Open Secrets + City of Mesa Open Data Portal | Why Open Data?

Simply because citizens and voters don't know or understand government. Keeping us "in the dark" just does not work.
Putting data online and hoping for the best isn’t wrong, but it doesn’t do much unless it's reliable, documented, and easily-accessible.
Although the current open data movement is more than a decade old, Mesa didn't  catch up until an announcement in August of last year with an announcement that it had joined Bloomberg Philanthropies' WhatWorksCities, with an agreement not signed until October by the City of Mesa's executive officer Chris Brady, the city manager. It wasn't until 04 March 2016 - just in time for Open Data Day - that the city got the open data portal up and online with a press release: http://www.mesanow.org/article.php?id=1607.
It was featured in a post here 08 March 2016 . . . some are still asking why they should even bother.
In the interest of public information here are a few comments taken from an online article published on March 10, 2016 by Colin Wood:
"People still largely don’t know what their governments are doing and no one’s frequenting their city’s open data portal to find out — they read the news."
One recent case as an example: in a post here on March 17 Mesa mayor John Giles was quoted as saying in a panel at SXSW in Austin TX by the chat moderator Jessica Daly that "up to 800 new units of affordable housing have come online in the past year-and-a-half."
When that "news" was questioned in an email to the mayor's office for public information, a prompt reply came back the same day that the mayor had mis-spoken.
No need for that if people in government know the real data instead of making public statements that are questionable. It's not a matter of keeping elected officials honest; informed and accurate is the goal for accountability and transparency.

"Open data isn’t just about transparency and economic development. If it were, those things would have happened by now.  Open data portals haven’t stopped corruption; the unscrupulous simply reroute their activities around the spotlight. And if anyone’s using open data to build groundbreaking apps that improve the world and generate industry, they’re doing a great job keeping it a secret."
So who's the anyone - developers, designers, librarians, statisticians and citizens -  using open data?
A guy like Waldo Jaquith, the director of U.S. Open Data and one of the movement’s most active advocates. But he’s also a realist. Open data is struggling to gain financial and spiritual backing. Open data may fizzle out within the next two years, said Jaquith, and a glance at government’s attitude toward the entire “open” concept supports that timeline.
“Right now, it is irrational for almost anybody who works in government to open data. It makes no sense,” . .  “Most people, it’s not in their job description to open data . . ."
The disconnect between the massive operational potential that open data holds and government’s slow movement toward harnessing it can be explained simply. Government thinks open data is an add-on that boosts transparency, but it’s more than that. Open data isn’t a $2 side of guacamole that adds flavor to the burrito. It’s the restaurant’s mission statement.
Open data needs a clear plan, and it needs to come from a wide patronage within government.

6 Ideas to Help Government Realize Open Data's Transformative Power
by Colin Wood / March 10, 2016

Government thinks open data is an add-on that boosts transparency, but it’s more than that.

The Sharing Economy: Human Connections/Trust/Commerce > Incredible Results

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.

Voter Turn Out: A Crisis > Skewed Bias Divides Class, Race, Age [and Gender]

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
  

Cubic Bandit Board Overview

IllumiiBowl :Toilet Seat Night Light As Amazing As It Sounds

 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

 

Straw, Sticks or Bricks: Urban Housing Issues From Two Points-of-View

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...
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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.



 

Mesa AmpiTheater > Sight of A Fight For Bernie + The Donald

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