In addition, it was very evident that the City Manager and her office office as well as the Mayor and Council majority were absolutely delighted to keep the divisiveness alive and well because we were all fighting among ourselves rather than paying attention to what the city manager, city staff, and the council majority were really up to.

Since the first issue of the Scottsdale Activist, we have seen the increase in readership climb from almost nothing to over 45,000 hits a month. That boils down to about half of the citizens who vote in Scottsdale elections read the Scottsdale Activist weekly. This has been accomplished without financial support or advertising from anyone.

Another sign that the city is coming together are the number of "Shouts and Spouts" that come from the north. Currently, their numbers exceed those from the south. I've asked a number of the respondents who call theirs in why they don't just write a letter. They are very clear that they feel reprisals from their HOA should they add their names.

We think it's truly a shame that things are that way but we still appreciate the northerners providing a big part in the success of the Scottsdale Activist and thereby supporting the continuing education of the citizenry so the 2008 elections will bring much needed and prayed for major changes in the way our city government is operated and it's citizens are treated.

The success of the Scottsdale Activist can be set directly at the feet of an ineffective and omnidirectional Mayor and City Council majority who have no idea what they are doing and swing from branch to branch to satisfy which ever developer proposes more tax dollars to to the city coffers while taking subsidies to build their buildings.

What the staff, council majority and developers forget to tell you is that the amount of tax received is totally stripped away by the costs involved in correcting major mistakes such as the 2 million and quickly climbing Stench control in the Downtown area and the 12+ million dollar Hualapai Water Plant debacle.

We are very happy to provide information provided by the city insiders which the other print media cannot or will not print for whatever reason.

We thank those within the walls of city hall who take a very dangerous chance of possibly losing their jobs by continually feeding us the information to stay ahead of the "branch swingers" currently running our Scottsdale City Government.

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 ~ Carla, .........Again????

Could Carla (her legal name) be at it again? Could she be trying desperately to torpedo the reputation of a highly respected, honest, and ethical person whose sole interest is for the safety and proper handling of tax dollars, so that she can force her wild and personal demands for the Preserve on the unsuspecting citizens of north Scottsdale strictly for her own personal reasons? We have concluded through everything we have read and heard that Carla couldn't really care less about what the northern residents want, but she's an expert at making them think she really does.

Lesley Wright's column in the Saturday Scottsdale Republic would lead us to believe that one of the new directors, Erik Filsinger, could be a "SunCor plant" to help reduce the Preserve due to his prior professional connection to SunCor.

It's been reported that Carla was thrown out of her position with the Preserve and that she wants some very strict controls including a total of 25 hikers at a time on all of the trails, no new trails, no dogs or mountain bikes allowed, and reduce hours of usage as well as less access points and other items that greatly reduce the usability and utility of the Preserve for the citizens of Scottsdale who have paid dearly to have this Preserve in the first place.

We fully agree with those who live in the north that the density needs to be strictly controlled and any new subdivisions need to meet some ultra strict size, density, color, height, open space, and lighting controls to maintain the ambiance of the area.

From our preliminary information concerning Mr. Filsinger, he too has the exact same concerns for the areas in the north and the Preserve while keeping the citizens from getting ripped off.

We're sure we'll hear a lot more more about this situation soon.

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 ~ Come Hell or High Water........

Come hell or high water, "Project by Project" City Manager Jan Dolan, along with her dutiful puppet Mary O'Connor, have throw reasonability out the window and will continue to install the stupid, ill-installed and ill-advised "Neighborhood Entry Islands" throughout southern Scottsdale as well as traffic circles in north Scottsdale. Note the end of the bike path nearing the traffic circle in the lower right side of the picture on the right. We have been advised that this particular traffic circle is near Jan Dolan's home. Funny how it is lush and expensive looking isn't it?

The picture on the left shows one on those "neighborhood entry islands" installed just up the street from a busy school where there is a Crossing Guard to help kids across the street at the intersection.

• Why would you put one of these unguarded islands mid-block where children will use them without a Crossing Guard after school?

• Is this the city's idea of Rocket Science???

• Is this safe for our children? Does any of this make any sense to anyone except Dolan and O'Connor??

The stupidity of these decisions is only outdone by the ridiculous costs to the taxpayers when there are other issues far more pressing and important...... like road maintenance and repair.

These things are nothing more than another way to congest traffic and add obstacles to the streets for motorists to hit, and the city to repair, and the taxpayers to continually pay for.

This also goes for the traffic circles, round-a-bouts, and other street furniture Dolan has personally decided we needed without proper community consultation including public meetings. These items are all contributors to the pollution in our city because people have to slow, turn, accelerate again, etc, etc, etc. It's also rather hard on the suspension and braking systems of the vehicles which isn't warranted under any condition in our fair city.

