Huh? Yep it was just another "media creation" last Friday using the wonders of augmented reality:a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world. Here you see it in the opening image of the usual Ground-Breaking Ceremony staged in front of a box of dirt on top of the asphalt-covered parking lot on Pepper Place with the 1970's-Era vacant city-owned old IT Building shown standing the background. Super-imposed on-stage is the computer-generated rendering of ASU Creative Futures Lab.
Whose Augmented Reality is that Over-Blown Hype and an attempt to radio-talk its own in-house media creation? . . . As for using the word "Mecca" - what could ASU President Michael Crow and KJZZ have been thinking to say that Mesa is A Mecca ? In what direction are they going with that?
Hmmm.... just shoveling some more dirt into the usual media machine for the assembled gallery gathered together for just one opportunity to turn-over what was a major screw-up to trick taxpayers back in 2016.
. . . here we go again!
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SITE PLAN IN BLACK-AND-WHITE SHOWING VICINITY BEHIND 8-STORY CITY HALL
Get ready for some more spoon-fed media hype - there's already been articles and reports that got spun-out over the weekend after the shoveling ceremony last Friday at 11 o'clock. It took a couple of more days to for John Giles and Michael Crow to get their talking points together for a radio interview broadcast by KJZZ, "a community service" operated by the ASU Board of Regents.
You can listen to the conversations in a short-form podcast provided in the link below if you want to.
It's all about just one new $100,000,000 building on a site that turned into a 360-Degree Dilemma.
There was no underground infrastructure in-place at the old parking lot site - that takes millions more than anticipated when a contractor-at-risk evaluated the original plans proposed for the back lot behind City Hall Plaza, the center of finance and government here in Downtown Mesa, planned to be a Public Square, now morphed into an ASU Campus
BLOGGER NOTE: Reporter Lauren Gilger called Giles & Crow "The Optimistic Duo" - We have heard all they have to say over-and-over again, but Gilger does ask some good questions. Listen up
How ASU Plans To Make Downtown Mesa A Mecca For Media Creation
Published: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - 11:30am
Updated: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - 11:49am
"With the recent groundbreaking of Arizona State University’s new campus at Mesa City Center, a lot of changes are on the horizon for once-sleepy downtown Mesa.
"The first conversation I had with Dr. Crow a few years ago, Dr. Crow said, 'If we come to your downtown, we will change it forever in a very positive way,'" said Mesa Mayor John Giles.
And, with the new campus, ASU President Michael Crow and Mesa Mayor John Giles are not only promising a new building and 800 new students —
they’re promising to put the city on par with other media giants like Hong Kong, Sydney, even New York City.
But what’s their plan to deliver?
The Show sat down with the optimistic duo to find out.
More Stories From KJZZ
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Looks and sounds like a Re-Play from last year
Jivin' John Giles and High-Salaried ASU President Michael Crow teamed-up last week for another over-the-top hoopla of hype where Crow got the best blurb about the much debated and controversial ASU campus that emerged as the Mesa City centerpiece, with ASU President Michael Crow sharing center stage with Mesa Mayor Giles. Crow said after his remarks on-stage that "research and innovation in Mesa will be consistent with other innovation districts in Singapore, Sydney, Australia and New York. . . "
"We are very excited about this facility," Crow said.*
Those lines were published in an article by the East Valley Tribune's staff writer Jim Walsh on February 10, 2019, five days after the annual State-Of-The-City Speech on February 5.
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| Did you see how the hands moved? |
Walsh wasn't just beat-out by a late write-up/recap, but it looks like he tried to understate the hype from Crow:
"If you travel around the world, there are a few significant digital innovation centers that exist - Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York City. We're building one for the Western United States here in Mesa"
That's taken from an earlier article in ASU Now that got published the same day as the SOTC2019 Speech on February 5, 2019.
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*Blogger Note: Michael Crow should be more than really very excited for at least two reasons:
1. Mesa Mayor John Giles appears to have been told to clean up his clown-act posing with Sparky, the ASU mascot, to kick-off a $500,000 privately-financed public relations screw-up that blew up in their faces when Mesa taxpayers rejected a $200-Million Debt Obligation Bond proposal two years ago.
However, they did succeed in 2018 to trick taxpayers into debt-service financing a $198-million "Grab-Bag-of-Goodies-For-Everybody" that included about $75-million or more* to build facilities for ASU around City Hall Plaza. If ASU wanted a campus downtown they could have financed it themselves.
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* Even though city officials asserted in public and community workshops that the guaranteed price tag was $63.5M, that's jumped to costing Mesa taxpayers $100M.
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2. So far, interest and scrutiny of the land-and-financing deals made with city officials for ASU downtown has not attracted the attention of the Arizona State Attorney General, unlike a current lawsuit over land-deals and conflicts-of-interest by the Arizona Board of Regents at the main campus in Tempe.
3. Readers of this blog - and anyone who's really interested - might want to note ASU hired revolving-door influencer peddler and U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon as a lobbyist earning a $250,000/year just before he decided to resign from public office. He's seen appearing in this image >
with AZ State Senator Bob Worsley in February of last year, who admitted in front of the Mesa City Council that he had been gambling in downtown real estate speculation for his own private wealth-creation at the same time holding public elected office. . . Conflict of interest
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Here for your viewing pleasure - 53 minutes of #SOTC2019
After listing all business achievements, Giles sounded a bit like a high school football coach.
“We will need your energy to get where want to be a community,”
“Let’s get to work.’’
"I consistently hear the words 'AUGMENTED REALITY, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND 3-D DESIGN . . . Mesa is very excited about what is now the reality of ASU coming to our downtown innovation district."
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