Mayor Stanton's report card

Eight months after assuming office, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is still enjoying a honeymoon. That means he's making the honeymoon last. So much for critics who thought he was just a pretty face. The contrast with Phil Gordon, his poignantly snakebit predecessor, is striking. Stanton can routinely speak in complete sentences and articulate coherent thoughts. Becoming the 52nd mayor of Phoenix hasn't caused Stanton to shelve his appealing nature. People who talk to me about the mayor use words such as "smart," "easy going," "open" and "welcomes new ideas." He remembers people's names and what they've been working on. His human touch and emotional intelligence are genuine, not the surface happy talk of a politician.

I was concerned about the "biosciences" bone tossed to Desert Ridge when so much needs to be done for the real biosciences campus downtown, the one site that could be a real game-changer for Phoenix. But my sources involved in downtown, light rail and sustainability aren't worried, so good on Stanton. Another concern was Stanton taking the lead among mayors on backing military spending, when Phoenix needs a spokesman on so many more compelling and productive issues. But this seems to be part of his effort to make regional cooperation a priority (good luck with that).

Stepping back, probably the best way to see Stanton so far is that he's doing a good job of getting his feet under him in a race that's already moving fast and carrying huge stakes.

His response to the first crisis to hit Phoenix since his swearing in shows promise. I'm speaking of Doug Parker's longstanding lust to merge USAirways and move the headquarters, a deal that could even significantly downsize the hub at Sky Harbor. Parker has his cap set on American Airlines. Tempe is toast: The headquarters and those good jobs — in a place with too few of them — will go to Dallas-Fort Worth. But Stanton appears to have made an effective case to Parker to retain the hub, which is a big jobs engine for Phoenix (again thinking regionally, he worked with Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell).

Another good sign is that Stanton intends to visit the top 100 employers in the city this year. Economic development is a huge weak spot for Phoenix, which lags far behind its peer cities. The suburbs continue to spend money luring away Phoenix assets (regionalism only works one way), and to read the Republic one would think all the promising startups are in the 'burbs. Ominously, Intel is planning to spend $300 million on an R&D operation in Chandler. Tempe snagged another, much smaller, research facility. In a healthier, more economically dynamic metro, it might be one-for-all and all-for-one, but that's not true in Phoenix. If the city can't keep up, particularly in growing a quality economy, it will see its share of the pie keep shrinking as its costs — with most of the region's poor, aging infrastructure, 500 square miles, etc. — continue to rise. To his credit, Stanton has gone on prospecting missions to Silicon Valley and Mexico instead of Dubai.

A big question is whether Stanton can persuade City Council and work himself to continue downtown's improvement and address the massive lost opportunity that is the Central Corridor. The ASU downtown campus, the second largest in the, er, don't call it a system...anyway, this shows how central location, light rail and even semi-quality place making can pay off. Downtown and the Central Corridor are Phoenix's biggest areas of promise, the assets that the bloated suburbs can't offer. But only if issues such as land-banking, blight, lack of private investment, lack of shade trees and falling jobs numbers are aggressively addressed. Without a great central core, no city councilman's district will ultimately succeed.

So give Stanton a solid A. I will resist the urge to make it A-minus for the military shilling.

Unfortunately, he faces problems largely out of his control. This young, appealing big-city mayor isn't the face of Arizona. That distinction belongs to the fright masks of Jan Brewer and the Badged Ego.

The nation and the world read of the state's racism and craziness, not an open-minded leader of a tolerant and diverse city. Draconian/absurd restrictions on women's reproductive freedom, fighting domestic partner benefits, denying DREAM young people to spite President Obama — these are what make the big headlines out of state. Contrary to the boosters, the Jim Crow SB 1070 has badly snuffed the convention business — and who gets hurt worst? Phoenix. The ultra-extremism of the suburban right and Kookocracy at the capitol make any quality business think more than twice about investing here (Intel has huge sunk costs from a less extreme era and Craig Barrett's affection for the place). Who gets slammed hardest? Phoenix. International business and even tourists shy away from a state known for hate, however different the capital city itself is. Meanwhile, the Kooks' obsession with underfunding the public schools and the ascendency of the charter school racket helps whack the rungs out of the ladder of opportunity desperately needed in a city with a large underclass.

In addition, the Legislature is hostile to cities, especially Phoenix. Kook legislators rejoice in Phoenix declining into "the Mexican Detroit" and would love to see airlines move out to Gateway. In such a climate, how could any mayor get state support for, say, desperately needed commuter rail? It would be heavy lifting to prevent the worthy solons from doing everything they can to impede it, as they did with light rail (WBIYB). All of this puts Phoenix at a critical disadvantage in attracting young, educated people, the creative class in general, and the investment to punch at its weight class in the world economy.

Stanton was not spouting hyperbole when he campaigned on Phoenix being at a turning point. So let's all hope the honeymoon lasts and extends into an era of big accomplishment. The alternative is ugly.

 

Comments

[Petro]

Why do you hate...? oh, wait...

