"The outcome in New York v. Department of Commerce, which the Supreme Court will hear on April 23, will affect virtually every aspect of our national life, from the right to vote to the balance of power in Congress and the Electoral College to the scope of federal educational, health, and welfare programs. At issue is whether next year’s federal census form can include a question asking whether each member of a household is a U.S. citizen. Although the case has constitutional dimensions—the census itself is created by the Constitution— the result is likely to turn on whether the Department of Commerce, which administers the census, properly read Title 13 of the United States Code. . ." That's the opening this morning from The Atlantic
A Supreme Court Case That Will Affect Every Aspect of National Life
Can the federal census form ask whether each member of a household is a U.S. citizen?
United States Common Sense is a non-profit, non-partisan policy group dedicated to opening government data and resources to the public, developing data-driven policy analysis, and educating citizens about how their governments work.
Did you notice that D1 Councilmember Mark Freeman is getting a lot of "face time"on these screen-grab image uploads to YouTube from Mesa Channel 11?
Guys' clothes statement for the day = white open collar shirt. Who's wearing that at the 07:30 a.m. Study Session? Does it look like anyone was up-all-night to look at and understand three budgets from three city departments for the next fiscal year's Proposed Budget? The details were released only 24 hours in advance - not enough time at all for the public to get informed. Budgets are complex to say the least.
This extended study session is all about BUDGET HEARINGS for three departments all at the same time at one meeting in the Lower Chambers. At the same time - 07:30 in the morning - there are also two other meetings of the City Council calendar dealing with Eastmark, a CFD (Community Facilities District), that usually get scant scrutiny or attention with everything approved in about five minutes. _________________________________________________________________________
Are you ready to see what the agenda is ahead of time? It was released only just the day before! To take action on and to Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on the following three department budgets: 1. Water Resources
2. Environmental Management and Sustainability
3. Energy Resources
Don't know about you, dear readers, but your MesaZona is very curious to find out exactly how much time each of the six City Councilmembers and the mayortook to read and to understand what's in the lengthy presentations for these three city departments. . . .
All three presentations are Power-Point slides that are planned, organized and prepared well ahead of time - it's not "a last-minute" thing by any means. The presenters have their own scripts in front of them and have been rehearsed. You are presented with only what city officials want you to see for the purpose of getting the proposed budgets in three departments approved, with a minimum of hassles or questions. Please keep your eyes open and pay attention to what the six individual councilmembers, the mayor, and salaried city officials have to say to either question or praise projects and if the presenters need some support to clear up the questions asked. . . .
________________________________________________________________________________
Here's a PRIMER . . . often, public officials, journalists, researchers, and citizens lack the data and practices to identify fiscal challenges in advance. . . To combat the challenges of access to, and understanding of, fiscal sustainability data, US Common Sense has created the nation’s largest comprehensive and free municipal finance platform on GovRank.org. The platform includes “top-line” financial figures, understandable measures of fiscal sustainability, and interactive rankings for over 13,000 municipalities nationwide. > https://govrank.org/research/researchText/62
_________________________________________________________________________________
Here's one infographic of City Rankingsfrom 2009-2014 that was published in 2016 - take a look where the City of Mesa is in the red Deficit area, all the way to the far right. This is five years after Chris Brady, former assistant city manager from San Antonio, TX, was hired as the City Manager here in Mesa in 2005. The debt obligation at that time was about $40M. Last year 2018 it was over $450M. Yes, Mesa is growing fast, but is it smart and sustainable?? Budgets are complicated to say the very least and anyone reasonable person might ask if councilmembers are smart and informed enough to examine the proposed budgets.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Here's the 2-Page Agenda made public just the day before . . . No doubt that it would take a team of qualified and diligent financial analysts for than just a day and more than just a few hours to go over a total of 67 pages, in the format of Power Point slides, and to review and understand and analyze the proposed budget figures for the upcoming Fiscal Year for File #19-0372 where the attachments and links are provided below after this overview taken from downloads of the materials to be presented.
Furthermore, there are few elected members on the Mesa City Council with a business and finance background who can realistically wrap their heads around the proposed budgets for their own districts - never mind the impacts citywide. And that's even if they were the time in the first place to access all the data and commentary provided in the slides. Smart?
Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on the following department budgets: 1. Water Resources 2. Environmental Management and Sustainability 3. Energy Resources
Here's the 3-Hour streaming video - Please note once again many views in a city with a population ov over 475,000 have viewed what our city government is doing: Published on Apr 19, 2019 Views: 5
Pie joins the Extinction Rebellion protest that is helping save the planet whilst annoying commuters. For tickets to see Jonathan Pie: The Fake News Tour go to https://www.jonathanpie.com
Hey! We're not talkin' pulp-fiction magazines here, folks. An "innovative firearms accessory manufacturer here in Mesa, XTech Tactical LLC has expanded its line of MTX magazine extensions. Good news if shooting is your sport. News like this is published here for those you might use tactical forearms for "sport", but it's make your MesaZona blogger Fired-Up to see this, sport or not. _________________________________________________________________________ Why? The source of the news in the press release and what it promotes on their website Scroll down below to see some of what Ammoland featured on the same day __________________________________________________________________________
Here's the press release: XTech Tactical Releases MTX Magazine Extension for M&P Full Size Pistols
Mesa, AZ – -(AmmoLand.com)- XTech Tactical, LLC an innovative firearms accessory manufacturer expands its line of its patent-pending MTX magazine extensions.
XTech Tactical MTX Magazine Extension for M&P Full Size Pistols
First seen for the VP/P30 full-size H&K pistols, the MTX compatible with the M&P, M&P 2.0 full size, and Caracal Enhanced F pistols is now shipping!These are anything but industry standard magazine extensions!! The MTX for the M&P uses the patent-pending design that is robust, durable, offers flawless feeding while requiring no tools for installation. The magazine extension uses military grade reinforced polymers, and the inner housing offers the patent pending “Leading Edge” eliminating any catch point during the transfer from the extender into the magazine tube. The kit includes both the extender parts and a custom-engineered stainless-steel spring. All components are 100% Made in the US.
MSRP for the MTX M&P Magazine Extension is $29.95 with two packs available for $49.95. The kit adds 5 rounds for 9mm and 4 rounds for .40 S&W. XTech Tactical, LLC also has released 5 pack (15rd, $165/20rd $237.25) and 10 pack (15rd, $300/20rd $449.50) for their US Made, Stainless Steel, Teflon coated completed VP9/P30 9mm full-size magazines. For more information on how the MTX Extenders work here is a video overview above. ________________________________________________________________
The movement has begun. Follow our step by step guide. Here are four key steps to creating your own Second Amendment Sanctuary. With example resolutions.
Read More >>> __________________________________________________________________________________
Are the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, Christian teaching and natural law unchangeable and applicable to all men at all times? Or can some of the 10 be consigned to the dumpster of antiquated
Imagine that assertion, dear readers, friends and neighbors. Let's get played for fools all over again! Say what? We have all been "Mystified" . . .There's a civic tech app for that - "crowd funding" development. All done by manipulating click fixes when a group named Neighborlands, a 3rd Party contractor hired by the city, launched Imagine Mesa, a digital forum for community engagement.
Quick Blogger Comment: (1) Wearing sneakers-and-shorts is the City of Mesa's Director of Downtown Transformation Jeff MacVay. (2) In the right foreground are The Strothers, husband-and-wife owners of a sandwich shop downtown, who were named in January 2019 as the private operators of the Mesa Farmers Market & Flea . . .scratch your head about that!
"The City made the public’s ask for a farmer’s market downtown a reality, offering use of a city park, selecting a market operator and providing marketing assistance."
(3) There's already been a farmers market downtown for years that fizzled-out scheduled on a Friday when the biggest employer downtown is closed to enjoy a 4-day workweek, and a Farmers Market at Fitch Farm on N Center Street. (4) The difference now is that the city spent over $12M to renovate Pioneer Park (original budget $6.9M) and really needs to justify that overblown expense to attract some people to a public park close to the Temple Area that's currently a construction site for a Massive Mormon Make-Over just blocks away from downtown.
“We want Mesa to be a bottoms-up community. The seven of us [on the City Council] are not sitting here because we are the smartest people in the city or because we’re the ones who have the best ideas in the city. That’s not the case. We have a very capable community that has lots of talent and resources, and we want to draw on that. This approach helps us be better at what we’re doing.” – Mayor John Giles
HOLD ON!What the hell happened after this third-party paid contractor jiggered all the data collected and made outrageous claims?
"Over the course of 2017 and 2018, the City of Mesa engaged over 67,000 participants on their strategic planning and capital improvement budgeting process. Imagine Mesa was led by Mayor John Giles, the Mesa City Council, and an Advisory Committee of local leaders. In November of 2018, voters approved $300 million in municipal bonds to bring these ideas to reality. . . Forums were organized by areas where the City had enough local control to make ideas a reality,
> The campaign resulted in over 250,000 minutes (5,000 hours) of participation, generating 465 ideas and 6,000 votes
> The targeted online campaign involved 137 social media posts which appeared in 238,000 social media feeds.
