Ah O Yes! A mellow Sunday night here in downtown . . . at least for a while. Time to reflect on just one year getting online with the blog MesaZona: Table of Contents Re/Generating The New Urban DTMesa Much to my surprise, thank you dear readers for over 26,000 hits to date and landing on this page surprisingly with over 500 posts that were uploaded by yours truly. One of the things that keeps me going is the strength and force of ideas, like featuring these talks from TED. You might ask What does that have to do with anything? Watch and listen and find out The Sharing Economy is a socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human and physical resources. It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organisations.
Here's a reality check from Michele Reagan Arizona Secretary of State. Looks like election outcomes are determined by half [or more likely less than half] of people eligible to vote. The impact of going after votes is dramatic with constant bombarding on mainstream and social media: rallies all over the place, flying/fly-outs, news commentators, polls polls and more polls - everyone wants to get into that act with the level of participation this year increasing for those choosing to be "independent" of the two parties, either Republican or Democrat, who cannot vote in Tuesday's presidential preference election since they are not either. Here in the image above is the latest as of two days from the SOS
Republican Higher voter turnout can change all that . . .
Democratic preferences
What's it all boil down to? According to recent research findings by Sean McEwlee in a Salon post yesterday, people need to have a material interest in the campaigns where the beneficiaries need to protect some kind of benefit they have. Unless they see a direct link to voting for a certain candidate, other issues and policy matters are less important
A report from Deseret News about 2 LDS guys Utah men make deal with Kevin O'Leary on 'Shark Tank' for toilet bowl night-light
Published: Tuesday, March 15 2016 10:05 a.m. MDT
Updated: yesterday
A trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night presents a dilemma: Turn on the light and be blinded, or use the bathroom in the dark. Matt Alexander and his brother-in-law Michael Kannely, both Utah residents and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, decided there had to be another option. Their creation, the IllumiBowl, is a motion-activated night-light that can illuminate a toilet bowl in one of nine colors.
On Friday’s episode of “Shark Tank,” a reality show for entrepreneurs, Alexander and Kannely pitched their idea to the panel of investors
Last Friday, two mayors from opposite sides of the country sat on a South by Southwest Interactive panel called “Straw, Sticks or Bricks: The Urban Housing Challenge” to discuss the peculiar character of the issues they face and the solutions they’re pursuing. Mesa mayor John Giles noted his attendance in Austin on March 11 with this tweet: A great downtown incs. innovative vibrant housing @sxsw w/ @Jorge_Elorza@jldailey618 & @MICDdotORG Trinity Simons
Curbed Managing Editor Jessica Dailey* moderated the chat with a panel featuring:
John Giles, mayor of Mesa, Arizona
Jorge Elorza, mayor of Providence, Rhode Island
Trinity Simons, director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a Washington, D.C.-based group with a goal of preparing mayors “to be the chief urban designers of their cities.”
Giles said that his city of approximately 450,000 people has enticed developers to build what he called “capital-A Affordable housing” – that which is subsidized for its residents – by expanding a light rail route the city shares with its metropolitan neighbors, including Phoenix.
Giles said that up to 800 new units for low-income families have come online in the past year-and-a-half.
Jessica Dailey is Curbed's managing editor. She came to Curbed in 2012 and spent three years editing Curbed's New York site, where she gained extensive experience covering new residential developme... Show the rest
Ongoing Issue: “That has created some pushback from some of the neighbors,” said Giles.
Solution: He explained that one way to overcome that opposition is to encourage high-quality design and to partner with committed groups to manage the developments. [Blogger's note: most notably at Encore on First for design, and La Mesita, Escobedo at Verde Vista and Rancho del Arte] Both Giles and Simons talked about the importance of openly communicating with residents and business owners who might stand athwart new urban infill projects. [blogger's note: both images from Twitter. Top image is the entire panel. Image above is U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx giving Mesa mayor Johan Giles a pat on the shoulder]
Key Players & Topics In This Article Affordability: A multi-faceted discussion that centers around the relative cost-of-living in a given municipality. In Austin, this debate has returned discussions on such divers concepts as land use, density, living wages, and public transportation. Jessica Dailey came to Curbed in 2012 and spent three years editing Curbed's New York site, where she gained extensive experience covering new residential development, the housing market, urban planning, and architecture. As managing editor, she now works with writers and editors across the country to make connections between Curbed's 14 local markets. She previously wrote about sustainable design for Inhabitat, covered the arts for publications in her hometown of Pittsburgh, and contributed to a variety of local New York outlets.
Whoever said it's OK for Mesa to be boring? Sources in the media say that both Sanders and Trump are fighting to hold rallies here on Saturday at the Mesa Amphitheatre, but that Sanders will get it because his camp called 30 minutes ahead of Trump's. So far no confirmation from the City of Mesa, the owner of the outdoor entertainment venue. Trump, Sanders fight for same venue for planned Mesa rallies Published: Wednesday, March 16th 2016, 8:06 pm MST Updated: Wednesday, March 16th 2016, 10:50 pm MST Source: KPHO/KVTK
If you live close by or walk on Main Street or get on or get off the Valley Metro Light Rail Station at Main/Center Street you've probably noticed a public bronze sculpture in front of City Hall Plaza - it looks like a boy and a girl having fun playing catch with a toy . . . it's called "Forever New Frontiers", a bronze sculpture donated to the City of Mesa by Boeing in 2003. It looks innocent enough in the highest traffic area in downtown Mesa on the intersection of Main and Center Steers right across from the Mesa Arts Center. Thousands of children and their parents have walked by here in the last 13 years - did no one notice?
Notice What? Just a toy - no. This helicopter is the world's most lethal killing machine and delivers a deadly arsenal of attack weapons [see image and list below]. Jobs and national defense and military interventions aside, this deadly attack weapon in the hands of children simply is not the best choice to represent Boeing on the streets of downtown Mesa.
Here's a video of an Apache attack six years ago that shocked the world for the killing of innocent adults and children and two Reuters reporters:
Behold the AH-64 Apache and all of its weapons. Up front are for the 30mm articulated cannon under the nose of the chopper. There are up to 1,200 of these high-explosive rounds, which the Apache can fire through in less than 2 minutes. Behind those are the 70 mm rockets that are housed in the black cylinders to either side of the rockets. These missiles can be guided or unguided, and the Apache can haul up to 80 of them.
For local history buffs here's an image of the plaque on the sculpture base
