Release > Q2 2016 City of Mesa Economic Reporter Newsletter

Released yesterday just after 3 o'clock

2nd Quarter 2016

Economic Reporter Newsletter

Post Date:04/05/2016 3:07 PM

 

Question: Instead of publishing hard economic data and infographics, analytics, construction and building permits, sales tax revenues, actual job growth and wage earnings, and residential and commercial real estate sales and investments, actions on RFPs, and building leases, what we get is one interview, a side bar for "Mesa In The News" and narratives in this newsletter.

Where's the data?
Is there the momentum the mayor has been paying lip service to for months, or are things decelerating and slowing down?
This MesaZona blog featured in a post on Feb 11, 2016 the same "news" about Socious gathered from public sources and news alerts.
 

This quarter's newsletter starts off as it usually does with Office of Economic Development's director Bill Jabjiniak's writing in The Quick Jab.

An interview with one of Mesa’s newest tech companies: Socious

Along with adding 13 employees last year, Socious averaged 24 percent revenue growth per year over the past six years.

[Blogger's note: that kind of growth is difficult to maintain]

Readers can view the whole interview here

Website: www.socious.com

Visit www.mesaaz.gov/economic for the latest news

 

Next section: HIGHER EDUCATION ROUNDUP 

Highlighting the six educational institutions here mostly about healthcare scholarships to lower the costs, associate and bachelor's degrees in nursing, medical translation, the arts, and finance.

Are these schools struggling to enroll students?

No details about "talks" for ASU Mesa, with a June 10 deadline.

Contestants shine during SparkTank at A.T. Still University

A.T. Still University’s (ATSU) Teaching & Learning Center recently held SparkTank event, a live show-style competition encouraging teaching and learning on the Mesa, Arizona campus.  A play off of the reality show "Shark Tank," SparkTank featured individual contestants and teams who pitched their ideas to a panel of judges for the opportunity to win $5,000 in project funding.

ATSU will continue SparkTank annually to encourage collaborative efforts from the entire University community for the benefit of teaching and learning. www.atsu.edu

 

Benedictine University at Mesa announces new academic programs and scholarships for city employees, area students

The University has also announced the addition of three new minors – Catholic Studies, Medical Spanish and Medical Spanish Interpretation

In addition, Benedictine has partnered with Kaplan Schweser to offer a nine-month Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certificate program, which is not available any place else in the Southwest.

 

Mesa Community College’s new website makes on-campus arts more accessible to the community

Mesa Community College (MCC) launched a new website, The Arts at MCC (www.mesacc.edu/arts), to make it easy for members of the community learn about and attend events ranging from live music, dance, instrumental and theatrical performances to fine art shows featuring student, faculty and visiting artists, sculpture, digital, and painting works.

 

NAU providing nursing programs at half the cost in Mesa 

Northern Arizona University (NAU) has served Mesa residents for over 30 years with innovative and high quality degree programs that are convenient and affordable for today’s working adult. Today, NAU educates approximately 1,300 students, online and locally, through two locations – one in Downtown Mesa and the other on the campus of Mesa Community College at Southern Ave. and Dobson Rd.

Maricopa Community Colleges and Upper Iowa University partner in concurrent enrollment nursing program

Maricopa Community Colleges have partnered with Upper Iowa University to provide nursing students with a concurrent enrollment nursing program that allows students to obtain an associate’s degree in nursing (ADN) and work toward a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) simultaneously.

 

Wilkes University announces new scholarships

Wilkes is pleased to announce new scholarship opportunities for students entering its undergraduate business programs.

Wilkes also announced $1,000 scholarships for members of the Achieving a College Education Program (ACE), which supports students with their transition from high school to community college. The Wilkes scholarship is open to students who are members of ACE with an associate’s degree earned from one of the Maricopa Community Colleges.
In addition, Wilkes recently announced the extension of its $5,000 Founders Scholarship.
For information on all scholarship opportunities, visit www.wilkes.edu/Arizona or contact Ryan Hess at (480) 878-4407 or ryan.hess@wilkes.edu.

 

On The Sidebar: MESA IN THE NEWS Top Stories [all from already published media]

RANKINGS & ACCOLADES

EDUCATION

AEROSPACE / AVIATION

TECHNOLOGY

TOURISM & AMENITIES

DOWNTOWN MESA

REDEVELOPMENT

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

INTERNATIONAL

 

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

GPEC to host Health and Biomedical Reverse Pitch Event
June 2, 2016, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC) will host an event where the region’s leading healthcare providers will “reverse pitch” their healthcare delivery needs to an audience of innovative companies. Audience members will then be invited to present ways to solve these needs. The event provides a unique opportunity for B2B connections, as well as showcasing the innovation in the Greater Phoenix healthcare and biomedical sectors.

