Homeless in Arizona

If we need government I certainly don't think we need a government that wastes our tax dollars urging bars to locate in downtown Mesa. [Not that I am against having more bars in downtown Mesa, I would certainly rather be able to buy a beer in downtown Mesa instead of going to church]

Of course I certainly don't think we need any government that rules by force.

Source

Mesa to pursue nightlife district

By Gary Nelson The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:20 PM

For decades, downtown Mesa has been the civic equivalent of Sominex.

Any other American city of nearly a half-million people would have an urban center teeming at night with people popping in and out of bars, restaurants and shops.

But the heart of Mesa lost its vibe years ago when far-flung malls took away shoppers and when Main Street was supplanted as a major highway by the U.S. 60, also known as the Superstition Freeway.

Downtown merchants and the city have fought back with art shows, a monthly Friday- night street fair and other events. But the city center still lacks the critical mass needed for sustained activity.

Now, the city is trying a new tack: creating a downtown “entertainment district” aimed at making it easier for bars and nightclubs to set up shop in a neighborhood soon to be served by light rail and four private liberal-arts colleges.

The City Council unanimously approved the idea Monday night despite opposition from a downtown charter school.

It’s believed to be the first use of a new state law that allows cities to nullify a state-imposed, 300-foot buffer between schools and churches on one hand and bars and nightclubs on the other.

The law says cities can designate up to 1 square mile as an entertainment district where the buffer would no longer apply. Mesa’s district is about three-quarters of a square mile, mostly straddling Main Street in the downtown core and carefully drawn to exclude residential neighborhoods.

It’s not like you can’t already get a drink there. Several restaurants have liquor licenses, and a new microbrewery opened on Main Street in early October.

But Mayor Scott Smith said the city’s staid reputation is hurting both those businesses and potential future ones.

“I’ve had restaurateurs ... tell me restaurants won’t even look at Mesa because you can’t have a liquor license in downtown Mesa,” Smith said. “Yeah, you can. You tell them that, they still don’t believe that.”

Smith said he doesn’t expect an “Oklahoma land rush” of bars flooding immediately into downtown, but approving the entertainment district sends a message that “we are open for business.”

Earl Taylor Jr., principal at the downtown Heritage Academy, and Jared Taylor, the school’s business manager, were the only speakers in opposition, saying students’ safety could be compromised by downtown bars.

Jared Taylor was elected this month to the Gilbert Town Council with strong backing from “tea party” factions of the Republican Party. Earl Taylor called liquor “the Number 1 enemy of strong characters and the Number 1 cause of the deterioration of the family.”

Several other speakers, however, strongly endorsed the district as a way to turn Mesa’s downtown into a round-the-clock destination.

The district “will allow us to have more people downtown and create an overall safer neighborhood for our residents,” said David Crummey, who leads a group called I Believe in Mesa’s Downtown.

Another speaker said that she is a waitress at Monsterland, a horror-themed bar and grill on Main Street near the Mesa Arts Center, and that people are surprised when they find out downtown has such a place.

Councilman Alex Finter said the district, in effect, will replace distance separations between property uses with time-of-day separations. Churches and schools would be mostly active in the daytime and bars and nightclubs at night.

Finter said he’s no big fan of drinking, having seen its effects during a 22-year career as a firefighter. But he said enforcing a good-neighbor policy, combined with policing, would mitigate potential problems.

Smith and Finter raised the specter of widely publicized problems created by nightclubs in downtown Scottsdale, and city staffers said they stand ready to revoke the licenses of any bar or nightclub that causes persistent trouble.

Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh cast it as a property-rights issue.

“The 300-foot buffer certainly does create some limitations on private-property rights,” he said.

Smith ended the meeting with a nearly seven-minute soliloquy in which he paid homage to the Heritage Academy, its devotion to constitutional principles and its contributions to downtown, but he said Mesa needs to further activate its symbolic center.

More articles on Mesa Mayor Scott Smith

Here are some more newer articles on Mesa Mayor Scott Smith