Taking a page out of the Jason Rose playbook (“He supported it before he opposed it”), the editor of the “straight and unbiased” Scottsdale Independent, Terrance Thornton, posted a Throwback Thursday Facebook reference to a ScottsdaleTrails article I wrote years ago regarding his ascension to his current position: Terrance Thornton Throwback Thursday: cool to see […]
Another Resident Voice for Littlefield
Letter to the editor. Thank you, Jeff, for taking the time to write. Time for Change Dr. Jeff Donahue It’s time for a change before we, the residents of Scottsdale, lose it all (and special interests win big). It’s time to remove Jim Lane from the office of Mayor of Scottsdale. While he tries to […]
William J. Laneford
The latest missive from the Jim Lane for Mayor of Gooberville campaign just showed up in my inbox. When I first read it, I did a double take because it sounds just like something Bill Crawford would write, instead of the polished products of Lane’s campaign PR guy (and taxpayer-subsidized polo match promoter) Jason Rose. […]
Principled Dishonesty
A recent campaign email from Scottsdale’s two-term incumbent mayor Jim Lane parrots a poorly-researched Arizona Republic article: “New development downtown and the ongoing revitalization of Scottsdale’s McDowell Road corridor appear to be pushing home prices higher in the area. In the two ZIP codes south of Chaparral Road — 85251 and 85257 — the median home price […]
In Praise of Urban Sprawl [or, Is Scottsdale Going to the Dogs?] – WSJ
In essence, Mr. Kotkin argues, being anti-suburb is being anti-family. With this book [“The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us”] he wants to shift the emphasis back to people, the derided suburban masses that he refers to as “the rest of us,” people who have become almost invisible to anti-sprawl adherents, especially those […]
$8 million taxpayer subsidy for 400 sq ft $1,300 rentals?
Developers Amstar and Transwestern Development Co. are also seeking a controversial tax break for the roughly $36 million Derby Roosevelt Row project, which would save them about $8 million over 25 years, according to the city. A proposed 19-story housing project in the Roosevelt Row arts district may get a huge taxpayer subsidy in the […]
Sign Pollution
I just got an email from a Scottsdale voter about campaign sign pollution in the city. He asked: Do you think there is anything our city can do about the campaign signs strewn all over town? I realize the state recently passed a bill limiting each cities ability to limit the time and location of […]
Planning for Mediocrity
In a recent article on AZCentral, it was announced that the final phase of the Scottsdale Waterfront development south of Camelback and east of Drinkwater was approved by the Planning Commission and will go on up to the Development Review Board and City Council for final approval in the coming weeks. I note several interesting […]
Questions from a Citizen
A concerned citizen emailed me yesterday with specific questions on three topics. I always appreciate the opportunity to answer questions, especially in lieu of having folks eblast nonsense to the world without doing even a minimum level of fact checking. Even though I’ve been working on these issues for ten years and my positions are […]