All of this engagement cost the city less than $1 per resident. HOW MUCH????
> The most popular idea on Imagine Mesa was to encourage Arizona State University to expand to downtown Mesa . . . . . . Blogger Note: that's in a city of over 475,000 people and a BIG HYPE at best It turns out that one guy - Sean Huntington - managed to pull that one off by pulling in less than 450 responses from August-October. That's not much but look how city officials used that non-representative sample of the entire population to wage a public relations campaign to overturn what taxpayers REJECTED just two years earlier. . . The Mesa City Council approved a master plan to design and construct a 5 story building and 2–3 acre open plaza with the sale of excise tax bonds.
Here's what we get two years later:The latest buzz-phrase catching fire in planning and technology? Smart city concepts. ????????????????????????????????
This is the way smart people work better
From Property Lines* (see below)
Tech is fostering civic engagement—by letting citizens suggest their own development policies
The various strains of reactive infrastructure and efficient transportation that make up these new ideas for smart cities suggest a cleaner, less crowded, and more clever version of urban life is right around the corner.
How civic tech can steer development and create smarter cities
Civic-minded techies are finding ways to digitize, demystify, and improve local government
At least we know some details about the financing on three transactions: 1. Bridge Investment Group of Salt Lake City has purchased the Verona Park apartment community at 1666 S. Extension Rd. in Mesa for $43,750,000.00. The Utah investor plans to complete modernization of the 304-unit development, which is located in a popular infill area.
“This asset provided a terrific value-add opportunity for investment,” says Cindy Cooke, senior executive vice president of Colliers International in Arizona.“The property is located adjacent to the recently redeveloped Fiesta District and in an area surrounded by expanding tech companies.
Verona Park was partially updated by the seller and the buyer will benefit from completing renovations in an environment of rising rental rates.”
Bridge Investment Group purchased the property from Millburn Company, also of Salt Lake City.Cindy Cooke and Brad Cooke of Colliers International of Arizona represented Millburn Company in the transaction and Bridge Investment Group was self-represented.
Verona Park consists of 19 residential buildings totaling 248,224 square feet.The community was built in 1981.The community features one and two-bedroom units averaging 817 square feet each.Twenty-five of the units have been renovated, leaving the remaining 279 apartments with classic interiors for future upgrading.
Verona Park is located within a submarket that experienced 9% rent growth in 2018.The property is situated next door to the Fiesta District, where $425 million has been invested.The community’s appealing infill location features18,000 jobs within a one-mile radius. Source: https://azbigmedia.com
2 Bridge Investment Pays $70M for Phoenix Community
The seller of the 460-unit Class B asset purchased the apartments in mid-2014 as part of a nearly $170 million portfolio deal.
The P.B. Bell Cos. has sold the Laguna Village Apartment Homes, a 460-unit Class B community near Phoenix, for $70.3 million, according to Yardi Matrix.
The buyer, Bridge Investment Group, financed the acquisition through a Fannie Mae line of credit from Wells Fargo Bank.
The asset last changed hands in July 2014, when Standard Fund sold the community to P.B. Bell as part of a $168.5 million portfolio transaction. The sale included more than 2,700 units, all in the Phoenix metro area. . . Nearly 20 miles east of Laguna Village, Atlantic Development & Investment traded an affordable community in January, for $22.5 million. The property sold through a 1031 tax-deferred exchange. Source: https://www.multihousingnews.com
3. Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, has facilitated the $30 million sale of Modern on Gilbert, a 265-unit community in Mesa, Ariz. According to Yardi Matrix data, the deal was subject to a $24.8 million loan, held by Freddie Mac. Senior Managing Directors Cliff David and Steve Gebing represented the seller, a joint venture between Modern Residential Co. and Henley USA, and also procured the buyer, S2 Capital. Last summer, the same team facilitated the nearly $23 million sale of a 173-unit asset in Tempe, Ariz. Located at 1800 E. Covina St. on 19 acres in the North Mesa submarket of Phoenix, Modern on Gilbert—formerly known as Sonoma Villas—is very close to downtown Mesa, with both the Riverview shopping center and Falcon Field Airport within 6 miles of the community. Source: https://www.multihousingnews.com