A prime example of the stubbornness and lack of communication with the proper number of citizens is very apparent in the letter "Transportation Department Doesn't Care..." in Letters to the Editor below.

Why were the millions of taxpayers dollars spent on these useless, unwanted projects instead of keeping the street repairs on schedule which, according to Mr. Worth of the city, are behind schedule because of lack of funds? Hello???

This is what we get for listening to the edict: All development projects in the mature neighborhoods of Scottsdale, including the Waterfront, on a project by project basis.

So said City Manager Jan Dolan in a meeting with the Scottsdale Coalition in May of 2003.

So now here we sit with the Waterfront condos promoted internationally and the area stinks to high heaven. Those million dollar condos on the irrigation canal are looked at with wide eyed disbelief by average citizens visiting here from Wisconsin, Missouri, Chicago (a real waterfront city), the East Coast, and even our friends in Great Britain.

Define "Waterfront" for them, ………..Please?

Has anyone read the "Kings New Clothes" recently?

Water pressure to those condos is not too good either. What happens when the city turns on those massive, high pressure pumps with enough water pressure to reach the top of the condos? How will that affect the old waterlines in the Downtown area? Why are the taxpayer paying for these pumps being installed where they shouldn't be. Here we go again, more millions to fix still another  major Dolan/Council/Klingler failing infrastructure screw-up.

Be very careful flushing while brushing if you own one of those multi-million dollar condos.

But wait!!!  What happens when the "W" Hotel comes on line? ……and then WaterView (a faint maybe) ……..and the Safari Drive Condos ……and then there is Optima and the Finova condos…………...

Do you think for One Quick New York Second that 2 million dollars is going to cover the infrastructure updates when you have to go in and make corrections that should have been addressed before ground was broken for those buildings? Think again. Let's figure it more like 8 million tax dollars and climbing quickly when it's all said and done.

And while you are tearing up the streets and putting in new lines, think about the congestion along Scottsdale Road between Camelback Road and Chaparral Road.

Now imagine that same area with the Finova condos and Safari Drive condos up and running. There is no where to go to widen the street.

And while we're at it, we want to thank the young lady living in one of the Optima condos for entertaining the opposite sex stuck in traffic along Scottsdale as she brushed her teeth. No curtains in the bathroom windows and Ooooo La La!! Well, the mind reels as does one’s imagination……...

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 ~ Why Ignore the City Manager's Advice??

This question was asked by Kim Edwards in her "My Turn" column in the Wednesday Scottsdale Republic.

We have a score of reasons, but let it be sufficient to emphasize those that many of us are aware of some major one's at this point in time.

1. Up to 16 million for the Hualapai Water Plant which shouldn't have cost the city more than 4 million at auction if Dolan hadn't jumped the gun and unknowingly allowed "Public Notice" of the city's intentions (which as a professional, she should have known),

2. Using the City General Fund instead of the Bonds to pay for all of the of the infrastructure improvements at SkySong,

3. Allowing the General Fund to deteriorate into a negative balance which she still won't acknowledge,

4. The installation of traffic calming devices from neighborhood entry islands to elaborate traffic circles and round-a-bouts at the cost of millions while, as Dan Worth advised us, "What we have done is deferred maintenance", "We have segments of roadway that are deteriorating more than we'd like them to deteriorate before getting treatment",

5. WestWorld was close to breaking even financially until Dolan fired Brad Gessner, (oh we forgot, he "resigned") so now she is totally ambivalent and seemingly couldn't care less about losing over 1.3 million in taxpayers dollars in the 2008 year,

6. The huge, out of code, "temporary" tent at WestWorld which will now have another 2 to 4 million dollars spent to recover an aging tent which will still be out of code on many points as well as never having the proper permits or inspections during it's construction,

7. The total disregard for the citizen's grave concerns about the aging infrastructure in the downtown area PRIOR to the building of the high density, high rise condos in the downtown area while knowing it needed to be improved or changed out totally prior to any new construction.

8. 30 of 35 employees fired or gone from the City HR Department reportedly due to Jan Dolan's Gestapo style of leadership as one of the main complaints.

All of these major things have an approximated total of unnecessary over-expenditures of about 100+ million taxpayer dollars.

Gee, that would have built the voter approved parks in the north, the refurbishing of the parks in the south as well as keeping the deteriorating roadways in good condition.

Need we say more???

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 ~ 2008 Scottsdale Elections

The 2008 elections are much closer than anyone realizes except Mary Manross. She knows she's in deep trouble and is trying desperately to "change her spots" prior to the election.

