Guess who is Mesa’s newest rock star

November 21st, 2008, 5:19 pm · 2 Comments · posted by Jim Ripley

Mayor Scott Smith is a rock star and Mesa is hot.

Don’t believe me?

His booking agent is hopping. Smith sat on panels at two heavy duty conferences this week week alone and the audience paid attention.

The first, at ASU in Tempe, brought economists, politicians and business leaders together to talk about what Arizona needs to do to prepare for a population of 10 million in 2030. The focus was on transportation, energy generation and delivery, water and other infrastructure issues.

The second one was in downtown Phoenix on Friday. It was at once more regional and Washington-focused and included Gov. Janet Napolitano, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Arizona State University President Michael Crow, and representatives of the Washington D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

The Brookings Institution has been studying growth in what it calls the Mountain Megas–Central Arizona (aka the Sun Corridor) and Denver, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas areas. Brookings believes to reach its potential the region needs to join together and assert itself with Washington for federal-funding for infrastructure development.

Brookings believes this will happen sooner rather than later when President-elect Barack Obama takes office and puts together an enormous economic stimulus package.

For all of our talk about being independent and mavericks, modern Arizona would not exist were it not for federal investment in the Salt River dams and the canal that brings water down from the Colorado River.

But you can read more about that in Tribune reporter Ed Taylor’s story. Here’s a link.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/130984

Years ago I was on a City of Mesa float in the Fiesta Bowl Parade with Mayor Keno Hawker. Shouts from the crowd made it evident that being from Mesa did not carry a lot of cache in Phoenix.

While Hawker was certainly active in the Metropolitan Association of Governments, I didn’t see Mesa political leaders on stage in downtown Phoenix with the likes of the Brookings Institution, the governor and ASU President Michael Crow.

So what has changed?

A newbie in politics, Smith is turning out to stage presence as a regional player. He was a speaker a few months ago at a conference in Denver when Brookings first started talking up the Mountain Megas.

Mesa has become interesting. Gaylord is bringing a mega-resort to Mesa. Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is starting to develop as an employment center and airport reliever. The voters of Mesa, despite their reputations for stinginess, just passed a property tax—first in six decades—for two bond issues.

Mesa is where the action is and, as Smith readily says, “at the center of the Sun Corridor.”

And why is Smith turning out to be a rock star?

I’m sure it helps that he’s a Republican from a very Republican city. For diversity’s sake, it’s good to have one on panels in downtown Phoenix or at ASU.

It’s especially good to have one who is not a maverick, one who can sing the song and walk the walk of bipartisan regional cooperation as good as anyone.

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