A MesaZona Double-Feature 2Day > Enjoy! Pie goes environMENTAL!

FKN News ; Election Fever!

UK News reporter Jonathan Pie brutally honest views on the world of politics and Entertainment.
This is the FKN News

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey - He's Got A Full-Tme Job

Don't want to "fact-check" everything what he says in this talk in front of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Tucson, but gotta wonder what he says about Arizona K-12 education [ranked near the bottom of all 50 States] and higher education - where only 54% of high school students enter community colleges, colleges or universities within one year after graduation and half of those don't complete their degrees. . . .and he goes on to say that universities are "over-performing" and "under-appreciated"
Reality check, anyone?

Puzzled by Stuff? Curious? // Your Right To Know >> Candid Advice

The Dig: An Investigative Reporter’s Tips for Everyday Life

by T. Christian Miller
ProPublica, May 4, 2016, 8 a.m.

What's this all about?

Yours truly can't say it better. Let's all work on puzzles

[a.gifs inserted by MesaZona blogger]

We here at ProPublica are in the business of finding stuff out, especially information that powerful people would just as soon keep secret from you, the public. Fundamentally, we don’t think this task should belong only to investigative journalists. It just doesn’t seem fair to have so much fun without sharing . . .

We’d like everybody to be able to make the world a little more honest. So we hope this column will help teach you some of the tricks of our trade.

We hope you learn to use them in your own life.

 

 

"When I became a journalist, that’s exactly what I vowed to do. For the past 25 years, I’ve covered cops and courts, corporations and conflict. I’ve tried to keep the Powers That Be on their toes, and make sure that the Powers That Aren’t get heard. Ultimately, it is what I hope that you, dear readers, will do in making use of this column.

• Demand answers.
• Unearth truths.
• Raise hell.

 

Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-dig-an-investigative-reporters-tips-for-everyday-life

Life-Long Continuing Higher Education Initiatives Happening NOW in The New Urban DT Mesa

Nobody paid three consults $25,000 each [taking some money out what was designated to fund the budget for The Parks & Recreation Department here in the City of Mesa] to come up with some multi-million ideas for new construction in a plan that didn't happen.
The people who created HeatSyncLabs made it happen themselves in an already existing building on Main Street. They call it a hackerspace. a grassroots co-op of volunteers— no staff!
Just retrieved an email from Eric Oster with this information: Two big updates

1. You can now buy your own Robot Ambassador shirt to support his community workshops.
Check them out at teespring.com/robot-ambassador
Who is NAO?

58 cm in height, NAO is our first humanoid robot. He has continually been evolving since the beginning of his adventure in 2006. Currently in his 5th version, 7,000 NAOs have already been sold throughout the world.
NAO is an endearing, interactive and personalizable robot companion.
Everyone can construct his own experience with specific applications based on his own imagination and needs.

2.  6 upcoming workshops at HeatSync Labs;Inkscape Design (for laser cutter / vinyl) - May 24, 7 PM - 10 PMBeginner Arduino For Programmer - June 4, 2 PM - 5 PMVinyl Cutter and Heat Press Class - June 5, 2 PM - 4PMCustom stamp Making with the Laser ($20) - June 11, 2 PM - 4 PMCardboard Electronic Pinball ($50) - June 18 and 19th, 2 PM - 6 PMSoldering Workshop - June 24, 7 PM - 10 PM

Share this info via his blog; Robot Shirts and Workshops
Robot Ambassador
Southwest Maker Fest Vice Chair
HeatSyncLabs Secretary

 

Here's a brief YouTube video just in case you want to see what HeatSyncLabs is

New Campus for A Mesa Higher Education Initiative: Affordable, Low-Tech and Hands-On

This higher education inititiative opening soon in an existing building used for years as storage offers alternatives other than colleges or universities for well-paying and fulfilling careers in well-being and healthcare. They haven't just talked for years, spent thousands of dollars to pay for ideas that never got over the ground and would cost taxpayers millions of dollars . . .they have a proven record of success, invested their own expertise, time and money and signed a lease to move into The New Urban Downtown Mesa.  

