If there was one thing that the last election as well as the recent fight against Axon in Scottsdale have taught us, it’s that the electorate does not want overdevelopment in the city. It detests unnecessary traffic, it hates apartment complexes fit for thousands of people, and it is rather NIMBY by nature. They probably will not be happy then … Read More
ParkingGate Meets the Public, Silly Pseudo-Scandal Gets a Public Hearing
By Ronald Sampson When it comes to a city like Scottsdale, where there are precious few issues to complain about, the silliest and smallest things sometimes get elevated to crisis mode. We all need something to talk about, after all. And one of the silliest pseudo-scandals in recent memory is now getting new life and a public hearing. Behold, Scottsdale’s … Read More
How Do You Stand Up to a Bully? Scottsdale City Council is Showing Us
Anyone who has ever lived through their teenage years and had any sort of wise guidance from an elder knows the answer to the above question. When you are being pushed around and you want it to stop, do you say “Thank you sir, may I have another”? No, of course not, you stand up to them and take a … Read More
When You Don’t Have the People on Your Side, You Need to Pay Up
It’s not a secret that Axon has been pulling every single lever possible in order to force its massive, unwanted apartment megacomplex onto the people of Scottsdale. However, a recent development shows just how much it has been willing to pay up in order to do so; how only one aspect of this push has cost the company half a … Read More
Scottsdale’s Bully Taking Its Bullying National
Any occasional readers of this blog knows our feelings about Axon; that it will bully its way into getting what it wants, with the most recent and egregious case being its massive apartment megacomplex plans in the heart of Scottsdale. And while we’d prefer not to have to continue writing about it, the company just keeps on pushing more and … Read More
Whoa is King Rick the Bully: Axon Willing to Throw Arizona Under the Bus to Get Its Way
Axon’s egregious attempt to short-change Arizona’s schools and bully the electorate in order to construct its unwanted apartment megacomplex for its own benefit has been well-documented (read our coverage here), and yet somehow it manages to get worse and worse. It recently announced its quarterly financials and stop us if you’ve heard this before, but the stock soared 15% to all-time … Read More
Axon’s Strategic Keystone Cops
Sometimes you can make this stuff up. Bear with us. A number of years ago Axon said it would build its new corporate headquarters in Scottsdale. It received approval to do so. That turned out to not be true. Years went by and it returned with a new corporate headquarters plan, this time saying it could and would build it BUT . … Read More
King Rick Strikes Again, This Time Attempting to Eviscerate Citizen Rights
By Ronald Sampson Axon has developed quite a reputation for bullying its way through Scottsdale. Its attempts to shoehorn in its unwanted apartment megacomplex (apparently the largest apartment complex in the history of the entire state) into the city met stiff resistance, so it ignored the will of the people and leaned on a lame duck City Council. Once the … Read More
Creative Redevelopment in Paradise Valley: Why Rethinking Old Spaces is the Way
It’s no surprise that Covid changed the economic dynamics of our world in a lasting way. E-commerce went from a dominant economic factor to THE dominant economic factor, millions of square feet of office space have been rendered null and void due to work-from-home and hybrid work policies, and delivery services became ascendent. One of the bigger questions vexing much … Read More