VIDEO ON DEMAND > You Own It .... Use It!

There are fewer and fewer lame excuses when residents, citizens and voters say it's too hard or too inconvenient to get engaged or participate in the government or in the politics here in Mesa.
If time or circumstances interfere with your being there in real time at important meetings or events, the public television station Mesa Channel 11 offers a service.

You can watch live or access uploads any time you want - it's how technology is changing participation in the democratic process.
You can find a calendar of meetings and events here

There's a special City Council Study Session @ 07:30 - almost live right now you can catch for a presentation of plans for the Higher Education Initiative, with the emphasis on pushing for an AZU Downtown Mesa campus


For LIVE ON DEMAND PROGRAMMING http://mesa11.com/ondemand/

Commercial Properties Are Changing Hands Here In The New Urban DTMesa

Case in point: 62 South Center Street, a one-story building part of a large piece of land at the northwest corner of Center Street and First Avenue, directly across the street from the south campus of the Mesa Arts Center.
The image to the left was taken back in March from the second floor outdoor area of the community room at Encore On First.
If you look closely in the foreground you can see a cyclone fence topped with barbed wire enclosing an automobile repair business.
At the middle right you can see the southwest view of MAC in very close proximity to the site, as well as in the center the Main Street façade of City Hall at Main Street/Center where there is a Valley Metro Light Rail Station - a prime location no doubt for adaptive re-use development.
TAKE ANOTHER LOOK: This perspective is from one block south of Main Street between Macdonald and Center Sheets on First Avenue. Nice view, huh? 

Image to the right is a view from the vantage point of the frontage of 62 S Center Street from directly across the opposite corner at the NEC with First Avenue.
The building's showroom has sat empty for more than two years with the exception of a Rolls Royce on display under repair that "disappeared" shortly after the sale of the property.
Seeing a seen a couple of months that the property had been sold and is "available", curiosity got the best of your MesaZona blogger sending an email to the Mayor's Office for Public Information only to receive that the was "a private transaction" [?????????????????]

With any luck or combination of circumstances [like the Notice of Seizure & Landlord's Lien]  posted on the door of office/showroom by LRA Associates who's handling the property] and after striking up a conversation with someone in the auto repair lot, he didn't know who had purchased the property, but told yours truly the property would be turned into a restaurant with parking . . . mebbe just another rumor??

Time will tell, or plans will be drawn up and proposed to go into the zoning/approval, but maybe it is likely that that the plans for an RFP at 1 West Main Street for a mixed-use 3-5 story building that included a sidewalk restaurant will somehow take place at 62 S Center Street.
It's open for speculation od course.

Using Data > Bringing Transpsrency to The Diversity & Social Equality Space

With employers around the globe placing greater value on diversity in the workforce, a recent study from the McKinsey Global Institute calculated just how much could be gained by achieving gender parity: $12 trillion.
Other studies repeatedly demonstrate that diversity encourages diversity of thought, stronger leadership and ultimately, more successful businesses.

Organizations with more women in management and senior leadership positions are tied to stronger financial performance and companies with diverse workforces benefit from higher returns, increased innovation and higher employee satisfaction.

On Tuesday morning, Bloomberg unveiled a new index intended to showcase what the biggest financial players are doing to promote gender equality.
The index, called the Bloomberg Financial Services Gender Equality Index (GEI), includes 26 public companies that are best-in-class in the financial industry in terms of providing opportunities for women.



The results released two days ago, provide investors and companies increasingly sought after information to evaluate reputation, value and performance.
“We decided to create the Bloomberg Financial Services Gender-Equality Index because we realized investors and organizations lacked the data to assess the gender-equality of various firms” said Angela Sun, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development.
“We hope the index will bring greater transparency to the diversity and social equality space and raise awareness around the issues companies, employees and communities face.”
Bloomberg partnered with third-party experts, including Women’s World Banking, Catalyst and Working Mother Media, to focus on the most pertinent challenges and data points in the space. . . Yet a glance at corporate boardrooms and c-suites around the globe indicates we’re largely ignoring what the research tells us.
Women in S&P 500 companies make up 45% of the labor force but hold just 19.2% of board seats and represent only 4.4% of CEOs. Their representation drops to just above 25% at the executive and senior-management level.
The new GEI lists 53 data points for each included company, ranging from number of women in the company and on its board, to length of parental leave, to provided child care and adoption services. It will also provide investors with an easy way to compare the performance of these companies with that of the market as a whole.
The Bloomberg index is simply a rich source of information—it’s up to investors to decide how to use that data. Still, understanding where companies stand on women and diversity is the first step to creating real corporate change, says Sun: “If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it.”
.