As citizens, we all need to start paying deliberate and direct attention to who says what and how they would run the city, and how they feel about the city of Scottsdale, all B.S. as well as political blowhards aside.

One of our major concerns is that the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce lead by Rick Kidder and Virginia Korte will try to coerce many citizens to take the Chambers choices as the best. As we have seen of late,

• The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce does not only represent just Scottsdale businesses but businesses on the Phoenix side of Scottsdale Road as well as other outsiders. Word has it that the Chambers non-Scottsdale membership comes close to at least 40% of the Chambers total membership,
   

• That type of representation does not do the best job for Scottsdale business community or the city's citizens, and that's apparently why the North Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce was formed.

These two issue alone tell me that any candidate that the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce supports cannot have the complete and total interest or loyalty to the city of Scottsdale or her citizens at heart unless they are their own person proven by their activities supporting the citizens, not the city administration, and the way they have represented themselves at least 2 years Prior to the election process starting. Anyone supporting the way city government has been run or supports big spending,  high density, or light rail is "out" immediately in our minds.

Another thing to keep in mind is what kind of relationship, if any, did the future candidates have with Developer/Builders over the last few years or with zoning attorneys who do their "best" work under Mayor Manross and her council majority.

The above questions and healthy discussions with the candidates are very necessary to make sure we don't elect any more council people like McCullagh and Osterman who promised that they were fiscal conservative but turned into "Manross's Spendy Puppets" to become part of the spending majority on the City Council and have totally turned their backs on the citizens at large.

The city has been very closed (secretive) about this case, no notices, no postings, or any other indication that such a critical decision is coming up in a couple of weeks. They are trying to slide this through without anyone knowing until it is done.

The excuse, for this blatant disregard for the public, is that they are still settling in on the details. Stress that this is not an acceptable reason to bypass all of Scottsdale’s notification procedures in that they know the meeting is going to take place on May 8th and they know what the subjects and expected actions are now. Details are not necessary to properly post the meeting.

The excuse, for allowing SonRise Church to have their school, will be that they don’t have the ability to control churches because of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. This is totally false. This legislation allows churches to be controlled by any regulation as long as it is applied equally to all similar non-religious uses, in this case a use permit for a school at a church has to comply with exactly the same requirements as any other school in a similar situation.

Such a school case was denied a number of years ago on Pima Road for exactly the same reasons so the precedent is already set. It is important to make it clear that we don’t regard this legislation as providing any excuse to allow SonRise Church to have their school.

At this point, we probably have two votes to deny this, so we need at least two more. Send letters and e-mails specifically to Mayor Manross, Councilwoman Betty Drake, Councilman Jim Lane, and Councilman Wayne Ecton. Stress that they aren’t going to get reelected if they throw neighborhoods, such as ours, to the lions. They were elected to protect neighborhoods from such intrusions and this is a keystone case. Allow this and other neighborhoods will be invaded just as ours has. Also, stress that churches like SonRise give other churches a bad name and make it more difficult for them to locate in neighborhoods.

This IS NOT a religious issue, it is strictly a land use issue, and it is the city staff and the Council’s job to properly regulate intense uses going into residential areas. We really need to give them the impression that they will not get reelected if they don’t listen to and protect their citizens.

Today it is us, but tomorrow it will be someone else.

It doesn’t matter where you live, this is a global issue. It can and does happen anywhere. Citizens in southern Scottsdale are experiencing the same problem. Citizens in other parts of the country are also having the same problem. It is time to stand up and do the right thing.

The time to be nice is gone. This is still another back room deal that will be sealed on May 8th unless there is a citizen uprising and they know their reelection chances are riding on this issue. Do what you can to make them feel that way. If possible, try to call them as well. All their contact information is below.

Those of us who are most immediately impacted by this case need your help.

Tomorrow the same thing can happen right next to you because if this passes, the City will have completely given in and there will be absolutely NO regulation on churches going into neighborhoods.

This is way too important to let slide by.

Respectfully,

Howard Myers
Scottsdale

 ~ Budget: They Still Don't Get It!!!

Mayor and Council, 

I thought it might be helpful to you all to look at a different perspective on the April Financial Report as published this week. It is important for you to understand what you were NOT told as you consider further the budget cuts you need to make.  

1) General

Remember that the April financial report is based on the approved budget and NOT the adopted budget you have been using for the Budget review meetings (the approved budget is approx $7m higher). 

