Monday, January 11, 2016
David Bowie - Lazarus > The Man Who Fell To Earth Rises Again
Taking Time-Out from posting to honor David Bowie and his wife Iman, having had the pleasures of mixing and mingling [and catering] to both on more than a few occasions: For David Bowie at the opening party for his being on Broadway appearing in "Elephant Man" and for Iman at a birthday party in the townhouse on East 62nd Street and apartment in London Terrace Towers.
John Giles Makes Another Run For Office . . . Or Uphill Ride? Or Uphill Climb To NextMesa?
This was the last entry more than four months ago on August 26, 2015 headlined [in case you missed it]
ICYMI – Mesa’s Momentum Continues!
"The last couple of weeks have been a blast in Mesa! . . ." What happened to writing and publishing anything about the city on the mayor's website the last four months?? Too busy with selfie-posing on social media or what?
Mayor John Giles
Elected Mayor of Mesa in Aug. 2014. Please join me in taking Mesa to the next level. www.mesaaz.gov/mayor
Here are the stats as of today from the mayor's Instagram account:
Is this an effective strategy for engaging the pubic/people who vote in local government or keeping them informed?
Go to that link for the mayor's office and you see no entries for the last four months.
How are voters supposed to make an informed decision about whether to make the choice to re-elect the mayor when details are sketchy about what he's started or accomplished in his part-term in that seat for the last year riding on the tailwinds of the previous mayor who chose to make a run for higher office as governor and lost?
There was a previous post on this site looking back at John Giles in his first State-of-the-City Speech for 2015 after five months in office.
Whether accidental or not there's a shadow in the image looming larger than the mayor.
In looking at the NextMesa logo, please take a look at the slope and direction of the first trapezoid outlined - those tailwinds might have blown John Giles uphill to a flat-line performance and then on a downhill slope.
Here's a link to the mayor - again on social media - in a 1:05 video uploaded to You Tube on December 8, 2015 from John Giles For Mayor. As of today it's had 721 views with 13 Likes. It's called "Keep Climbing" with some cautious words about "downhill coasting"
Watch it . . . it starts off with the words spoken by John Giles "I've been dealt a great hand ".
Having met the mayor and talked with him in-person on a few occasions, he didn't give me the impression that he gambles on anything - he's risk-aversive and prefers to under-promise and over-deliver to use one of his favorite phrases.
Yet with those opening words in a re-election campaign social media video, ya gotta wonder Who was "dealing the hand" and other questions like was John Giles recruited to run for office after leaving the Mesa City Council in 2000 after only one four-year term [14 years out-of-office] and why?
Is there another candidate not entrenched or embedded in the Ole' Boys Political Machine who's going to enter the race?
In taking another look at the NextMesa logo readers might notice each flat-top mesa image has a different color and is not connected to the next - there's a gap and a change and a disconnect in the overlap.
Food for thought if anybody's hungry . . .
Arizona Ranked Again > 59/100 For Innovation
Here Are the Most Innovative States in America
The two reporters start off by making this point about the Bloomberg Index: Bloomberg's ranking of the most innovative states in the U.S. illustrates how universities can juice local economies.
To provide some context, Arizona's overall ranking in higher education leaves a lot of room for improvement while the thinking patterns in conservative politics that dominate the state might not be the most fertile ground for innovation.
Shocking report on KJZZ today about the state of STEM education in Arizona - hope that readers listen to that . . .
[Yours truly lived in both of those states.]
The Bloomberg U.S. Innovation Index scored each of the 50 states on a 0-100 scale across six equally weighted metrics with these rate-rankings for Arizona:
- #17 Research & Design (R&D) intensity
- #42 Productivity
- #08 High-tech density
- #11 Concentration of STEM employment
- #29 Science and engineering degree holders
- #13 Patent activity
The data also show the limits of measuring healthy innovation. For example, the migration of talent across state lines can be difficult to measure and often captured only on delay, such as through U.S. Census bureau figures. [subject of an earlier post on this site]
On May 27, 2015 Ruth Simon published in the Wall Street Journal an article headlined
Immigrants, Latinos Helped Drive Business Creation Last Year
Go to this link to see the 50-state rankings >> Bloomberg State Innovation Index
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Almost Missed This: The Internet of Things Google Developers Fest Arizona
On the way to run errands on the light rail yesterday by taking a diagonal shortcut through Mesa Arts Center, usually a vast hot spot for performance and visual arts, stumbled on this [image to the left] on the stone walkways. WtFark is this?
Like most residents and visitors I've seen the dinosaur footprints on the sidewalks of Main Street [and a few dinosaurs in the windows at Milano Music] but this?
Some kind of homing beacon for aliens from outer space giving them a signal to attract their return landing back on Planet Earth like the Nazca Lines in South America?
No. Landing here in Mesa was a gathering of bright and brilliant minds ...
The published Schedule
Give the people what they want.
