By Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner Dear Fellow Paradise Valley Resident: Tonight the Town is honored to publicly recognize and thank former Mayor Robert (“Bob”) Plenge, who is “retiring” as a Police Department volunteer after many decades of stellar volunteer service across many areas for our community. Here’s a quote from Bob about public service that stands out in my mind. “I … Read More
Paradise Valley Makes the Right Choice: Rewarding Law Enforcement
It has been a difficult climate for law enforcement for the last few years. Since the George Floyd murder and resulting protests across the country and world, there has been a general ethos of categorizing all law enforcement in the same bucket of excess and impropriety from a large portion of the political left. As we know, there are certainly … Read More
Why the Primaries Will Matter Most for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley Legislative Seats
We love to be a bastion of information for our Scottsdale and Paradise Valley readers specifically, as we are one of you. We have already spoken to who will be on your ballot as it concerns the upcoming Scottsdale City Council elections as well as the Paradise Valley Town Mayor elections. However you will also have legislative seats to vote … Read More
We Have a Race for Paradise Valley Mayor: Pace vs Bien-Willner
Paradise Valley politics have often been relatively similar to the nature of the town itself; a bit sleepy, not too much excitement happening (save a cross being stolen), just how its residents prefer. But that may be changing this year, as not only will we have competitive Town Council races, but it also looks like we will have a Mayoral … Read More
AG Brnovich Weighs In On PV STR Rules: The Good and the Bad
The issue of short-term rentals (STRs) is not a new topic here at the Arizona Progress Gazette, and regular readers will note that Paradise Valley’s rules to make business more difficult for STR operators had received a request for investigation from Sen. Warren Peterson (himself the owner of a STR property), which elicited a formal statement from the PV Town … Read More
Paul Dembow Challenger Christine Labelle Demonstrating Leadership and Expertise with Timeshare Issue in PV
You know that us here at APG are no glowing fans of Paradise Valley Councilman Paul Dembow; ohh no, we have made our views known. That said, it is not always enough to simply want someone you find disagreeable gone from power…you need to have faith in the competence, intelligence and values of the person who is replacing them. Piggybacking … Read More
PV Responds to AG Statement on Short-Term Rentals: Will the Powers That Be Listen?
Frequent readers of APG will remember how often we have talked about the problem of short-term rentals (STRs), how prevalent they have been in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley (as well as the rest of the state), and the challenges municipalities have had in trying to reign them in due to state law. There has been forward motion recently in PV’s … Read More
A Paradise Valley Town Leadership Program? Councilmember Pace Brings Up an Interesting Idea
Our more politically ambitious or aware readers probably know of various civic and public affairs leadership groups in the Valley; Valley Leadership is perhaps the most prominent one, Greater Phoenix Leadership is another. These are groups dedicated to showing our region’s most bright and ambitious future leaders the ropes of what leadership actually looks like within the machinations of local … Read More
In Women’s History Month, Women Lead the Scottsdale City Council – How Arizona is Ahead of the Curve
March is Women’s History Month, and while there are plenty more publications and writers who can give a better homage to it and do it more justice, we at the Arizona Progress Gazette see a proper opportunity to highlight women leading here in our neck of the woods: in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and in Arizona. In Scottsdale, this is highlighted … Read More
The High Cost of Doing the Right Thing – PV’s Fight Against STRs Could Cost It $1.6 Million
Short-Term Rentals (STRs) and the problems that they have introduced into neighborhoods have been a red-hot subject recently, and one that we’ve talked about frequently. We have also spoken about Paradise Valley’s attempts to reign them in after myriad complaints from citizens. Unfortunately, sometimes the best decisions have unfortunate potential consequences, and now we are learning more about those. According … Read More