SPECIAL FEATURE FROM BROOKINGS: Pláticas -- Informal Conversations on Community Development

Happy to publish this after almost seven years living here in Downtown Mesa and seeing some mega-projects from city officials that don't quite respect the interests, ingenuity or inspiration from the people who really live here e.g..here's an article from two of those actively involved and here's the reason why: This is one of a series from the Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking at Brookings where policymakers and practitioners guest-author promising placemaking efforts from across the U.S. and abroad that foster connected, vibrant, and inclusive communities. In line with the principle tenets of placemaking, the goal of the series is to recognize the community as the expert, highlight voices from the field, and to create a community and learning of practice around transformative place making

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Pláticas: How Mesa, Ariz. is combatting displacement with community conversations

Augie Gastelum and Ryan WinkleThursday, September 30, 2021

Editor's Note: 

Placemaking Postcards is a blog series from the Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking at Brookings where policymakers and practitioners guest-author promising placemaking efforts from across the U.S. and abroad that foster connected, vibrant, and inclusive communities. In line with the principle tenets of placemaking, the goal of the series is to recognize the community as the expert, highlight voices from the field, and to create a community and learning of practice around transformative placemaking

Mesa, a city just east of Phoenix, Arizona, is part of the fastest growing metro area in the state and one of the most populous cities in the nation.

But along with its rapid growth and development, new cleavages across people and places are emerging—particularly in the downtown area, where an estimated $1.27 billion in approved development is planned over the next five years.[i]

For the predominantly Latino and low-income residents in the downtown Southside neighborhoods, the question has become: How can residents harness downtown growth and development to benefit longtime residents of color who have been neglected and deprioritized for much of the city’s history?

A

Augie Gastelum

Founder - Patchwork Community Inclusion

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Ryan Winkle

Executive Director - RAIL Community Development Corporation

The community organization that we represent, RAIL Community Development Corporation, believes that a good place to start is through Pláticas—community conversations that meet residents where they already are, identify informal leaders already working on behalf of their community, and equip neighbors with the tools to launch their own “placekeeping” projects to shape development in their neighborhood.

SHIFTING FORCES OF DEVELOPMENT IN A DIVERSE SUBURBAN CITY

Historically, most development in Mesa was concentrated in the eastern sections of the city, where farmland was converted to housing. But just as these shiny new developments represented progress to some, Mesa’s downtown Southside neighborhoods became more Latino, more impoverished, more neglected, and more economically precarious. Today, Southside neighborhoods are 71% Latino and 37% foreign born, with 63% of households speaking Spanish as the primary language and a median household income of less than $32,500.[ii]

These development patterns began to shift in the early 2000s and have since accelerated as more dollars flow to the downtown. Today, among the billion plus in projects approved for development for the area are for Arizona State, an estimated 1,100 units of market rate and luxury apartment buildings under construction, and an additional 2,500 units in various stages of pre-development.

While this development has brought new growth to Mesa’s previously neglected core, it has also raised new concerns of displacement and exclusion among Southside’s Latino residents.

Photo credit: Rail CDC

HOW AN INFORMAL COMMUNITY GROUP BECAME PERMANENT CIVIC INFRASTRUCTURE  

In 2013, an informal group of community members—ourselves included—began organizing under the name of RAIL Mesa to prevent displacement during the construction of a light rail extension to connect downtown Mesa to other metropolitan Phoenix transit corridors.

Over six years, we worked as an informal community collective within downtown Mesa and the Southside neighborhoods to implement various community-led initiatives, including a Heat Action Plan, a Mesa Prototyping Project, and a small business technical assistance program for underserved business owners. Through the early stages of this work, we saw the acute need for a formal organization to take the lead in convening residents and businesses to move grassroots initiatives forward.

To meet this need—and with support from LISC Phoenix—we launched RAIL Community Development Corporation as a formal organization in 2019. Our mission is to support a more resilient community and economy with access to quality jobs, transit, housing, and education for all, by working with neighbors, small businesses, artists, non-profits, and more. A key step toward those ends was to help Southside residents identify and implement strategies for combating displacement.

