gotham City Comics & Coffee who will be having artists creating illustrations on-site all day.

In addition to the link to Valley Metro Opening Celebrations above, Corinne Holliday and Rob Antoniak sent an email on Friday 25 July saying that  

It will be blocks of family fun. 

There will be music, food, local vendors, face painting, band performances, games, selfie stations, free museum admission and much more. 

Valley Metro has sent out a vendor application to all stakeholders from Dobson to Horne; Broadway to University, requesting any interested business or organizations return to Corinne Holiday by July 31, 2015.  

Holliday, Corinne <cholliday@valleymetro.org> 

That application can be found here: http://www.valleymetro.org/images/uploads/prop_photos/CME_Station_Celebration_Participation_Guide-Application_FINAL_071615.pdf


Valley Metro events are from 8:00 to 1:00

Afternoon and night time give light rail transit users and residents to turn Main Street into a pedestrian zone > find your reasons to walk-see-enjoy

Station celebrations will include:  Family fun, Music,  Food, Cool zones, Cultural experiences and Local vendors

Each station will have it’s own unique theme: 

Alma School/Main Street  Discover Education 

Country Club/Main Street Discover Community 

Center/Main Street Discover Downtown Mesa 

Mesa Drive/Main Street. Discover Mesa’s History

Watch Out for Guardian Angels on Main Street: Are These Characters The Right Choice for a Lightrail Safety Campaign??



Guardian Angels Campaign Urges Safety Around Public Transit

Valley Metro Guardian Angels/Image from Moses Inc.

Valley Metro needed a fun way to speak to their riders about the safety rules without being morbid, boring or condescending . . . OK, your MesaZona blogger gets that - and the importance of diversity -  but this visual concept seems like the illegitimate offspring of Men In Black and the models from Victoria's Secret + it's way off appealing to the demographics of both the people who live in downtown Mesa and the people who might want to visit downtown Mesa.
There are certain safety precautions to learn and practice with approaching light rail stations and using lightrail transit, but these three characters are way off the mark as representatives of safety education for transit. Sorry, but these angels are scary, lurking and watching, with one peeking over dark glasses to get a look. BAD MOSES

One version  of the purple sidewalk stickers on Main Street

With  Light Rail trains getting ready to roll into and out of downtown Mesa on August 22, 2015 Valley Metro is continuing a ridership safety campaign with stickers on the walkways at street intersections and mid-block crosswalks along the path of the new 3.1 mile extension of light rail stations on Main Street.

They thought the perfect vehicle for relaying their cautionary messages would be guardian angels with a little bit of 'tude, according to the agency's website.

Here's one of the sidewalk stickers on the north side of Main Street - it's conveniently below eye-level for approaching the crosswalk just east of the Center Street Station.

Moses Inc is the agency of record in a press release dated from January 2014 for a multi-million dollar five-year contract to help market lightrail, bus service and other transportation solutions in the Valley for safety education and business outreach to increase ridership.
The three characters might have worked for the opening of lightrail transit in Phoenix back in 2014, but it's questionable if they appeal to either downtown residents or visitors . . .  if an ad agency is getting paid "multi-millions" [according to their own press release] somebody from the ad agency should at least have gotten together with the biz development folks on Main Street to get to know what might work better > a friendly message perhaps?

$6.5 Million Dollar Land Buy for Multi-Tenant Light Industrial Project @ US60 & Mesa Drive

Metro Commercial Properties and Principal Real Estate Investors Announce Mesa Light Industrial Development

July 15, 2015

by RealEstateRama

-  Please take notice of the figures on the map for the average cars per day
See more at: http://arizona.realestaterama.com/2015/07/15/metro-commercial-properties-and-principal-real-estate-investors-announce-mesa-light-industrial-development-ID0930.html#sthash.JpWsGxsD.dpuf

Infill location and freeway infrastructure were the selling points here for this development 

Tempe, AZ – July 15, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — On Thursday, July 9, 2015, Metro East Valley Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Tempe based Metro Commercial Properties, Inc., and a private REIT managed by Principal Real Estate Investors, Des Moines, IA, completed the purchase of 21.5 acres of land fronting the US 60 Superstition Freeway in Mesa, Arizona, for a planned four building light industrial development.

The seller in the transaction was PuppyFeathers, LLLP, an entity controlled by Craig Berge, also president of Berge Ford, Inc. The site located at 614 – 720 East Auto Center Drive, is immediately east of the Berge Ford dealership with frontage on the south side of the U.S. 60 at Mesa Drive
. 

The $6.5 million land sale was brokered by Kurt Saulnier, Ken McQueen and Chris McClurg of Lee and Associates Arizona.