2) Revenue

In 2006/07 you budgeted to LOSE revenue – down from $262.2m in 2005/06 to $256.4m in 2006/07, a (2.2%) decline. Now obviously this was a very questionable action last year but it does mean that the forecast of a $13.2m surplus v budget in 2006/07 (or +5.1%) is NOT indicative of the health of the City’s revenue stream.

What you need to focus your attention on is the fact that at $269.6m revenue in 2006/07, that this represents only a +2.8% increase YOY – the slowest rate of growth since 9/11

It also questions the ability to grow, as per the proposed budget, at +4.7% in 2007/08. 

3) Expenditures

The forecast for expenditures in 2006/07 at $227.4m will have grown at a rate of +13.8% YOY (up from $199.8m in 2005/06). If you look at the numbers on a TRUE LIKE FOR LIKE basis, the increase is actually +17.4% or +$33.6m (this reports Economic Vitality at 20% in both years as per the new GASB standard).

This means that expenditures will be rising by $27.7m in 2006/07 compared with the revenue increase of only $7.3m, a negative variance of ($20.3m) and a major component of the ($44m) negative variance projected by your staff for the years 2006/07 through 2011/12.

Such a negative variance will both reduce reserves and potentially weaken our ability to maintain our AAA rating, particularly when coupled with the large increase in long term debt. 

4) Other

Now, of course, I have previously identified to you all the practice by staff to underestimate revenue and overestimate expenditures as part of their annual budget “charade”, and just like last year it will be most interesting to see how wide the variances will be this year when we get the final audited figures. What it does mean of course is that you are not being given the correct base numbers to consider the budget which is why you cannot see clearly how to balance the budget at worst and save significant tax payer dollars at best. The improvement in the General Fund Balance has nothing to do with effective management action this year, rather the failure to accurately report revenue and expenditure forecasts in last years budget process.

Regards,
Graham Kettle
Scottsdale

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 ~Doesn’t Our City Need Balance?

Scottsdale is beginning to look like a city with just two cost of living ranges – expensive and ridiculous. It seems as though we have lost our balance of residents. Either you have to make a ton of money to live here or have a ton money and just hang out to spend it.

It’s all about financial status. As a financial middle of the road resident, I find that my options for housing, work and play are much more limited in Scottsdale than in years past. This, then, makes me wonder, is the focus of our Scottsdale City Council to force people like me out and bring in more affluent individuals to live-work-play here?

People like me should have opportunities to exist right alongside the wealthy who scoop up (so they say) the top-level penthouse suites in the Waterfront towers. Scottsdale is and has been my home for more than 30 years. I see no reason to move now. I want to know, what’s City Council’s goal for me?

The focus of Scottsdale’s growth should involve all walks of life, not just the affluent few. We should look to develop and/or maintain neighborhoods for many different types of residents. After all, a well-formed city has a nice balance to it. It transverses the lines of financial wherewithal, introduces different cultures and heritages and fosters growth in many different areas, not just catering to an elite few. I think that Scottsdale is slowly losing that balance.

What happens when all the tried-and-true residents leave and we are left with just those fly-by-night select affluent few who will leave when the "Condo Fad" is over?

A concerned Scottsdale Resident

Dear Editor

I read in the Republic this week that Jan Dolan wants working for the City of Scottsdale to be like working for Google. This was one of her arguments for the suggested across the board pay raise for City of Scottsdale employees.

After I picked myself up off the floor and stopped laughing, and fully understanding how Google works, I tried to imagine how close Ms. Dolan was to her goal. Several publications have picked Google as the best company to work for and many have listed the company’s extensive benefits and perks. Google employment is so desirable that they often win talent bidding wars with the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo.

On the heels of several news accounts of widespread employee dissatisfaction, extremely high employee turnover and independent ratings of a "sick" staff, Dolan’s characterization of working for the City of Scottsdale is nothing short of preposterous. A move to unionize the City staff is off and running. I have read no accounts of Google’s employees trying to unionize. Google’s most difficult HR retention issues deal with people retiring (at very young ages) or with leaving to create their own start ups.

While it would be easy to write off Dolan’s comments as political efforts to pass her suggested pay raise, I think this is just representative of the typical nonsense the City Manager and the Mayor try to sell to us everyday. We have obvious, public evidence that the City of Scottsdale is not currently a nice place to work. And, yet, we are expected to believe that a 6% pay raise will put City work on a par with the most coveted employer in the country.

If the City of Scottsdale were a corporation like Google, we would be a prime candidate for a hostile take over which would immediately replace the executive management (City Manager) the Board of Directors (City Council), and the City Attorney as well as a majority of the legal staff.

Perhaps it is time to stop laughing, toss out the current leadership and start rebuilding our city government so that it would be a great place to work again.

