In-The-Works: Public Art + Creative Place Making

Another in a series of posts featuring some of the public art on the streets of The New Urban DTMesa, thanks to Valley Metro along the line of the Central Mesa Extension for light rail transit that started on-the-tracks here in August 2015.
Major monumental public artworks are in place at the three lightrail stations.
"Twilight Garden", an interactive illuminated acrylic sculpture grouping is in place in Morris Park right next to "The Shadow of A Memory", a serious of bright red iron panels.
Best to see these up-close and personal, walking or cycling around downtown. Take the time to absorb the environments and "message" if there is one in public art.
 

Now at the NW corner of Main Street and Hilbert here's a new addition to the urban streetscape: Robert Delgado's "Palo Verde" that wraps around the corner where you can see the ongoing placement of tiles that have photo silk-screened images of the culture and people of Mesa - past and present - from the archives and artist's photos.
In the image to the right, taken yesterday, readers can see the meticulous attention to details with tiles marked and numbered to get attached to what was a plain block wall facing east on Hibbert Street.

The installation on the walls is an outline of the Palo Verde tree, native to the Sonora Desert of northwest Mexico and Arizona. The Seri people, an indigenous and native group from Mexico, called the tree ziipxol.
They used to grind up the seeds for flour [like native groups with mesquite], boil the green pods with meat, and eat the sweet green seeds as well as the flowers. [411 from plaques].
The art you see here comes from airbrush over photosilkscreen experiments in cut fired tile.

About the Artist
Roberto "Tito" Delgado is a Los Angeles native, born and raised in the Koreatown area.  After serving three years in the US Army in Vicenza, Italy, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and completed his BA and MFA at UCLA. 

He has received several fellowships, including two Fulbrights to conduct research in Mexico and to teach mural painting in Honduras.
Tito lives and work in Los Angeles, that he calls  "the creative capital of the world and arguably the second largest city in Mexico."
His public art commissions have steadily increased in the past few decades.  Among his public projects are works for the East Los Angeles Civic Center, the LAPD’s North Valley Police Station [seen in the image to the right "Home Heroes"] , the Atlanta International Airport, the Heritage Square Station on MTA’s Gold Line, the Pico-Aliso Housing Projects in Boyle Heights, and the Federal Courthouse in Pocatello, Idaho.
Link to Tito's website >> http://titodelgado.com/Home.htm



Shocking Report from U.S. Conference Of Mayors > Hunger + Homelessness

The Shocking, Unacceptable Levels of Hunger and Homelessness in American Cities

A new report looks at the issue in 22 cities* around the country between Sept. 1, 2014, and Aug. 31, 2015.
By Kali Holloway / AlterNet         

December 22, 2015

 

Readers please note that more detailed data for Arizona and United Food Bank's service area are included in this post

 

A number of important findings emerged from the survey: 
- Emergency food assistance requests increased
- Unmet requests for emergency food assistance increased
- Food pantries and emergency kitchens had to cut back on the amount of food given out as groceries or meals
- Lack of affordable housing, an issue that continues to worsen in many places around the country, was the primary reason given for homelessness among families with children.
- Poverty, unemployment and low-paying jobs were the reasons that followed.
* It should be noted that, per the paper, “only cities whose mayors are members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness were invited to submit information for the report.”

The nearest location to Mesa included in the survey was Salt Lake City, Utah . .  Curiously enough according to an online report , Salt Lake City's "hunger profile" remains a question. Inexplicably, the survey includes no data on hunger for Salt Lake City, unlike the other 21 participating municipalities [???].
A spokeswoman for City Hall said the Utah Food Bank did not provide the data.
A spokeswoman for the Food Bank, on the other hand, said the agency had not been asked to participate in the survey for some time.

Here in Mesa https://unitedfoodbank.org/  [link to their website] is  the major go-to organization dealing with hunger and what's called "food insecurity". They are very open, accountable and transparent with data:
According to website for AZ Foodbanks , the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale MSA experienced a 19.2% food hardship rate in 2014 ranking 42nd in the country. 

United Food Bank distributed 22,398,097 pounds of food in the last year.
 
