District 8, Vote Now, Vote Smart

The time is now upon us, D8 residents. If you haven't yet voted in the city council primary, you can go today (Saturday), or Monday or Tuesday, to one of our city's polling places -- here's an interactive polling place locator -- and cast your preference. If you received an early ballot and are still holding onto it, please don't mail it now, but instead drop it off at a polling location. Here's more info about where and how to vote.

I've attended two of our local candidate forums and have otherwise followed this election by asking several of the candidates to complete a questionnaire for my blog (read their responses here), as well as following others' coverage of this race. My wife Catherine and I have chosen to support our friend, Kate Gallego. I encourage you to do the same -- but only after learning more about the five official candidates and their platforms. Click their names below for links to their campaign websites, and note that the following order is my prediction of popular vote turnout, based purely on my gut instinct about the candidates' support base and campaigns thus far (and maybe a little personal bias between #1 and #2, which will likely be close):

Kate Gallego
Lawerence Robinson
Warren Stewart
Luis Rodriguez
Carolyn T. Lowery

This election should rightfully come down to a choice between Kate Gallego and Lawrence Robinson, who I hope to see in the runoff election if there is one, and here's my reasoning, based on each campaign:

Carolyn T. Lowery

Let's start on a positive note about Carolyn T. Lowery, who has run a purely grassroots campaign and probably doesn't stand a chance of winning. If you attended any of the earlier candidate forums (sadly, she didn't attend the Laveen forum), then you know that this lady is passionate, entertaining, and absolutely deserves a seat at the table. It's hard not to cheer for her and her focus on special communities in district 8 that often lack a voice, like the elderly and the economically disadvantaged. To be clear, she's not just some bleeding heart begging for handouts, but she actually seems to pick up on some important nuances about localized issues that affect neighborhoods. I also appreciated her appeal to voters (paraphrased): "Who knows, maybe you'll decide to take a chance on that nice lady, Carolyn."

Luis Rodriguez

Next we have the Tea Party favorite, Luis Rodriquez, whose campaign message at the candidate forums was essentially, "District 8 is a scary horrible place; get out now, but vote for me first." His campaign will likely take offense to this characterization, as Rodriguez touts his military record, plus his focus on "eliminating red tape" and promoting more sound fiscal policy from the city. In all fairness, I thought he brought up some very solid points about how we could better manage the city's finances -- he sold me on hiring him on city staff to tackle waste, but not as a candidate for council. His message came off more negative than positive and was rife with logical inconsistencies about his perception of the city government's role in managing a city.

Warren Stewart

Speaking of ugliness and negativity.... Who would have suspected that so much would come from the campaign of the only clergy member running in this race?! While the Stewart campaign would very much like to forget these episodes, it's hard not to recall the turmoil unleashed by his supporters over racial politics in District 8, most notably this one that employs ugly racial name-calling and this one featuring Stewart supporter and allegedly corrupt politician, Mary Rose Wilcox. And let's not forget this article that kicked off the unflattering but mostly truthful coverage of south Phoenix, while also highlighting Stewart's work with the "old guard" -- mostly behind closed doors. Sorry, but this campaign seriously fails to connect with younger voters and new transplants to D8, which includes a significant portion of Laveen. Speaking of Laveen and the greater south Phoenix area, did anyone else catch his comment at one of our forums regarding his "first term" on council? Whoa now, settle down there, Mr. Candidate! I'm not sure that you're as entitled to this office as you seem to think. And if it seems that I'm giving too much attention to this candidate, it may be due to the fact that his campaign took almost a week to respond to my May 26th request for comment, only to say that he would follow up a few days later and then never did. That response came from Stewart's campaign director who, according to his corporate filings, lives all the way up north of the 101.... so maybe I was a little hasty in expecting my email to travel that far in the amount of time I expected. Oh well, they didn't want my support anyway I guess -- they certainly haven't been out in the community, asking for it, like the next two candidates have...