Tom Sanders
North Scottsdale

I had to write to you and tell you what I saw the other day. I was sitting at the intersection of Scottsdale and McDonald Roads. A police patrol car was sitting in the number one position E-W on McDonald – I was right next to him. A guy ran the light at N-S Scottsdale Road more than three seconds after the light had changed from the arrow signal. He was so late entering the intersection that regular traffic has started to move when he blasted through the intersection (and not turning left) clearly going more than the posted speed limit.

The Scottsdale Police Officer sat there and watched it all unfold. He never moved and never ticketed the guy. What’s going on there?

I thought our police officers were supposed to Protect and Serve? I could have been killed and then what, the cop wouldn’t have called for emergency vehicles either?

Maybe I just expect too much from our police department. I know that they are understaffed but something that blatant can’t be ignored.

I hope someone on the police staff reads this and understands that the citizens expect to be taken care of in situations like this.

Mark Huffman
Scottsdale

Wanted to bring it to your attention that yet again, the "traffic island" that you folks dropped in the middle of the road was struck again.

So, how long before you remove this hazard on our residential 87^th Street at McDowell?

I know, you can never admit that a person like me is right and you were wrong so lets just skip all that and get the danged thing removed.

Councilman Nelssen, you asked about this issue and again I would like to see you ask again as this makes the 4th or 5th time this has happened since they put the stupid thing in. Do I have to get a petition together and present it to the council to have this removed?

By the way, maybe this is the person who hit the island and this appears to be some kind of medical waste and there was no way in hell I was going to pick it up so maybe you can send some folks over here with some gloves and a bio hazard bag to pick this stuff up.

I happily invite any Council Member with the gumption, to stop in at the house and take a little ride up to this location and see it for yourself with an explanation from someone other than our Transportation department.

Maybe if you did, you would understand a little better the reason for this fight and it will remain a fight until the city removes it.

So, who has a whole ten minutes of their day to stop by, be a council member, and help address an issue?

Mike Merrill
Scottsdale

==============================================================

Subject: RE: 87th Street and McDowell

Mike,

Thanks for your email and photos.  I'm sorry you haven't been able to meet with us as requested.  We've contacted the appropriate staff to have the waste removed, and are providing more visible signage.  Since we went through a neighborhood outreach process to install the median island, we'll be working with Citizen and Neighborhood Resources staff to contact residents regarding the possibility of removal. 

As always, please call me at 480-312-7696 if you would like to discuss. 

Mary O’Connor,
General Manager,
Scottsdale Transportation Department

==========================================================

TNelssen@Scottsdaleaz.gov writes to Mary O’Connor:

Thanks for your response Mary. I hope appropriate action is taken soon.

Is it not unusual to have rolled curbs on a median island? Is there a different standard for low speed residential streets?

In any case this does seem to present an on going problem. I wish you luck working this out with all the neighbors.

Councilman Tony Nelssen

========================================================

You know Mike, it probably would have been helpful to have neighborhood planning/village planning/community planning groups involved in this issue or even have involved the NEC in the process. Just like it would have helped with those whirly gig flowers in the Cox Heights neighborhood.

Doing neighborhood outreach when you are coming into a neighborhood is important.

Since we have no mechanism that provides for staff to go door to door to survey......ha, ha, ha! Sure; that’s going to happen!!!

Remember our brilliant City Manager's motto:  Project by project is better for Scottsdale.

Nancy Cantor
Scottsdale Coalition Co-Chair

=========================================================

For what reason do we need to meet Mary?

Have you come up with something different since the last time we talked and had a meeting about this?  If so, you may have wanted to note that in your request to meet again.

Since the proper out reach was not done last time, I would expect to be invited to the community meeting this time so I can actually inform the residents of what has been going on since it was installed and present the other than glowing side the city will try to present.

 As for Councilman Nelssen's comment about this being an "ongoing problem" he is correct and that is what usually happens when people place stuff like this in locations like this. However I would like to hear from Tony about the thought of making a business owner who has been in this community for as long as I can remember, redesign the way his business has been run for years because the city placed this thing there and created the problem.

Again the issue of "common logic" would say, "problem solved, we just remove it", but not in Scottsdale, here we prefer to turn everything into a fight and turn residents against each other.

Great way to run a city huh?

Remember, I have never said remove them all, I have continually had to fight with you to remove this single location as it is a hazard and creates a bottleneck as we have discussed before. When the city put in the pocket park, that was cool and we appreciate the city doing that as an entrance feature to the community, however the other "entry feature" was overkill, poorly thought out and well after the pocket park was made there as an entry feature.