[Emil Pulsifer]

Side note: two new comments posted in the previous thread; the first is a correction of a silly misstatement of mine; the second is a reply to Mr. Talton regarding Monroe and constitutional questions about federal authority to build, maintain and operate a national transportation system.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Second side-note: I've posted a follow-up for Mr. Talton and others in the previous thread, showing that the question of the road-building (as opposed to route-designating) powers of the federal government was not legally established by the U.S. Supreme Court until 1893 and 1907, and that the justification cited was the "general welfare" clause of the Constitution. (I also corrected a bad link from a previous comment.)

[cal Lash]

Jon, I dont know what you think Stanton can do in the state of crazies. He would be more effective as the head of the Sierra Club. Like Obama would have been more effective as a union organizer in Chicago and Romney as the head of Citizens for Life. All the Real Men are gone. Our only hope is for a Real Woman to step up and save the world.

From somewhere in the not so great Sonoran desert, what's left of it.
cal

[AZRebel]

Too bad Stanton isn't a zombie hunter.

Seen Brewer's photos from the convention??

Lord have mercy, she's the FACE of Arizona. ( : - (

[Rogue Columnist]

Greg Stanton, vampire slayer.

[AZRebel]

I grieve for cal's dog.

I grieve for my two dogs.

I grieve for the Arizona I once knew.

terry d., if it's any consolation, if a gunfight ever broke out on this blog, I'd have your back.

[cal Lash]

REB,
Waytt and Doc u aint.
And i hear there is some Apaches looking for u
something about your ancestors.
Staton could use a Waytt and Doc for the OK corral fight with the Arizona legislature

[morecleanair]

Bruja's photo could stop a train!

[Vladimir Ulyanov]

AZRebel wrote:

"terry d., if it's any consolation, if a gunfight ever broke out on this blog, I'd have your back."

You Americans and your guns...Tchah! Support by gun-toting "patriots" is rather in the nature of the support that a rope gives a hanged man.

P.S. Vee haff vays.

[cal Lash]

Vladimir i hears ur vays r nuclear poisons and noise deafening by pussy riot.

[Vladimir Ulyanov]

Who is this "cal Lash" who cannot capitalize (no pun intended) the leading initial of his (strictly so-called) "Christian" (Tchah!) name?

Like all fat, lazy, drink-sodden American capitalists, you cannot keep even the most basic distinctions clearly. You have confused me with another Vladimir, the kleptomaniac/tyrant Putin. I can assure you that we would not sentence silly young girls to three years in prison for dancing in a church.

As for "nuclear poisons", what motive would Russian government have for poisoning Arafat?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19402767

Arafat died in 2004. Litvinenko (I believe this is who you refer to with your "nuclear poisons" slander) died in 2006. Polonium 210 is byproduct of reactor process. Radiation poisoning have highly characteristic symptoms. Hair fall out, etc. First thing you check for. Doctors inevitably discover isotope. Very few governments have access to Polonium 210. So, poison begs for extensive medical examination/post-mortem, but points directly to Russia and a few other governments.

I done already told you, whippersnapper, vee haff vays! So, why Russians point back to ourselves with big neon finger, eh? Why not hit and run accident? Why not robbery with violence? Why not numerous toxins which do not scream "radiation poisoning" and beg medical authorities to conduct extensive examination identifying rare isotope? And who killed Arafat two years earlier using same method?

No. Watch less television, eat fewer corn chips and drink fewer two-liters bottles of high-fructose corn syrup, silly American. You are the weakest link: goodbye.

[cal Lash]

The little c is to see if u r paying attention to detail. Helps me determine your profile (a)
Looks like U know religion and grammar.
But not to good on spy mystery's.
U got the nuclear poisoning wrong. Try something closer to the Isle of Man. Or ask M.
And Arafat had become an embarrassment so his brothers killed him.

[eclecticdog]

Lenin? Lenin? Is that you?

[cal Lash]

electicdog, not putin and not lenin
just one of us con un AKA

[eclecticdog]

cal, seems you've attracted your very own troll.

[Vladimir Ulyanov]

"cal Lash" wrote:

"And Arafat had become an embarrassment so his brothers killed him."

Preposterous!

The $64,000 question is, if Arafat and Litvinenko were killed using the same exotic method, and if we infer from this that the deaths are related (i.e., committed by the same agency or at its behest or with its cooperation), then who had means and motive to kill BOTH?

To answer that question, first let us consider the simpler question of who had means and motive to kill Yasser Arafat. Why kill Arafat? He was no longer a terrorist threat, though one may well imagine some in Israel holding long grudges for past crimes and determined not to allow him to pass away peacefully in his sleep. This, however, is not a convincing motive for such an undertaking, or for its timing.

Arafat had great cachet in the Arab world and in the west. As long as he was the leader of the Palestinians the possibility of a peace agreement was uncomfortably real. Uncomfortable for whom? For two parties: his Islamic rivals, Hamas (AND their government sponsors, Iran and Syria); and for the Israelis, who would find a Palestinian state led by Hamas much easier to isolate and demonize. As long as Arafat was in control, Hamas had little hope of taking control, either politically or through violence (or both, as it turns out). Whether or not Hamas would knowingly collude in such a scheme cannot be known, but neither their knowledge nor their cooperation was necessary So, now we have motive, and two suspects.

