I am putting this in the Riverview section because it is clearly a problem that Riverview has highlighted.

It is not beneficial for the City of Mesa to move retail outlets from a struggling location in the city (Downtown, Fiesta) into an area which has received, and will receive, hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private investment. Several storefronts now sit empty because storeowners moved to Riverview and away from Fiesta or Downtown.

Future public expenditures should clearly spell out in the contract the amount of retail ventures which can relocate from other areas of the city. It should be the burden of the developer to ensure that public funds go to support bringing new, unique businesses to the city, rather than relocating the Walmarts and other big boxes.

Digital media students at ASU recently created "SmartPHX," which is a smartphone app that helps people find things to do in Downtown Phoenix.

It uses geolocation to help people navigate, lets people know what businesses are open or closed, and even helps people find parking.

With all of the worry about how light rail is going to affect downtown, can we really afford not to have this? Some of the biggest concerns I've seen are:

1) People won't know about parking in back of the shops.

2) Restricting traffic means people won't get to see as many store fronts, and thus won't discover new stores.

We can take care of both of these issues, and a host of others, with a smartphone app.

Funding is, of course, an issue. We can mitigate this in several ways:

1) Work with the ASU team that did the app for Phoenix and see what part of the code base we might be able to reuse.

2) The businesses downtown are the ones with the most to gain, so work with them and the DMA to see what kind of funding they would be willing to provide.

3) There are many CS students at ASU that want smartphone app development experience. Meet with the CS department at ASU and turn this into one or more student projects.

If we get creative, we can minimize the financial damage to downtown businesses during light rail construction, and hopefully continue to support them afterwards WITHOUT pouring millions of dollars into downtown as in the past.

Part of Mesa's history is a connection to the land and agriculture. Today there are free standing farms and empty parcels of land close to Downtown Mesa. The Downtown Mesa Farmer's Market could be the largest in the valley, with accompanying attractions that celebrate the unique character of Mesa Grande. An integral part of agriculture in Mesa Grande has been the existence of prehistoric irrigation canals and their unique history, including the Mormon Pioneers that reinvigorated them to settle this valley.

People complain that we need to manufacture a culture for Downtown Mesa, but it already exists. It just needs to be brought into focus and celebrated in an inclusive manner that welcomes people from other communities, states, and countries.

Utilize some of the undeveloped land in East Mesa example Signal Butte/Crismon/ or even by Red Mountain Park as a BMX track, bike park for kids. If you build it they will come.  Private land owners and HOA's are taking steps to keep kids from building jumps on their land, leaving kids to modify where they ride & jump to include the streets. By helping kids have a safe place to ride, jump & yes show off, they will go there instead. For anyone who may disagree just remember the days when you were a kid and going to dirt jumps did not mean getting in the car with mom & dad & driving 20 minutes.  There is a way to do it safely & a way to monitor activity there. The first step however is to take the thought, make it a plan & then make it a park.

East Mesa was as poorly planned as West Mesa, if not more so. We've already got vacant, run down buildings, code violations, empty dirt lots, and more and we don't even have age to blame for these things.

The Desert Uplands area is nice, and the Power Knowledge Corridor is very promising, but there is still a large population living between these two areas. It is time for the city to appoint a task force to examine the problems faced by the central corridor portion of East Mesa. This task force needs to then address these problems with the help of residents and landowners in this area.

We don't have to wait until the area East of Gilbert Road between University and Broadway ends up looking like Fiesta Village before we act. A small expenditure now can avoid a repeat of the tens of millions of dollars not being poured in the Fiesta, Riverview, and Downtown areas.

So, let's show that we've learned a thing or two from our mistakes, and start analyzing and addressing this area now. It is sad that we have a plan for "revitalizing" one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country, but no plan for taking care of the dying areas that aren't thriving.