Blogger Note: this post is an aggregation from two sources
http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/using-data-to-bring-transparency-to-the-diversity-social-equality-space/ November 23, 2015

http://fortune.com/2016/05/03/bloomberg-gender-equality-index/ May 3, 2016

Exercising Your Conscience > Religion Gets Personal + Public

Religion versus Equality? . . Which one of these statements is not like the others? My religion forbids me from eating pork. My religion prohibits me from saying the Pledge of Allegiance. My religion requires me to wear special clothing. My religion requires me—as a private business owner—to refuse services to same-sex couples who are planning weddings. 
The fourth statement is the outlier in this series, and it’s wrapped up in a culture war that pits religious freedom against individual rights.
This war is being fought very publicly all over the country but just at a slow and long-delayed simmer here in Mesa to take action even for consideration on the Mesa City Council for proposed action on an Non-Discrimination Ordinance.
While Mesa is the third largest in size in the State of Arizona, this city we all love frequently lags behind the other two larger and more diverse metropolitan areas Phoenix and Tucson.

 

Even long after the advent of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's, Arizona became the butt of jokes and boycotts by corporations and companies for being the last state to honor a national holiday Martin Luther King Day.
Arizona Governors and state legislators have faced impeachments and recalls from office for any number of violations, most recently with the passage of SB1070.

And yet on the Heritage Wall outside of City Hall Plaza a certain version of history is proudly put on display like the bronze plaque dated 1953
Civil Rights for All.

And now that the issue of non-discrimination has come up again, we see another plaque with the date 1996

Celebrating Diversity
To finally honor the birthday of one of America's great political and religions leaders for the protection of equal rights under the law.
[Mesa does remember oftentimes in hindsight that injustices were committed, for instance noting in 1953 that swimming pools and housing were segregated]

It might be asked - and perhaps all too easily - will Mesa end up on the wrong side of history when it comes to guaranteeing by force of law current issues dealing with prejudice, discrimination and religion?

How Religion Unites and Divides Us: Muslims @ +66.7% Outpaced Mormons @ +45.5% Jump

According to a report in Mormon Chronicles BlogSpot

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Mormonism leading way in U.S. religious growth

[Note, the story below is based on inconsistent numbers. See here for an update, or here for a discussion on growth rates]. Excerpts of Mormonism leading way in U.S. religious growth by Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune]

LDS Church is fastest-growth Christian faith in 30 states, report shows

The Utah-based faith is leading the way — Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota and other states far outside the West's traditional "Mormon corridor."

These are among the findings of the newly released once-a-decade U.S. Religion Census. It is "the most comprehensive local-level analysis of U.S. religious adherents" since the religious census began about 60 years ago, Clifford Grammich, who led the study's supervising committee, said in a news release. "We are especially pleased to have increased participation for several independent and non-Christian bodies."

In the latter category, researchers estimated that Muslims outpaced even Mormons between 2000 and 2010, adding 66.7 percent more adherents. During that time frame, the nation's overall Muslim tally shot up from 1,559,294 to 2,600,082.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported an increase from 4,224,026 U.S. members in 2000 to 6,144,582 members in 2010, a 45.5 percent jump.

That is "far and away the largest gain reported by any [Christian] group," the report noted, not just in percentage but also in actual numbers.

["The single largest religion in every state is Christianity," said Dale Jones, director of research services at the Church of the Nazarene Global Ministry Center in Kansas,"if one counts Mormons as a branch of Christendom — which the LDS Church does."]

 

 

 

Radical Transformation for The Urban Downtown Mesa - Who Wants to Turn The Center City Into Downtown Tempe?

