Preserving open space isn’t just about nature and quality of life. It is big business and Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve is proof. The Preserve, preserved, is a top reason that visitors return again and again fueling Scottsdale’s lucrative tourism industry. Furthermore, many visitors turn into tax paying, local business supporting snowbirds. New Jersey’s first woman Governor, Christine Todd Whitman, is case in point.
Read MoreWide open spaces and wildlife is the most valuable legacy we can leave our children. Public land should always remain in the public domain and we have to be united against those seeking to profit by privatizing it. In this photo, Scottsdale's greenbelt eagle lifts off with breakfast. Photo courtesy of Scottsdale's Mark Koster. Public Lands = Healthy & Happy Constituents both wild & human.
Read MoreSEEN: Mayor Manross walking door to door collecting Protect Our Preserve signatures! "Public Trust" happens when elected officials REPRESENT their constituents. When private interests get public dollars, Scottsdale loses.....
Read MoreAt the upcoming Tuesday Scottsdale City Council meeting, councilmembers are likely to approve a $350 million bond question for the November ballot. If approved by the voters, the bond will allow the city to start chipping away at the $800 million of unfunded infrastructure needs. The bond request coincides with a monumental citizen effort to protect the McDowell Sonoran Preserve from the city council majority-backed, $68 million Desert Edge/DDC.
Read MoreThere is no point in filling a bucket full of holes. City Council can't borrow or tax us out of our financial hole unless they end wasteful spending first. Voters should pass the $350 million infrastructure bond when City Council commits to ending all public funding for the private interest, $68 million DeserEdge.http://www.facebook.com/SolangeForScottsdale READ MORE
Read MoreA Tale of Two Charities: After 35 years and tens of thousands of wildlife lives saved and far-too-many-educational programs to even count- Liberty Wildlife finally has a building. The award winning facility is built on industrial wasteland that they restored back to health benefiting the entire community. The cost to tax payers: $0. By contrast, the Desert Discovery Center Scottsdale Inc, has zero programs, expects tax payers to fund $68 million worth of infrastructure on pristine, tax payer funded Sonoran desert. Without serving a single person in our community, the DDCS (a charity) has already cost tax payers millions. Charities, as Liberty Wildlife so elegantly demonstrates, should SERVE and ENRICH a community.... READ MORE
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