#1 Sun-Rich Arizona : State's Biggest Utilities Defeat Innovation in Solar Power

From Cronkite News
Arizona sees decrease in new solar installations

By Audrey Weil | Cronkite News | POSTED: Oct 16, 2015

Arizona dropped from first in the country to eighth in solar capacity additions, according to Environment America’s latest solar report, which also notes the drop comes “following the imposition of new fees on solar customers and near-constant attacks on distributed solar generation from the state’s biggest utilities.”
“Arizona is not number 1 in too many things. Education, we’re at the bottom, but in solar, we were at the top. That was good,” Arizona State University Director of Solar Energy Engineering Harvey Bryan said . . . Arizona ranks second, behind California, in total solar electricity capacity . . .
Go Read  http://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2015/10/16/arizona-sees-decrease-in-new-solar-installation

Image included above is from    
Why Sun-Soaked Arizona Is Killing Solar Power

Published Thu, Dec 11, 2014  |  Greg Miller, Senior Technology Analyst

He has this to say about utilities, "To be sure, SRP’s proposal reflects some hard realities that utilities will have to face in the future, as more people reduce their dependence on monopolistic utilities and the government for their needs."

Here in downtown Mesa utilities like electricity and water are City-owned.
Flood-irrigation is the standard practice while it's unclear how many solar installations have been made or what the fee charges are . . .
 

For those interested in solar power in the South West here's a map of what that looks like
[Click on map to enlarge]

TUNE IN Going Global >> CityLab: Urban Solutions to Global Challenges

The mayor is on live now --go to https://www.facebook.com/AspenInstitute  
Nothing from the mayor's press office so far about this gathering of 300 "global mayors and urban leaders" for CityLab 2015 in London Oct 18-20 - just links by John Giles on his personal promotion site mesamayor.com.
[According to Melissa Randazzo in the Mayor's Office of Public Information in response to an email sent this morning, he was accompanied by Chris Brady, the City Manager.]

8:20 MST this morning - A live Q&A session with the mayor, organized by Elliot Gerson of the Aspen Institute around innovation and infrastructure.

This is your chance to ask questions and join the #CityLab2015 social conversations around the challenges and opportunities facing metropolitan areas.

Elliot Gerson is an executive vice president at the Aspen Institute, responsible for its Policy Programs, its Public Programs and its relations with international partners. He also oversees the Aspen Economic Opportunities Program, which focuses on low-wage Americans.

Articles he's written featured on http://www.theatlantic.com/author/elliot-gerson/ include:

• America Needs a Raise: The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage
• To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country, with the sub-heading No politician will admit that the United States is no longer number one. But other nations do a lot of things better -- and we need to learn from them.  



This year's event will explore:

- income inequality

- safety

- mobility

- infrastructure

- other dynamics of modern metropolises to create more livable and sustainable cities.
 

See whole program, agenda and speakers here >> http://www.theatlantic.com/live/events/citylab/2015/

 

With live posts like the following thread, the mayor of a city where new car sales tax revenues are the biggest income -  might be surprised how people in different parts of the world react to air quality conditions.

Five minutes ago, at the time of this post, London's Deputy Mayor for Transport says city residents aren't outraged enough about air pollution . . . “The same people who say it’s unacceptable that little Bobby has asthma will get in their big SUV and drive their child to school,” says London Deputy Mayor for Transport Isabel Dedring.

 

 

 

 

SEED LIBRARY?? What's that? Check It Out @ Mesa Main Public Library

OK, folks wrap your head about this: libraries are sprouting innovations and spreading ideas and actions. It's not the same 'olé same old tired stuff any more . . . and a seed library?

See how it works in the chart to the right ...get the difference? You grow and then harvest and then return to keep it all going all over again. In a series of later posts we'll get into a concept in new urbanism called Urban Husbandry where we interact with our urban environments in some of the same ways we practice principles about growing and caring for plants and animals that nourish and regenerate our lives. Better call the midwife, huh? Equal Opportunities for Everyone.

Being the bizzy blogger that yours truly is, I almost missed two events today while volunteering at The Big Book Sale. People kept asking where's the 'start your winter garden class' going on and where's the grand opening of the seed library? You can see Danielle McClung with GardenPool.org in the image to the left talking to eager people going into those old [let's say "repurposed"] card catalogs now with packets of seeds that card-carrying library members can get for free. Get more 411 >> mesalibrary.org

 

Garden Pool crew from website

Phoenix got its seed library back in 2012 while the idea has been spreading like pollen [or dust] in the wind all over the place for years.
Talking with Dennis McClung today he filled me in with some first-hand details about the non-profit organization he and his wife started here in Mesa - home-grown talent for sure.
There are more workshops on the calendar at MMPL.

The Seed Library is the result of partnership between MMPL and Garden Pool whose goal as a public charity is to continue to innovate, create, educate, and support better ways to grow food. gardenpool.org
Go to the website for more useful information, volunteer and intern opportunities, online shopping, and online classes.
There's a program called FruitTrees4Community that's provided fruit trees to Mesa Urban Garden here in the new urban downtown Mesa.
Do you live near Mesa, AZ? Order wholesale berries, fruit, and nut trees. Order by November 10th and pickup at Garden Pool. [how-to workshops @ MMPL]
Go here to learn more or to select your varieties: http://gardenpool.org/fruit-trees-4-community

Great to see this too - Garden Pool feels that growing food should be a part of every child’s education experience. We have assembled a great kit to teach students an exciting way to grow food. We are honored to offer this kit for your classroom!






