A neighbor of mine has been plagued for years by an adjoining AirBnB (aka “transient,” or less than 30-day) rental, which has now turned into an interminable demolition/remodel nuisance. He has carefully documented many of the zoning code violations, and contacted the city dozens of times at all levels from code enforcement (which is where […]
Caputi’s True Colors
Tammy Caputi’s recent opinion piece in the so-called “Independent” demonstrates exactly the reason I recommended against her for city council in last year’s election. I’ve reproduced her letter below my comments. It is full of half-truths and outright dishonesty, with one goal in mind: Usurping the very purpose of the General Plan and our zoning […]
Scottsdale’s Election
If you are visiting ScottsdaleCitizen for the first time because you received my letter, welcome! The information below is all in the letter, but forwarding this article to your Scottsdale friends is a great way to leverage it out to a larger audience of voters. And I’ve included convenient hyperlinks to the websites of the […]
Otis and the SCOTT Project
I received an entertaining, late-night email from Otis Norton in my inbox this morning, in which he threatened me for mentioning one of his friends in a social media post. I’ve been around and involved long enough to have been threatened by a few folks. So, while I always take threats seriously, this one mostly […]
Norton’s Big Lies
Mike Norton just can’t help himself. Setting aside the Scottsdale Unified School District budget override for a later discussion, Norton could have just silently savored the Scottsdale city bond election ‘victory,’ and parlayed his big success into the relevance he desperately craves. Instead, he continues to lie, to inflate his own role, and to celebrate […]
Balanced coverage?
Just like with the Scottsdale Independent a few years ago, I had high hopes for the renewed Scottsdale Progress newspaper. The original Scottsdale Progress, under editor and publisher Jonathan Marshall, did great things for our community. In fact, Marshall and his crew had significant impact on state law affecting, among other things, government open meeting […]
Sedona residents challenge Rep. Bob Thorpe over vacation rentals
The 2016 law only curbs cities and towns from regulating short-term rentals, but says nothing about HOAs Guess where most of the legislators who supported this live. — Read on www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2019/07/25/sedona-residents-challenge-rep-bob-thorpe-over-vacation-rentals/1811064001/
“A city government exists only for the purpose of…”
During a refreshing, unplanned visit to the Phoenix North Mountain Visitor Center, I saw on display this letter to the residents of the Sunnyslope area, sent to them upon annexation of the area into the City of Phoenix. It says, in part, A city government exists only for the purpose of performing necessary municipal services for […]
I “DESERVE” Affordable Housing: How Minneapolis Freed Itself From the Stranglehold of Single-Family Homes
“Neighbors for More Neighbors.” Hmm. Yet another housing cost-related article popped up in my browsing of the news. This one is a little scary, with the premise that single-family housing is actually the PROBLEM when it comes to housing cost. And this is how city leaders in Minneapolis started down the path to “fixing” that […]
Not subject to ethics
Scottsdale and its city treasurer sued for discrimination by former employee City attorney Bruce Washburn ultimately dismissed the complaint, saying that Nichols was not subject to the complaint process under the city’s current ethics code. Because, of course, since both are charter officers, that would mean the ethics code would apply to Washburn, as well!