The trajectory of the Phoenix mayor's race is perhaps already locked in. But a few other considerations should be added to my previous two posts on the issue (here and here). Some signs are telling. For example, in a television interview, Michael Bidwill, president of the Arizona Cardinals, was wearing a prominent Wes Gullett button. Gullett's old boss, John McCain, attended a reception for the candidate earlier this summer. And Peggy Neely was endorsed by Gov. Jan Brewer.
This is all you need to know about these two candidates. Bidwill refused to allow the taxpayer-funded stadium to be built in downtown Phoenix, choosing Glendale instead because of the copious opportunities for no-strings-attached adjacent development that could further benefit his family. Why does he care about the city of Phoenix, especially the central city upon which the entire city will rise or fall? As for Brewer, it's highly inappropriate for a governor to take sides in a municipal election. And Brewer is a creature of the suburbs, Phoenix's competitors and, in many cases, saboteurs. What's Neely to her or she to Neely?
Let us count the hidden agendas.
As for Brewer, she and the Kookocracy want their hands on the city's budget and levers of power. Her Republican Party is very different from the GOP that played a large role in the non-partisan mayoral and council politics of Phoenix from the 1950s through the 1990s. It is radical. It is extremist. It is obsessed with enacting policies based on theories and superstitions with no (salutary) grounding in experience or in reality at all. But, like Willie Sutton, they know where the money is. Even though Phoenix is a nominally Democratic city, most people don't vote. And getting control of the council and mayor's office has been a right-wing project for years, just as happened in the suburbs starting at the school boards and working up. That Neely is the stalking horse for this destructive agenda should cause the voter/umpires to shout, "outta there!"
Beyond that, the labyrinths of the Real Estate Industrial Complex and its interaction with virtually everything leave open many intriguing possibilities. All of them intriguingly depressing. This hottest August and continuing depression should wake people up that discontinuity has arrived. Unsustainability is now. Phoenix residents need to come out in force to repudiate the toxic status quo and elect Greg Stanton the next mayor.
Thank you for this. What has frustrated me more than anything in this election is the fact that Mattox has proven to be such a weak contender. Stanton has wisely positioned himself as our only real choice FOR Phoenix.
Posted by: ptb | August 29, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Stanton it is, we hope! As for Bidwill, who knows what his goals are...he purchased Tom's Tavern and is remodeling the restaurant as we speak in downtown. However, we are lucky that the Census Bureau released new counts today since Neely won't be able to use them in time for some kind of suburban propaganda.
In one year metro Phoenix has grown to 4,310,999. That's up 118,112. Scary numbers since you know not too many are moving downtown since there is no housing (new or old)for newcomers here...
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2011/08/29/phoenix-moves-up-in-us-population.html
Posted by: phxSUNSfan | August 29, 2011 at 12:22 PM
This gets it exactly right:
"Even though Phoenix is a nominally Democratic city, most people don't vote. And getting control of the council and mayor's office has been a right-wing project for years, just as happened in the suburbs starting at the school boards and working up."
I've come to the conclusion that you can define everything that has befallen our fallen empire with three bullets:
• The Poor don't vote their side of the class war.
• The Middle Class don't vote their side of the class war.
• The Rich generously fund and vote their side of the class war.
That's the substance of it. Nearly everything else regarding politics is "insider baseball" crap. The drudgery of punditry.
You say our Treasury is being looted? Put blame where blame is due. There is nothing wrong with America that voting one's side of the class warfare can't make better. And until the middle class and the poor get angry enough to pick up ballots, and then if necessary guns, nothing will change...
PS: Elizabeth Warren for President.
Posted by: koreyel | August 29, 2011 at 12:47 PM
The Bidwell clan's financial transition from professional sports to real estate is vested near the Glendale stadium. Any meddling in the current Phoenix mayoral contest may have more to do with building future connections than present landed interests in Phoenix proper.
Posted by: jmav | August 29, 2011 at 01:39 PM
I'm still in shock about:
4,310,999 !!!
If Cal were here, he'd faint.
That's too many damn people.
Posted by: azrebel | August 29, 2011 at 04:13 PM
'member when Phx hit 250,000?
Posted by: eclecticdog | August 29, 2011 at 09:52 PM
If we had elected Ladmo Mayor way back when, Phoenix would now be a world-class city, and there would be root beer in the water fountains.
Posted by: pbm | August 30, 2011 at 05:56 AM
Eclecticdog, I was living here when that happened but I don't remember the year, however. In 1950, the population was around 106,000. In 1960, around 439,000.
I spent the weekend in Prescott, which was delightful compared to the crematorium we call home. The old town is a stunning rebuke to soulless modernism. OTOH, it's primarily a tourist destination. There are many more galleries (showing the finest in western kitsch) than bars on Whiskey Row now. The human parade was composed mostly of well-padded Republican Boomers buying tsotchkes for the grandkids. The local color, such as it is, relates more to skater dudes than cowboys.
It takes about a half hour now to leave greater Prescott. Prescott Valley is an endless, character-free crudscape, like an upscale Quartzite. When I got back to Phoenix, I tried to forget that the reasons for living here are no different than the reasons for leaving. Wherever you go, there you are.
