Apr 17, 2018 - Title: May/June 2018 Chief Executive Magazine, Author: Chief ... they must accept that they can't continue playing the head sales role and, instead, embrace the following: ...... everything has fallen into place in the Trump Boom.
Up early as usual before sunrise to find this surprise image of "Proceso de Los Abuelos" created by native-born Zarco Guerrero whose family-roots here in the territory of Arizona go back for centuries before the arrival of The Pioneers in the mid-19th Century. . .It's a reminder that we have more than one predominant culture here in Mesa where the lost legacy of our rich cultural heritage is brought back-to-life every now and then by The Cultural Coalition and other groups with sounds-and-sights in public performances. Pop-Up event > a live-performance of "Street Theater" Our current urban fabric is incomplete.
Downtown Mesa is the only part of the metro area that has its shit together. ________________________________________________ These following words are taken from https://medium.com/@The_AZ_Urbanist
"I’ll say it point-blank:
Picket-fence and grass lawn suburban sprawl favored by anti-urbanists is a Midwest middle-class fantasy, and should never have been spread across West of the Rocky Mountains. This desert that was never intended to support the kind of water usage, or the demographic homogeneity required to maintain such colonial wet dreams.
While Portland-obsessed urbanists and their imaginations for the future of Phoenix are admittedly terrible, most Phoenix anti-urbanists don’t even see Brown people as human, and think that God “will give us water if we pray hard enough”. Most conservatives in the burbs crave a metro area with no public housing, and no buildings taller than two stories. Their vision is broken and we must look beyond it. Reinforcing the multicultural identity of a Phoenix with density, good streets, and more things to do is critical. We are sitting in a hostile urban environment that will only worsen if action is not taken. Bland, distasteful office parks, meandering suburban streets, strip malls, and apartment complexes that face parking lots dominate the landscape. . .
HOLD ON THERE'S MORE:
Mesa Arts Center Courtyard, a prime example of Arizona architecture
Blogger Note: That's an Aerosol Exalted mural titled "Desert Rose" . . . readers of this blog can find the story in the art by using the SEARCH BOX on this site. The subject is a friend of the artist, a pregnant immigrant arriving here for asylum.
On top of that, Phoenix lacks a lot of defining places for all kinds of people to come together and share experiences. Our urban village model is a wreck, with most of the supposed “cores” are nothing more than glorified strip malls and maybe a post office. It’s embarrassing. The few great spaces here in Phoenix have a tendency to be evicted after a while(Phoenix Renews community garden, Carnegie Library), which makes things worse. This lack of a citywide identity or community pride has eroded our civic responsibility, and empathy for one another. Creating good, central public spaces is a core tenet of urbanism, and sorely needed in the Valley. Some ideas I will be talking about in depth later include livening up Central Station (not Union Station), bringing back Phoenix Renews in a central location, and capitalizing on building public courtyards and pools as our version of floor-area-bonuses.
Perhaps most importantly of all, we have to urbanize because we deserve a better built environment to spend our youth, raise our families, and grow old in.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey speaks to the rich history of the Arizona-Mexico Commission and the importance of the state's time-tested relationship with Mexico.
More than 800 business leaders and policy makers came together in Tucson, AZ for the Arizona-Mexico Commission 2018 Summit hosted by Governor Doug Ducey and in partnership with Sonora Governor Claudia Pavlovich. At the Summit, leaders from both states continued important work that helps drive the regions global competitiveness. Watch the video below for a recap on this year's Summit.
Chalk up another victory for brick-and-mortar retailers.
The industry is on a winning streak after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can collect sales tax on internet purchases, overturning a 1992 decision that traditional retailers said put them at a disadvantage with online competitors. This follows last year’s string of successes, when retailers helped to kill a levy on imported goods and saw their federal taxes slashed with a national overhaul.
Good news is a welcome change for a sector that’s endured a brutal few years with surging bankruptcies, store closings and the liquidation of big-name chains like Sports Authority Inc. and Toys “R” Us Inc.
State sales tax levels
Now, the retail survivors have one less excuse to blame for their woes.
“They have, in some ways, been hiding behind excuses like a tax differential,” said Edward Yruma, an analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets. Their complaints have resonated less in recent years as shoppers’ migration online has been more rooted in convenience than price, he said.
“What’s driving the success of online players is this is how the consumer wants to shop today,” Yruma said. “It’s that simple.” Shares of Wayfair Inc. plunged as much as 9.5 percent to $105.11 after the ruling was announced. Amazon.com Inc. dropped as much as 1.9 percent to $1,717.56.
What’s Ahead
The long-term impact of the Supreme Court’s decision remains to be seen. States were already collecting about 75 percent of the potential taxes from online purchases, according to the Government Accountability Office. The portion not being taxed could total as much as $13 billion a year, the GAO said.
