By Alexander Lomax The city of Scottsdale isn’t exactly known for bold new ideas. The preservation of the past is actually a fairly important part of Scottsdale’s identity. As such, even relatively non-controversial ideas have a fairly tough road to implementation. Any readers here have almost certainly been to street fairs; events where a road (or several) is blocked off, … Read More

In our legal system equality is supposed to preside.  Black or white.  Rich or poor.  Powerful or not.  Yet, there is a belief that the elite, including politicians, can be above the law. We’re about to find out, courtesy of the Scottsdale City Attorney’s Office.  It is apparently deciding whether to charge embattled Paradise Valley Councilman Paul Dembow with a … Read More

Maricopa County has been in the news a lot lately.  Some supporters of former President Trump don’t like the outcome of its 2020 election even though it appears to have been smartly and ethically performed by county officials. Now, there’s something else Maricopa County deserves credit for: updating its billboard ordinance.  Certainly not as controversial or newsworthy as a hotly … Read More

Rewind to last spring.  It was thought Scottsdale would be among the most brutally hit Arizona cities by a once-in-a-century pandemic.  Instead, it not only survived but thrived.  Much of that had to do with Scottsdale’s municipal point guard, its City Manager Jim Thompson.  It was not easy to walk the fine line of looking after public health while still … Read More

Can anyone think of a more decrepit thing for a politician to do than to remove a memorial cross to a dead person in the community he represents? Yet, that is what Paradise Valley Councilman Paul Dembow was recently accused of doing by Judith Brown whose father was killed by Dembow’s daughter in a car accident. When asked if it … Read More