How the Bureaucrats Stole Christmas

By the Goldwater Institute How the Bureaucrats Stole Christmas November 25, 2017 Every year, Lee Sepanek’s Christmas display brings joy to Phoenicians, who visit to enjoy the glistening decorations and sip the hot chocolate he serves them. But not this year. Thanks to Phoenix bureaucrats, Lee has been forced to cancel the show. The trouble started this summer, when the … Read More

Saint Dicks

Rumor has it two complaining City of Phoenix employees, possibly in the City Attorney’s Office, are to blame for ending one of Arizona’s most spectacular Christmas displays. (Here is a link a recent story on AZ Central. ) They purportedly moved into the Arcadia neighborhood that’s hosted the lights put up by  Lee Sepanek for some 30 years, and didn’t like … Read More

2018 Candidate for Re-election

By Scottsdale City Councilman David Smith Today I am announcing my candidacy for a second term to represent you on the Scottsdale City Council.  I am proud of Scottsdale and passionate about participating in our city’s future. When voters elected me in 2014, many only knew me from the years I served as Scottsdale’s City Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer.  … Read More

Ambulance Chasers

In years past “ambulance chasers” was a derogatory description that could find its way to certain lawyers or law firms.  Here in the Phoenix area the term was often associated with the Goldberg & Osborns of the legal profession.  But we appear to have a new gold medalist:  The Frutkin Law Firm. In the great new age of social media … Read More

Setting The Pace For More Paradise Valley Preservation

Once upon a time people named Pettycrew, Carla, Korte, Decabooter, Rau, Drinkwater, Manross, Campana and others sat around a Scottsdale table.  They had the audacity to not only dream of a McDowell Sonoran Preserve, but to make it happen. Today, it stands as the community’s greatest accomplishment. Paradise Valley is blessed to have similar landscapes.  They, like Scottsdale’s, define its … Read More

Community Leaders Support the Desert EDGE

by Desert EDGE Advocates The Honorable Paul Messinger The Seven Wonders of this Great Community The accomplishments that separate Scottsdale from other Valley cities: 1. Modifying the Indian Bend Wash into a very successful flood control project and great open space and parks project 2. Scottsdale putting its electric utilities underground and requiring fire sprinkler systems in all buildings built … Read More

Kathy Littlefield’s Serve & Volley

We don’t typically commend things Littlefield.  After all it’s been some 330 days sense Classless Bob Littlefield has failed to call and congratulate Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane on the latter’s landslide win last November.  Humility following political humiliation might have even been cathartic. But the sins of the husband should not flow to Bob’s wife Kathy, a Scottsdale City Councilmember. … Read More

Odds & Ends To The Week

*According to The Phoenix Business Journal U.S. Senator John McCain is working on a plan with Valley leaders to extend the Salt River’s “Rio Salado” experience and environment from Tempe to the West Valley.  If true and if successful it sure would be a lasting legacy to Arizona, and the man. *Uncertainty reigns in the lead-up to Scottsdale City Council … Read More

Glendale Rising

Phoenix Rising is the name of the Valley’s dynamic new soccer team with major league ambitions.  But there’s another rising of note, taking place in Glendale. Just a few short years ago the city was lying prone, left for dead, on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.  Fast forward to just the past few months. IKEA is coming.  So is Top … Read More

Nursing Homes & Other Nattering In Scottsdale

*After the Troon North HOA’s shellacking of a Motel 6 looking, timeshare-like development at its entrance along comes a nursing home proposal for the old Sassi restaurant site near Pinnacle Peak.  Good luck with that.  Apparently the initial community meeting was a blood bath. *Keep an eye on Scottsdale Planning Commissioner Christian Serena as a potential city council candidate in … Read More