In a recent Scottsdale Tribune Vent the anonymous caller accused Councilmen Jim Lane, Tony Nelssen and I of “political grandstanding and focus on non-issues” when it comes to revitalizing South Scottsdale. The truth is that what the venter calls “political grandstanding” has been our attempts to defeat a series of wasteful, ineffective and counterproductive boondoggles proposed by the Mayor and her allies.

Let’s face it; what the Mayor and her allies have been doing over the last four years to revitalize South Scottsdale simply isn’t working. They have thrown away a lot of taxpayer money, but South Scottsdale still has too much blight, too many payday loan stores and too little retail for the residents. Unfortunately, SkySong has not lived up to any of the hype that surrounded its approval. And the blatantly corporate-welfare car dealer subsidy clearly did no good.

I have a plan for revitalizing South Scottsdale, if I could get enough Council votes to implement it. I know it will work because it includes the same steps we took to revitalize Downtown following my election in 2002. They are:

Get rid of the Los Arcos Redevelopment District. The first thing we did in 2002 to revitalize Downtown was to get rid of the condemnation-based Downtown “redevelopment” district, a bureaucratic boondoggle that actually discouraged private investment within its boundaries. We should do the same at McDowell and Scottsdale Roads.

Do a better job at the basic jobs of city government. Another thing we did to revitalize Downtown was to increase police presence, code enforcement and garbage collection. Making Downtown safer and cleaner was good for Downtown, and we need to do the same for the rest of South Scottsdale. Imagine how much police and fire protection, code enforcement and infrastructure we could have paid for in South Scottsdale (and the entire city, for that matter) if we had not thrown away 120M taxpayer dollars on Skysong.

Pass a tough rental ordinance. Many of South Scottsdale’s problem properties are rentals. We need the legal tools to prevent them from contributing to blight and lowering property values.

Stop approving projects in South Scottsdale that we would never allow in North Scottsdale. Over the last four years my Council colleagues have approved (over my objections) projects in South Scottsdale that even their supporters agreed were mediocre. We must insist on high quality standards for all parts of our city and stop allowing second-class development in South Scottsdale.

No government at any level can create prosperity - except, of course for the recipients of any subsidies that they pass out! Private enterprise is the engine that provides prosperity. But city government can provide an environment that makes prosperity possible by doing a first-class job of providing the infrastructure, services and amenities that make people want to live and do business in our town. The steps I outlined above are not dramatic but they are proven to work. All we need is the political will to make them happen.