Lawrence Robinson

Robinson's campaign is practically synonymous with The RISE of South Phoenix, which is something fierce of a grassroots community group with some very smart, capable, passionate folks involved. I respect these guys and see many more young politicians in the making here -- not to mention at least one kingmaker in the mix, who I presume wishes to remain nameless, but he knows who he is and I'm happy to give him credit if he will accept it. To be clear, I have a good deal of positive sentiment for Robinson and his campaign, which I don't attempt to hide. He's charismatic, he's running a smart campaign, and he's an ideal 2nd place candidate.... After all, as much as I like the guy, I think he's got enough on his plate already.

Shortly after moving here from NY in 2009, Robinson went to work as a staffer for the Democratic caucus in the state house of representatives and later left that position for a teaching role at the private for-profit college, Phoenix School of Law. He also serves on the Roosevelt School Board, although it is not reflected currently on his linkedin profile, and his school district bio reads like a campaign announcement (go ahead and read it for yourself). Do you see where I'm going with this? I might just be a little sensitive to the fact that Robinson ran for school board and then within a month or two of being elected he announced his candidacy for city council. Judging by Robinson's response to questions at public forums (like responding to one question by pointing out that it's his constitutional right to run for another office while serving), he seems to be a little bit sensitive about this topic, too -- as he should be! The Roosevelt School District, like many school districts in political hotbeds like ours, has long been the victim of neglect by self-serving board members with greater political ambitions. Whether this is a fair assessment of Robinson or not, we need to keep him on the defensive about it.

All that said, I generally do like most of Robinson's policy ideas.... except where I think he lacks depth on issues related to economic development, zoning, and real estate. Not to make too little of social issues, but these issues are by far the most critical in a city council district that includes Phoenix's population-growth juggernaut, aka Laveen, as well as the airport, the light rail corridor, and important redevelopment corridors in the downtown and south Phoenix areas.

Kate Gallego

That brings us to Kate. She is a friend and an admirable community leader, and yet I feel that I've failed her up to this point by making myself too busy to publish this post or volunteer, and also by hamstringing myself with a promise to remain somewhat unbiased in the public sphere regarding this election (which I inadvertently extended for far too long). That said, I am quite biased in favor of Kate -- not just because of my wife's and my friendship with her, but also because she's one of the very few people in this world who will indulge me with technical conversations about zoning, economic development, and other such issues. She's also one of the few people in this world who gracefully yet commandingly interrupts my tangential diatribes to keep our discussions on point. But this isn't just about me -- it's about Laveen and District 8, so back to that....

We need someone who understands Laveen and south Phoenix, particularly the more subtle growth dynamics that impact our community, both in contrast with and in light of those other subtle growth dynamics in redevelopment areas like the light rail corridor and downtown. Kate's experience as an economic development professional and her work on PlanPHX have given her an almost unfair advantage over the other candidates in this arena. She brings a well rounded perspective, an impressive resume, and an ability to take charge of issues by dominating the details. She runs a political race against a pastor and a non-practicing attorney, yet she manages to bring home almost every point far more effectively than these silver-tongued wordsmiths -- that's because she knows her stuff! Also, she's been the only candidate to make meaningful contributions to Laveen-specific issues and reliably show up at community meetings/events in Laveen. And remember how I mentioned that she knows how to keep discussions on point? Yeah, that will help tremendously when it comes to fighting for limited resources from the city -- which we need in D8. As far as I'm concerned, we are by far the most important district in the city, and Kate understands this and knows how to leverage it. She will not stand by and let double-speaking buffoons like Sal DiCiccio dominate the discussion.

And back to my personal take for a moment, I can't help but comment that Kate's team wins the contest for door-knocking at the Brennan house. This is notable because a) no one ever bothers to solicit our quiet out-of-the-way street and b) door-knocking is critical when it comes to connecting with people.

