Heavy-Handed Police Tactics Caught Again On Video

Gone so wrong again here in Arizona after multiple incidents of officer-involved excessive use-of-force.
In Mesa there were killings and lawsuits. In Chandler the police busted through the door of a family home, without a warrant,  pointing guns to force their way into the family’s home in the middle of the night last month when they were denied permission to enter for "a welfare check".
We should all be outraged by these paramilitary SWAT tactics in a civilian context - it's out of control. The Chandler father, in this incident, provided a home-security video of police breaking down the door of a family’s home for a DCS-requested welfare check of a child with a spiking fever, after parents refused to give police permission to enter their home, saying their toddler son was fine. ( Courtesy of Chandler father)

This time around it's all about parental rights, vaccinations and child welfare. But let's not get side-tracked by the main issues that there is a need for civilian oversight of excessive use-of-force paramilitary tactics by police departments - it's nation-wide and not only in Arizona  Weapons and tactics of war are getting used domestically.

Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, attended a juvenile hearing to see if the Department of Child Safety violated the rights of a Mesa mother and father when taking custody of their child. (Photo: Dianna M. Náñez)

A couple failed to hospitalize their unvaccinated child. Police broke down their door

Dianna M. Náñez, Arizona Republic

 _________________________________________________________________________The story is taken from this source, https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/nation 28 March 2019

Head-Over-Head For Hyperlocal News: The Metrics

Whoever said Mesa is boring?
In a city known for its wide streets and narrow minds, there's plenty of room in 'The Old Donut-Hole' for different perspectives and points-of-views from every angle.
MesaZona: Table of Contents/Everyone is invited to the table
A new milestone has been reached

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225,514+

Grande Vita: "Aging-In-Place" In A $300-Million BioCity Enterprise Here In Mesa

O Yeah! High-End Assisted Living!

This certainly looks like the future kind-of-place that might appeal and get sold to well-off Senior "Golden-Agers" - a 20-acre, multi-use, high tech and innovative environment    medical campus-style community at Crismon Road and Hampton Avenue.

[Blogger note: images are inserted from public sources]

GrandeVita’s concept and design has been developed with the intent of creating a unique campus atmosphere with a world-class resort feel.

The campus is nearly 700,000 square feet of independent and assisted living, hotel rooms, multiple dining options, medical offices, a luxury tower and luxury condos, nursing school and rehab clinic. . .

[see details/links farther down in this post]

 

Conveniently located to the north is the Mountain Vista Medical Center, making the site an ideal location. 

 

A Marriott Hotel is close by

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Note these upward revisions of published claims just three months ago:

• 150 more lobs
• $10 Million more generated in wages

". . . The $300 Million project called Grande Vita, will create an estimated 476 jobs and generate 38.6 million dollars in wages.

Groundbreaking for Grande Vita will take place on May 21^st, 2019.

 

Brycon has already been on site since last year and completed the first part of the overall project, which is the Residence Inn by Marriot, which is on site.

 

That extended stay hotel will open to the public in May of 2019, just ahead of the official ground breaking on the campus. . ."

[see chart to left for Land Use Summary]

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“There is substantial demand for a high-end, assisted living community like GrandeVita,” says Kelly Copeland, COO of BioCity Enterprises. “Khangura Development and BioCity Enterprises are excited to build a property that will revolutionize the current model this kind of facility. It will be unrivaled when it’s completed,” continued Copeland.

Mesa Mayor John Giles emphasizes GrandeVita’s positive impact on the City of Mesa. “GrandeVida is an excellent addition to southeast Mesa,” Mayor John Giles said. “Their innovative approach to building a senior community with integrated healthcare, recreation and resort living will change the way we think about aging.”

Mesa approves $200 million GrandeVita project

Real Estate | 17 Dec, 2018 | AZRE

"On December 10, the City of Mesa moved forward a plan for a 20 acre, multi-use, campus-style community . . . A 127-room Residence Inn by Marriott is the first project to be completed on the campus and will be open in January of 2019.

 

When completed, GrandeVita will create

• an estimated 326 jobs with an average wage of $45.25/hr 
• and generate $28.6 million dollars in wages.

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More details from AZ Big Media 28 March 2019

Brycon Construction joins $300M Grande Vita project

Real Estate | 17 hours ago | AZRE

There's A Big Sucking-Sound From That Tax Credit & Jobs Act

. . . and it ain't going to JOB CREATION, folks.
From Axios  https://www.axios.com/newsletter 3 hours ago
1 big thing: Buybacks could exceed 2018's record high
U.S. companies are on pace to buy back more of their shares than they did during 2018's record binge, data shows, despite — or perhaps because of — mounting political opposition.

