THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
Big effort to help hungry kids coming
THE SUNDAY
Tribune
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Chandler/Tempe Edition
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS ............................. 8 Bribery charges against a former Mesa legislator were dropped.
BUSINESS................... 15 EV business cashing in on esports craze.
Two east Mesa high school teams will face off in football season opener..
FOOD
25
This flavorful dish from Jan D’Atri is dog-gone good.
COMMUNITY........... 11 BUSINESS ...................15 OPINION .................... 20 SPORTS ....................... 21 CLASSIFIEDS ............. 28
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Sunday, August 12, 2018
Mesa rekindles hopes to revive long-dormant downtown site BY JIM WALSH Tribune News Staff
T
he so-called Site 17 redevelopment area near downtown Mesa started with prospects for a gleaming new resort with a water slide, but it quickly slid into oblivion as a symbol of how eminent domain can backfire. Now, 30 years later, Mayor John Giles said Site 17 is on the brink of paying off handsomely with a high-quality residential development that will promote a healthier downtown.
“I feel lucky that we have it, and it’s something we will be very proud of,’’ Giles said. “It’s gone from being a red-headed stepchild to being a beauty queen.’’ Site 17 is a 30-acre piece of land located just north of Main Street near the Phoenix Marriott Mesa, which the city acquired in 1992 through eminent domain, leveling 63 homes at a taxpayer cost of $6 million. Back then, a group of Canadian developers planned to build Mesa Verde, an entertainment village featuring a timeshare resort, water park and ice-skating rink, but the deal
went south. Since then, it has sat idle as a series of plans to do something with it ended in failure. Beyond the lavish resort planned by the Canadian developers, the ideas for Site 17 have included a new Mesa Community College campus and a residential development that drew a lukewarm response from the Mesa City Council. Yet another idea floated was putting the new Chicago Cubs spring training complex, which See
SITE 17 on page 6
After years in public life, veteran EV leader runs for office BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
SPORTS ...................... 21
EAST VALLEY
Dementia: Seeing through victims’ eyes
H
is friendly baritone has echoed through vast meeting halls packed with virtually every mover and shaker who calls the East Valley home. It has led those same leaders to embrace visions of a regional future far grander than any civic booster had previously imagined. And it has wheedled countless dollars out of some very deep pockets for the sake of bringing those visions to life. Now, if Roc Arnett has his way, his will become one of seven voices on the Maricopa County Community College District governing board. While the board may toil in the shadows of public awareness, few match its direct annual impact on literally hundreds of thousands of lives. Arnett is one of two candidates for an at-large seat on the sev-
en-member board. The other is Kathleen Winn of Mesa, an activist who fights human trafficking and who ran unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in 2016. The incumbent, Tracy Livingston of Peoria, is a Republican candidate for state superintendent of public instruction. Although this – at age 76, no less – is Arnett’s first run at elected public office, he’s no political neophyte. For one thing, there was his tenure, in 1963, as the first student body president of what’s now called Mesa Community College. Since Arnett would be overseeing that school if he wins the November election, his current campaign represents a return, if you will, to his political roots. Far more significantly for the history of the region, Arnett made his mark as president of the East Valley Partnership for 13 years. See
ROC
(Gary Nelson/ Tribune Contributorr)
East Valley civic and business leader Roc Arnett last week filed petitions to run on page 4 for the county community college district governing board.