There have now been two plans within the space of two years for two different proposals for the same site here - the latest is to plop down a 200,000 Sq Ft plan to insert an ASU campus at the center of this city.
Do we really want an education factory like ASU taking over and eating up an open urban public space here?
A small satellite campus somewhere close to the Main Street grid for light rail transit is fine - there are other city-owned vacant properties where this can go - like at Country Club/Main where there's an announcement on the intercom "Mesa Center for Higher Education" or other sites in close proximity to public transportation.

A deal with The Devil?

The question arises: Is there a clear vision for Downtown Mesa?
Is it an Arts-and-Entertainment District or your playground or what? 
Another Quick Fix with a deal that's gotta get nailed down by June 10th??
Developers are hoping to ride on the boom in construction for student housing taking place in Tempe, and it certainly will increase residential density with students

 

This vision from two years ago?

Or this?

Or None of the Above, find a different place to put it please

Questions or comments on the project may be directed to the Director of Downtown Transformation Jeff McVay at (480) 644-5379 or jeff.mcvay@mesaaz.gov.

 

In The Spotlight: Public Integrity



State Integrity 2015

Arizona gets D grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation

Scandals spur little change

By Evan Wyloge 12:01 am, November 9, 2015 Updated: 3:04 pm, November 13, 2015

Gaps in government transparency and accountability in Arizona over the past few years are not hard to find.
Read entire report here

Almost across the board, Arizona agencies consistently fail to follow key principles for “opening up” government data, which the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group, circulated in 2010 as a policy prescription to make information “open and accessible to the public.”

 

 

Your MesaZona blogger, transplanted here in The New Urban DTMesa as a refugee from the New York City World Trade Center attacks after the world-shattering events called 911/September 11, 2001 is a PTSD survivor, now enjoying the great State of Arizona's political climate [we use cool air-conditioning to handle the weather].
It is a truly fertile state-of-mind to plow into in all directions, including politics on both the state and local levels and public integrity . . . so here we get into it.
"In late 2013, stacks of Child Protective Services files were found dumped in an alley in Phoenix, shedding light on an agency in meltdown. The 2014 Arizona elections saw unprecedented "dark money" spending, mostly going toward electing the governor and state utility regulators. And in early 2015, Arizona’s newly inaugurated governor, Doug Ducey, tried to establish a state inspector general, but failed after the plan was criticized harshly for creating a “secret police” that would operate with little transparency and answer only to the governor.
The Copper State ranked a little above average in a new State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of government accountability and transparency in all 50 states by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. Arizona received an overall score of 64 – a D grade – and ranked tied for 22nd among all the states."
The latest report card shows strength, particularly in relation to other states, in a couple of categories: judicial accountability, where Arizona ranks 2nd in the nation with a score of 77 (C+), and internal auditing, where the state tied for 4th with a score of 87 (B+).
But Arizona earned an F in six of the 13 categories, getting failing grades in lobbying oversight, pension management, ethics enforcement, executive accountability, civil service protections and access to information.
Almost across the board, Arizona agencies consistently fail to follow key principles for “opening up” government data, which the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group, circulated in 2010 as a policy prescription to make information “open and accessible to the public.”
These include adherence to ideas like “primacy” — in which the government makes data available in its primary or most original form possible, with details on how that data was collected. That would apply to master files and raw data, not merely a summary file or descriptions of what is contained in that master file. This would enable the public to verify that the information was collected properly and recorded accurately.
Kathryn Marquoit, Arizona’s assistant ombudsman for public access, offers guidance and dispute resolution when there’s disagreement over how public records are being handled. She said original files fall squarely into the state’s public records laws.
“If a document exists, the public has a right to see the entire document or a redacted version,” she said. “I don’t think a summary is an acceptable substitute.”
Another common shortcoming involves data files that cannot be loaded into spreadsheet software, including “snapshot” versions of original spreadsheets captured in PDF files, which cannot be manipulated. Arizona agencies have expressed concern that data can be edited or altered if original data files are made available to the public.

 

 

 

 

The State Integrity Investigation is a comprehensive assessment of state government accountability and transparency done in partnership with Global Integrity.