I guess we need to "add more visual signage"  for people who already cannot see the signs already there, and the two trees. Tell me what it is that "more signage" will do for this issue other than create the sign blight that everyone screams about.

You folks really do make no damn sense what so ever. Maybe I should go get that lady who got you to remove the speed tables from her area and let her have you about this one also.

I look forward to when a meeting is set for the community.

Mike Merrill
Scottsdale

The current problems at the Waterfront development are just one more example of the poor management at City Hall.

The City Engineer and City Manager should have determined if the sewer and water line capacities of the existing infrastructure lines were capable of handling the additional capacity requirements of this and other major projects in the area.

These same results caused by the inept process of poor planning and spot zoning will be repeated and cause even more problems when the Optima project and the "W" Hotel projects are completed and occupied .

This does not include the problems that will result from other major projects like the Main Street Condos which are currently under way. The city should require that the developers bear the costs of making the necessary changes before granting zoning and building permits to the developers.

The citizens of Scottsdale should NOT be burdened with these additional costs. This stench problem and others like the Chaparral Rd problem very clearly show that Scottsdale needs some major changes at City Hall and are totally out of touch with reality.

Respectfully,

Paul F. Reich
Scottsdale

Well, this week we read in the paper that Scottsdale was ranked 4^th best in the United States of 25 cities under its category of mid sized cities by American Style.

I found it hilarious to hear that "Local Arts and Tourism experts" were "astounded by the snub", but could you not really see that one coming?

This year in particular I spoke with not only a slew of our winter visitors, but also people that were visiting from other areas of the U.S., and some of those conversations took place at varied establishments like Pottery Paradise, Uncle Uncle Sal's Italian Ristoranti , The Blue Moose, Loco Patron, Kona Grill, and even standing in line at the Grocery Stores.

Most of the conversations in the grocery store though were with full time residents, but the thing we talked about most is how the Downtown area is losing its charms for not only the Arts District, but also the Downtown area in general.

Many visitors who have been coming here for years made the most notable comments regarding the Waterfront Project and the South Bank Development as "looking out of place" and "too massive in forms".

In this same group of people many of them liked the projects like the Optima project which they said had a very "unique" style of Architecture, and they also liked the lower slung projects like the Main Street project and Ten Lofts or X lofts as they are usually called.

Lower building heights and less density seemed to be what the tourist and residents liked.

So, how does this factor in you say?

Well, if the City would have paid attention to some people who told them long ago that to much development to quickly and with no impact studies or concerns for the character areas of Downtown, the city will quickly lose the ambience that made the Arts in Scottsdale a very high ranking by other magazines.

The same as when we tried to warn the city of the infrastructure issues that come along with all of this development, taxpayers will be feeling the pinch to correct those little issues such as

Here is the real kicker to the issue as not more than 2 years ago the City Manager, now crowned the Wizard of Oz, made it publicly known by way of the media, that the city was well ahead of the curve when it comes to these services in the Downtown area.

Yeah, right Jan, the exalted Wizard of Oz, and pigs really do fly huh?

Two weeks ago I brought yet another charge against the city for intentionally allowing a developer to blight an area for their gain, much to the same chagrin of the last time I charged the city with allowing that to happen next to the WaterView developers project some few months ago and most of those pictures have appeared on this web-site for you all to see.

I was told by Mr. Keagy from Citizens Services that the city does not take sides with developers or anyone when it comes to enforcement of the Codes, so I thought it would be fun to give you an update on that issue of Downtown.

The missing section of the Façade along 6^th Avenue is now repaired and awaiting painting and this has only been an issue for the last couple of years now. Kudos to code enforcement for catching that along time ago and having it fixed promptly.

Wood coverings on windows to Kazimierz World Wine Bar was cited because they had no DR or staff approval for such an ugly plan. Now it appears the "tenant" has applied to the Planning Department for permits for window coverings so Lord help us all with that one.

If any of you would like to help out in this issue please feel free to place the pressure on our council to not allow the building to have a bunch of boarded up windows that look like crap to appease a developer trying to blight the area. citycouncil@scottsdaleaz.gov

Both of the "tuff sheds" as the city calls them were cited as not going through the permit process and have now applied to the planning department for permits, so that should be fun to watch also, and lets hope that DRB has to also consider them since it is in the Downtown and holds different requirements for permits.

Now, here is the kicker as Code is not supposed to be citing the "renter" they are supposed to be citing the "property owner" and in this case almost all the properties are owned by Fredrick R Unger.

Yep, the same developer who we recently did battle with the city on with his Major General Plan Amendment in which he decided to include a majority of land that he does not own in his spot rezoning plans for yet another Downtown Hotel.

