Scott Smith Getting to the Root of the Riverview Problem

Getting to the Root of the Riverview Problem

I meant to comment on this when it was in the paper. Now, I can only find it on Scott Smith's site. I have to say that I was pretty surprised that a former developer was criticizing the city for taking it easy on another developer. Maybe its just a show, but I do think he has a point.

When the voters were told about Riverview, they were promised a high-end shopping center that would be a great place to go. People talked about standards and quality like this place was going to be straight out of Scottsdale. Now the city council is letting the developer get away without putting in the palms?

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of private property rights, but I am also a huge fan of respecting the will of the voters.

Gilbert is out!

Gilbert pulls out of mayor's race, cites family reasons

Wow! Where did they get that picture of Pat Gilbert? That certainly has to be several years old. Is that back from his Vice Mayor days? I am pretty surprised that they had that electronically. In fact, I wonder if they had to break out the scanner for that bad boy. Just kidding!

It looks like Pat Gilbert is out of the race. I have to admit that I am a little bummed out about this announcement. Not because I would have been a Pat supporter, but he would have definately changed the game and made the debates more interesting.

So, as it stands we are looking at the following:

Scott Smith (announced)

Tom Freestone (exploratory)

Claudia Walters (exploratory)

Rex Griswold (exploratory)

$300 million

Cactus League Spring Training Fans Contributed More than $300,000,000 to Arizona’s Economy in 2007

I was digging around looking for some cactus league attendance stats and I ran across this. I also found that, once again, the Cubs had the highest attendance (Check Page 3). So, it makes me wonder: how much of that money is going into the Mesa economy?

Scott Smith is running for Mayor

Ex-home builder seeks Mesa mayoral seat

Scott Smith, a local home builder and small businessman is running for Mayor. It looks like it might be a crowded field however. Here are who the Republic thinks will be in the Race:

Pat Gilbert - Announced
Scott Smith - Announced
Tom Freestone - Exploratory
Claudia Walters - Exploratory
Rex Griswald - Exploratory

So you have the liberal vs two establishment candidates and two outsiders. Plus, you have Tom Freestone, who has boatloads of experience and seems to know everyone in town. This should be interesting.

Welcome

Well, its been almost a year since the voters roundly rejected the property tax. I think the vote really showed that there is a lot of work to be done in Mesa.

A year later, I don't think much has changed. That why I think its interesting that its about that time for campaign season to heat up once again. I have decided to do my best to keep up with the issues in Mesa as they happen.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Mesa Issues Blog!