By Gary Shapiro | Point of View
Scottsdale is a unique community with a long history of major accomplishments.
They include such memorable and significant things as the Indian Bend Wash, our preserve, our Cure Corridor including the Mayo Clinic, and our bond and override support for our city and our fantastic public school system.
We are regarded as the “gold standard” of communities across Arizona and our reputation for excellence is world-wide as an outstanding community to live, work, learn and play.
The luster that makes us special and unique needs constant polishing, or it will fade. Our enviable position needs to be nurtured or our competition could prevail.
Demographically, most of our residents have not been here long enough to be familiar with what made us successful. To compound it, society today embraces critics, disruptors and detractors who find it easier to call out faults rather than offer legitimate, constructive future programs.
A small portion of our friends and neighbors align themselves with “anti” advocates who support ill-fated agendas that often include a return to a false sense of an old-time security.
In reality, if you don’t grow or enhance your product, your days are limited. That applies to everything.
So, how did we get to such an enviable position Why is Scottsdale the gold standard?
No less than three things come to my mind as a 53-year resident, community champion and wisdom keeper.
In the good ole days, Scottsdale was famous for creative and innovative approaches and solutions. It was our culture and standard operating procedure for years.
That’s how Bill Walton and others pulled off the Indian Bend Wash. That how Scottsdale Public Works Director Marc Stragier invented the mechanized Godzilla trash pick-up system in 1969, which revolutionized trash pick-up worldwide.
Former City Manager Roy Pederson, Community Services Director Bob Frost, and others were on board for creative and innovative solutions.
Around 40 years ago, the Price Club (the predecessor of Costco) wanted to open a store in Scottsdale. The planning, zoning, and construction process was arduous due to our high standards and expectations.
City leadership, under the direction of Pederson and Frost took a bold and historic step to lure them here. They assigned an experienced city planner named Larry Bussard to shepherd the Price Club’s project through the various steps and hurdles.
It was a strategic and interesting way to treat an applicant. Perhaps it cost the city a hundred thousand dollars in extra staffing expenses.
Here’s what happened.
The store opened no less than six months ahead of schedule and instantly become one of their flagship locations. From day one, it also became the single highest sales tax generating location in our community. The return on our initial investment has been staggering over the past 40 years.
Community leaders were not only interested in attracting new businesses. They were concerned about retaining existing businesses and helping them flourish.
Four decades ago, there were partnerships between the city and the Chamber of Commerce to do economic development. We engaged in strategic planning, long term visioning, and we funded efforts to maintain Scottsdale as a friendly and supportive place to do business.
There were thousands of community leaders and stakeholders involved in the planning, and dozens of community leaders who visited existing businesses to tell them how grateful we were for their existence.
Jon Chase, who was the city’s economic development director at the time, and I went on some of those visits. I vividly remember how impressed and grateful those CEOs were for our community to reach out to them.
We’re not doing these things anymore, or we’re not doing them enough. It’s easy to understand that people need and want to feel important and appreciated.
The city we love and cherish has developed a reputation of being less than friendly to businesses and builders. Those entities are choosing alternative sites even though Scottsdale would be a better choice and a better address.
As “The West’s Most Western Town,” we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We could be exhibiting and delivering good old fashion western hospitality. You may know it as the golden rule.
It’s election season. The candidates we elect will play a large part in shaping our future.
From my vantage point, we need thoughtful and courageous leaders without any restrictive or ill-faded agendas. We need to prospect for new firms and projects to call Scottsdale home. We need to enhance our current business community and our public schools.
Leaders need to make decisions on merits versus the delivery of hollow, meaningless, and negative campaign promises.
There’s a huge difference between campaigning for office and being an effective leader. Too many wanna-bees just campaign. Too few actually become effective leaders that understand the principles of governance.
It’s time to celebrate and honor what made us successful. There are dozens of things we can do if we simply put our heads together.
Editor’s Note: Gary Shapiro is a Scottsdale resident, Scottsdale Charro and co-founder of Scottsdale Leadership
