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Mesa pays tribute to fallen officers
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This Week
NEWS............................... 3 Mesa agency takes big step for autism.
BUSINESS................... 13 Chandler market loaded with goodies.
SPORTS........................16 NFL picks up some EV gridiron aces.
EAST VALLEY
Big changes ahead for iconic course PAGE 6 Sunday, May 5, 2019
Rebirth comes slowly to aging parts of Mesa BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
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outhwest Mesa didn’t lose its vibe – a vibe that once included the region’s premier shopping mall – overnight. So, no one expects that vibe to come back overnight, either. And when – if – it does, it will be nothing like the magnetic attraction that drew shoppers and diners a generation ago. Outlines of that future are beginning to emerge, one property at a time, under the watchful eye of a city government that has invested tens of millions of dollars into the region over the past few years. It’s happening under auspices of what Mesa calls the Southwest Redevelopment Area Plan,
Lawmakers OK suicide-prevention training in schools
a scheme approved by the City Council in September 2017. On paper, the planning area looks like the work of a gerrymander artist gone mad. From just south of Broadway Road, it includes irregular swaths along both sides of Country Club Drive southward to U.S. 60. From Country Club and Southern Avenue, it stretches westward to the Tempe border, at one point dipping south of the freeway to include a couple of venerable retail centers on either side of Alma School Road. It includes two of Mesa’s most notoriously distressed properties: Fiesta Mall and, just to the north, the long-vacant Fiesta Village shopping center. Within these boundaries, passage of the re-
Rough arrival
development plan allows Mesa to use a variety of development incentives, including ones that give tax breaks to property owners willing to participate in the area’s makeover. It’s not as if there aren’t already lots of jobs in the immediate vicinity. Banner Desert Medical Center and Mesa Community College, for example, lie just outside the planning area boundary. But that didn’t save Fiesta Mall, Fiesta Village or other retail centers whose customers melted away as newer, glitzier shopping venues opened in the region. Some of those centers already have been redeveloped – most recently and notably a large
see FIESTA page 4
BY PAUL MARYNIAK Executive Editor
FOOD ........................ 20 Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with this taste treat.
COMMUNITY..................11 BUSINESS........................13 OPINION.........................14 SPORTS ........................... 17 GETOUT...........................18 CLASSIFIED.................... 22
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n a rare display of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans in the State Legislature unanimously passed a bill requiring suicide prevention training for all school personnel who deal with students in grades 6 through 12. Responding to the anguish of parents who lost sons and daughters to suicide – including 33 in Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa and Queen Creek and five others in neighboring communities since July 2017 – both chambers last week wasted little time in passing the bill. The bill mandates training every three years for teachers, administrators and even bus drivers
see SUICIDE page 11
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Twin sisters Madison, top, and Morgan Rodgers were born on Valentine’s Day at Dignity Health Chandler Regional Medical Center and their parents didn’t realize until they viewed a video of their delivery that they watched in horror as Morgan was dropped. For details, see page 8. (Monique Rodgers/Special to the Tribune)
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