Posted by: soleri | August 30, 2011 at 09:26 AM
Prescott breaks my heart. First you have to go through the circle of hell that is PV, then the traffic jams for the asteroid belt of chain retail outside of town. I lived in Prescott when I was four. It was a real town. Real cowboys. It had recently been bypassed by the Santa Fe Railway, where it had been a busy division point for decades, and lost many jobs. But a branch line still came in and the station on Cortez was still operating (it's been preserved). The rail line still served mines to the east. The country was largely empty and still wild. I learned to ride horses. Now all gone. Could have been a Pendleton, Ore., but no vision, only greed.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | August 30, 2011 at 09:59 AM
My Great-grandfather was a trader who hauled goods between Silver City, Tombstone, Bisbee, Tucson and Prescott. I bet he wouldn't recognize Prescott. He survived seven years of captivity by the Apache, otherwise I wouldn't be here typing this.
This next comment is on topic since this post is about politics and my comment is about large quantities of cow manure. I had occasion to go down Washington near 48th street this morning. I was surprised to see that the Stockyards Restaurant was still around. I used to go to the stockyards to get a truck load of cow manure loaded into the truck via a front loader. Nowadays, manure in that quantity is only loaded by the Phoenix council and the Maricopa County board.
I don't go to Prescott anymore. Too sad for me to see what has happened to the city.
I just happened to think that the gov looks like she would have been a madam at one of the saloons in Tombstone. Too bad for us. She was born 131 years too late.
Posted by: azrebel | August 30, 2011 at 12:18 PM
soleri,
I think it was 1963 (Phoenix only, not the "metro" area - as if there was one then!). I had a set of glasses from the R&G and that was one of the front pages on a glass. Sadly, they've all succumbed to clumsiness. The glasses that is.
Posted by: eclecticdog | August 30, 2011 at 12:25 PM
has anyone seen cal's photo on a milk carton?
Posted by: azrebel | August 30, 2011 at 12:32 PM
eclecticdog, if it was 1963, the population would have been around 475,000. I'm embarrassed to admit to this kind of OCD. When Cheers was on TV, I recognized a kindred spirit in Cliff Claven. Of course, these numbers are meaningless, except that back then they enabled a boosterism that at least had the excuse of immaturity. Now, boosterism's dark twin
- mordant regret - exacts an ongoing revenge on my innocent triumphalism. As I type this, it's maniacal laughter echoes in my ears.
I just got back from voting, which was different than the usual in-and-out experience. There was a "voting center" instead of a precinct. One election worker had a laptop to check names, which apparently wasn't tied to the county recorder's data base. There was a fairly long line of voters waiting, and quite a few citizens required provisional ballots, which further tied things up. Because I'm increasingly detached from the artifacts of civic life in Phoenix, I have no explanation for any of this.
azrebel, I suspect Cal will be found someday impaled in a saguaro's lethal embrace, or at least his bones. His spirit will look down on us from a Gila woodpecker's nest. We'll know it's him by the bird's cowlick.
Posted by: soleri | August 30, 2011 at 02:37 PM
To avoid Prescott Valley-- after passing through Dewey take Fain Rd. to 89A. West on 89A to 89. South on 89 through Granite Dells (beautiful) and on into P-cott.
Or if you have an extra hour go through Wickenburg, Up Yarnell Hill, through Peeples Valley to Kirkland Rd. Then take Skull Valley-Kirkland Rd to Iron Springs Rd and on into Preskitt. Very scenic.
Posted by: john | August 30, 2011 at 05:47 PM
I found the voting centers a little disconcerning. I had a hard time finding where to enter at the Devonshire Senior Center at 28th & Indian School. The main doors were closed and the entrance to the polling station was a side door. Everything needed was printed out right there (bar coded sticker put it book where I signed and the ballot was individually printed too). Can't imagine what would happen if the printer broke.
Posted by: eclecticdog | August 30, 2011 at 06:02 PM
Soleri, I know nothing can "console" you until you actually see change but I was watching Channel 15 news and they had a breakdown of voters in Arizona: Registered "Independents" now outnumber registered Democrats and make up about 35% of the electorate...
50% of Independents are moderate
35% are liberal
25% are conservative
That SHOULD bode well for the direction of future voting results, leaning less toward Republicanism overall. We shall see how this all plays out. Over 20% of registered Phoenix voters have shown up at Polling Centers. I'm not sure it that includes the early voting (Voting started on Friday at Polling Centers) and mail-in ballots. Interestingly, I meet a few senior citizens from Ahwatukee and N. Phoenix who said they were voting for Stanton...
Posted by: phxSUNSfan | August 30, 2011 at 06:18 PM
I rewound the DVR to check if those percentages were correct from Channel 15 and they are...so, I'm not sure how that breakdown works. Is there "moderate-liberals"? Are some socially liberal but politically moderate? Wish I could ask because the math doesn't quite add up.
Posted by: phxSUNSfan | August 30, 2011 at 06:26 PM
@phxSUNSfan:
I left Phoenix nearly three years ago, so I'm not especially relevant here but, as a lifetime registered Independant, I have my 2 cents to offer.
While I don't know how the poll questions were worded, I could see myself saying "aye" to "moderate" - but not if it meant something as vacuous as "bipartisan" or "centrist." Perhaps as an emotional statement.
I've never been a Democrat because I'm not a "joiner." This predates the nature of the contemporary Democratic party, so contemptuously does it vacillate with its neo-liberal aspirations. I just don't like organized parties.
HOWEVER - I have consistently VOTED Democrat, with one exception that I am too embarrassed to articulate at the moment.
I am sure there is a significant number of libertarian-leaning Independents out there that might account for the 25% conservative, but *this* Independent has always been of the liberal cloth.
I don't know if that helps.
Posted by: Petro | August 30, 2011 at 08:10 PM
Nothing new here, but it needs to be repeated...
"Rick Perry’s Secret Plan to Save Blue States from the Red States"
http://robertreich.org/post/9603077350
Posted by: Rate Crimes | August 31, 2011 at 12:50 PM