A recent screed from Jason Rose (reprinted in-full below) peddling the notion of leasing a currently-unused, taxpayer-owned school property, to his soccer (and development) clients at Phoenix Rising, pre-aims blame for failure at the residents of surrounding neighborhoods. Somehow, the Scottsdale City Council (as the elected body in charge of development, though having nothing to […]
Solange is a Liar
In addition to deluding herself into visions of being Scottsdale’s Henry Kissinger, running shuttle diplomacy between developers and the citizens for whom she’s supposed to be advocating, city council member Solange Whitehead is a liar. I don’t use that term lightly, but she either knows or damned well ought to know that the information she’s […]
Solange Kissinger
An anonymous political blog here in Scottsdale recently criticized council member Solange Whitehead for her waffling support of zoning changes and other concessions (aka, “developer welfare”) for widely-opposed high-density housing projects. The term used to describe Solange’s efforts, “shuttle diplomacy,” caused me pause. As referenced in Wikipedia, the term was first applied to Henry Kissinger’s […]
Kush Klucks
Larry Kush just can’t help himself. After another bloviation from him in the so-called Independent, he once again took me to task for criticizing him for advocating for elimination of single-family zoning. I memorialized the thread here, in case the censors at the Independent decide to nuke it. Kush: Actually the Biden administration is saying […]
Does Development Pay for Itself?
Vice Mayor Betty Janik finally came to [Scottsdale Planning, Economic Development and Tourism Director Randy] Grant’s aid. “I’ve read quite a bit on does economic development pay for itself,” she said. “You can go and check all the literature and you can get six experts say it does and six equal expert people that say […]
Larry Kush calls me Racist
I don’t often single out individual citizens for criticism. However, in the case of Larry Kush, I’m going to make an exception, since he chose to insert himself in a thread of commentary about something that he, of all people, should have left alone. And then he called me racist. I made a comment on […]
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 […]
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 […]
And Then Came the High-Rises
In the past, I’ve been critical of former Republic columnist John Talton’s loose cannon, anti-automobile ranting. I haven’t seen much from him lately, but his older piece, Phoenix 101: What killed downtown, Part II, recently came to my attention, and contains a nugget worth noting. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in […]
“I deserve affordable housing in Scottsdale”
I recently had an–interesting–social media conversation with a couple of keyboard warriors who are essentially demanding cheaper (“affordable”) housing in Scottsdale. It’s clear from the comments they made that, while cloaked in proletariat self-righteousness, their motivation is really more about self-interest and entitlement than the “working class.” The conversation started with an opinion piece posted […]