Guest Editorial: Crunch Time

By Bob Littlefield Dear Friends: At tomorrow’s Scottsdale City Council meeting Councilmembers will decide if they will sue to reverse the bad legislation that, if is allowed to go into effect, will nullify the referendum signed by 26,000+ Scottsdale voters who want a say in whether Taser-maker Axon will be allowed to build the largest apartment complex in Arizona history … Read More

Guest Editorial: Fighting Scottsdale’s New Enemies

Dear Friends: In last week’s newsletter I described how those of us who are fighting to protect Scottsdale’s special character and high quality have a new enemy, state government! Over the last few years our legislature and governor have passed legislation that, among other outrages, attempts to cancel the Axon apartment referendum, forces so-called “Accessory Dwelling Units” on Scottsdale, forces Scottsdale to … Read More

Axon’s Stock Soars While We Continue to Pay the Price

By Alexander Lomax It’s been a great year for our friends at Axon, hasn’t it? We probably don’t have to remind you of their egregious apartment megacomplex plans, their rezoning plan which seems to have shortchanged Arizona schools to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, the bullying of the Scottsdale City Council, and the end around at the … Read More

How Creepy is Cringy Josh Isner?

By Ronald Sampson When it comes to public faces of corporations, many of us know of Rick Smith, CEO of Axon. You have probably read many pieces about his unwanted apartment megacomplex in Scottsdale and his push to circumvent the will of the people to get his wish (you can read our coverage here). But there has been a significantly … Read More

The Best-Paid CEO in America Still Demands Corporate Welfare

By Alexander Lomax 2024 was a good year to be Rick Smith, but not as good of a year to be a taxpayer in Scottsdale. The CEO of Axon earned the dubious distinction of being America’s highest-paid chief executive last year. Yet despite his astronomical compensation package worth $165 MILLION, Smith apparently still needs taxpayers to subsidize his corporate ambitions. … Read More

Guest Editorial: What Scottsdale should say to Axon

Dear Friends: Over the weekend the Scottsdale Progress printed my opinion piece about Axon. If you didn’t get to see it in the paper, I have reprinted it for you below: Scottsdale is a spectacular city. It was so long before Axon.  It will be long after Axon is gone. We can both applaud a local company’s success over the past many … Read More

Projection, Thy Name is Isner

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 … Read More

Defending Our Democracy

By Alexander Lomax You, the voter, fairly overwhelmingly used your voice last election when you stated loudly at the polls that you wanted stable funding for our parks combined with a tax cut. Propositions 490 and 491 performed exceedingly well, thus securing our financial future. You also used your voice with your signature, with well over 25,000 of you signing … Read More

Guest Editorial: Axon Apartment Update

By Bob Littlefield Dear Friends: The Axon apartment proposal has not been in the news much lately but a lot has happened behind the scenes in our efforts to prevent this from becoming a reality. To recap, here is a partial list of the outrages Axon has perpetrated so far in their effort to force the biggest apartment project (1875 units) ever … Read More