And finally, I am in a unique position to comment on another issue: There's at least one Laveen community member who has repeatedly and incorrectly called Kate a "carpetbagger". Ahem, you must be kidding me! I've been talking to Kate and her husband Ruben for at least three or four years about moving to the Laveen-SoMo area from their old downtown condo, also in District 8 (both before and after redistricting, btw). A mutual friend of ours worked masterfully on their behalf to snag them a beautiful home earlier this year, following a lengthy search. The Gallegos, their realtor (my friend Victor Jett Contreras), and I spoke on many occasions about their planned move, and I can promise that they landed right where they wanted to be because they love the area. It's not quite Laveen, but we can't always hit the bullseye. And Kate is the only candidate offering more than lip service about her commitment to Laveen. So it is with pleasure that I announce my endorsement of Kate Gallego and encourage the rest of District 8 to do the same -- especially Laveen.... and downtown.... and SoMo.... and anyone else. Eh, you get the idea. Go Kate!

Laveen-SoMo, Motor City?

It's been a while, but I'd like to revisit and expand on my last post about the now closed Manzanita Speedway on Broadway Road and 35th Avenue. That one was inspired by my contribution to the PlanPHX collaborative brainstorming website, as well as pent up frustration from years of hearing about and reviewing plans to "redevelop" Broadway Rd. I'm for beautification as much as the next guy, but it occurred to me that this big idea from the city was borne almost entirely out of plans for a traffic reliever corridor, with the added benefit of some speculative land development along the way. So let's call into questions some of the broader assumptions we've made thus far about such ideas -- seems like fair game at this point -- and I promise to bring it back to Manzy's old home stretch of Broadway Road in the end.

"If we zone it, they will come!"

While we've all been quite patient in awaiting desirable development in the Laveen area over the years, it's becoming more and more imperative that the city gain a better appreciation for the affected community and overall financial/development markets when pushing these "big idea" redevelopment plans. We keep falling into a 2005 real estate boom mindset when it comes to development and, while it may work enough of the time overall, who wants to wait through a decade or two of ugliness and empty promises in hopes of a better community? My bold assertion about this idea's fallacy is that it can only bring us a more boring suburban bedroom community with a whole lot of empty dirt lots that may or may not have cotton/alfalfa planted on them. Flip a coin, hope, pray -- it's all we can really do for the most part, as we take pleasure in the few fun ideas that may be allowed to pop up along the way.

"Let development take shape organically"

There's an equally sound argument that works much of the time, but likewise assumes that certain conditions are already met. The notion that we can take a more passive approach to economic development by simply enabling those who want to bring new ideas to the area works really well in adaptive reuse situations where the community is highly vested. We see it now along the light rail line, and have a great proof of concept in the downtown area -- particularly along Roosevelt (some may remember when the city proposed clearing the entire area for more sports venues -- thank goodness we didn't!). In Laveen, I'd argue that this is partly the kind of thinking we need in filling our vacant retail spaces and as a means to more creatively re-envision opportunities for something more interesting than the subdivision-meets-strip-mall scenery that we've mostly seen pop up in the last decade. However, if you scroll through this blog or take a survey on public sentiment, I don't imagine you'll get the sense that a Houston-like no zoning model would meet the community's interest very well on a widespread basis here.

A better alternative: the "integrated economic development" approach

If you google the above phrase, you'll likely find scholarly articles about promoting economic development in struggling third world locales. That's because the folks who have studied such ideas from a holistic viewpoint recognize that a scorched earth model of redevelopment doesn't work in helping communities build themselves up. It may work great for slapping a five-star resort on top of an impoverished area and then building walls around it, but not if you recognize an intrinsic value in the people and the community targeted for development/redevelopment. Instead of replacing everything in sight, let's focus on the infrastructure and guided assistance to improve upon whatever positive attributes are already present -- one iteration of this idea that I've seen both poorly and brilliantly applied in economic development circles is "cluster development" (see San Diego bioscience cluster, for a good example). Doesn't this seem more fitting of the Laveen and SoMo area? It does if you take a moment to appreciate what we already have here.

