The Mesa Tribune - Zone 1 - 11.15.2020

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Big voice, big heart / P. 13

Mt View star / P. 22

An edition of the East Valley Tribune

Sunday, November 15, 2020

City of�icials ponder trolley route for west Mesa

INSIDE

This Week

NEWS .........................

FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com

BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer

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City reaches out to Spanish speaking residents..

COMMUNITY ......... 14 Mesa Girl Scout earns Gold Award.

BUSINESS ............ 17 Las Sendas man says 'cork it' with his firm.

GET OUT ................. 24 Mesa artist is 'Hidden in the Hills' COMMUNITY ............................... 13 BUSINESS ..................................... 17 OPINION ....................................... 20 SPORTS ....................................... 22 GET OUT ....................................... 24 PUZZLES ...................................... 25 CLASSIFIED ................................. 28 Zone 1

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esa of�icials are studying the possibility of implementing a trolley in the western part of the city. But don’t expect to catch a ride on the new streetcar from Mesa Community College to downtown Mesa anytime soon. The proposed trolley is still in a preliminary planning stage and such details as the route, length and cost are yet to be �inalized. But the likely 7-8-mile route is starting to reach a level of consensus after three years of planning and paying for it would �irst depend on voter approval of an extension of Proposition 400, the special tax that helps pay for road and other transportation projects in Maricopa County.

Deputy Mesa City Manager Scott Butler said it is unclear if an extension of Proposition 400, which continued a half-cent sales tax �irst approved by voters in 1985 for another 20 years in 2004, will be placed on either the 2022 or 2024 ballot. It appears inevitable that of�icials will seek authority to extend the tax, which has been responsible for far-reaching transportation improvements throughout the county, including the construction of new freeways, upgrades to arterial roads and public transit improvements such as Metro Light Rail. After a long run of sweeping and diverse transportation improvements throughout the county, Proposition 400 expires in 2025. Because a new source of revenue must be secured, the potential Mesa streetcar could be as long as 10 years into the future, when

Mesa Mayor John Giles said that west Mesa likely will be very different than it is today. The plan discussed by Council last week would connect a Mesa trolley loop to the Tempe Streetcar system now under construction. The Mesa loop would eclipse Tempe’s route in miles and serve the Asian District, Mesa Community College, two Banner hospitals and the Fiesta District before connecting to downtown along Country Club Drive. “The character of West Mesa is going to change,’’ Giles said. “It’s going to be a newer, more urban, more dense part of the city.’’ Hundreds of new apartment units already are on the drawing board in that part of the city, adding to hundreds more already under

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Mesa, state school Paz de Christo's new leader chiefs alarmed by COVID-19 surge BY PAUL MARYNIAK AND HOWARD FISCHER The Mesa Tribune

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esa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Andi Fourlis joined several counterparts and the state’s top education of�icial last week to warn Arizonans that surging COVID-19 cases are putting them in an impossible situation. Their pleas echoed those made last month by MPS Governing Board members, who warned that unless the entire community – not just parents and students – followed safety protocols to mitigate virus spread, classrooms could be closed again. “Without serious changes from us, the adults making daily choices that determine

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Paz de Christo's new executive director, Joe Tansill, is charged with overseeing the nonprofit's 32-year-old mission in Mesa: feeding the hungry and caring for the needy. For a look at how that mission is meeting the challenges of the pandemic, see page 10. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)


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