That’s enough food to provide more than 51,100 meals each day.
They provide food to more than 188 partner agencies, including 10 sister food banks.
Their financials and 2014 Annual Report can be found here
Does United Food Bank have enough food to meet the need? . . . No.
On average, United Food Bank is able to fill around 75% of our partner agencies’ requests. This can vary depending on the time of year. While the need doesn’t change – it’s always increasing.
Donations do fluctuate. It's a fact that people donate during the holiday season, because it is seen as a time of giving

What are the hunger statistics for Arizona and United food Bank's service area?
Arizona Hunger Statistics
1 in 4 Children is food insecure
1 in 5 Adults is food insecure
1 in 7 Seniors is food insecure
 
Food Insecurity Within Service Area of the East Valley (Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert), Gila, Pinal, Southern Navajo and Southern Apache Counties)
225,598 Individuals
93,525 Children
84,493 Households

On average, 28,000 different people are assisted weekly
284 Hunger Relief Programs
535,745 Emergency Food Boxes
20,976,287 Pounds Distributed Last Year
17,480,239 Meals Distributed Last Year

Who United Food Bank Helps
30 % of household members are children under age 18
20 % of household members are seniors
70 % of the families have incomes below the federal poverty level
54 % of the households have someone who is working

Your neighbors served here in the East Valley and surrounding counties currently experience or have experienced some of the following situations in the past 12 months:
65 % report having to choose between buying food and paying for utilities
53 % report having to choose between buying food and paying their rent or mortgage
60 % report having to choose between buying food and paying for medical care
29 % report having to choose between buying food and paying for transportation


For readers of this blog who are not familiar with the no-nonsense news source AlterNet here's some brief information:

AlterNet is an activist news service and a project of the non-profit Independent Media Institute.
Founded in 1998, the news org publishes a combination of policy critiques, investigative reports and analysis, grassroots success stories, and personal narratives.
Its coverage emphasizes the discovery of solutions to social problems, and its editorial philosophy is "to uphold a commitment to fairness, equality, and global stewardship, while making connections across generational, ethnic, and issue lines".

Smart Growth > Happy New Year 2016

Find out details:

2016 federal appropriations bill increases funding for transportation, housing, and urban development

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Kira Hilbert

Some here below + more here >> http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/2015/12/23/2016-federal-appropriations-bill-increases-funding-for-transportation-housing-and-urban-development/

 

Department of Housing and Urban Development
The bill includes a total of $38.3 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—$2.6 billion more than in fiscal year 2015 and $2.3 billion less than requested by the President.

• The Office of Public and Indian Housing, which is designed to help residents of affordable housing become more self-sufficient and economic independent, is funded at $26.9 billion, $447 million more than in fiscal year 2015, and $1.87 billion less than the President’s request.
• Housing programs to help ensure assistance is provided to the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, are funded at $11.3 billion, $930 million more than in fiscal year 2015, and $202 million below the President’s request. This includes $11 billion is to fund project-based rental assistance, $433 million for Housing for the Elderly, $151 million for Housing for Persons with Disabilities, $60 million for the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program to help end veterans’ homelessness, $30 million for the Rental Housing Assistance program, and $47 million for the Housing Counseling Assistance Program.
• Community Planning and Development programs are funded at $6.65 billion, $173 million more than in fiscal 2015. Within this amount, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, a flexible funding program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of development needs, is funded at $3 billion, the same as the 2015 enacted level.
• The HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which provides block grants to states and localities to expand affordable housing, is funded at $950 million, $50 million more than fiscal year 2015.
• Choice Neighborhoods, which provides support for struggling neighborhoods and aid for community revitalization, is funded at $125 million.
• The bill prevents HUD from funding any new livable, sustainable or green program in HUD’s Community Development programs. Since the Office of Economic Resilience (OER) or the Resilience fund are old programs, this policy statement does not impact them.

Department of Transportation
The bill includes a total of $18.7 billion in fiscal year 2016 discretionary appropriations for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) — $847 million more than in fiscal year 2015, and $5.4 billion below the President’s request. It also provides USDOT with $56.4 billion in “obligation limitation” funding for surface transportation and safety programs.

• The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants program, which funds competitive grants for state and local road, transit, port, and railroad construction projects, is funded at $500 million. This is the same as fiscal year 2015 and $750 million less than requested by the president. Funds in the bill would be available until September 30, 2019, and would cover projects including but not limited to highway, bridge, public transportation, passenger and freight rail, and port projects.
• The Federal Railroad Administration is funded at $1.7 billion, $52 million more than in fiscal year 2015. Within this amount, Amtrak grant funding is maintained at $1.4 billion.
• The Federal Transit Administration is funded at $11.8 billion, $870 million more than in fiscal year 2015. This includes $9.3 billion in state and local transit grant funding from the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund, to help local communities build, maintain, and ensure the safety of their mass transit systems. It also includes $2.18 billion for FTA’s Capital Investment Grants, such as the New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity Improvements grant programs responsible for funding major transit capital investments, including rapid rail, light rail, bus rapid transit, commuter rail, and ferries.

