‘A trendsetting community’: Residents give city lengthy ‘iMesa’ wish list

1 comment:

• Leon Ceniceros posted at 5:31 pm on Wed, Jan 11, 2012.

  Posts: 2535

  Tall buildings on Main Street, spruce up Fiesta Mall area and buy the Buckhorn Baths...do you see anything ...."innovative"....here........looks just like last weeks Mesa City Council Agenda (now someone else my get a little suspicious here...but no..it's the New Year...let's sweep away the negative and flow with the positive....[wink]).
  Micro-Brewery a stone's throw from the Momon Temple...yup, that idea has traction...[wink].
  A "night life" well that's been tried before..an avant garde movie theater didn't last 6 months and an the Art Gallery that's been on Main St. since 2009 is "nevermore" for real.
  "Taller" buildings...do you mean like a "movie set" because let's face it...if a 1-story business can't make it...2-3-4 stories buildings are 2-3-4 times less likely to make it...you don't have to be a.....Warren Buffet to figure that one out. There was just a story in the East Valley Trib about a Downtown Mesa Restaurant owner complaining that a "hot dog cart" vendor was taking much "business" away..if that doesn't show you how bad things are.

  As for "sprucing up" the Fiesta Mall area and Southern...have any of the Mesa City Councilmen and woman (and/or His Honor, the Mayor Scott Smith) driven down Alma School Road or drive west on Southern from Gilbert or Extension ??? I ask this question because $11.5 Million Dollars to do some "sprucing up" may be "chump change" to our Millionaire Mayor but it is a huge debt to us "little people". The run-down "Tobacco Road" houses, small apartment units, corner stores, etc along Alma School Road are testimony that a "coat of lipstick" ain't gonna work. Just look at all the eateries that have given up on the Fiesta Mall area; Bennigan's, Marie Callendar, Fuddrucker's, T.G.I. Friday's, Lonestar Steak House, Honeybak'd Hams....even Petco "flew the coop".

  The "Buckhorn Baths" would just give the Mesa Tax-Payer...a "bath". Last I heard or read, the owner wants a cool Million or more for the property. Is it "historic"....you bet it is but let some hotel or resort or spa...take it on. The millions to buy it would pale besides the millions to "spruce" it up. There are Health Code issues that never were in force back in the 60's and even the 70's. You have a "healthy" (sic) population of "homeless folks" on the west side of the property. Safety and Vermin issues must be addressed. Does the wonderful, historic Native American and Old Town Mesa items in the "museum" go witht the sale ??? This "innovative idea" is just inches away from a Mesa Tax-payer's "Pandora's Box".

  Stick to fixing ........DOWNTOWN MESA...with "constructive, workable" ideas that haven't failed in the past.
  Clean up the prostitution issue east of Pioneer Park once and for all. Make Main St. from Gilbert westward.....a nice "Family-safe" entrance to Downtown Mesa. Let the developers take care of the Fiesta Mall area. Put some Public Services offices into some of those empty store fronts, a Mesa Police Sub-Station, a Mesa Tourism Office, Military Recruiting Office, a VFW and/or American Legion Hall. The employees and the customers will need a nearby place to eat and stay for dinner after work.

  
  

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