By Alexander Lomax
The fight against Axon’s apartment megacomplex goes on, as much as most of us wish it would be relegated to the dust bin of history’s bad ideas (get up to date here). And even while the city bravely decided to defend the will of the people and explore legal options, it was still willing to come to the table and try to work through a better way.
City leadership had a very reasonable middle ground of 850 units that it was willing to pursue: just cut the size of the project in half. After all, Axon could still house many, many employees with 850 units, and it would still be amongst the largest apartment complexes in the city. That compromise is still massive and would still garner many questions and earn opposition, a plan that Axon knows would die at the polls if not through the courts. But even those negotiations turned south, and Axon couldn’t find it in itself to take any sort of high ground, instead taking the low road.
As Scottsdale leadership stood firm, Axon President Josh Isner reached another new low in this saga, threatening to abandon the city and labeling the City Council’s dynamics “toxic”.
This certainly seems like a massive case of projection. After all, Axon has been nothing but toxic in this entire charade. Its rezoning end-around robbed Arizona schools of tens of millions of dollars and the company gaslit the public into thinking that it was doing us all a great favor. Then it decided to ignore the will of the electorate and go to the Capitol where it could steal your Constitutional rights away in order to get its way.
Is that not toxic? Seems pretty toxic to me.
It’s no secret that there is some infighting within city council, and things aren’t perfect at the moment. But one thing that is evident is that the council and mayor were willing to come to the table and negotiate a solution that wouldn’t be so disruptive to the residents of the city. There were frequent attempts to avoid escalation in the way of less density. After all, wouldn’t 1,000 apartments be sufficient? For any reasonable stakeholders it would be.
Mayor Lisa Borowsky noted that while Axon offered concessions, the deal still posed too many challenges. Rather than capitulating to corporate demands, Scottsdale asserted its authority and ensured decisions align with the public’s long-term vision. Despite all the conflict at City Hall, they were able to put their disagreements aside, and yet Isner takes the opportunity to call them “toxic”.
Let’s be clear: Axon’s actions for the last year are what has been toxic. It has been eviscerating democracy and stealing your rights.
Scottsdale’s leadership demonstrated integrity and responsibility, showing that strong governance sometimes means saying no, to not capitulating to the whims of bullies. They have been defending your freedoms and aren’t getting the kudos they deserve. It’s not always pretty but it’s necessary.