PLÁTICAS: COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY POWER

The first goal in our anti-displacement programming was to understand the layers within the Southside communities, listen to a diverse range of perspectives, and identify community engagement strategies to support neighborhood priorities.

We set up a series of Pláticas—or community conversations—in the Southside Neighborhoods. The purpose and format of the Pláticas is simple—to bring people together in their neighborhood in places where they already gather and have conversations about the existing opportunities and challenges they face. These gatherings are an opportunity to build relationships and identify existing leaders in each of these neighborhoods, who can then help build buy-in and engage their neighbors for anti-displacement strategies.

To get a better sense of where to hold the Pláticas, we began an observation phase—walking, riding bikes, and driving through the neighborhoods to see where residents are gathering at different times of the day. This allowed us to see the informal networks that already exist so we could set up Pláticas in areas where people are already comfortable going.

Photo credit: Rail CDC

One of the first places that we identified was a pop-up taco shop (Ricky’s Tacos) that a family set up in their front yard on the weekends. The family agreed to let RAIL CDC have a Plática during the times they are open. RAIL CDC would pay for the food, and to spread the word, we paid youth in the neighborhood to pass out fliers—resulting in the attendance of about 40 people from the neighborhood. Seventy-four neighborhood residents attended the second Plática, organized in the adjacent neighborhood at another taco pop-up, Southside Tacos. These conversations are ongoing—part of a community engagement strategy to strengthen and build trust with those who have typically been excluded from planning.

The week after each Plática, RAIL CDC organizes a “walking audit” in that neighborhood. We invite everyone who attends the Plática and other residents to walk around their neighborhood with us and identify the physical aspects of the neighborhood that they love and challenges that can be improved. Throughout the walk, people take pictures of those opportunities and challenges so that we can record them and put them into a report. The report is then presented to the participants in the neighborhood, as well as other residents who were not able to attend previous engagements, so they can discuss and decide on small projects that can be prototyped in the neighborhood.

FROM PLÁTICAS TO PLACEKEEPING

To move from Pláticas to community-led placekeeping projects, we provide a series of workshops for residents to learn the process of prototypingsmall-scale placekeeping projects in their neighborhood and along the commercial corridor. These projects are executed by residents, and RAIL CDC is currently fundraising and building on the partnership with LISC Phoenix and State Farm, which have provided the seed funding for creative placekeeping projects.

This is just the start. The next phase of this work will be to start the long and exciting process of community-rooted economic inclusion, with a strong focus on anti-displacement strategies. While displacement is a widespread challenge in hot-market cities nationwide, we believe Mesa may be well-prepared to combat it. Our efforts to date have helped us strengthen relationships, build trust, and find the small wins that will encourage residents to engage to meet this difficult and complex challenge.

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Notes

[i] Approved developments and estimated value compiled by the authors from publicly available information from various sources including the city of Mesa.

[ii] Information compiled by the author based on Census data from multiple Census tracts that the Southside neighborhoods fall under MSA-State-County-Tract: 38060-04-013-4220.01 and 38060-04-013-4219.02): https://geomap.ffiec.gov/FFIECGeocMap/GeocodeMap1.aspx; https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/


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MYSTERIOUS AIRCRAFT SPOTTED AT SECRET TEST FACILITY AND LOCKHEED MARTIN ...

NEW STUDY FROM DAVID ABBOTT: Resolution Copper Mine Has Become A Symbol of The Fight over Economic Development, Dwindling Water Supplies, Preservation of Native American Heritage and Publicly Owned Open-Spaces

Introduction - Is that enough to get all bothered about in just one area of Arizona or what?

And look what law group is involved again: Jordan Rose and The Rose Law Group that likes to tell governments what to do!

HOWEVER This time is different when they not only want to con the public but have to confront the feds and that's a much bigger playing field than the law group's closely-connected local cohorts here in central Arizona.

