If they need a friendly nudge to produce "inter-active' art here's one from Banks that just happened to appear on a public art installation in Birmingham, England. The reaction caught the world's attention to highlight the issue of homelessness in Britain. Here in Mesa, most of us just walk by a homeless person on a bench in downtown's public spaces. . . Be merry? Or do something?
Published on Dec 10, 2019
A mural by Banksy has been covered with a perspex sheet after the artwork appears to have been vandalised. The mural depicts two reindeer pulling a bench as if it were a sleigh, but now the reindeers sport two bright, red noses. The painting, which aims to highlight the issue of homelessness in Britain, appeared on the wall in Birmingham over the weekend. Subscribe to AFP and activate your notifications to get the latest news 🔔http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC86db...
Homelessness: Just 'A Point In Time' or Lasting Solutions?
Now really, dear readers, how bogus can a count of The Homeless get when it's done once a year (at night)* by a group of volunteers and - at least here in Mesa putting the Police Department to tackle the problem smacks of Criminalizing the Homelessness. . .
At one point-in-time in a public meeting, District 1 Mesa City Councilmember Mark Freeman, ensconced comfortably in his own family compound-enclave, reacted to seeing the homeless on public transit as 'the awfulness'. > In one of the first reactions to the extension of lightrail service into downtown Mesa, city officials wanted a police bike patrol first of all.
Just recently your MesaZona blogger was told by one person attending a meeting of the Downtown Merchants Association about this year's Merry Main Street festivities that they wanted a bench removed from where the homeless were highly visible right directly across the street from The Mesa Christmas Market Place.
Sure enough it was gone the next day! _________________________________________________________________________ * Posts on this blog: There are more than a few - see 1, 2 and 3 below
A mural by Banksy has been covered with a perspex sheet after the artwork appears to have been vandalised. The mural depicts two reindeer pulling a bench as if it were a sleigh, but now the reindeers sport two bright, red noses. The painting, which aims to highlight the issue of homelessness in Britain, appeared on the wall in Birmingham over the weekend. Subscribe to AFP and activate your notifications to get the latest news 🔔http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC86db...
FAIR WARNING: This is not your usual list of 'nice places to visit' travel guide covering 35 of the American cities that are the most populated. Some of the results from this survey will most definitely be an eye-opening surprise to many when they think of the usual list of attractions that get promoted and marketed by the cities for reasons to visit . . . Thanks to travel writer Michael Goldstein writing in Forbes yesterday, the results might jingle your bells and bang your clangers over the results from liberal and conservative cities. A British company, OLBG (Online Betting Guide), has put together a Top Ten List of “America’s Wildest Cities” to visit. To no one’s surprise, Las Vegas was rated wildest of them all. What was surprising were the US cities that finished right behind it.
The no-doubt scientific survey rated the USA’s 35 most populated cities by “wildness” based on six factors [each of these per 100,000 people] :
The number of nightlife attractions (according to TripAdvisor),
America’s Top 10 Wildest Cities 1. Las Vegas, Nevada 2. Portland, Oregon 3. Denver, Colorado 4. Austin, Texas 5. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 6. Phoenix, Arizona 7. Indianapolis, Indiana 8. Columbus, Ohio 9. Boston, Massachusetts 10. Tucson, Arizona ______________________________________________________________________ Remarks from contributing Forbes writer Michael Goldstein: To no one’s surprise, the glittering destination in the desert earned its tiara as the leader in nightlife and casinos. But the political-correct Portland, Oregon actually led in strip clubs, while Phoenix and neighboring Mesa, Arizona apparently led in both marijuana and cocaine use. As for heavy and binge drinking, where else but the US seat of government, Washington, DC? . . . Las Vegashad just 2.95 strip clubs per 100,000 people, good enough only for fourth place. To many, strip clubs are a sexist, retro form of entertainment. Yet the liberal bastion of Portland, Oregon boasts more than twice Las Vega’s percentage, with 6.80 clubs per 100,000. It’s followed by Baltimore (4.15) and Detroit (3.12). The study says that in the “wildest” town, 17% of Las Vegas adults binge drink or drink heavily, 62.1% have used marijuana and 21.9% have taken cocaine. Yet Las Vegas is only #4 in use of cocaine. It trails Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona, as well aw Oklahoma City, all cities in conservative “red” or Republican states, in cocaine use. > As for heavy drinking, Vegas doesn’t even make the top ten - The rest of the top 10 booze havens includes Denver (26%), Boston (26%), Milwaukee (25%), San Francisco (24%), Austin, Portland, San Diego, Chicago and Philadelphia. > While Nevada recently legalized marijuana and markets its shops as tourist destinations, Las Vegas doesn’t even place on the top ten pot list. That list is again led by “conservative” states, with Mesa, Arizona (where 65% have used pot) Indianapolis, (64.6%) Phoenix, Portland, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Denver, Austin, Columbus, Ohio and Dallas.
