Gaylord Redux

Well, it looks like the Gaylord passage really is one of the biggest victories in Mesa's recent history. They had to go back to the 80's and 90's to find any similar margins, and I would bet that there were fewer people voting at that point. Plus, those were all common sense procedural votes making sure that the City Council didn't get highjacked.

I think it makes the community support that much more impressive.

Now that the project is a reality, the City, Gaylord, and DMB are now starting to show the voters their plan for moving this project forward. Not surprisingly, their message is that this project isn't going to happen overnight. We know the current state of the economy, so it shouldn't be a shock to us that its going to take some time. Besides, GM isn't out until this summer, and there is a lot of rehab needed before they could start construction. Not to mention that they aren't even required to start moving dirt until 2011.

As the Republic points out, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And they are right to say that Gaylord might actually be "the one" this time. The article also draws some parallels to Waveyard, which is still stalled. The difference here is that everyone involved in the Gaylord project is taking steps to show Mesa that its going to take some time to get such a massive project started and off the ground. When Waveyard was proposed, I think a lot of voters felt like they were going to be surfing by next summer.

Effective communications and managing expectations are two big keys to making sure that we understand what is going on and that things are moving forward. Everyone, well, almost everyone, understands that these things don't happen overnight, but we do want to know where things are at throughout the process. Let's hope that they continue to communicate with the community on a regular basis.

In the meantime, let's celebrate the victory and the opportunities that Mesa has ahead.