OPINION
SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | JULY 3, 2022
Opinion
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To our readers The Scottsdale Progress invited the seven candidates for Scottsdale City Council to write two opinion pieces on any topic of their choosing. The first set, published last month, can be read at Scottsdale.org, along with the candidates’ questionnaires. This is the second set, Candidates who do not appear either did not submit a column or missed our deadline. Late columns, along with these, also will be on Scottsdale.org.
Carter: I will �ight for the people of Scottsdale BY PAMELA CARTER Progress Guest Writer
I
am Pamela Carter, and this is why I am running in the race for Scottsdale City Council. I am a native of Arizona and grew up in Scottsdale. I am a former business owner of the largest sports medicine and weight training facility in
the nation in south Scottsdale. Our clients were celebrities, on-air personalities and national sports teams who visited our system to rehabilitate injuries and maintain their fitness in every sphere of life. In fact, Mayor Drinkwater was one of our best clients! I was in charge of a multimillion-dollar television station in Phoenix, as the station manager and community services director of community programming.
I ran my production crews, onboarded employees and was the on-air host and producer of over 2000 episodes of my own programs for over 20 years. I met people from all walks of life, politicians, community leaders and governors. I also fed the poor and reached out to the needy with food pantries and prayer calls through our nonprofit organizations. Do you want your wide-open spaces or an urban jungle littering our sky lines in
Scottsdale? This city was founded by a man who was not afraid to take chances and risks, Chaplain Winfield Scott had a vision for a place of healing, healthy living, and ranching. Guy Stillman fulfilled his dream for Stillman Railroad Park, still enjoyed by almost a million visitors each year. There are so many more children to
In today’s economy, with the cost of living rapidly rising, there is an obvious demand for more affordable places for people to live. There are those, including some running for a seat on the council, who say the city’s housing dilemma is a “simple supply and demand issue,” suggesting that adding substantially more housing units will fix the problem. That one-dimensional solution takes
Scottsdale down the same path we’ve seen harm other cities, something they ultimately regret. A strict application of “supply and demand theory” reduces residents’ voices because it decides the future of our city for them. Not only is there virtually no evidence to support their claims, their so-called solution actually contradicts what residents have witnessed over the past 15
years: Record construction of multifamily housing matched by record increases in rental prices. This “trust us” type of thinking ignores Scottsdale’s history and character. It also diminishes how much residents are able to contribute to the decision-making process. Instead of relying on conjecture to
quality of life. It also makes Scottsdale less desirable as a tourist destination when our unique character is diminished by large numbers of tall, dense bland apartment complexes. But now there are two other reasons why overdevelopment is bad for Scottsdale residents. The first is its negative impact on public safety. Adding more residents means more demand for public safety services. The
call by some to defund the police (an idea I vehemently oppose) has made it harder to recruit new police officers. Scottsdale is currently short 50 sworn officers and is struggling to make up that deficit, especially when our neighboring cities, facing the same challenge, are competing with us for recruits. I have been endorsed for re-election by Scottsdale police and firefighters because they know I will fight for public safety. But
we also must stop adding additional demand for their services whenever a developer asks us to approve a new tall, dense apartment project! Another major reason to oppose overdevelopment is drought! Arizona is in the middle of its worst drought in centuries and the water levels in the lakes we depend on for our water supply are dropping rap-
see CARTER page 29
Graham: You deserve more say in city’s future BY BARRY GRAHAM Progress Guest Writer
T
he Aug. 2 election for three seats on the City Council is all about the path Scottsdale takes. I believe that it is residents – not theories or conjecture – who should decide the direction of the city.
see GRAHAM page 29
Little�ield: Overdevelopment threatens Scottsdale BY COUNCILWOMAN KATHY LITTLEFIELD Progress Guest Writer
O
verdevelopment has always been bad for Scottsdale residents because it clogs our streets with traffic, overtaxes our infrastructure, blocks scenic views, and degrades our city’s special character and high
see LITTLEFIELD page 29
