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 […]
AG’s Office investigates Scottsdale school board over private meetings
This year through May 31, when [former Scottsdale Unified School District governing board member Pam] Kirby no longer served on the school board, she and [then and current board member Barbara] Perleberg exchanged 1,892 text messages and phone calls, some of which occurred during [SUSD governing] board meetings… Yet, astonishingly, “This [open meeting law complaint] […]
I “DESERVE” Affordable Housing in Scottsdale; Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work
I was scanning stations while driving today and stumbled across the most recent, and timely (given the uproar created by my post yesterday regarding millennial whining about high cost of housing in Scottsdale) episode of Freakonomics. The ultimate extreme of “affordable housing” is rent control. Maybe we should do THAT in Scottsdale? There are decades’ […]
Payson’s pipeline brings flood of challenges
The water levels in the network of town wells dropped 70 or 100 feet in many places before the town imposed tough water restrictions, shortly before the recession. Well levels stabilized about 10 years ago, still far below historic levels. Source: Payson’s pipeline brings flood of challenges | News | paysonroundup.com I spend a little […]
Bond Grifters
In a recent comment appended to an article in the Scottsdale Trough Feeders newsletter (aka the Scottsdale Independent), village idiot (and muni bond huckster) Mike Norton claimed (among other things) that the assertion that Scottsdale has the “Most Debt Per Capita” is a lie. I’m the only guy who’s been saying that, so I guess […]
Phony Poll-ony
Jason Rose, who basically lies for a living, has put out a press release in which he claims, “Substantial and Deep Voter Support for November Bond Measures.” That presser bounces through many more hyperbolic adjectives and adverbs like, “strong” (several times), “sweeping,” “substantial” (again), and “diverse.” Hey, the more, the merrier, right? Reminds me of […]
One-Eyed Jackass
This crazy ‘public art’ installation was recently… ahem, erected, at Indian School Road and Marshall Way. “In the end, they [the artist and the public art division of Scottsdale Arts] went directly to the city council, which has the power to overrule the [city] design board. In February, all but one city council member voted […]
The Great Spring Training Hoax
Neil deMause (http://www.FieldOfSchemes.com) comments this morning: A study by Arizona State University found that spring-training baseball was worth $373 million to the Arizona economy in 2018. I can’t find the actual report itself, but it looks like they came up with this number by interviewing a sample of out-of-town visitors at spring training games about […]
The Bird is not Well
Because it’s been widely broadcast by the mainstream media, you may have already heard that Scottsdale Unified School District superintendent Denise Birdwell was placed on administrative leave last night by the SUSD governing board. This action comes after a tumultuous two-year tenure, which has seen almost complete turnover in senior-level district staff, wholesale replacement of […]