NEDCO’s Business Growth Series a success
At the end of 2015, Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation (NEDCO) graduated the first class of the Business Growth Series. Led by Stoney-Wilson Business Consulting, this six-week long development series targeted a handful of up-and-coming businesses in Downtown Mesa.
Experts helped create the curriculum, which focused on developing business plans, projecting and maintaining healthy financials, and preparing businesses to access capital. As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), NEDCO has provided small business loans to some of the participating businesses.
The first graduating class was honored to have as graduation speakers Arizona Senator and founder of SkyMall, Bob Worsley and his wife, Christi Worsley.
The series was a part of NEDCO’s Light Rail Business Assistance Program funded by the City of Mesa. www.nedco-mesa.org

Visit Mesa launches Fresh Foodie Trail, culinary tourism gaining in popularity

Visit Mesa has launched the Fresh Foodie Trail, a self-guided route that connects many of the culinary-themed attractions in the city with those in our neighboring towns of Gilbert and Queen Creek. Visit Mesa has packaged this burgeoning tourism product in a new Agritourism Guide to not only promote Mesa’s treasured heritage of family farming, but also educate visitors on the in-demand experiences that can only be found in the East Valley.

Visit Mesa’s new guide is available for download at VisitMesa.com 

Hard copies can be picked up at the Mesa Visitors Center (120 N. Center St.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please click here to enjoy the 2nd Quarter 2016 Economic Reporter Newsletter– a quarterly newsletter produced by the City of Mesa Office of Economic Development

Reporting In The Public Interest: A Case In Point >> Release of Police Shooting Video

Here's the story as reported by ProPublica
How One Reporter Got the Police Shooting Video Everyone Wanted
by Cynthia Gordy
ProPublica, March 28, 2016, 8 a.m
Readers of this blog can decide for themselves if it is in the public interest to get the Mesa Police Department to release the police officer-involved shooting of a suspect in the bodycam video during an incident here on January 18, 2016. It might be unlikely that since there was no racial issue like in Chicago, a delay in the release of this deadly encounter video might may have similar consequences for the county attorney . . . time will tell. Justice may get delayed but frequently it is not denied.

Case in point: Brandon Smith [seen in the image to the right], an independent journalist, forced public disclosure of the video (which sharply contradicted police’s recounting of events) by suing the city after his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was denied. On this week’s podcast, Smith speaks with ProPublica senior reporter Julia Angwin about how he was the only journalist in Chicago to sue for the video, the challenges and benefits of practicing journalism independently in his free time, and his thoughts on what “counts” as journalism.
Highlights from their conversation you can see here: [open in  new window by clicking on the underlined link] . . . Italics are for emphasis by MesaZona blogger

• A judge ordered the tape’s release just three months after Smith filed his lawsuit.
  Smith: We asked him, "Please speed this up. This is really important." If the Freedom of Information Act is for anything, it's for this case. This is a case wherein a representative of the government literally killed someone and people want to know why.
• Smith, whose legitimacy as a journalist has been questioned, disagrees with the notion that journalists can’t be activists.
  Smith: If something is heinous enough, you almost have to come out and take a stance against that thing. If you're a journalist reporting on the Iraq War, and you find that huge numbers of birth defects are occurring in areas where battles took place, then you kind of have a duty, if someone asks you a personal question about it…to say, "This is not a cool thing that the United States government used depleted uranium bullets.” … I don't think that makes them an activist only. They're a journalist reporting this story, trying to tell the facts.
• Smith left a secure reporting job, choosing to work independently instead.
  Smith: I had this beat where I had to cover certain things. I had to make sure I had a few stories every week. Those stories had to be on this topic of city government. I did that for a while and just kept thinking, "Man, there are such bigger stories out there with national implications, many of them." I was literally not allowed to report on them.

Listen to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher.
For more, follow Smith’s work at brandonsmith.com.

ASU Downtown | Community Forum: Fill-In The Survey Blanks PLEASE > Just Talk + No Action ??

 Already five community colleges, colleges and universities here with very few students > what's the problem? - and two have moved on to other locations.
Do we really need more competition between institutions of higher learning for student dollars spent on education?.
No campus life with commuter and online options?
Just "floating a balloon" from the usual redevelopment tool-box? 
Shoot it down/ask questions Will this fly? ...

Please note, dear readers, this idea was announced with mucho mainstream media hyper-promotion as a fait accompli at Mayor John Giles State of The City speech back in January as part of his re-election campaign - not his usual "under-promise and over-deliver" mantra.
If this idea means so much to the president of ASU Michael Crow, why was he in London for an online course business signed agreement between ASU-Australia-England and not here in Mesa? It was a done deal, not an idea with no substance.
However, all the members of the Mesa City Council posed for a photo-op with ASU mascot "Sparky" here in the image to the right by photographer Ivan Martinez.
In a comment made by Mesa Economic Development director Bill Jabjiniak at the March meeting of the Economic Development Advisory Board, he states "it's just talk, nothing definite . . . "

 

ASU in Downtown Mesa

RAILmesa will hold a forum with Mayor John Giles on Tuesday, April 12 at 6pm at Volstead Public House.