Councilman Littlefield also was given the update and asked this question of Raun Keagy, "This still begs the obvious question, why were these violations not cited until Mike brought them to the city’s attention?"

First I have to correct Bob as many of these violations were given to the council almost 2 years ago and I still have the original "dated" photos if the city would like to argue with me about that one.

Now to answer Bob’s question in a manner the city would never do.

Dear Councilman Littlefield,

We still stand beside our comment that no-one gets special treatment because he is a developer and we base this stand on the fact there are some other people in the city government of the Land of Oz that wish you would quit telling the public the truth and trying to point out when we get caught lying.

We wish you would just join the others and "follow the Yellow Brick Road"

Thanks,
The Wizard of Oz

Well, here we are again in the fact that the city staff as well as a majority of the council thinks that those of us in this World Class City are too stupid to have already figured out what goes on in this city.

~Mayor turns into Poor Sport for Charities

Recently a friend of mine, Jason Rose, bid for tickets in a silent auction for a "Lunch with the Mayor" and won.

Jason said since the auction was for 4 people and being the PR guy he is, he raffled off a single ticket for this lunch and would give that money to the Preserve. (Jason, bad PR to say you are not going to give the money because of what happened to Carla)

Our Mayor did not like the line up in any way shape or form as it was Jason, the owner of the Pink Taco, and non other than Steve Ellman to dine with the Mayor.

The Mayors response to the line up was? I don’t think so Homie!

Personally I think the Mayor did not like the menu as it started off with Baloney Sandwiches.

~Bathroom Advertising

Well I am not asking anyone to post this in the Urinals of the Scottsdale Stadium, but I have kind of liked submitting these Land of Oz snippets to the Scottsdale Activist and since I now have an official name for it I hope to be able to submit this column once a week as long as the city keeps acting like people from another realm.

This will hopefully not last forever, but don’t cross your fingers because city actions usually run counter to common logic.

Michael Merrill
Scottsdale
F8713@aol.com 

Arizonans are barraged with news stories about the state ranking near the bottom in graduation rates, test scores, the number of people without medical insurance, and other social ills. Sounding like a platform of the Democratic Party, the stories typically say that the social ills can only be solved with higher taxes and more redistribution.

Strangely, Arizonans hear very little about a leading cause of the low rankings--namely, that the state ranks near the top in out-of-wedlock births. It also ranks near the top in the racial/ethnic groups that have a high illegitimacy rate: Hispanics and Native Americans.

A cynic might say that political correctness and a fear of hurting people’s feelings explain the dearth of information about the connection between out-of-wedlock births and social ills. He might even imagine that if there were an outbreak of malaria, the media would say nothing about the root cause of the disease, for fear of hurting the feelings of mosquitoes.

Well, a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies will hurt a lot of feelings. Its findings match the findings of earlier studies and analyses, including those authored by me. The study can be found at:

Highlights:

- Maricopa County (metro Phoenix) ranks third out of 50 counties across the nation in the percent of out-of-wedlock births in the immigrant population. Nearly one out of every two births to immigrants is out of wedlock in Maricopa County. State-wide statistics are just as sobering, with Arizona ranking near the top in the illegitimacy rate of immigrants.

- Nationally, Hispanic immigrants lead all other races in illegitimacy, with 42% of children of Hispanic immigrants being born out of wedlock, versus, 32% for the children of black immigrants and 11% for the children of Asian immigrants.

- Surprisingly, illegitimacy increases over the generations. The rate for native Hispanics is 50%, or eight percentage points higher than the rate for Hispanic immigrants.

- Arizona is hit particularly hard by the foregoing statistics, because Hispanics make up about 29% of the state’s population, or twice the percent for the nation as a whole. (Native Americans, who also have an above-average illegitimacy rate, make up about 5% of the state’s population, or five times the percent for the nation as a whole.)

- Between 1980 and 2003, the national illegitimacy rate of all races, immigrant or native, has more than doubled.

Similar trends have been seen in the number of single-parent families, which, like the related problem of out-of-wedlock births, are a leading cause of school dropouts, poverty, and other social ills.

Reducing out-of-wedlock births is a daunting task, of course, because unmarried women have children for a variety of complex reasons, including cultural forces, psychological needs, parental example, and enablers in the media, academia, business, and government. But the first step in solving any problem is to admit that it exists and not be afraid to talk about it.

The cruel fact is that the problem of out-of-wedlock-births (and the related problem of single-parent families) is not talked about in polite company and the local and national media as much as other problems. For example, there has been much more coverage about the dangers of smoking, of not wearing a seatbelt, and of eating fatty food than there has been about the "dangers" of out-of-wedlock births and single-parent families.

