After Decades in Local Government, Thompson Brings Public-Sector Perspective to Growing Phoenix Firm Former Scottsdale City Manager Jim Thompson is heading home to Arizona for a new chapter in the private sector. Following 40 years in city government, Thompson will join the Sustainability Engineering Group as president and chief growth officer starting July 1, 2026, bringing decades of experience in … 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
Like It or Not (and You Probably Don’t) Lots of Development is Happening in Scottsdale
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
An Ambitious Development Project Planned for Scottsdale: Will It Make It Through the City Council Gauntlet?
The Scottsdale city council took a strong turn away from growth and development-focused dais under Mayor Lane to a rather development-hesitant one under Mayor Ortega starting in 2020. Many projects have failed to secure the needed votes to come to fruition, frustrating numerous developers and other professionals involved. So a new proposed project raised both eyebrows for its ambition and … Read More
Guest Editorial: Kudos to Larry Kush on Hat Trick – If Only Our Leaders Listened to Him More Often
By Ronald Sampson I am unapologetically a fan of pro-growth policies. I believe that our communities are better off with elected officials who believe that building is typically preferred to not building, that housing prices are best when they are suppressed by solid supply, and that NIMBYism hurts nearly all of us. In that spirit, I was very pleased to … Read More
Guest Editorial: The Problem with Extremism
By Councilwoman Betty Janik Extremism was once considered an ideology, a belief system, outside of the common sense attitudes of society. Unfortunately, it now seems to be the norm. With the constant news stream of outrageous commentary, we are tempted to believe what we hear and frequently what we are shown. Social media has been used effectively to promote extremist positions … Read More