Public Art @ Gilbert Road Extension Terminus Transit Center

Dear Earthlings,
Your MesaZona blogger went for a walk today to follow the Valley Metro Light Rail tracks all the way from Mesa Drive to Gilbert Road.
The $184-Million Project is a work-in-progress over the 1.9 miles to the Gilbert Road Extension, with a 400-500 Park-N-Ride Lot and a transit center that looks like this at the terminus of the tracks across the station platform.
What is it? . . BEAM ME UP, Scottie or Hit me with your laser

12 "Light Cannons"

< Take a look
It says the entire canopy and plaza is designed utilizing Biophilic Design Principles . . .attempting to create positive effects through the understanding of how humans have a connection to nature.
 

Best Overall States Rankings 2019 > An Interactive Platform

Cheers for this!
It's more than an overall ranking for all 50 States.

Best States Rankings

Measuring outcomes for citizens using more than 70 metrics 

This highly interactive platform enables users to explore thousands of important benchmarks and easily draw state-to-state comparisons.

Build a chart, share it, and ultimately learn what all the states can learn from one another.

The site also delivers a freshly updated menu of reporting and analysis on state trends and developments, making it a must-read source for anyone interested in what’s happening nationally.
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Some states shine in health care. Some soar in education. Some excel in both – or in much more.

The Best States ranking of U.S. states draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens.

In addition to health care and education, the metrics take into account a state’s economy, its roads, bridges, internet and other infrastructure, its public safety, the fiscal stability of state government, and the opportunity it affords its residents.

More weight was accorded to some state measures than others, based on a survey of what matters most to people.

• Health care and education were weighted most heavily.
• Then came state economies, infrastructure, and the opportunity states offer their citizens.
• Fiscal stability followed closely in weighting, followed by measures of crime & corrections and a state's natural environment.

Arizona's Overall Ranking: #34 out of 50 in 2019

Reference > https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arizona

• Healthcare #23
• Education #40
• Economy #10
• Infrastructure #11
• Opportunity #40
• Fiscal Stability #33
• Crime and Corrections #44
• Natural Environment #33

Arizona

#34 in Overall Rankings(#39 out of 50 in 2018)

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At a time when the federal government is attempting to hand more responsibility for spending and policymaking to the states, these rankings offer the first comprehensive view, state by state, of how some states already are performing best. This highly interactive platform enables users to explore thousands of important benchmarks and easily draw state-to-state comparisons. Build a chart, share it, and ultimately learn what all the states can learn from one another.

The site also delivers a freshly updated menu of reporting and analysis on state trends and developments, making it a must-read source for anyone interested in what’s happening nationally.

The data driving these rankings were drawn from extensive and reliable governmental and private sources as well as proprietary data including a national survey of what matters most to citizens around the country. Among the eight main categories measured in the Best States rankings, more than five dozen subcategories of metrics are taken into account.

What follows is a deep dive into all 50 states.

Let the Data Explorer lead your way.

Download Full Rankings:

2019 | 2018 | 2017

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Valley Metro's Light Rail "Salvation Train" Rolls-On Through Downtown Mesa: Next End-Point Gilbert Road

This better be better "a party" when the $184,000,000, 2-station and 1.9-Mile Gilbert Road Extension celebrates its opening this Saturday started at 09:00 am. Back in September 2017 Sundt Construction Company said the estimate to complete the job was $113M . . .

Need a verbal invitation? Here's on from Hizzoner John Giles > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDrQ-xknm7Y

 

The BIG Green M: Valley Metro Money Machine Rolls-On To A New End-Point @ Gilbert Road

. . . and You Are Invited to The Grand Opening this Saturday by Hizzoner Mesa Mayor John Giles. (vid inserted below)
But first some mind-numbing numbers from mainstream media about the high costs of Valley Metro's Gilbert Road Extension: The two-station, 1.9-mile (3.1 km) Gilbert Road Extension began construction in November 2016 and is expected to cost $184 million.
This is an image of officials announcing the start of construction. City Manager Chris Brady is at the far right. Former Mesa City Councilmember Dennis Kavanaugh at left center next to current D5 Councilmember David Luna. Former D4 Councilmember Chris Glover next to the city manager. The project is right on for the opening date, but costs have sky-rocketed.


