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Mesa - more of the same old NOTHING Posted December 19, 2008 at 11:00am by Thomas Walker Mesa loves to think it is big and important. Of late it has relied on population numbers to stress this point. 38th largest city in the country! Third largest city in the state! A city promotional book from two years ago boasted "Bigger than Fresno or Atlanta" amongst the cities it listed. There are obviously many cities we are bigger than. You look like a moron when you pick two that are not only bigger than you, but growing at a faster rate than you, to state your importance. What has Mesa done with this size? Honestly, what have we done? We boast of having the third largest airport in the state. So what? Uncle Elmer's cropduster service and boutique is probably in the top ten. Arizona has two airports, Tucson and Phoenix Sky Harbor. Our airport could be something, but it's not. We have one airline that flies once or twice a week to Nevada, and another one, Allegiant Air, which flies to 10-15 cities much smaller than we are. To be able to land the airline which could promise us flights to Crapwater, Kansas, all we had to do was change the name of the airport to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The airport is over 20 freakin' miles from Phoenix. Great city pride. Wonder when we will land some real flights to where people actually go. We brag of being the third largest city in the state. That means, we are bigger than the other suburbs of Phoenix. 11 of the 13 largest cities in Arizona (at least) are Phoenix, Tucson and their suburbs. Flagstaff and Yuma are the biggest cities not caught in this blob. Those are two cities at the top of everyones vacation list! Well, certainly Mesa must have a lot of wonderful museums. The Mesa Southwest Museum was renamed the Arizona Museum of Natural History last year (what city pride!). We have a poorly promoted air museum, and we have a children's museum that is gonna get creamed by the brand new children's museum in Phoenix. Oh, we do have an extremely expensive, shoved down the taxpayers throat art museum downtown. Too bad I've heard more from the Phoenix Art Museum than them in the past year and a half. Sports, now we're talkin'! Wait a minute, the Cardinals picked Glendale over us, didn't they? But you must certainly remember...wait, we don't have ANY teams out here. Not that they would have anywhere to play. We do have one team, and it is a virtual sellout every year, the Cubs Spring Training. Fitting, a team that hasn't been world champs in a century plays in Mesa. Festivals, Party time, whoo-hoo! Oh, yeah, the city cancelled all parades a few years ago to save money. Block parties too. But how can we forget the brand new, downtown weekly arts festivals? Yeah, Scottsdale and Fountain Hills are whipping us on that one. Next. Business development is off the chart and...in the crapper. The western part of the city is falling apart, downtown might as well be called Mexico City North, and the East Valley is ignored because city leaders aren't out there. North Central and South Central is the place to be, if you want funding. There are goldmines of opportunity out in the east valley, tons of county islands which could be gobbled up relatively easy, and which would serve as the city's viagra to boost its population figures, but no move has been made to expand into the few pockets where growth is actually taking place. We shouldn't attack the Mayor and leadership of Mesa. Their Mormon faith causes them to approach business in a different manner. Well, uh, then explain why Art Sanders, the Mormon mayor of Queen Creek, has seen his city boom economically, and has seen major retail and commercial development abound all over his city (here's a hint, he doesn't live in Mesa). Cut police, cut fire, cut public services, cut the libraries. Just what a world class city would do. How about some belt tightening up top? How about some cuts in funds for the bigshots? How about selling off some of our excess city owned property downtown while there is still a market for it, and relocate/consolidate some of these operations to east mesa and other areas where land is relatively cheap. It will make money, and it will make city government more accessable to all the citizens of Mesa. We are letting a prime opportunity slip away from us. Valley experts agree that Ellsworth and Elliott should be the hottest intersection for development in the valley. Mesa ambivalently sits around, doing nothing to attract business, letting this chance slip further into fantasy. I pass this intersection every week on the way to church, and about the only thing deader than it right now is a cemetery. Watch Mesa sit on this opportunity until it is gone, or watch a sewage dump or something locate here. In my opinion, the future isn't very bright for Mesa with the insider incompetents running things. They are fiddling like Nero. Will they wake up from this mess and move into action? I doubt it. I forsee an interesting blow to be the next one to hit Mesa. The biggest attraction in Mesa is the Mormon Temple. It has two major events every year, an Easter Pageant and a Christmas Light display. Gilbert, which borders Mesa, is building a brand new LDS Temple. I fully expect them to construct a permanent structure for an Easter Pageant, as well as set up an immaculate layout for a Christmas Light display. And to push/promote the new Temple, these events will be moved here. But hey, we're #38.
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