SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | FEBRUARY 16, 2020
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Letters
Scottsdale must do better, stop sign proliferation
I
attended the meeting last night February 12 at Grayhawk Community Center where Mr. Chi from the Planning Department presented the city’s proposed ordinance change regarding signage. Specifically for this group, the one-mile distance between Scottsdale Road and Hayden Road along the 101 Freeway Loop was the subject area. The meeting was very well attended. Present were at least two individuals who are planning to run for mayor, two existing city council members, and at least two who are planning to run for council. Conspicuously missing were the two progrowth city council ladies running for mayor, Ms. Klapp and Ms. Korte. No surprise there, as these two councilwomen have voted for every or almost every zoning variance that would favor bigger, larger, denser projects and the developers behind these projects over the past several years. Mr. Chi gave a thorough presentation, hats off to him for that. What the Planning Commission is recommending is that up to eight signs on one side of the 101 and up to six signs on the other side between Scottsdale Road and Hayden Road be allowed in this one-mile stretch of freeway. Illuminated pylon signs up to 60 feet high above grade of the freeway would be allowed. Now this is a one-mile stretch. Most of us have GPS in our cars, we are driving at 60-70 mph through this stretch, and just imagine the lane changes required for exit. Imagine the potential accidents with drivers looking up at this many signs in a short stretch of freeway. Mr. Chi was very defensive – why not, as he stated, noting the city has been looking at changes in the sign ordinance for five years. After a great deal of discussion, one person stood up and asked that all those against changing the ordinance, please raise your
hand: 90 percent of the locals’ hands were in the air. She then proceeded to tell Mr. Chi, to report back to his committee this response – unlike three years ago when the citizens weighed in at such a meeting about building on the Preserve and he did not report the temperature of the locals. The folks in this area just flat out do not want this signage change. They are already more than upset or should I say angry about the Nationwide Development, and we all know Nationwide is behind this, despite denials from the city. Who is to benefit from signage? Nationwide Development and its tenants or the locals who pay taxes? Answer is Nationwide, nothing in it for the locals. The City Council already committed to pay 67 percent of infrastructure cost of the project, where total benefit accrues to the owner/developer. Then to add insult to injury, the Council buried the cost of a new fire station in the area in the bond issue, only needed because of this development. Where does this go next? Allow 60-foot high signs here, then onto the 101 south to Princess, then Cactus, then Shea and onward. Soon, we will look like the 202 on the way to the airport, or the I-10 in Avondale, or, heaven forbid, Los Angeles. The time has come for our City Council to listen to and adhere to what the citizens want, because after all it is our city, it is our future, and we moved here to escape that which is elsewhere. But, unfortunately a majority of this city council does not give a you know what about what we want for our city. Hopefully, this will not be just another 4-3 vote in the city council, where the pro-growth-at-any-cost council members prevail. We negated that result with the build on the Preserve issue where the “build build build” council majority of four were turned away
with citizen activism (Prop 420). We saw that majority of four prevail with the Marquis, we saw that result with Southbridge 2, and most recently in N/E Scottsdale with the rezoning of residential property, where the locals were vehemently against such action. We will hold the City Council responsible
for its decisions, council person by council person. Voting records and positions on issues will be made public come November. Our future is on the line! We need to do better. We must do better. -Jim Bloch, 28 year Scottsdale resident.org
Farewell to a bygone era BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Progress Columnist
I
t was lunchtime and my schedule was empty for a few hours. I was passing Metrocenter Mall when a strange urge struck. I hung a right. A minute later, I found myself driving through a parking lot emptier than the brain of your average politician. This was how I browsed a bookstore for the first time in years. Inside Barnes & Noble, the 20-something behind the customer service counter greeted me with the kind of enthusiasm I imagine shipwreck survivors muster when rescuers finally land on the beach. I veered toward magazines. The once-familiar glossy covers in rows felt odd, like revisiting your old hometown after years away. Oddly, soft-core porn like Penthouse is still published in magazine form these days, wrapped in plastic and stashed behind the sports magazines. Given that it’s virtually impossible to avoid naked people on the Internet in 2020 – displayed free of charge – I can’t imagine who still buys them. Barnes & Noble also still sells scores of novels in hardcover and paperback, which I imagine most people use as bookends, doorstops and gag gifts. As an avid reader, a guy who goes through a hundred books annually, I don’t remember
the last time I read a book in paper form. For old time’s sake, I spent a few minutes searching for the Cliffsnotes versions of various works of literature I was assigned to read in high school, but skipped. One day I may get around to Aldous Huxley and Zora Neale Hurston in full. But surely in digital form and not with sufficient clarity to write a five-page, double-spaced term paper. It was comforting to find old favorites still on the shelves. Flipping through them, I tried to recall why I gave up paper texts. The why: The majority of us have traded the superior heft of texts, the tactile joy of turning pages and the ability to scribble in a book’s margins for the simplicity of pointing, clicking, buying, downloading, reading. Sure, some bookstores – Changing Hands, the Poisoned Pen – still make a go of it, but a thought occurred: When our children’s children’s children go to Old Western towns like Rawhide for kicks in 2120, will the faux scenery still be saloons, shooting galleries and the undertaker? Or will the place feature storefronts like Borders and The Gap? Sheer guilt made me buy something: Another copy of The Great Gatsby, though I already own more than a few. I haven’t read it in a couple years, but that famous last line of Fitzgerald’s stuck with me as I turned back onto Dunlap Avenue. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