You can train for a fulfilling career in just 6 months.

ASIS Massage Education is having a casual, informative and informal open house today at its new location on the south side of Main Street between Country Club Drive and Robson. It's their fourth expansion for the Holistic, ACCET Accredited Massage Therapy Schools throughout Arizona.

Your MesaZona blogger talked yesterday with Susanmarie Miller LMT, the ASIS Mesa Campus Administrator and Director of Human Resources.
Look into ASIS here
At ASIS, quality education emphasizes practical skills, professional empowerment & respect for the wisdom of each individual.
At ASIS Massage Education the power of touch and compassion are the cornerstones of our holistic massage schools.

Honoring both scientific and intuitive approaches to the art of Massage, our trainings lead to a career that is personally and professionally rewarding, invigorating, and gratifying.
At our four Arizona Massage School Campuses, ASIS offers transpersonal massage therapy trainings dedicated to the person as a whole.
In a nurturing massage therapy school environment, students are invited to take the time and space needed for deep learning to occur. We explore anatomy & physiology, alternative health, self awareness & mindfulness, business, communications & ethics, along with a wide variety of massage modalities, at four massage schools throughout Arizona including campuses in Prescott, Flagstaff, and Tucson - and now here in Mesa.
It is the desire of the ASIS massage staff to graduate competent, creative therapists who have developed their own abilities to visualize and understand anatomy & physiology, coupled with a deepened capability to support the whole person during their time at massage therapy school.
Our professional training is designed to blend the art and science of one of the oldest, yet fastest growing careers in health care.

Still Pie-In-The Sky-Thinking? Back-To-The-Future: A Report by Gary Nelson from January 30, 2014

Sometimes just a casual conversation makes your MesaZona dig into things, for instance one friendly exchange yours truly engaged in with the mayor after his Higher Education Initiative presentation in front of the Economic Development Advisory Board meeting this past Tuesday 03 May where two resignations were announced.
I questioned John Giles, "Wasn't there already a lot of money already spent on another idea for this same site just a few years ago?".

He said he didn't know for sure and that it was "before his time", but adding that we got free ideas from architecture students.
[Bigger's note: according to Gary Nelson's report there were already four]
True, he was elected the 40th Mayor of Mesa, Arizona in August, 2014 inaugurated in January 2015 starting to hold the office with  his vision for downtown calling it NextMesa.
What he didn't appear to know or didn't recall was that more than $75,000 had already been spent [public monies taken out of the budget for Parks & Recreation to fund a plan for private developers] to hire three consultants for a proposal that hasn't got off the ground at all. That ground is covered with asphalt used as a car parking lot for city government employees.

Now there's another idea up for grabs, but here reproduced in its entirety is how things stood more than two years ago now. Same-old-same old or Déjà Vu all over again?
[ Readers, please note the use of italic,  bold, and underline are added to the original ] 
Plans back then were bold, so much so that one councilman said they reminded him of the futuristic streetscapes in “The Jetsons” cartoon show of a half-century ago.
John Giles used to say that downtown Mesa was "Mayberry" . . .
Goes to show the points of reference in the thinking for members of the Mesa City Council - pure fiction television shows.