If readers of this blog ever wondered why the City of Mesa bought the vacant Mervyn's Department Store at the NWC of Main Street/Stapley Drive, it was for this photo opp of Mesa City officials wearing yellow vests in front of that TOGETHER sculpture with ex-mayor Scott Smithm now President/CEO of Valley standing at far right. . . They now hope to sell the property for a profit  to pay-off some Bond Debt

Ooops! Hold on ... this is what Sundt Construction said about the cost figure back in 2017

Sundt Saving Valley Metro Money in a Roundabout Way

September 20, 2017

"Sundt has a wealth of experience working on light-rail projects for Valley Metro in the Greater Phoenix area. Still, there’s a first time for everything. . . .our work on the Gilbert Road Extension in Mesa, Arizona has a new wrinkle. Part of the scope is constructing a roundabout to create better traffic flow and eliminate the need for expensive traffic signals. The roundabout will be the first of its kind at a four-way intersection in a light-rail system and only the second overall in the United States. . .

". . . The $113 million Gilbert Road Extension includes 1.9 miles of track, two stations, one park and ride transit center. Guideway and track construction should begin this winter and substantial completion is scheduled for the end of 2018, targeting a May 2019 opening.
LINK > http://www.sundt.com/media/blog/2017/09/20 
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The public transit system serves Phoenix and surrounding areas. The GRE is scheduled to open on May 18, 2019, and will become the new terminus of the light rail line.
The station has a park-and-ride facility and a bus station that is served by local routes.
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Strong Geomagnetic Effects, More CMEs Coming | S0 News May.14.2019

Fed's Williams on Economy, Inflation, Europe, Trade

The Take-away > Adjust your policy to whatever happens ...

Published on May 14, 2019

Views: 68 to time of upload to the blog

May.14 -- Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams discusses the U.S. economy, inflation and monetary policy. He also discusses the impact of U.S.-China trade tensions and the outlook for Europe's economy in an interview with Kathleen Hays in Zurich on "Bloomberg Surveillance."

S.O.S. Shame On Ex-Boeing Executive Shanahan: Shock & Awe All Over Again

Yet to be confirmed as Trump's nominee to head up The Department of Defense, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday of last week at CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA., presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said.

. . . The new intelligence reports surfaced on the afternoon of May 3, Mr. Shanahan told Congress last week. On May 5, Mr. Bolton announced the first of new deployments to the Persian Gulf, including bombers and an aircraft carrier.   According to a report from The New York Times  about half-an-hour ago by Eric Schmidtt and Julian Barnes

White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran,
in Echoes of Iraq War 
" . . . The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said.
The development reflects the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration’s most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush.

> It is highly uncertain whether Mr. Trump, who has sought to disentangle the United States from Afghanistan and Syria, ultimately would send so many American forces back to the Middle East. . .

> It is also unclear whether the president has been briefed on the number of troops or other details in the plans . . .
More than a half-dozen American national security officials who have been briefed on details of the updated plans agreed to discuss them with The New York Times on the condition of anonymity.
Spokesmen for Mr. Shanahan and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to comment. The size of the force involved has shocked some who have been briefed on them. The 120,000 troops would approach the size of the American force that invaded Iraq in 2003. . .

The high-level review of the Pentagon’s plans was presented during a meeting about broader Iran policy. It was held days after what the Trump administration described, without evidence, as new intelligence indicating that Iran was mobilizing proxy groups in Iraq and Syria to attack American forces.
As a precaution, the Pentagon has moved an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers, a Patriot missile interceptor battery and more naval firepower to the gulf region.
Several oil tankers were reportedly attacked or sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates over the weekend, raising fears that shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf could become flash points . . .
At last week’s meeting, Mr. Shanahan gave an overview of the Pentagon’s planning, then turned to General Dunford to detail various force options, officials said. The uppermost option called for deploying 120,000 troops, which would take weeks or months to complete.

Among those attending Thursday’s meeting were Mr. Shanahan; Mr. Bolton; General Dunford; Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director; and Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence.

“The president has been clear, the United States does not seek military conflict with Iran, and he is open to talks with Iranian leadership,” Garrett Marquis, a National Security Council spokesman, said Monday in an email. “However, Iran’s default option for 40 years has been violence, and we are ready to defend U.S. personnel and interests in the region.”
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. . . The previous version of the Pentagon’s war plan included a classified subset code-named Nitro Zeus, a cyberoperation that called for unplugging Iran’s major cities, its power grid and its military.
The idea was to use cyberweapons to paralyze Iran in the opening hours of any conflict, in hopes that it would obviate the need to drop any bombs or conduct a traditional attack. That plan required extensive presence inside Iran’s networks — called “implants” or “beacons” — that would pave the way for injecting destabilizing malware into Iranian systems.