Mesa, AZ tops the list for the nation’s fastest rent growth, with an increase of 5.0 percent over the last year, more than three times the national rate. Phoenix ranks third on the list at 3.9%. Five of the cities in the top 10 for fastest year-over-year growth — 1 Mesa, AZ 2 Henderson, NV 3 Phoenix, AZ 4 Colorado Springs, CO and 5 Tampa, FL — also make the list for fastest rent growth over the past five years.
Methodology Note: Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with fully representative median rent statistics for recent movers taken from the Census Bureau American Community Survey. We then extrapolate this data forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. Growth rates are calculated using a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods in order to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country. Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in private sources, producing results that are representative of the entire market. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month. Read more about our methodology here. For further methodology questions or custom data requests, contact us at rentonomics@apartmentlist.com.
The cast of characters who are now 'coming out-of-the-woodwork' tells more than the allegations and more than 60 federal charges lodged in 3 states than the suspension appeal.
It's none other than the long-time notorious conservative Mesa Republican Russell Pearce* who's now got a new gig as chief deputy to Maricopa County treasurer Royce Flora. He testified for only two minutes as the last defense witness for Petersen's attorney Kory Langhofer. He said the treasurer’s office works very closely with the assessor’s office, and that the treasurer saw no evidence of the office’s official duties not being performed during Petersen’s absence. _________________________________________________________________________
BLOGGER NOTE: Ostensibly the Feds seized Petersen and leveled more than 60 charges against him in three states over a private adoption business that took him into custody and out-of-state at the end of October. There's way more to the story than that when you take a look at what the Assessor's Office is in charge of . . . and Petersen is willing to resign for 9 month's of severance pay???
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Just how good can these suspension hearings get when a character like Russell Pearce* appears in public "out of the woodwork" and just happens to testify how very closely the county treasurer's office and the county assessor's work? In an AZ Mirror report yesterday at 5:00 p.m. by Jeremy Duda we also heard that Petersen’s chief deputy assessor Tim Boncoskey testified to the effect thatno work went undoneorwas neglected at the county assessor’s office during Petersen's federal custody. The office is sending its annual property valuations to the Arizona Department of Revenue this week, and he noted that the office has won two awards since Petersen’s arrest!
OK. No prob - "Business-as-usual" This public hearing opens up a 360-Degree opportunity to shine some more light on the under-belly of Arizona politics. For one thing, the sheer incompetence of the Maricopa County Supes stands out and it looks like Denny Barney got out of the firing-line of media attention just in time to avoid a potential mess.