Pie-In-The-Sky Plaza? ...Piazza in Italian

Sky’s the limit — so far — for Mesa's urban plaza

Pie-in-the-sky plaza

by Gary NelsonThe Republic | azcentral.comThu Jan 30, 2014 10:35 AM

"Daniel Burnham might say downtown Mesa needs a little work.
Burnham, who put together the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and all but invented the field of modern urban design, would notice, especially, that the area next to Mesa’s main municipal office building is nobody’s idea of beautiful.
There’s a bit of nice landscaping near the north entrance and some grass around the city buildings along First Street. But mostly it’s an asphalt desert dissected by Pepper Place, a narrow street that funnels cars into the parking lots.
Mayor Scott Smith thinks Mesa can do better than that.
He has been to Chicago and seen Millennium Park, a downtown oasis that has sparked massive private redevelopment in the neighborhood. He has seen iconic plazas in other cities around the world. And he thinks Mesa should have one, too.
He believes Mesa urgently needs such a space because when light rail comes through downtown, the city no longer will be able to block off Main Street for big events. Last year, in fact, the Arizona Celebration of Freedom moved to the north side of City Hall when rail construction tore up Main.
The 2012 park-bond election gave Mesa a chance to at least begin brainstorming how those parking lots could look if they were redesigned as a public gathering space. Bond money will cover preliminary design, but future funding would be needed for construction.
While Mesa awaits designs from three firms it recently hired, it already has four concepts in hand. They came from students in Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the Herberger School of Design and the Arts.
The students were asked to create an architecturally and artistically stunning place that could accommodate up to 25,000 people at one time.
Four teams presented their ideas this month to City Council members in two sessions at Mesa City Plaza. To say the least, they were bold — so much so that one councilman said they reminded him of the futuristic streetscapes in “The Jetsons” cartoon show of a half-century ago.
All four would preserve the eight-story former bank tower that became City Hall in the 1990s.
Mesa has three other buildings within the block under consideration:

• the former City Hall at 55 N. Center St.
• Mesa City Council chambers at 57 E. First St. 
• the former city library, now an information technology building, east of council chambers.

Mesa gave historic designation to the old library last year, but that wouldn’t save it from demolition under some of the students’ plans.

All four concepts envision privately financed new buildings around the plaza, most with both business and residential tenants. And all would replace the Jimmy John’s sandwich shop on the block’s southeastern corner with what planners like to call a “higher use.”
Among the suggestions:

• A pedestrian bridge stretching across the plaza, connecting a residential tower with the light-rail station to be built on Main Street.
• A “mist curtain” to provide cooling and a creative atmosphere under the bridge.
• Portable “event modules” — wooden platforms with configurable sides and roofs — that could be moved around to serve as vendor booths or stages for a wide variety of activities.
• An amphitheater in the center of the plaza.
• Enhanced pathways connecting the i.d.e.a. Museum with the Mormon temple district and the Mesa Convention Center with the Mesa Arts Center. These would converge in the plaza, the symbolic heart of Mesa.
• An elevated promenade that would offer art installations, event space and views for sightseeing.
• A large parking structure with an electronic wall that could be activated by smartphones or other devices as people collaborate on games or art projects.
• Controlled entryways for use during concerts and other paid events.
• A sunken orchard with fruit trees.

Jeff McVay, now with the glorified title Director for Downtown Transformation who works in Mesa’s development and sustainability department and is coordinating the project, said the students were told not to worry about the final price tag. ???? The point now is to explore ideas.

“One of the big goals of all this is to get people thinking and excited about all the possibilities,” he said.
Smith didn’t flinch during the Jan. 14 presentation when some of the students said downtown Mesa, for all its recent redevelopment efforts, still lacks nightlife and an identity.
“There’s a stereotype (of downtown),” he said. “A lot of that is reinforced by reality. That’s why we’re having you do this. We wanted something that was unique enough that people wanted to come (downtown).”
Smith noted that all the designs contain some form of elevation.
Sam-Guangyu Cen, a design student from Guangzhou, China, said that was intentional.
“Different elevations create differentiations for all the experiences,” he said. “People want to experience different things.”
Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh said the designs include ways to configure the plaza differently for various purposes, as well as landscaping for cooling and ambience.
“It sort of reminds me of ‘The Jetsons’ that we old guys used to watch when we were kids,” Councilman David Luna said. “Now we’re actually seeing that sort of happen.”