Starting off with:
Chris Mattieu (9:05am - 9:30am)
Greg Gorman (9:35am - 10:00am)
Stewart Christie (10:05am - 10:30am)
Co-Hoots (10:35a - 10:40a)
Luis Montes (10:50am - 11:15am)
Panel (11:20am - 11:55pm)Guy McCarthy (Microchip) - 11:55a - 12:00p)
Justin Ribeiro (1:35pm - 2:00pm)
Peter Heinrich (2:05pm - 2:30pm)
Sheldon McGee (GDGPhoenix) (2:30p - 2:35p)
Jen Tong (3:05pm - 3:45pm)
Panel (3:50pm - 4:25pm)
4:30p - 4:45p Wrap-up
Friday, January 08, 2016
Hot Topic : Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) 2016
More important to keep it mind is the fact that every kilowatt KW of electricity we get from solar power is one less KW we buy from public utility companies.
The same dynamics process for examples where global and national topics impact local issues [yes, we are all connected] can be seen in both affordable housing and diversity/inclusion/equality for all protected classes. Attention and action by citizens and voters who inform and express their opinions to their elected representatives locally in the Mesa City Council, the Arizona Legislature and the U.S. Congress can engage to promote positive benefits.
Yes it creates competition [see previous post on this site from July 23, 2015 where Mesa companies Solar City and Vivint are included] with job creation or job decline depending on whether it's in the old-growth fossil-fuel burning industry or in the new-growth industries for renewable energy.
The dynamics go on with state regulatory agencies protecting entrenched interests. Here in Arizona it's the Arizona Corporate Commission [ACC] recently getting shaken up by conflict-of-interest charges. Who's interest you might guess
quite quickly - and that's exactly why the public and new-growth industries join forces.
The Solar Energy Industries Association [SEIA] successfully advocated for a multi-year extension of the credit in 2008, which provided business certainty to project developers and investors. The ITC continues to drive growth in the industry and job creation across the country.
Recognizing the signifance of the ITC, SEIA and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) developed an analysis that explored the enormous impact of the five-year extension - and what happens if we let it expire.
Extending the ITC amounts to an additional 69 gigawatts (GW) of solar deployment between 2016 and 2022. Without it, the solar energy industries could lose 80,000 jobs in 2017.
But Hey! take a look at an infographic from Ecova, a total energy and sustainability management company published on December 18, 2015.
See >> report from Ecova/Solar TIC
The beauty in looking at infographics is that they say a lot without so many words.
Pay attention, dear readers, this is important to "get the picture".
On December 18th, as part of the Omnibus Spending Bill, Congress extended the 30 percent solar incentive tax credit that was due to expire at the end of 2016. The incentive will now run until 2019, followed by a step down to end at 10 percent in 2022. Analysts at GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association have estimated that the tax credit could increase solar installations by 54 percent over the next five years.
The article continues covering issues brought up in previous post here on Jan 01 and Jan 07 2016 and Oct 19, 2015]
"According to a study published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in October, approximately 32 percent of customers using a cash-purchase approach to solar equipment will achieve a breakeven on the capital investment, which currently sits at a median $2.17/W (not including any state or utility incentives). When examining the loan scenario, the figure jumps to 64 percent.Incentives and net-metering regulations also play a factor in the breakeven on solar equipment. Given the number of factors driving the cost benefit of such installations, evaluations should be performed on a site-by-site basis to determine the impact of switching to solar.
The extension of this credit for wind and solar companies, combined with falling costs of distributed energy resources (DERs) will continue to keep DERs a hot topic in 2016. Each customer’s energy goals are unique, and warrant their own conversation. . . "
Thursday, January 07, 2016
John Giles Looking Back > One Year Ago An Old Truck + SOTC2015
From March 11, 2014 here's a brief 1:31 You Tube Video uploaded for 2014 election campaign for the seat of. Mayor.
How is Mesa like John's old truck . . . ??
.... and last year's State-of-the-City address on Feb 3, 2015. It rambles on 57:37, but gets broken up by six videos some featuring the co-chairs of his election campaign.
Favorite adjective = great
Says at the end he has "limited ability to come up with good ideas" .... needs feedback
How is Mesa like John's old truck . . . ??
.... and last year's State-of-the-City address on Feb 3, 2015. It rambles on 57:37, but gets broken up by six videos some featuring the co-chairs of his election campaign.
Favorite adjective = great
Says at the end he has "limited ability to come up with good ideas" .... needs feedback
#3 Sun-Rich Arizona > Green Biz 2016 PHX 2016 Feb 23-25
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February 23, 2016 - 8:00am to February 25, 2016 - 12:00pm
Find out more and register >> Green Biz 16 PHX
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.
Here are some city-focused highlights from COP21
100RC mayors commit $5 billion to resilience-building
On Dec. 2, the inaugural "Resilience Day" at COP21, 100 Resilient Cities — Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, which focuses on improving city resilience in cities across the globe, announced the first round of signees to its 10% Resilience Pledge.
Read more >> http://www.greenbiz.com/article/heres-whats-cities-cop21
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