 

 

 

 

 

                                          

Lighten Up With A Sense of Humor > Back To The Future In ACTUAL 2015

Creative Place Making > El Rancho del Arte Grand Opening

How Mesa  got the news way back when

This was a very big step for Creative PlaceMaking for the new urban downtown Mesa, apparently un-noticed by the City of Mesa News Room, not covered by Mesa Channel 11, and the Mesa City Council member whose district this is in did not bother to show up even though he was a featured guest speaker - the mayor had an excuse since he was out of town. [Sorry, folks, had to mention that]
Community Development Partners communitydevpartners.com planned and built this habitat/residential environment [featured in previous posts here on October 8 and back on March 02] through a thoughtful, human-centered collaboration that involved a team of engaged stakeholders. The project team is excited to have created this community in Mesa and thankful for the tenacity of everyone involved.
Now that the built environment has been created, attention is being turned to community activation. In pursuit of that step, a strong supportive services program is being rolled out that includes educational classes for parents and after-school programs for children, as well as community-building events.

The 66-unit residential development is a welcome addition to the emerging new urban downtown Mesa, opened 14 months after ground-breaking.
Construction on Phase 2 with 47 additional apartments of El Rancho del Arte by Community Development Partners is planned to start in the near future.
The fourteen partners include: Arizona Department of Housing, Cultural Coalition Inc, A New Leaf, Alliant, Integrity Housing, City of Mesa, NEDCO, Rocky Mountain CRC, Icon Builders, Perlman Architects, LISC, Chase, and Celtic Property Management.

Eric Paine

Once the keys were handed over to the property management company, the building was 100% leased in five days, according to remarks made today at the ribbon cutting celebration by Eric Paine, the CEO of Community Development Partners, remarking that quick response shows the strong demand for affordable housing here in Mesa that is transit-oriented and forward-thinking.
Kelly Sands,  Icon Builders "is very pleased to complete this exciting affordable housing family project along the Valley Metro Rail transit line in Mesa. Access to public transportation gives residents more choices and easier access to the workplace and public amenities. The transit orientation also supports healthier life practices of conservation and public commuting, . . "

Michael Trailor, the Director of the Arizona Department of Housing, was one of the guest speakers at today's opening when he spoke about Location Efficient Housing where access to transportation and services create job opportunities.
He commended Community Development Partners, and the tenacity of all the stakeholders for the construction and opening of this new building with all the in-place services and programs that benefit residents' families and children to create opportunities in downtown Mesa for affordable housing.
Liz Morales, Mesa's new director for Community Housing and Development, attended the ceremony along with the mayor's chief of staff. Council member Chris Glover had other commitments.

 

Amenities include ground floor inside parking, public art installations, large communal flex areas, children's after-school programs, BBQ and picnic areas and a courtyard playground in an interior 4-story high atrium, raised plots in a community garden, bicycle parking, a pool and computer center.
Everyone was all smiles at the ribbon cutting ceremony in the image to the right.

World Grain News > In Mesa: Natural, Organic + Non-GMO Project Verified



... and City Hall wants an artificial Holiday tree for Merry Main Street? > Go figure
Flowers completes acquisition of Alpine Valley Bread
10/14/2015 - by World Grain Staff
THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA, U.S. — Flowers Foods, Inc. on Oct. 13 completed the acquisition of Alpine Valley Bread Co. for $120 million in cash and stock. Based in Mesa, Arizona, U.S., Alpine Valley bakes bread that is natural, organic and Non-GMO Project verified. The company operates two bakeries in Mesa and employs 282. Alpine Valley Bread Company will operate as an independent subsidiary of Flowers Foods.

http://www.world-grain.com/articles/news_home/World_Grain_News/2015/10/Flowers_completes_acquisition.aspx?ID={0BF24C47-AF3D-43FE-A123-AED36C9130FD}&cck=1.

Why Read?? NEWS | The Global Conversation

Not as popular as Harry Potter, yet Capital in the 21st Century  a lengthy work on inequality, has hit a  nerve selling over 2 million worldwide.
This shows that there is tremendous interest in inequality these days all over the world - and here locally in Arizona and Mesa.

Inequality and poverty are concerns not only for people on the left, on the right, people from different religious persuasions, it is a general concern for mankind,
There's a big concern over whether globalisation is benefiting everyone or is being captured by a small group of the population and what’s new in this book is that many researchers from more than 30 countries have put together the largest historical database on income and wealth inequality that has ever been put together. So that’s really what is new. Picketty studies inequality from a historical perspective.
" . . . When people are unable to solve their social and unemployment and domestic problems through peaceful policies, then it is always tempting to blame others . . . "
In this edition of Global Conversation Isabelle Kumar speaks to him about his vision of economics and society . . .

What are your three favourite books? 

Thomas Piketty
“That’s complicated. In my book I talk a lot about Balzac ‘Le Père Goriot’, and indeed I think this was such a powerful way to talk about capitalism in the 19th century.
Marx was saying in the 1860s that it was by reading Balzac that he learned the most about capitalism. 
I think this is the same today but you have to switch authors so one my favourite novel recently was the latest novel of Carlos Fuentes ‘La volunta y la fortuna’ which is an incredible novel about capitalism in Mexico.
Tancrède Voituriez who is a young French author who recently wrote about ‘the invention of poverty’ (L’invention de la pauvreté), which is a very funny novel about how development economists pretend to save the world and don’t always do so. So you have lot of very powerful novels that put money and capitalism at the centre of their investigation.”
See and Read more >>
http://www.euronews.com/2015/10/14/rocking-the-establishment-thomas-piketty-s-challenge-to-orthodox-economics/