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OPINION
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Scottsdale residents need a voice in apartment development
I just read that “Grayhawk Residences at Cavasson” has filed application for a 400-unit multifamily development in pursuit of approval by the City of Scottsdale. Do you believe it will be approved? I hope not. I shall rally the neighborhood against it, should that be necessary. Will there be neighborhood input like there has been on 92nd and Shea and the Greenbelt 88 proposed developments?
As you know, or ought to know, the City lied to us about their outreach to neighbors when Cavasson was approved. Speci�ically, citizens were left in the dark on this development. With emails and public comment coming in with a large percentage of the citizens/ neighbors against, Planning and Development Director Randy Grant stated that city staff did their regular process of alerting residents within 750 feet of the project. Well, there are no residences within 750 feet of the property. It was approved in total «darkness» by a dark Planning Commission and a dark majority in the council at the time 5-2. Smith and Little�ield voting against approval. Most of those council people are gone, but to our detriment in this neighborhood, the remnants of their decision shall linger for many, many years.
Has not the time come to lift the darkness, allow the light to shine through (transparency), allowing citizen input, not proclamation by the City Council without neighborhood input which was the case with the approval of Cavasson (Crossroads East)? And two present council members in their campaign – after the fact – voiced their disapproval of that process. That was then. We have a new way of thinking now, or so it seems.
The last thing this neighborhood needs is another 400 units just up the street from what appears to be 1000+ at San Artes by Mark-Taylor. Hayden, the new Scottsdale Road, unfortunately. Ugh! I understand that none of the council members live in this neighborhood, but at the same time, thousands of us do, and we need representation. We need a voice about the direction our neighborhood is going. We had none four years ago. -Jim Bloch
Letters
Bro ad amnesty for immigrants would be disastrous for Arizona
Over the last 18 months, more than 18,500 Arizonans lost their lives to the pandemic – mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. And hundreds of thousands have lost their livelihoods.
Unemployment remains well above pre-pandemic levels.
Unfortunately, many of our leaders in Washington seem intent on making the situation worse. They want to pass the largest amnesty for illegal immigrants in U.S. history.
That would increase competition for jobs and spur even more illegal border crossings that contribute to the spread of COVID-19. After all, roughly one in �ive illegal immigrants released from Border Patrol custody in late July and early August tested positive for the virus, according to a leaked White House document.
An estimated 281,000 illegal immigrants live in our state, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Many already work under the table, but granting them full work authorization would allow them to compete for a wider range of jobs against citizens and legal immigrants. That’d make it even more dif�icult for over 225,000 unemployed Arizonans to �ind work.
Meanwhile, overall wages would decline. Even before the pandemic hit, many Americans had already experienced stagnating wage growth. Research shows that an in�lux of immigrants lacking a high school diploma entering the workforce in recent decades resulted in native-born workers without high school diplomas seeing their earnings drop between $800 and $1,500 each year. Arizona’s stressed workers -- many of whom voted for President Biden -- are still reeling from the economic effects of the pandemic and need help.
Consider the data. The number of employed Arizonans dropped from an alltime high of 3,409,624 in January 2020 to a low of 3,180,733 in June 2020 -- a decrease of 228,891. We’ve since gradually clawed back those jobs but with the Delta variant raging, the job market is unpredictable at best.
Certain sectors have been hit harder than others. An estimated 80 percent of Arizona’s restaurant industry experienced layoffs last year.
Families are hurting. The Tucsonbased Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona saw a 121 percent increase in clientele last spring. In the Phoenix area, food banks also saw a surge in families seeking assistance. In just the �irst half of 2021, over a million illegal immigrants arrived. Dangling the promise of amnesty would entice millions more people to illegally cross the border, in the hopes that they too would gain work permits and eventually citizenship, either in this amnesty or the next one. That’d be a disaster for Arizona communities and many of these migrants themselves, who are preyed upon by vicious cartels along the way.
Our politicians should be focused on helping Arizona’s legal workers and their families, not illegal immigrants. I hope Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema will rally against this amnesty proposal and instead work to get Arizona’s citizens back on their feet. -Judith Lawrence