Resolution Copper East Plant. Photo via Facebook 

New study: Resolution Copper mine will use 250 billion gallons of water as drought ravages Arizona

By: David Abbott - October 1, 2021 2:26 pm

 

Here's the report : "As Arizona enters what is likely to be its third decade of unprecedented drought, the proposed Resolution Copper mine just east of Superior at the site of Oak Flat has become a symbol of the fight over economic development, dwindling water supplies, and the preservation of Native American heritage and publicly owned open spaces.

On Tuesday, the San Carlos Apache Tribe released a water study on the deep mining project that describes a region in crisis and a proposed mine that will use 250 billion gallons of water, as the battle once again makes its way to Congress.

The report was commissioned by the San Carlos Tribe and funded by a grant from the Multicultural Initiative for Community Advancement Group, which “partners with indigenous communities, governments, and foundations to build social and economic capital through innovative, culturally appropriate strategies.”

> It was titled “The Proposed Resolution Copper Mine and Arizona’s Water Future,” and authored by Dr. James Wells of Everett & Associates Environmental Consultants in Santa Barbara, Calif.

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BLOGGER INSERT At the same time look who's on the other side in the interests of The Pinal Partnership in not one but two required disclosures

 

((OUTRAGEOUS))

Pinal Partnership campaigns for copper mine ahead 

of vote in Congress

(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Resolution Copper.)

(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Resolution Copper.)

by Aaron Dorman

Aaron Dorman is the Casa Grande reporter at PinalCentral, covering government, schools, business and more. He can be reached at adorman@pinalcentral.com.

CASA GRANDE — Once again, the proposed Resolution Copper mine has come into the crosshairs of federal action.

The potential to overturn a 2014 land transfer agreement has increased lobbying and public opinion efforts by both critics and supporters of the project.

Earlier this month, the Pinal Partnership group began a targeted public relations campaign on behalf of Resolution Copper, including urging members to write letters to several key members of the Arizona congressional delegation —Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, as well as Reps. Tom O’Halleran, Greg Stanton and Ann Kirkpatrick.

The letter says that bill H.R. 1884, which is part of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, “would prevent mining from ever happening” and would “prevent the creation of thousands of American jobs, and billions in revenue to the Arizona economy.”

Representatives for Resolution Copper also released their own statement affirming an economic boost to the region and claiming that the project has been years in the making through public engagement and government review.

“We have strong support from local community leaders to build a responsible copper mine that would support more than 3,700 jobs, add $1 billion a year to Arizona’s economy and supply up to one quarter of the nation’s copper demand,” the statement reads. “Mining has co-existed with outdoor recreation, ranching and cultural activities in the Copper Triangle region for over a century, and we are committed to preserving the area’s unique heritage.”

At the same time, the Center for Biological Diversity released a statewide poll showing 74% of Arizonans oppose the Resolution Copper proposal. According to the poll, although the opposition trended toward both Democratic and urban residents, a majority of Republicans polled — 56% — were also against the mine.

Resolution Copper officials say they are planning to release their own polling numbers from August suggesting that “most Arizona voters were unfamiliar with Resolution Copper but after learning more, including what critics say, support for the project grew.”

The proposed copper mine, located near the town of Superior in northern Pinal County, would use a block-cave process to drill the copper ore over several decades. As a result of land subsidence, the area known as Oak Flat would become a crater several miles wide and 1,000 feet deep.

Critics of the mine say that the 2014 land transfer that was passed was snuck into a “must pass” bill at the last minute, after being repeatedly struck down in prior legislative sessions.

While little about the debate over the mine has changed, the past year has seen a dramatic back-and-forth over its future status, with the possible reconciliation bill just the latest in a struggle between strongly entrenched viewpoints.

A 3,000-page Environmental Impact Statement from the U.S. Forest Service, due out at the end of 2020, was instead released at the beginning of the year, just before President Donald Trump left office. The document was quickly rescinded in March by the incoming Biden administration. However, in June, the Justice Department threw out a lawsuit by the Apache Stronghold organization opposing the copper mine, claiming in a brief that the land transfer did not violate existing treaties.