"One man's blight is another man's playground"

So, now we return to Broadway Rd. If you have generally avoided it, as I know many have, please do yourself a favor and take a little cruise next weekend to see what's there. If you see either "junk yards" or "brilliant green recycling businesses", you've probably made a value-based judgment. Let's try not to go there and instead focus on a common denominator. I see money -- and believe me, others do too. I may be a real estate guy, but I'm not looking at how we can get rid of all that industrial "junk" in hopes of redefining the "highest and best use" for the area. That's because I see economic activity, a crucial component of which is the "activity" part. I also see a lot of land owners and business operators who have been around for a long time and have a great basis in their land -- not to mention all those potentially valuable assets that appear to sit there rusting away (but believe it or not, some of those lumps of metal actually change hands from time to time).

Instead of asking how we can successfully move everything to a different area of town or different city altogether (where someone else's vision is executed), why aren't we asking how we can facilitate their success in moving merchandise within our city limits, meanwhile improving the aesthetics and streetscape in the area? Why not go for the win-win, which may seem like a lot more work from a concept design standpoint but would be infinitely more valuable and less expensive to the city overall. If you saw the Broadway Road plans from the city's streets department last year (or was it 2011?), you may recognize that we haven't really been asking these questions -- the proposed landscaped island and high crowning/slope of the street are unacceptable to heavy trucks in the area, for instance. To the city's credit, these points were heard at the LVPC meeting a while back and we were told that city staff would revisit the plans.

But there's more that we can do. This ought to constitute its own visioning project, and the city should call in the business/property owners in the immediate area as the primary group, while seeking broader community input on aesthetics. All that most people want without thinking too much about it is for things to look nice and be more convenient/harmonious. We can certainly address these criteria, while at the same time unlocking a phenomenal economic development opportunity in the process that benefits all. Better yet, we can do it on the cheap if we all put our heads together -- after all, I can't imagine a more resourceful and industrious area nearby than the Broadway Road corridor.

Our Vision and Our Goal

If we really work to build community support and put the full power of the city behind this idea, great things can happen. We can tap into far more of the wealth that changes hands each year at Barrett-Jackson and the other big car shows (this should be a record setting year, btw, according to the Phoenix Biz Journal -- read it here). Sellers are already buying parts in our corner of town after all, so why don't we push them to start doing more of the work and spending more time/money here as well? Likewise, why don't we have some of these U-Fix-It business concepts that appeal to many classic car enthusiasts (code for recently retired guys or busy professionals with disposable income who prefer to outsource the heavy equipment but want to keep the nice car at home) -- a great idea that I wish was mine, presently serving the north Phoenix area. And while we're at it, how about making up for missed opportunities to attract national companies already doing business in the area, like the "totally awesome" Local Motors (see video, above) or that hybrid/electric vehicle battery maker we heard about a while back (battery makers may like our harsh climate for testing purposes), not to mention all those automotive testing grounds scattered around the region. There's plenty of room for the old and the new on the south side of town, especially in light of the forthcoming Del Rio Brownfield redevelopment, which could anchor the automotive focus of the area. For added community support, might I suggest our two great engineering schools at UA and ASU, our various private technical schools and programs at community colleges, and the "Maker" community (look it up -- very cool stuff). And if we're looking for an economic cluster, mechanical design/servicing makes sense in the area, where we also have several aerospace component companies to the east. So, who's with me? You're welcome, City of Phoenix. I may not have cited all my resources, but I think I just offered the outline for a compelling powerpoint presentation if nothing else.

Who wants to help push city staff to get to work on this? If you hate the idea, please tell me why and offer constructive criticism. We need to start taking action, even if it's just to get our voices heard, and we need to get to it sooner rather than later. We also need executable ideas if we're going to successfully push the city to invest its energy in our community as we see fit. That's all I'm trying to do here, other than please my inner child by preserving a wide swath of land where we can make cool stuff.