At the risk of sounding simplistic, all of these dangers have one thing in common: They are all the result of behaviors that the individual can change. If that were not true, then the government, media, academia, businesses, nonprofit groups, and other members of the establishment wouldn’t be funding public service messages to encourage people to change their behavior and make the right choices about tobacco, seatbelts, and food.

Maybe if similar coverage were given to out-of-wedlock births, Arizona would stop ranking near the bottom in social ills, because it would no longer rank near the top in births to unmarried women.

An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

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~ Information You Can Use

Just click on the logos below to go to these websites.

Send our Brave Troops "Something from Home", Click on  Links below.

Gathering of  Eagles Website was launched 2/9/07. Click on the Logo above for more information on how they are protecting America's Memorials.

 ~ Prop 13 Arizona

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~ UPDATE!! A "Must See" for All Americans

Every American should check out all of these websites to learn more about what the American population is about to have to deal with.

This is NOT for Children.

I don't normally allow anything but Scottsdale information in the Scottsdale Activist but after receiving many emails about this and viewing it, I think that it's imperative that every adult at least look at what's offered here if for  nothing more than their own education and to have everyone stop and think about the future of our country. Click on the link below,

 www.obsessionthemovie.com

If you don't have Adobe Flash, install it from the bottom of the page that comes up after you click on the link above. You should be able to view all available links within the main page.

The website below is of great interest as seen from a Lebanese point of view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8fa9yKQeTY

The website below gives some history of Terrorist attacks:

http://patriotfiles.org/civilizationcalls.htm

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~ View Past City Council Meetings

We can now access the city council meetings by clicking on the following link:

If you have any problems, check your firewall and other safety features which could block access to the city site.

~Continuing Light Rail Information

The Scottsdale Citizens Transportation Study Committee invites you to view their website for more questions and answers at  www.norailforscottsdale.com .

================================================================

Simply click on the links below to get all the information you'll ever need concerning Light Rail.

     Goldwater Institute Report

     American Dream Coalition

    The Public Purpose

If you have any questions about light rail, send them to editor@scottsdaleactivist.com and we'll get the answers to you as soon as we can.

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~ For Continuing Information on Photo Radar,
Click on the Logo below.

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 ~Are Red-Light Cameras Fair to Drivers?

These modern-day robocops make ticketing easier and can be huge moneymakers for local governments. But critics question their accuracy and fret over privacy issues.

Click on the link below , then scroll down to read the article:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/AreRedLightCamerasFairToDrivers.aspx

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The Scottsdale Activist is very pleased to announce an effort on the behalf of the residents and taxpayers of the city of Scottsdale to promote open, honest and accountable city government. The Scottsdale Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) has been created to take legal action to hold the City accountable when its actions are contrary to state law, the City Charter, City ordinances or the public interest.

The most necessary ingredient to make the SLDF work will be confidential contributions from concerned Scottsdale citizens who are willing to help their community.  By contributing, we can change the way City Hall does business and insure that our tax dollars will be spent wisely.

No funds from the SLDF will or can be used for any political purpose.

Contributions shall be kept confidential as permissible by law and can be made in any Washington Mutual Bank to account number 3114165786 for the Scottsdale Legal Defense Fund. Branch locations are listed below. Contributions are not tax deductible.

The SLDF has retained the law firm of Miller LaSota & Peters, PLC, in connection with the patently illegal action taken by the Mayor and Council appointing the most recent Scottsdale City Attorney, while ignoring the residency requirement of the Scottsdale City Charter even though the new City Attorney’s contract (according to Scottsdale Republic reporter Laurie Roberts) requires that she reside in Scottsdale.  The City Council action was based on a legal opinion which was reportedly rendered during a closed door Executive Session of the City Council by a subordinate to the then acting City Attorney, who was subsequently appointed to the City Attorney position by a vote during a public City Council meeting. The opinion has been requested as a public document under state law, but the City has not yet provided it. The SLDF will take other appropriate legal actions based on the conduct of the Mayor and Council.

Washington Mutual Bank Locations at which contributions to the SLDF can be made are:

72^nd & Shea                    7337 E. Shea Blvd #120                480-609-8524
Hayden & Chaparral     7908 E. Chaparral # C-113            480-949-0069
Horizon                            14854 N Frank Lloyd Wright         480-614-6660
Scottsdale Ranch          10155 E. Via Linda Blvd #131       480-767-2060
Kierland Village              6501 E. Greenway Pkwy #133     480-315-2905

There are many other branches throughout the Valley.