At the same time, the Center for Biological Diversity released a statewide poll showing 74% of Arizonans oppose the Resolution Copper proposal. According to the poll, although the opposition trended toward both Democratic and urban residents, a majority of Republicans polled — 56% — were also against the mine.

Resolution Copper officials say they are planning to release their own polling numbers from August suggesting that “most Arizona voters were unfamiliar with Resolution Copper but after learning more, including what critics say, support for the project grew.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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> The study comes as the water level in Lake Mead has dropped to historic lows, and in the wake of an announcement by the Central Arizona Project in mid-August that Arizona’s share of Colorado River water will be reduced by 30 percent.

> That is nearly 18% of Arizona’s total Colorado River supply and less than 8% of Arizona’s total water use, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. The 500,000-acre-foot cut is enough to provide water to about 1 million people for a year. (One acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons, or the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land, roughly the size of a football field, a foot deep.) “The Resolution Mine poses a grave and unacceptable impact to Arizona’s declining and finite groundwater supplies while surface water supplies are being reduced. This mine must not be constructed,” San Carlos Apache Chairman, Terry Rambler stated in a Sept. 28 press release announcing the report. “Our state Congressional delegation must work decisively to pass the Save Oak Flat Act to stop the mine and to protect our water for future generations.”

The Save Oak Flat Act, or SOFA, would repeal a law requiring a swap of approximately 2,422 acres of Forestry Department land in the Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper. That law was slipped into the National Defense Authorization Act in 2014 by the late Carl Levin (D-MI) and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) in what’s come to be known derisively as the “Midnight Rider.” The land exchange was triggered early this year when the Trump Administration published the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on Jan. 15, giving the Forestry Department 60-days to execute the deal. 

But the Biden Administration’s Department of Agriculture put the deal on hold, in part to allow more time to consult with several Arizona tribes. 

According to U.S. Rep. Grijalva, the Tucson Democrat who introduced SOFA, legislation to undo the land swap has been proposed on a regular basis since 2015.

“We’ve been doing the Save Oak Flat bill over and over again since (the swap) was passed in the middle of the night, way back when,” he said. “This is the closest opportunity we’ve had, so it still has a strong possibility to get out of the House if we ever have a clean vote.”

Resolution resolve

In the wake of the administration’s hold on the Oak Flat land swap, officials from the Town of Superior, as well as a group of stakeholders calling itself the Pinal Partnership, began advocating for the project and standing firm against SOFA.

 

> Superior Mayor Mila Besich has been working on the Resolution Copper project for many years — too long, she says — and sees it as one of the few economic opportunities for a community her family has been a part of for generations. . .

In a recent letter urging members of her community to reach out to their representatives, Besich said SOFA is a “poison pill” that would “cripple all of the mining operations in our region.”

“As residents of Arizona’s Copper Corridor, we understand our role in the world,” she wrote. “We mine and produce the copper that runs this world. Right now, our role in the global economy is at risk. . .

Resolution Copper says the project could ultimately directly employ somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 people — most living in the East Valley and Phoenix Metro area — and inject $20 billion into Arizona’s economy. It could supply the United States with one-quarter of its copper for the next 40-60 years, although there is no guarantee the copper would make it into U.S. manufacturing, given the volatility of the copper market. 

A 2019 study commissioned by the Arizona Department of Transportation concluded that the majority of copper extracted from the Rosemont mine would be shipped outside of the U.S. because there isn’t capacity at American smelters to process the ore.

The Pinal Partnership, a nonprofit founded in Pinal County in 2005 that “unites the (county’s) vision for responsible economic development,” according to the organization’s president Tony Smith, has also advocated for Resolution Copper, touting the economic benefits of the project, using its influence in the region to further garner support for the project.

. . .The proposed mine would be the largest underground mine in the U.S., plunging to depths of more than 7,000 feet below the surface, where temperatures reach 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Large quantities of water for cooling and other aspects of mining, from dust control to remediation of mine waste, would be required for its operation.. . ."

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READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

David Abbott

Arizona Mirror