Through March 15, American companies had bought $253 billion worth of their own stock, according to data compiled by Michael Schoonover, COO of asset manager Catalyst Funds.

That total is about $18 billion more than at the same period last year, when company stock buybacks passed the previous record by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Why it matters: Companies are continuing to choose buying back their stock to reduce the number of shares outstanding and boost prices over investing in long-term capital and labor expenditures. Last year, companies spent more buying back their own stock than on capex for the first time since 2008, according to Citigroup. . .

What's next? The impact of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act on the real economy is expected to recede this year, but Schoonover tells Axios he is expecting it to continue to boost stock buybacks for years to come, as companies have already shown that's how they will use the tax cut windfall.

Further, as of September 2018, only $143 billion of the more than $2.5 trillion held overseas by U.S. companies had been repatriated to the U.S., which was a major part of the tax bill.

.

 

Mesa City Council Study Session Thu 28 March 2019

Too bad if you've a short-attention span - this is 104 minutes. It's part of the run to the finish in the annual round of budget presentations. 
Are readers of this blog on their mark, and ready-set-go for all the dashes to the finish line some time at the end of May? 
Once again notice all the empty seats in the Lower Chambers.
Looks like politics here in Mesa is a spectator sport, but when hardly any members of public are even watching, it is sad

It takes due diligence and efforts ahead of time to get informed on what's on the agenda for this study session when the meeting details were made public late in the day on March 26th. That's really not sufficient time - about one day - to access, review and study all the items on the long agenda for this early morning session. Some things can easily slip through the cracks that appear in open, transparent and accountable government when information is first of all either late or for some reason  kept out of the public sphere.

So the session starts with a groggy John Giles asking if the Police Chief is present to sing him Happy Birthday - such gravitas, huh? Then D5 David Luna first asks about a crash that damages a bus shelter [really important, huh?] and D2 Mark Freeman next cues in on just one contract for Fire Department equipment in an long list of awards adding up to millions of dollars. . . .
Oh, and by the way there will be 'several presentations' on budget stuff. It was a surprise to see this uploaded on the same day since there's no reason not to do that on a regular timely basis - at the time of upload to this blog there were 27 views in  a city of over 475,000.

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RODS FROM GOD: A SPACE WEAPON TO MAKE THOR JEALOUS || WARTHOG 2019

Weaponizing Space

Published on Mar 29, 2019

Views: 188 [at time of upload to this blog site]

Join me in War Thunder! Use my link for a FREE premium aircraft or tank and three days of premium account time as a BONUS: https://wt.link/WarthogDefense
This video is made under fair use policy, also this material is made from public published domain for people with hearing and seeing disability
This far-out, decades-old idea wasn’t laughed off by the U.S. Air Force.
By Lee Ferranhttp://www.realclearlife.com/military...

Then & Now: Re/Visiting Artist Theaster Gates 4 Years Later

Imagine this here in Mesa: a resident artist as a social activist/community builder
Internationally acclaimed artist and urban planner Theaster Gates, whose rise to prominence began with his use of art and culture to revive underserved neighborhoods in his hometown of Chicago, was named the 2018 recipient of the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development at the Institute’s 2018 Fall Meeting in Boston.

https://urbanland.org

UL Interview: Theaster Gates on Building Communities by Breaking Rules

By Justin Arnold

March 25, 2019

ULI Governing Trustee and Nichols Prize Jury Chairman Michael Spies, senior managing director of Tishman Speyer in New York City, noted that the selection of Gates is a recognition of the way that visionaries whose work extends beyond traditional real estate disciplines are influencing the built environment.

“Many cities are looking to reinvent themselves, and Theaster’s work represents art and culture as important elements of reinvention. He recognized early on the important role his art could play in building a strong community. His model of readapting elements, of repurposing ordinary materials for works of art as well as rebuilding, is a model that clearly has huge potential to be replicated in communities around the world,” Spies said.

He is at once an artist, an entrepreneur, a community builder, and a visionary.”

You can read the entire interview using the above link at the opening

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Theaster Gates 4 years ago:

26 May 2015

Theaster Gates: How to revive a neighborhood: with imagination, beauty and

Make No Bones about it - this is an artist who has become a social activist.  Watch him