2016 > Emerging Trends in Real Estate

Just out from Urban Land Institute, something we all know well here in the non-urban Mesa: the suburbs are still alive, fueled by massive on-the-backs-of-taxpayers municipal bond funding for spending millions building infrastructure, giving tax breaks and other incentives to corporations and businesses for job-creation, and laying the groundwork for attracting deep-pocket out-of-state investments in real estate.

Too many details to go into here, but recent successes at Eastmark in the former General Motors Proving Ground - with over 500 single-home sales in the last year - help make the point. As well as one piece of data shown in the image to the right for global investments in U.S. Real Estate by Country for the previous five years and previous twelve months.

Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Americas: Real estate has become ever more dynamic as it adapts to a networked world. Everything is connected to everything else, so market participants cannot afford to ignore developments well beyond the property markets themselves. The major forces of globalization, technology, urbanization, and demography are constantly interacting with each other. A lapse of attention or a misstep in execution can result in being blindsided, foiling even a well-considered plan of action.
Readers can download the report here >> http://uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/center-for-capital-markets/emerging-trends-in-real-estate/americas/

Will 2016 Be The Year For Diversity + Inclusion In Mesa?



NO MORE EXCUSES. . . these important matters need to get done in real time right now. Everybody pays nothing more than "lip-service" about it's the right thing to do, but action has been stalled and not put on the agenda for elected city officials in the Mesa City Council.
There's an election for three Council member seats [not one woman in office or declared go be on the ballot] and for the seat of the mayor coming up this year. Either this issue gets resolved by citizens' actions before that, or diversity and inclusion becomes one of the major issues in the upcoming campaigns.

At this point, these none-actions - on both the part of voters and elected officials - can’t be chalked up to cluelessness.
No, it’s something far worse: Irresponsibility and a pervasive conservative minority religion that has dominated and controlled politics and government here in Mesa for generations.
The momentum [to use a favorite of Mayor John Giles] in the world, in this country, and in other major cities in the State of Arizona like Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe and Scottsdale has moved forward to guarantee by the force of law the rights of all protected classes with no religious exemption - it's time to stop the rhetoric.

Perhaps Forbes Magazine says it best in this report by Josh Bersin with 19,668 views on December 6, 2015 @09:55 a.m.
He's talking about business, natural in a publication devoted to that area, but his words ring true for everybody. It starts off with this leading sentence:
With all the press we read about diversity, inclusion, women in leadership, and the need to be open minded about religious and cultural differences, one might ask “is 2016 going to be the year of diversity . . . ?”
Why Diversity And Inclusion Will Be A Top Priority For 2016
The whole report is six pages long. Read it here >> http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/01/01/five-habits-of-controlling-people/

Readers of this blog get the point. We all need to take action to make sure that
2016 = The Year Diversity Excuses Officially Expire

Here's How The Mesa Independent Does The News

Yesterday The Mesa Independent published its staff report for
Top Mesa trending stories for 2015
The top 10 stories were highlighted, according to page-view statistics from Google Analytics - if that's that publication's standard for reporting the news.
The highest-interest stories included Skyline High School, breakfast joints, aquatics, military veterans, HOAs, the City of Mesa's purchasing department, AZ Department of Public Safety, emergency calls, and synchronized swimming.

Don't know if that reaches the publication's goal of connecting and celebrating our community, but readers of this blog are encouraged to check out what that news source had to say yesterday 01 January 2016
Here's a link >>
http://mesaindependent.com/news/top-mesa-trending-stories-for-2015/

#2 Sun-Rich Arizona > On The Roof, In Arrays >> Re/New Able Energy

There will be solar cities if the supply side [and utilities regulation], and technology meet the demand. Costs have gone down more then 70%. Now there's a marketplace for innovation and development. This post is just to keep attention on the potential of solar power - however it happens.
Some cases to get started, beginning with Google's Project Sunroof computes how much sunlight hits a roof . . . read on for some suggestions to make it better.
This story first appeared on TheCityFix.

Google recently released Project Sunroof — an interactive online tool that allows building owners to estimate how much money they can save by installing solar panels on their roofs.
In short, the tool is a valuable resource for anyone considering solar power as a way to cut utility bills and reduce carbon emissions. However, Project Sunroof is only one piece of the picture.