As for means, Polonium 210 can be produced by means of neutron bombardment of Bismuth 209, the naturally occurring form of this element, and easily obtained. Israel has an advanced nuclear program, but both Syria and Iran had obtained simple research reactors many years before. "The primary purpose of research reactors is to provide a neutron source for research and other purposes. Their output (neutron beams) can have different characteristics depending on use."

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf61.html

Now, I am not an expert on nuclear chemistry, but it appears to me that all three countries had the basic equipment and access to working materials to produce Polonium 210.

Now, we move on to the puzzling case of Alexander Litvinenko. A close associate of Litvinenko was Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky (Litvinenko visited Berezovsky's office in London on the very day he was poisoned, though this is not indicative that he was poisoned there). Berezovsky is on record in the British newspaper The Guardian as claiming "he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup". According to The Guardian, Berezovsky said to a journalist:

"We need to use force to change this regime," he said. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/13/topstories3.russia

What was to be the weapon used in this "palace coup" to remove the President of Russia by force? Can you guess? Obviously not tanks and infantry advancing upon Red Square. But (and here we must speculate) poison would do very well. A quickly developing and progressing stomach (or other) cancer a la Arafat would accomplish regime change.

Litvinenko had contacts among Chechen terrorists, some of whom had contacts with middle-eastern governments sympathetic to them and to Islamic rebels and terrorists. But neither Syria nor Iran, despite long records of state sponsored terrorism, were interested in regime change in Russia.

Berezovsky, Mikhail Cherney, Leonid Nevzlin, and other expatriate oligarchs likely had both formal and informal contacts with Israeli intelligence; but Israel would never undertake the assassination of the President of Russia at any official level; this would be tantamount to an act of war.

So, no official or approved assistance from either set of suspects in the Arafat case. Independent assistance is something else, however, and can be bought; and we're talking about billionaire oligarchs, so price is no object. Add to this connections in the Mossad and the perception among some in Israeli intelligence circles that the prosecutorial policies of the Putin administration were anti-semitic, and you have ample grounds for recruitment of assistance.

Now, Putin as a matter of course spied on troublesome expatriot dissidents and attempted to disrupt their organizations and activities. The best way to disrupt enemies that you cannot prosecute and cannot (for diplomatic reasons) physically destroy, is to sow internal strife, setting them at each other's throats and encouraging paranoia. Convince the leaders of the opposition that some of their loyal servants are double agents working for the enemy, and they will do your work for you. This practice is so common in counter-intelligence circles that it even has a name: in American parlance it is called "bad-jacketing".

Litvinenko was tailor-made for bad-jacketing operations. He was a longtime thorn in Putin's side, but was not powerful. He had formerly been employed by the Russian secret service and "defectors" are natural suspects as double-agents. He had developed Islamic sympathies (increasing over time and culminating in a conversion to Islam according to his father) and this would scarcely endear him to Jewish oligarchs with Mossad connections; and some of Litvinenko's claims had an absurd element to them, as if they were deliberately exaggerated and delivered with a wink.

So, manufactured evidence was brought to the attention of the oligarch conspirators (through subtle channels which we need not consider here, except to say that they were thought trustworthy). Litvinenko was falsely portrayed as a dangerous traitor who had, in hard times, resumes working for Moscow for money.

Now, if you look at the death of Litvinenko, it was very crude compared to that of Arafat. Dangerously crude. Litvinenko was severely overdosed and the nuclear poison was dangerously mishandled for all concerned. This suggests that those employing the poison were not the professionals who used it against Arafat -- or specially trained in its use by ANY major intelligence service.

It was decided that Litvinenko had to go. Why not test the poison against him? It was never intended that the effects should be so immediate and so acute. The point was to induce cancerous growth by means of the highly carcinogenic emissions of Polonium 210. But the conspirators were not professional assassins, and they were not well trained in the use of nuclear poisons. Conceivably they were skeptical about the small dose that had been recommended to them and decided to "play it safe". The rest was history...

[phxSUNSfan]

Come on ya'll! Arizona is changing quickly, even Jan Brewer is endorsing Obama now ;-) :

http://media.bonnint.net/az/28/2884/288491.jpg?filter=ktar/240wide

[phxSUNSfan]

How am I posting random links?

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/state/video-arizona-governor-jan-brewer-endorses-president-barack-obama-at-republican-national-convention

[cal Lash]

Phxsunfan, my compliments to Copper Blues.
I had dinner there tonite. Food was good and prices were right. Service was a little wierd but Okay. The Sugar Thieves were on stage and did an excellent job.
The Sax guy can play a lot of instruments.

Dear Valadimir, good job oboy
but why do U seem so familiar?
I thought you might respond given the bait. As U it seemed so familiar.