Op-Ed: South Scottsdale Deserves Better Than Raoul Zubia

Raoul Zubia bills himself as the City Council candidate of, by, and for South Scottsdale.  As a long time S. Scottsdale resident, my wife and I like to support candidates who live here, so we look past the campaign rhetoric to see where they actually stand.

What we are discovering is VERY concerning!

S. Scottsdale has borne the brunt of apartment rezonings!  In 2021, Mr. Zubia lobbied the City Council to rezone one of our remaining retail centers [at Hayden and Osborn] into hundreds of apartments (Greenbelt 88). We want quality retail and less density, but he sided with those developers.

Short – term rentals (STRs) continue to plague OUR  AREA, too !  As I found, one of Mr. Zubia’s largest donators is the Realtors of AZ PAC, which lobbies against stronger regulation of STRs and has taken credit for defeating legislation that would have given cities more authority over them.

STRs contribute to noise and crime, as does that Bar District.  A handful of those operators dominate it and regularly make requests to the City Council. One of those names –  appears on Mr.Zubia’s campaign finance report.

Finally, we are protective of our neighborhoods.  In 2024, Mr. Zubia pushed to spend $16 million in taxpayer funds to shoehorn Scottsdale’s largest-ever city-run homeless shelter between multiple quiet residential areas – next to an elementary school !   The project fell through, but it revealed the poor judgment of its supporters.

We love Classic S. Scottsdale. We want:  peaceful neighborhoods, safe streets, less traffic and keep our lower density.

After a closer review  >  we cannot support Mr. Raoul Zubia.