Maoqi Sun

While it’s great that more buildings are powered by renewable energy, and have the tools to make the switch more easily, it’s just as important to reduce the amount of energy that buildings need to consume at all.

What should Google’s 'Project Sunroof' do next?

Help cut energy demand

Eric Mackres and Maoqi Sun

Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - 12:45 a.m.
Net Zero Energy buildings: from theory …
Most buildings meet their energy needs by consuming electricity that is generated in centralized power plants and travels for miles across inefficient power lines.

Eric Mackres

One alternative is to use electricity generated from clean, on-site resources such as solar panels to improve air quality and reduce emissions. But the cleanest, most efficient energy is that which is never produced at all, making building efficiency a top priority that should be tackled before installing renewable energy solutions.Net zero energy buildings (NZEB) are buildings that capture this idea that buildings can improve efficiency and meet their energy needs with on-site energy resources, such as solar panels. Importantly, minimizing energy consumption through energy efficiency is the first step — and most cost-effective element — of net zero energy buildings.

Here in Mesa, just to cite one example, at an early stage when developers Charles Huellmantel and Todd Marshall were planning Encore On First, a photovoltaic renewable energy system sufficient to offset 50% of the common area energy load was on the drawing for the rooftop. That's not net-zero but it's a forward-step in the right direction for a clean on-site renewable resource.
After the greatest possible cost-effective level of efficiency is achieved, then renewable private utilities or municipally-owned energy systems are used to meet the remaining energy needs.
Increasing clean energy but ignoring efficiency results in significant unnecessary costs for energy systems and the citizens and businesses they serve. Instead of concentrating primarily on renewable energy alone, city leaders, in both the public and private sectors, should prioritize an "efficiency first" approach to achieve net zero buildings goals

… to practice
Net zero strategies can be applied to both commercial and residential buildings through new construction and retrofits of existing buildings....
Beyond individual buildings, decision makers can also apply NZEB principles on a citywide scale. For instance, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has adopted a Net Zero Action Plan to improve the efficiency in local buildings because they generate over 80 percent of the city’s total GHG emissions.
To achieve this, the plan aims to retrofit existing buildings, promote new construction oriented around net zero and shift the energy supply toward renewable sources by evaluating solar options and developing a low carbon energy supply.

Toward a more comprehensive tool
That brings us back to Project Sunroof and how to make it better.
Project Sunroof draws on a user’s average electric bill to customize the recommended size of the solar installation, the cost and what percentage of the building’s electricity would be provided by solar energy. However, the tool implies that the monthly bill is constant.
It does not include recommendations for improving energy efficiency and reducing their bill. An important future step for the development of Project Sunroof is to allow users to explore building efficiency options and then connect users with service providers in their area who can help them to reduce energy use before or at the same time as a solar installation.
A tool that advises users to first improve energy efficiency, then implement renewable energy solutions would be very helpful in demonstrating to building owners and city leaders that prioritizing efficiency improvements before solar installations drastically would reduce the size and cost of solar systems.
Furthermore, this also would enable many more buildings to meet their complete energy needs with on-site technology, something that would be impossible for most buildings without higher efficiency.
Project Sunroof offers buildings a great starting point — but the next step is pushing it to become even better. Maximizing efficiency minimizes the cost and size of needed renewable energy systems, making the journey to low-carbon buildings more affordable, helping achieve the vision of "net zero" energy and providing a host of other benefits.

GreenBiz 2016
The 8th Annual GreenBiz defines the trends, challenges and opportunities in sustainable business now.
Go here to see program and
To register
>> GreenBizPhx 2016

Success is all about the power of partnerships — internal, external, supply chain, NGO, public-private, and more.
The tasks are simply too big to go it alone.
GreenBiz 2016 brings together GreenBiz Group, The Sustainability Consortium, and ASU's Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives. We leverage our vast networks, insights and domain expertise to bring you the brightest thinkers and most influential leaders. You'll get an unparalleled in-depth look at the key challenges and opportunities facing sustainable business today.
This annual forum is framed by the annual State of Green Business report, the ninth annual edition of GreenBiz’s acclaimed accounting of key sustainability metrics and trends. The report, combined with the high-wattage stage presentations, workshops and networking opportunities that have become hallmarks of GreenBiz events, makes GreenBiz 2016 an unforgettable event.