Perhaps they inadvertently brought to light too much when more details than anticipated have emerged. The hearing ended early due to "an adversarial attitude by an attorney for the county" that made it pointless to continue after Petersen's lawyer Langhofer repeatedly objected to the lines of questioning pursued by attorney John Doran, who is advising the supervisors in the matter. > An investigation commissioned by the supervisors found no evidence that Petersen had neglected any of his official duties. But the preliminary investigative report from law firm Mitchell Stein Carey Chapman also concluded that Petersen used county resources for private business, and that the board could find that he had a duty to follow county policies forbidding such activities, even though those policies don’t apply to elected officials. > According to Jeremy Duda, Petersen's chief deputy Tim Boncoskey also testified “It is our position that the assessor’s private business is such and that it has not and will not interfere with valuations and classifications and other programs run by the office,” Boncoskey said. “I believe every statutory duty of the assessor has been adhered to because that is our job. It is a job bigger than one person.” ___________________________________________________________________
Here's an upload of the streaming video that shows some of the interactions at yesterday's suspension appeal hearing:
Accusations are flying-off in all directions to cast a wider net to see who else is getting caught-up and ensnared in one more Arizona scandal that's getting very familiar and very closely-connected to corruption in Maricopa County that usually flies under-the-radar of public scrutiny until circumstances say otherwise. . . Dillon Rosenblatt published this in The Arizona Capitol Timeson December 10, 2019 Petersen’s attorney lobs ethics claim at County Attorney as he prepares for hearing on suspension "As suspended County Assessor Paul Petersen fends for his job in a hearing Wednesday, his attorney has leveled conflict-of-interest allegations against Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel similar to what led to the downfall of her predecessor Andy Thomas. Attorney Kory Langhofer accused Adel in a Nov. 11 letter of acting adversely against Petersen by advising the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors how to remove him from office while she also represents him in a tax-court matter. “Direct adversity against a concurrent client is per se unethical,” Langhofer said in the letterLanghofer compared Adel’s handling of the suspension to Thomas’ attempts to pursue false criminal charges against county supervisors, judges and other political foes, a charge for which he was subsequently disbarred. In response to the accusation, Jennifer Liewer, a spokeswoman for Adel, said the letter was sent “to create a distraction to the issues at hand” and deferred any other comments to the letter written back to Langhofer. Adel’s attorney Lynda Shely responded in a Nov. 26 letter that called Langhofer’s claim “misplaced.” Langhofer argued that Adel is being unethical because the county attorney (and the office) have represented Petersen in other matters and is also now working “to remove him from office.” He noted that the entire five-member board called for Petersen to resign long before any investigation had taken place or evidence had been presented, and argued Adel should have recused herself from the case. . ."
"Pearce isn’t working on a triple dip. He’s already enjoying three taxpayer-supported pensions.
This, in addition to last week’s $70,000 raise added to his $85,000 annual salary from the Maricopa County Treasurer’s Office. . ."
> Turns out he’s already “retired” from government service. Since 2012, he’s been collecting an ASRS pension. David Cannella, spokesman for ASRS, told me on Tuesday that Pearce is collecting $12,444 a year as a result of 8.35 years of state employment in the 1990s, capped by his firing from the Motor Vehicle Division in 1999.
> That doesn’t count the $53,937 a year he draws from the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System for his 21 years at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
> Or the $10,446 pension from the Elected Officials' Retirement Plan for his gigs as a justice of the peace and state legislator, capped by his recall from office in 2011.
In all, he's collecting $233,827.
Not too terribly bad for a guy who used to call himself a champion of the taxpayer."
17 minutes ago Ina Fried writing for Axios had this to say: The complicated future of augmented and virtual reality THE BIG PICTURE: "The road that VR and AR are on is well-paved in tech. Initial buzz leads to overheated enthusiasm, then a "trough of disillusionment." After that, there's a steady march in which the technology ends up meeting or surpassing expectations even while taking far longer than anyone anticipated. . ."IMPACT on proposed $164M ASU Creative Futures Lab ??? . . . The problem for AR and VR is that several key ingredients — battery life, screen resolution and comfort — aren't where they need to be for either technology to go mainstream, especially for consumers. What's next: At last week's Snapdragon Summit, Ina Fried had a chance to try out technology from startup Spatial, which aims to create virtual collaboration for business users across different kinds of devices and platforms. (See video here.) _________________________________________________________________________
