Businesses come to Phoenix because labor is cheap. So business attraction ain't that hard.

Phoenix Gov't couldn't give a shit about anything that happens outside a 1 square mile circle of downtown, where City Hall, the Courts, the stadiums, the convention center, a lot of very expensive hip bars, is.

Outside of that downtown circle it's terribly shitty services. One example, the "nearby" police station in North Phoenix doesn't actually have a lobby for people to come in and see an officer. It's labeled police station, and it takes up real estate, but if you walk into to report a crime they have to dispatch a cop to meet you and take your report in the parking lot.

I hope Santa Ana enjoys this guy.

What drug is that councilman taking? How is the guy going to save Santa Ana a dime? I get that somebody needs to be in charge, but in my adult life, I am aware of exactly one success story in that area, namely the merger of services in Indianapolis.

Around here we have high taxes, low growth, and city, county and various municipal governments. The Village of East Syracuse just voted to keep the village police department, and not merge with the town PD. (East Syracuse has its own government, is part of the town of DeWitt, which has its own government and is in Onondaga County, which has its own government.) The Village just got hit with a double digit tax increase, and the residents are angry.

So, if you're looking for government, come here. We've got it.

No, I don't believe that Phoenix was that well-managed at all. She instantly made the rest of the X-Men "fifth-wheels," due to her vast powers. With Phoenix around, there was simply no need for anyone else on the team.

And the subsequent retcon wasn't very convincing, which revised the original, making Phoenix not truly Jean Grey at all, but a cosmic entity which appropriated her likeness and persona.

Really, Marvel should have just let Phoenix die and left it at that. The story of her suicide in X-Men 137 was very well done, and Chris Claremont and John Byrne should be commended. The retcon, allowing the returns of both Phoenix and Jean Grey, basically undercut this amazing and poignant story.

Oh, wait. You meant the city of Phoenix, AZ? No, I don't think it was all that well-managed, and I don't think a city manager of any city is worth half a million dollars.

Just goes to show you, the only thing the government does with any effectiveness is line their own pockets.

I haven't taken a sick day in 10 years.

Yeah, that's nice.

I have a shit-ton of sick leave, and guess what? when I leave my employment, I will be paid for a certain number of hours at the rate I'm getting paid when I leave.

Now, it isn't all of my leave, but it is a sizable number, and it will be a generous sum of cash.

OK, Patrick, you had me going there for a minute.

"One example, the 'nearby' police station in North Phoenix doesn't actually have a lobby for people to come in and see an officer. "

But... but... stadium! Hipster bars! Government jobs! Economic windfall!!!!2!22!!!

A library card in Santa Ana costs $50! And parking is only validated for 1 hour.

jerry is right, Phoenix was not well managed at all

I live in an unincorporated area of my suburb, and because of that I would have to pay $165 a year for a library card. I'll borrow my sister's card thank you.

The last time I flew out of Phoenix (flew in at night, so didn't see much coming in), I passed through scary neighborhoods with drunks passed out on the sidewalks (ironically, under billboards advertising liquor), graffiti on the walls and fences, bars on the windows, crowds of young men looking menacingly at all passersby, and what I can only hope were hookers on street corners (if not hookers then young women in Phoenix need some serious fashion guidance).

Granted, airports don't generally get built in the swankier neighborhoods, but this went way beyond anything I've seen in LA, Seattle, Chicago, Madison, Denver, Charlotte, Oakland, Dallas, Tampa, Jacksonville, or San Francisco. El Paso was pretty bad, so it may be a border cities issue. Still ... not the kinda thing that would make me believer the city manager was a municipal turnaround artist.

Downtown Phoenix was nice ... suburban sterile ... but nice.

$165.........wow.

The last time I flew out of Phoenix (flew in at night, so didn't see much coming in), I passed through scary neighborhoods with drunks passed out on the sidewalks (ironically, under billboards advertising liquor), graffiti on the walls and fences, bars on the windows, crowds of young men looking menacingly at all passersby, and what I can only hope were hookers on street corners (if not hookers then young women in Phoenix need some serious fashion guidance).

Jeez Conan, that is scary. Should this happen again, please suggest to the pilot that he or she climb a bit higher.

Jeez Conan, that is scary. Should this happen again, please suggest to the pilot that he or she climb a bit higher.

LOL

I'll do that, jerry.

Although having coffee while watching geriatric motorists scramble out of the way of Boeing's latest deathtrap and trying to restart their defibrillators sure beats watching the in-flight movie.

I should have been more clear. The experiences I described happened while riding in a car to the airport - the driver did not wear a seat belt and yakked on his cell phone the entire trip.

I'm leaving Arizona off my travel list for a while.

"I live in an unincorporated area of my suburb, and because of that I would have to pay $165 a year for a library card."

Bet that boosts the literacy rate. These people have a different goal than getting folks into the library. Now, why is that?

I haven't been to a library in years. Engineering Toolbox, NIST, and the 4+ terabyte engineering document database at work are all available online.

Bookstores have more about Snooki or entertainment figures than they do about George Washington, who might as well be an alien for what people really know about him.

The Internet has stuff libraries don't, because nerds are ridiculously effective at publishing information online. You've probably noticed it's not all about pictures of cats and arguing with strangers.

I don't recall the area around the airport in El Paso being particularly bad. Then again, most of it was under construction the last time I was there.

Well after double checking my local library's website, I've found I can save a few buck now. The last time I looked a few years back it was a flat rate of $165/year for anyone living in the unincorporated areas. Now it seems that they calculate based on your home's Net Taxable Value. When I plugged in my numbers it still came out to around $145. If you rent, you have to provide a copy of your lease and your yearly fee is 15% of your monthly rent. That’s a lot of money for a library card. Don't get me wrong, we have a wonderful library system in the Chicago suburbs. And like Amy said, we can order anything from other libraries in our system. But I'm with Rad about researching things on the internet. Unless you have a fiction addiction you can't afford to feed I see no need to pay that for a library card.

I live in an unincorporated area of my suburb, and because of that I would have to pay $165 a year for a library card. ~ Jill

Bet that boosts the literacy rate. These people have a different goal than getting folks into the library. ~ Radwaste

Municipal taxes pay for the library. People in unincorporated areas don't pay municipal taxes. So they must pay a user fee for the things the municipal taxes provide.

Is $165 a reasonable user fee? Probably not.

The cost of adding another person to the library user base probably does not come close to $165.

As Radwaste said, municipal user fees are not designed to provide a product at a reasonable cost and cultivate a customer base (like those evil for-profit corporations who keep improving the product and lowering the prices because they have to fight other corporations for every customer).

With Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and used book stores, I haven't been to the library in years.

At $165 (per year!) for a library card, it would be many more years before I go back. I can buy plenty of used paperbacks for that.

I don't recall the area around the airport in El Paso being particularly bad. Then again, most of it was under construction the last time I was there.

It has been a long time since I was there, so it may be better today.

I just remember it being an area I wanted to get out of as quickly as possible.