Questions are posed . . . readers might want to ask how this will get financed and what locations are getting targeting for the brick-and-mortar part of this?

Will it be re-use of existing real estate or new construction?

If readers want to take the survey, you can find it here >> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fvlJtR0sHZGF_PGkzn1IAOZ7db_oKI64ttD1QQOYZIo/viewform?c=0&w=1

Boeing! Boeing! Broadway TONY Awards 2008 Best Play Revival Hits The Stage @ MAC April 2016

 

Break A Leg! . . .  To  the program and event planners at the biggest arts n' entertainment venue in the New Urban Downtown Mesa, home on the "outskirts" of the center city for the Apache A-64 Helo Boeing production plant.
An original1965 movie comedy starring straight comedian Jerry Lewis and s8/gay Tony Curtis was adapted for the stage on Broadway eight years ago and is now scheduled here presented by the resident Mesa Encore Theatre . . .
Maybe about polygamy? Or just playing the field?

This hilarious 1960’s period farce features self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German, and American fiancées, each beautiful airline hostesses with frequent "layovers." He keeps "one up, one down and one pending" until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris and Bernard's apartment at the same time, resulting in laugh-out-loud chaos. April 8 - 24
TIMES VARY
THURS - SAT 7:30PM; SAT AND SUN 2:30PM
Farnsworth Studio
$29 Adults
$26 Students with ID
Tickets can be purchased at the on-site box office or here

Here's an old "teaser" from YouTube

Photography is NOT A Crime > Release The Mesa Police Body Cam Video

Time and time again when photographic/video/body cam evidence is suppressed in police officer-involved shooting incidents it results in a delayed public outrage about the use of excessive force, headline-grabbing demonstrations, social media outrage, investigation after investigation, notices and settlements of multi-million dollars claims against cities, and the arrests and prosecutions of those paid to serve, protect and defend the public interest.
Since 18 January 2016 when an incident happened here in Mesa - almost four months ago - it started out with just an item on that day's crime reports, slowly gaining traction to create a crescendo in social media over the weekend.

Why?

Mesa Police Officer-Involved Shooting > Sensational Media Beat Reporting

Within the last 24 hours there have been more than 15 articles and reports in local and national media about this incident on 18 January at the La Quinta Inn. Unfortunately it's all getting more sensational all the time - now getting attention from Gawker and tabloid NY Daily News . . . tens of thousands of people have read online and social media or watched news coverage of this one incident here in Mesa.
With the release of a 12-page investigation report on Monday by the Mesa Police Department about officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford, seen in the accompanying image from that report, headlines are multiplying.

Daniel Shaver, unarmed man killed by Arizona police officer, cried and begged for life before shooting
By Jason Silverstein NY Daily News/

Updated: Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 2:49 PM

An unarmed man who was shot and killed by an Arizona police officer in January cried, complied with police orders and begged for his life before the fatal firing, according to a newly released police report.
Mesa Police Officer Philip Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of Daniel Shaver, a 26-year-old Texas man. Authorities have declined to release Brailsford’s body cam footage from the deadly encounter.Source: NY Daily News

Unarmed man begged for life before AZ cop with "YOU'RE FUCKED" sticker on rifle shot him to death
/ Cory Doctorow / 3:35 pm Wed Mar 30, 2016

The body-camera video that presumably shows the shooting of an unarmed man by a former Mesa police officer at a hotel will not be released . . .

From Singapore Today: SF Fed Prez John Williams | Janet Yellens US Fed Reserve Bank Chief @ NY Economic Club



Both in the same day, worlds apart, saying what they think about the global and U.S. economies + some other people talking about what they didn't say
Yellen - "mixed"
Williams - the spoiler alert is that it’s not as bad as everyone thinks.
[links and details to follow]

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the U.S. central bank should proceed only cautiously as it looks to raise interest rates, pushing back on a handful of her colleagues who have suggested another move may be just around the corner.

In her first comments since the Fed decided to hold rates steady two weeks ago, Yellen said inflation has not yet proven durable against the backdrop of looming global risks to the U.S economy, including still-low oil prices and concerns over China.

The comments, which boosted stocks and bonds and hit the dollar, come as healthier measures of U.S. inflation and manufacturing have prompted some other Fed officials to say another policy tightening could come as soon as April.










Trick of the Light?
The U.S. Economy, Global Growth, and International Risks in Perspective
http://www.frbsf.org/our-district/press/presidents-speeches/williams-speeches/2016/march/trick-of-the-light-us-economy-global-growth-international-risks/