Each time my husband and I hear the name Glendale, AZ during a nationally televised event we writhe in pain and gag on the irony. It’s been nearly five years since the anti-stadium /anti-Cardinals rhetoric reached a fever pitch and the possibility of an NFL stadium in Mesa was finally banished. Now we are known as a town of naysayers.But where have those infamous naysayers gone? What fabulous economic progress have they contributed to the Mesa community? Oh… maybe they are the ones who fought against the Riverview project or pushed for no property tax - more fruitful efforts that gain us nothing.Sorry to rehash the past, but it lends itself to some basic questions. Who are some of these people living around us and why are they so determined to undermine the economic progress of our city? More importantly, why does anyone listen to them? The big name retailers and venues continue to migrate to our sister cities in the Valley while we in Mesa have a difficult time keeping our roads paved and parks patrolled for a lack of revenue.Please don’t tell me that an NFL stadium wouldn’t have made a huge impact on Mesa; prestige and reputation go a long way as do JOBS! When I moved to the Valley in 1995, some East Coast buddies asked me if we had malls here! That’s the impression we had on the rest of the world. Recently a friend back in DC asked me if I was near that new stadium in Glendale that she saw on Monday Night Football. I had to say, no I live way on the "other" side of town, in Mesa.
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Grumble, grumble, grumble
It’s amazing how an interesting viewpoint can be responded to with such idiocy (by Stephen Reed). Mrs. Mihailov makes a clear point about the economic upside of having a premier sports venue, and gets a scattered, emotional, borderline hateful comment instead of any sort of thoughtful response. It’s especially pathetic that Mr. Reed resorts to name-calling, which I must assume is his only recourse when an opposing argument is too logical to be refuted by his junior-high level of reasoning.
Mr. Reed, your miopic rationale is clearly that of an exclusionary small-towner (”leave from Mesa” is your topic title??) still pining for the good ‘ole days gone by. If you manage a trip to those good ‘ole days, which we can only assume were the 60’s, do us all a favor and recover enough brain cells to get you through a basic economics course.
The next time you post a comment here, Mr. Reed, please try to focus one topic at a time and keep your emotions set aside long enough to actually use logic (referencing your obvious spite for the AZ Cardinals organization and clearly emotional writing throughout). The other topics you managed to drag into your commentary are easily addressed on their own merits, but any capable thinker understands the basics:
* Implementing a sales tax hike instead of a property tax hike means higher prices for consumers. Higher prices means less demand, which means less revenue in our city.
* Airports are also subject to supply and demand. Any investment in the airport should be judged by its projected Return on Investment and weighed against other investment options. The key is attracting airlines, which involves a whole lot more than just pouring in money.
* Sports venues bring in complementary businesses: hotels, restaurants, etc., which in turn bring in visitors from in-state as well as out-of-state. There is a further wave of businesses which begin to surround and support those hospitality establishments (shopping, entertainment, etc.). All of these drive up the revenue in our city.
Mrs. Mihailov’s point is around the latter subject, but speaks to the broader topic. When will we as Mesans (I am a Mesa native) get past the small-town, bedroom community mentality and move towards becoming an economically viable, commercially involved municipality deserving of our size? My guess is that it all starts with people like Mr. Reed reading just the first chapter of any basic Economics text.
Why as a society on a national level do we feel a need to use public resources to subsidize multimillion dollar buisnesses? Why do we pay to build physcal facilities for private companies (like the cardinals)? I agree with Reed, in that I am sorry that people here in Mesa did not want to spend a bunch of money so that Mrs. Mihailov’s friends on the east coast could be impressed. If it makes that much of a difference to her then maybe she should move to Glendale, and I don’t mean that in an exclusionary way. I just mean that it appears that Glendale is more in tune with what she feals she needs and would make her more happy. Why try to change mesa into what its not when it would be far simpler to move to Glendale and have ready made the type of city she appears to want and let those that feal otherwise keep what they have in Mesa?
Ok, Mrs. Mihailov is not trying to impress her friends on the East Coast or trying to somehow