Many large online sellers were already collecting sales tax in states where they have a physical presence -- a legal qualifier under the 1992 ruling in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. Furniture-seller Wayfair, for example, collects the levy on about 80 percent of its sales -- a reflection of its expansion as it opens more warehouses distribution centers across the country.
Amazon says it does collect state taxes on its online sales. But levies on sales from its online marketplace, where third parties offer goods, are collected at the seller’s discretion. These sales account for about half of online giant’s retail revenue. A handful of states already have laws requiring marketplace participants to collect state levies.
BUEN PROVECHO! Bite into this. Sometimes what you put-in-your-mouth can tell you more about people and their culture than anything you can read about.
It's first of all visual appeal and then the olfactory sensations inhaling the aromas, then "the mouth feel" and then the taste. (Photo credit: Phoenix New Times/Heather Hoch, but the two I ate looked better than this one - there's a whole condiment to add more)
You won't find this local downtown place on Visit Mesa's "Foodie Trail" . . .
Your MesaZona blogger posted this about Micky's back on November 9, 2015
If the New Urban Downtown Mesa is all about PROMOTING - your MesaZona blogger is admittedly guilty of that - there are some local long-established downtown businesses Off-Main Street, just a block or two's walking distance south of Main Street that readers will be happy to know about for authentic Mexican food.
Like this one on the NW corner of Macdonald Street & Broadway: Micky's Hot Dogs. It's been here for 17 years.Here's what you see when you walk right onto Broadway . . .
Mexican Food Sonora Style [and half a block east on Broadway on the south side is the most successful restaurant in all of downtown Mesa: Mariscos de Sinaloa, but more about that in a later post].
All the tortillas, big and small with your choice of wheat or corn tortillas, are hand-made Hecho a Mano as shown here by Miguel when that was brought to my attention by the manager during a visit to Micky's yesterday just after 11:00 a.m. when it opens and stays open most days, except Tuesday, until 11:00 p.m. It's one of downtown's few food establishments that does stay open "late". For 17 years they know how to keep people happy - at the same time attracting new customers.
Indoor tables were filled and a family of six were eating on the outdoor patio when yours truly arrived with a friend just after 11. . . Good crowd when the doors just opened! It's always an encouraging sign to see lots of people liking the food at a neighborhood place. What's to Like? Que Hay de Gusto? Everything! Todo!
Micky's 108 West Broadway Road, Mesa "Micky's is well-known by Sonoran dog connoisseurs for its consistency in hours, location, and quality. Though we think their dog could use a bit more bacon (we had to check to make sure it actually had some after our first bite), we love to drop in anytime we're near downtown Mesa for a quick bite to eat."
Did U know? Rush trying to telling the truth???????????? Yesterday Rush Limbaugh did 'a hit job' on a CNN reporter who was sent on a safari to Trump Country. Limbaugh said Martin Savidge didn't what he wanted - he was trying to get Trump supporters expressing doubts . . . RUSH: Here’s Martin Savidge of CNN, as I say, on safari to Trump country. He went to Mesa, Arizona. There’s a border crisis there separating children from people who came here illegally. Well, didn’t get what he wanted. He’s trying to get some Trump supporters expressing doubts. He wanted to hear Trump supporters saying they’re getting a little nervous that Trump may be about to cave. No, he didn’t get any of that. . . He instead got people saying, “Look. If you’ve got trafficker kidnapping a kid, showing up at the border pretending to be the father of the kid, the son, we’re not buying that.” And a woman said, “Quit trying to make us feel teary-eyed for the children. . . Trump isn’t separating anybody. United States law is. Here one more Savidge bite we can squeeze in here. Yes. Same report in Mesa, Arizona, trying to find doubtful Trump supporters. . . Savidge met up with four of conservative friends in a trendy watering hole in Scottsdale. .they all like Trump’s tougher stand on border protection, but all feel it’s going too far. It ends like this: WOMAN: The Statue of Liberty says, “Give us … your huddled masses,” (sic) and so I want to remain a country that that’s our motto. SAVIDGE: They all don’t believe Trump likes taking kids from their parents. Instead, they see what’s happening as an unintended consequence of a stricter policy. RUSH: Well, that’s closer to the truth than the fact that Trump’s letting it. But here’s another thing. Look, I don’t mean to nitpick. > The Statue of Liberty has nothing to do with immigration. > The Statue of Liberty has been hijacked by open-border activists, and that one phrase, “Give us your poor, your tired, your thirsty, your huddled masses and let ’em in!” That’s nothing to do with immigration, legal or otherwise. But that’s kind of blowing against the wind, too, trying to tell people the truth about that . 2 Videos and the transcript >> https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/06/20
