Intro to IBM Cloud Satellite

Goldman’s Chief Lawyer Departs as Senior Executive Exits Grow...There's a lot to this story!

Earth Rotation Glitches Again, Galactic Current Sheet, Solar Forcing | SUSPICIOUS OBSERVERS DAILY NEWS

Mesa Council Study Session - 3/1/2021 Screen-Grab D5 David Luna Reading A Prepared Statement Off-The-Page

The Mesa City Council Meeting - 3/1/2021 > Screen-Grab Hizzoner Mayor John Giles, Presiding Officer

Lux et Veritas: Harvard & Bloomberg Create A New Center for Cities To Train Mayors and Local Leaders

Right to the point. Read all about it:

A New Space For Mayors

Bloomberg Philanthropies is investing $150 million to fund a new Center for Cities at Harvard University.

By

Marie Patino

and

Feargus O'Sullivan

‎March‎ ‎2‎, ‎2021‎ ‎5‎:‎30

"Mayors will now have a permanent space dedicated to them at Harvard University. 

Bloomberg Philanthropies said Tuesday it is investing $150 million to establish the Bloomberg Center for Cities in partnership with Harvard to provide training and resources for local government leaders. The announcement comes on day two of the CityLab 2021 summit, hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute.

Building on the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative established in 2017 with the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School,  the new center will strengthen the capabilities of mayors and their teams, advance effective organizational practices in city halls around the world and support a new generation of public servants. The Center seeks to redress a lack of professional training available globally, expanding the Leadership Initiative’s existing programs and giving them a permanent home. . .

The new center represents an expansion of an already significant presence in city leadership development. Since it began, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative has served 400 mayors and 1,300 city officials across six continents and generated new research, curriculum, and teaching tools on effective city governance. Its role deepened during the Covid-19 pandemic as it gathered mayors and their teams weekly to share advice and recommendations regarding the ever-evolving crisis. . .

Through these regular exchanges, mayors were able to support each other and learn from one another. The new center seeks to expand and deepen these kinds of partnerships — and it will endow 10 new faculty positions.

"This is a major new investment in the people who have enormous and unique powers to attack society’s biggest challenges: mayors,” said Michael R. Bloomberg in the press release. “The pandemic has driven home just how important mayors are to the everyday lives of billions of people. They are the most creative and effective problem-solvers in government — and that’s exactly the kind of leadership that the world urgently needs more.”

 

 

 

TMT Managing Editor Tom Scanlon is Moving Mesa Reporting More In The Right Direction of Objective Independent Journalism

Looks like Tom is turning-the-pages on the new times for more independent local journalism and probably turning a few heads buzzing in the hyperlocal hive.

Let's go there while the going is good - two stories

Here's one

Mesa lagging in vaccinations, county data show

March 2nd, 2021

By Tom Scanlon
Tribune Managing Editor

Maricopa County Department of Health’s weekly update last week showed 530,000 adults have been vaccinated with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total to 15 percent of the county population.

But Mesa continues to lag in vaccination rates.

Though still limited to those 65 and older, teachers, emergency responders and a few other groups, 180,000 in the county have been fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine.

With 23,000 doses of vaccine hitting county residents per day, half of those vaccinated in Maricopa County are 65 years or older — and 53 percent of those 75 or older in the county have been vaccinated with at least one shot of the two-dose regimen.

The East Valley is more of a mixed bag, with Mesa continuing to lag on vaccination rates.

A vaccination map illustrating those receiving at least one shot shows much of Mesa behind the curve, with fewer than half of residents eligible for vaccinations receiving shots in most neighborhoods. . .

> Seven of Mesa’s ZIP codes were under 50 percent.

> Vaccination rates for those eligible in Mesa were at 47 percent in 85201 and 85206 and around 40 percent in 85210, 85203, 85204, 85208 and 85205.

> Mesa 85213 was right at 50 percent while 85207 was over 56 percent.

> In northeast Mesa, 85215 had nearly 60 percent of eligible residents vaccinated – the same rate as 85209 in southeast Mesa. Also in the southeast, 85212 had 67 percent vaccinated. . .

_____________________________________________________________________________

Here's another

Neighbors oppose Riverview development

March 2nd, 2021 Mesa Tribune Staff

By Tom Scanlon
Tribune Managing Editor

Monday’s Mesa City Council meeting includes another agenda item likely to be debated: A request by a developer for an office building and garage near Riverview.

There are currently four office buildings in the development at Alma School Road & Bass Pro Drive. The first two, both two-stories, went up in 2007.

Two more were built in 2014 and neighbors complained that the view-disturbing three-story office buildings received “administrative approval” and they were not informed about it.

At a Planning and Zoning Board meeting last week, Economic Development Director Bill Jibjiniak said his department “strongly supports this project.”

Neighbors – not so much.

The developers, complained West Mountain View residents Robert and Theresa Couglin in an email, “are trying to force through a 3-story office building plus an even larger parking structure. This will eliminate any view of mountains as our street is named Mountain View for a reason. Or do you intend to also rename it Parking Structure View?”

Dozens of others submitted similar emails and spoke at the meeting protesting the new buildings.

As Joshua Boyle put it, in comparing the developers to a Civil War general who refused to act, “They’ll tell you they want to work with us but they’re not sacrificing anything.”. . Richard Gurtler, a resident of the area for 41 years, called the plans by the developer “unrestrained greed.”

After listening to complaints by the neighbors, planning board members unanimously approved the developer’s plan. It moves on to city council, with an introduction scheduled Monday and  possible action March 15.

At a study session last week, Mayor John Giles said he expected neighbors to speak out Monday “unless they want to keep their powder dry and wait until March 15.” ′

 

_____________________________________________________________________________