The 21.5 acre site was formerly zoned for automotive dealership use. The team at Metro Commercial Properties, led by veteran zoning attorney Mike Withey of Withey Morris, completed a re-zone of the site on February 23, 2015, to allow industrial uses for the proposed multitenant light industrial project.

Upon receipt of permits with the City of Mesa, construction is scheduled to commence in August 2015.


Image below shows benefits of location in the Southeast Valley - and that's just above the borderline with our biggest trading partner and neighbor Mexico.

Channel Change-Up: Scouting News > Boy Scouts of America

Update on Adult Leadership Standards

July 13, 2015 by Newsroom Blog

Please see update from Wednesday 15 July 2015 with "a little wiggle room"  . . . keep in mind the Bill of Rights is still for everyone with a separation of Church & State

That's the balanced news from the official Boy Scouts of America newsroom. Then here on MesaZona an excerpt from The Mormon News Report . . . other media news outlets get onboard

Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee adopted a resolution amending the adult leadership standards policy. The resolution was unanimously adopted by those present and voting . . . This resolution will allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation, continuing Scouting’s longstanding policy of chartered organizations selecting their leaders. The National Executive Board will meet to ratify this resolution on Monday, July 27
http://scoutingnewsroom.org/blog/update-on-adult-leadership-standards/.

To the Left an old poster with Bill of Rights From Mormon News: Yesterday, the executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America unanimously approved a resolution that would end the organization's "blanket ban on gay adult leaders and let individual Scout units set their own policy on the long-divisive issue," according to a report by the Associated Press (via ABC News). Buzzfeed received a copy of the memorandum sent to regional and area Boy Scout leaders, which included more details about the individually chartered troops: "No local council may refuse to process or approve a charter application or in any way limit the participation of a Scouting unit based on the chartered organization's exercise of its right to select adult leaders as provided in this resolution."

Image from Mormon News

Obviously, with the huge LDS influence on the Boy Scouts of America, many were waiting for the LDS Church's response to the resolution - and respond they did.
Mormon Newsroom has the release, which reads “As a chartering organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has always had the right to select Scout leaders who adhere to moral and religious principles that are consistent with our doctrines and beliefs. Any resolution adopted by the Boy Scouts of America regarding leadership in Scouting must continue to affirm that right.”
Mormon News Report 14 July 2015

Update from Wednesday 15 July [Italics for emphasis]
We're getting more news behind the details on the decision by the Boy Scouts of America to possibly end the ban on gay adult leaders within the organization. David Crary of the AP (via the Salt Lake Tribune) writes "The BSA's executive committee unanimously approved a resolution that would let individual Scout units set their own policies on the long-divisive issue. So church-sponsored units opposed to the change could maintain the prohibition. "This is a compromise the LDS Church will be able to live with happily," said Kendall Wilcox, a gay Mormon and a member of the interfaith committee of Scouts for Equality that has been pushing for reforms. "This is good for all of us."" On Monday, the BSA said the resolution was approved Friday by the 17-member executive committee and would become official policy if ratified by the organization's 80-member National Executive Board at a meeting July 27. The National Executive Board includes two high-level Mormon officials: apostle Jeffrey R. Holland and LDS Young Men President Stephen W. Owen. The resolution allows local Scout units the ability to select adult leaders without regard for sexual orientation, while also allowing units to continue the ban. According to the BSA statement "This change allows Scouting's members and parents to select local units, chartered to organizations with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families...This change would also respect the right of religious-chartered organizations to continue to choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own."

Channel Change-Up from Copper Area News: Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport

Image from azbex

Haven't seen this anywhere else, but in a recent report published in Copper Area News

Gateway Airport Receives $3.3 Million FAA Grant
By Staff | Posted July 9th, 2015

Mesa, Ariz. – U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon announced Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport was awarded a total of $3,316,790 in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grant funds to rehabilitate the first 1,000 feet of Runway 30 Center, the Airport’s main air carrier landing runway. The project includes the demolition, removal, and replacement of the existing concrete pavement surfaces, construction of cement-treated base, installation of new runway edge lights, signs, and new pavement markings. Construction is expected to begin August, 2015.

“This grant is further evidence of the FAA’s continued support of Gateway’s role as a commercial airport in the Phoenix-Metropolitan area,” said Representative Matt Salmon. “These funds will not only help boost aviation capacity, they will help ensure that Gateway continues to grow as a major economic engine for Arizona.”

“Safety and efficiency are paramount at Gateway,” said City of Mesa Mayor and Airport Authority Board Treasurer John Giles. “With all the growth Gateway Airport has experienced, Runway 30 Center has received significant use and is in need of rehabilitation. A portion of the runway will be closed but Gateway has three long runways so impacts to passenger operations will be minimal.”

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