Greg Stanton was inaugurated as Phoenix’s mayor Tuesday in a politically star-studded event during which Stanton and the City Council stressed the importance of a healthy downtown area, higher-education opportunities and a cooperative atmosphere among government leaders.
Stanton, who won the election in a run-off against Wes Gullett, drew a crowd of state and local political leaders, including former Gov. Rose Mofford, who swore Stanton in.
In his address, Stanton laid out economic plans for the city, focusing on downtown development, higher-education opportunities and bioscience job opportunities. He said downtown Phoenix is necessary for the economic stability of the entire state.
“A great downtown must not only be a center of commerce, arts and culture and entertainment, but it must also be a great neighborhood for those that live here and the thousands soon to come,” he said. “And I promise you today that I will continue to enthusiastically support our great downtown as mayor of the city of Phoenix.”
Stanton said one reason Arizona has been hit particularly hard by the recession is the Phoenix area’s history of urban sprawl, which left the city with an empty downtown.
“We found out again, the hard way, that subsidizing sprawl is not smart economic development.”
State Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who represents a portion of downtown Phoenix, attended the inauguration and echoed Stanton’s view on downtown’s economic role.
“This idea of battling Scottsdale and Chandler just doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “We have to have a regional approach to economic development because in the end, our fight is going to be with the Singapores (and) the Mexico Cities … of the world.”
Former Phoenix mayor and state Attorney General Terry Goddard said Stanton could contribute to the downtown economy without matching outgoing Mayor Phil Gordon’s record of major accomplishments like the Metro light rail and Phoenix Biomedical Campus. Goddard said downtown Phoenix needs a more detail-oriented approach than large, highly visible accomplishments.
“Downtown has been fixated … on big projects,” Goddard said. “What I think Greg’s talent is going to be is, because he’s a detail guy, to get down and dirty on what happens block by block. And if you look around downtown, that’s what’s missing. You’ll have one block and then a vacant area.”
But Stanton already has one large project in mind. He said in his address that he plans to expand university partnerships with the city of Phoenix. He said the first thing he plans to do as mayor is to form the Desert Ridge Bioscience and Technology Collaborative, a new collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and state universities to develop a biomedical campus in north Phoenix.
“It’s going to build complementary uses around that campus that focus on higher education, research and development and technology-based employment — the kinds of jobs we need if we are to advance our city,” Stanton said.
Stanton knows firsthand the effect universities can have on the city. After the inauguration, he told the Downtown Devil that ASU’s Downtown campus has a “critical” role in contributing to downtown’s development.
“We’re partners in so many ways — not just institution to institution, (but) those students who go to ASU Downtown are the future of our city,” Stanton said.
Stanton also mentioned in his address making City Hall more accessible to the public, saying the city’s website and public meeting notices should be more user-friendly. He mentioned using YouTube and Skype to broadcast meetings and holding more meetings when most people are not working.
Councilmen Bill Gates and Michael Nowakowski and Vice Mayor Thelda Williams were inaugurated after being re-elected, along with Daniel Valenzuela, the only new council member.
Valenzuela drew a standing ovation after stressing the importance of cooperation among the council and backing Stanton as mayor after a competitive election.
“We can disagree, and we will disagree. But we can do so without being disagreeable,” Valenzuela said. “Whether it is Greg Stanton or any one of his worthy opponents standing on this stage today, my message would be the same. The election is over, now let’s all get behind our new mayor.”
Contact the reporter at john.l.fitzpatrick@asu.edu
