In his third State of the City address, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton praised the city’s current direction while urging action on education, transportation and international trade.
The event was held at the Phoenix Convention Center and organized by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Stanton pointed to the city’s “buy local” policy, increase in adaptive reuse projects, creation of Downtown Phoenix, Inc. and perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index as large successes over the year.
“For two years now, we’ve been working as a team, setting aside our differences to prove that when we put partnership before partisanship, anything is possible,” Stanton said. “And because of that teamwork, there is no doubt Phoenix is a better place today than we were just two years ago, and we are growing stronger every single day.”
Todd Sanders, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, said Stanton has been a strong ally to the business community.
“I think he’s one of the greatest leaders we’ve had in the city of Phoenix,” he said. “Since he took office just over two years ago, he’s really made a difference in Phoenix. As a result of his leadership, things are happening in this city. Those of us in the business community consider Mayor Stanton to be an asset.”
During the speech, Stanton announced that the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management would join its Biomedical campus downtown. The move will bring 160 MBA students to the downtown area by next year, Stanton said.
Stanton also praised co-working spaces and incubators such as Co+Hoots and Seed Spot, saying that they have “ignited the Valley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem” and are “giving young entrepreneurs a place to thrive.”
Odeen Domingo, a founding member of Co+Hoots, said he was pleased with Stanton’s praise.
“One of our biggest goals is showing that there’s talent here in Arizona,” Domingo said. “They just need a place to show off that talent and grow their business.”
Domingo said he has seen the companies that work together at Co+Hoots grow stronger over the past year and that the city should continue to support businesses by understanding and utilizing the local talent available to them.
“From what we’ve seen from the companies that work out of here, we’ve seen them grow,” he said. “We’ve seen the local economy grow. We have a lot of companies that started here and have grown out of our space.”
Stanton said that while many positive changes have happened in Phoenix, the city needs to focus on the future in order to remain competitive with other large cities.
“We’ve accomplished many great things — these are just a few,” Stanton said. “I could go on and on about the past two years, but instead I’d like to talk about the future: the next two years, the next six years and beyond.”
To prepare for that future, Stanton called for the city to increase the number of miles of light rail in coming decades and double trade with Mexico over the next five years.
“The 17 miles of rail we have — it’s great,” Stanton said. “But to prepare for our growth, we have to triple the miles of light rail in Phoenix over the next 30 years. Triple.”
Domingo said that Co+Hoots’ location next to the light rail has been critical to helping it accomplish its goals.
“Even though we’re not specifically in the core of downtown, we’re so much more accessible,” Domingo said. “Being where we are right now in proximity to the light rail has really helped us just getting more people out here and making it more accessible for our members to bike and light rail.”
Stanton closed his speech by saying that Phoenix should change the way it approaches its future.
“The outdated model of the past, long-term decline, that doesn’t have to be our future,” he said. “Our future is exciting. The possibilities are endless.”
Contact the reporter at travis.arbon@asu.edu
