Gilbert teachers hit Fiesta Bowl jackpot PAGE 10
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS..................................
14
EV lawmaker seeks 'social promotion' ban.
COMMUNITY..................
13
Gilbert home sought for Christmas.
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
E
mbracing multi-family housing and perhaps buying key pieces of property were some of the suggestions experts last week gave the town to help Gilbert’s oldest and densest employment center stay viable into the future. The Northwest Employment Area is composed of light industrial and back-office space in the science, technology, aerospace, and manufacturing sectors and includes businesses such as GoDaddy and Northrop Grumman. It sits south of the U.S. 60 from Baseline Road to just south of Elliot Road and extends from Arizona Avenue to Cooper Road. “You want people living and working in the same area,” said Stanton Shafer, a panel
member with the Urban Land Institute Arizona. “To keep this (strictly) an employment center will hold you back. It’s very important not to push back on multi-family. It’s what 2020 is all about.” Shafer said the town’s hesitance in allowing in multi-family residential is 1980s thinking and such housing would help fuel employment in the area. “Today’s thinking is live, work and play,” Shafer said. “You’ll never make it a downtown Scottsdale or Heritage District but you can add pieces to help.” Shafer is COO with Tucson-based Holualoa Cos., a partner with Plaza Cos. on the SkySong Center in Scottsdale, a 1.2-million-square-foot, mixed-use project which includes commercial office space, Arizona State University’s SkySong incubator and apartments.
Panel member Carolyn Oberholtzer, a land-use and municipal law attorney, said multi-family development would provide a transition from the employment area to near-by single-family homes. “There’s lot of demand for rental units,” she said. “And it only will go up as people rent by choice.” Town staffers said businesses such as Silent Aire, an HVAC manufacturer, have left the corridor for other locations in Gilbert Additionally, the area continues to see small infill sites sit vacantly and wrestles with inadequate parking, absentee owners with unkempt properties and aging infrastructure. During a town discussion last year, it was noted among Gilbert’s four employment
see NORTHWEST page 6
Gilbert man marks 100 with surprise flight 20
His last day on earth.
FOOD..............................
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Experts: NW Gilbert can be re-energized
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
OPINION......................
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Gilbert business helps dog duty PAGE 16
29
Anything goes with this dessert.
COMMUNITY...................... 12 BUSINESS............................. 16 OPINION.............................. 20 SPORTS.................................22 GETOUT............................... 26 CLASSIFIED.........................32
he was a junior to follow his older brother, Richie, into the service. He served in artin Ramirez the 158th Infantry, 45th Ditook a giant step vision, “C” Company, nickback in time last name Bushmasters, near Sunday aboard a Fairchild the tail-end of the war. PT-26, the primary trainHe was on a truck headed er used during the Second for a ship to Panama and World War. eventually to Germany The World War II vetwhen a sergeant pulled four eran and Gilbert resident soldiers off for guard duty, went on the surprise according to Ramirez’s son. flight for his 100th birth“He was one of the four,” day at Falcon Field AirLouis Ramirez said. port in Mesa. Ramirez survived the war “This is a surprise to and married his high school me,” Ramirez said upon sweetheart Anita. The couarriving at a hangar. “First ple went on to have 10 chiltime in all my 100 years. I Martin Ramirez was flying high - literally - as he celebrated turning 100 when a nonprofit treated the Gilbert dren and 83 grandchildren, centennarian to a flyover in a vintage WWII aircraft. . [Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer] don’t know whether I degreat-grandchildren and serve it or not.” great-great-grandchildren. Ramirez was born into a family of 15 sib- the time, gas was 25 cents a gallon and the He and his wife just celebrated their 75th lings in Gleeson in southeast Arizona on Nov. pop-up toaster had just been invented. 13, 1919. Woodrow Wilson was president at Ramirez left Douglas High School when see FLIGHT page 3
M