Rain in the Rach

This will probably be more interesting tomorrow, but at 4:45 pm on Friday, we have just over a 1/2 inch of rain at the weather station.

More later (rain and news)

Breakfast with Santa

The poster says it all. Stop by, get a picture of the kids with Santa, and meeting some neighbors.

Almost Ready For Some Baseball

There are a couple of articles in the local papers today about Big League Dreams getting ready to open. The AZ Republic article chooses to highlight the negative, with a headline of "Controversial Sports Complex Sets Opening Date." The opening paragraphs don't start with that tone, however:

The Big League Dreams sports complex in Gilbert will have its grand opening Jan. 12.
Details still need to be worked out between the town and Big League Dreams, said Jeff Odekirk, chief operating officer of the Chino Hills, Calif.-based company.

"We're really excited," Odekirk said.

Construction on the complex near Recker and Elliot roads is almost complete.

Gilbert Town Council members are receiving private tours of the facility this week. Members of the media were not permitted to attend.

When it opens, Big League Dreams will feature eight replicas of past and present Major League Baseball stadiums, including Chase Field,for use by adult and youth baseball leagues and tournaments.

The article then goes on to discuss the cost increases and whether the park caters enough to local participants.

The East Valley Tribune article, from which the above picture comes, begins this way:

Gilbert’s Big League Dreams sports complex will celebrate its grand opening Jan. 12 — and eager residents are already signing up to swing their bats in the park’s eight realistic replica baseball fields.

“Everybody basically wants to live that big league dream, and that’s basically what they’re offering kids at a young age,” said James Vieth, regional director of the National Youth Sports organization. “The idea about going to play in a replica stadium, and having gated security at the park, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

More than 6,000 youngsters in T-ball, softball, baseball and other sports leagues will play in the new parks, he said.

The long-anticipated complex officially opens Jan. 19, featuring United States Specialty Sports Association youth league play for its first tournament.

The controversial tag stems from the cost overruns; the park was built during a time of some pretty massive increases in construction costs, and because it is a partnership between the park and the Town of Gilbert, that has been difficult. The Mister, who is an eternal optimist, is being cautiously optimistic about the park. Let's see how it plays out; hopefully, it will be a boon for the town and for Highland Groves residents as well.

Proud Dad Alert!

Some of you may know that I like to fly small planes. It is not important that any of my kids like that, too. But now it appears that one of them does! Our son, Jesse, soloed a Piper Warrior yesterday. That means he flew it around the airport three times, with three landings, all alone. No instructor to save the day if something happened.

That is very cool!

I expect that he will go on and get his full private pilot's license, and perhaps more, but this is a neat milestone, and I wanted to share it. I will save the 20 minutes of video showing a little dot in the sky for a private showing.

Family Friendly

The just-passed Thanksgiving holiday enjoyed unseasonably warm weather; because of that, it felt like my entire neighborhood was taking their breaks from football and turkey by going outside. There were neighborhood versions of football, bike-riders, walkers and joggers, and a ton of kids in the various play areas. The Mister and I are big on family; there is a joke - only a joke, mind you; we have our idiosyncracies just like any other family - that we are the All American Family Without A Dog. We stay in touch and enjoy spending time together and try to support each other through the difficult times. And it appears that we live amongst many many families that feel the same.

A Chapman University professor wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) today that reinforces my anecdotal experience. The title of his opinion piece is "The Rise of Family Friendly Cities" and it begins this way:

For much of the past decade, business recruiters, cities and urban developers have focused on the "young and restless," the "creative class," and the so-called "yuspie" -- the young urban single professional. Cities, they've said, should capture this so-called "dream demographic" if they wish to inhabit the top tiers of the economic food chain and enjoy the fastest and most sustained growth.

This focus -- epitomized by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's risible "Cool Cities" initiative -- is less successful than advertised. Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, Detroit and Memphis have danced to the tune of the hip and the cool, yet largely remain wallflowers in terms of economic and demographic growth. Instead, an analysis of migration data by my colleagues at the Praxis Strategy Group shows that the strongest job growth has consistently taken place in those regions -- such as Houston, Dallas, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham -- with the largest net in-migration of young, educated families ranging from their mid-20s to mid-40s.

I would add Gilbert to that list, and Morrison Ranch too, if my neighbors are any indication. We are surrounded, not only by children, but by doctors and nurses and firefighters and police officers and engineers and entrepreneurs and corporate managers and asset managers; there are single folks, young marrieds, old marrieds, empty-nesters, and retirees. Our racial diversity mirrors Gilbert's demographics; and we lack economic diversity, for obvious reasons. The author talks about the economics as well:

Married people with children tend to be both successful and motivated, precisely the people who make economies go. They are twice as likely to be in the top 20% of income earners, according to the Census, and their incomes have been rising considerably faster than the national average.

Indeed, if you talk with recruiters and developers in the nation's fastest growing regions, you find that the critical ability to lure skilled workers, long term, lies not with bright lights and nightclubs, but with ample economic opportunities, affordable housing and family friendly communities not too distant from work.

There's no need to beat this drum to Morrison Ranch residents; you know what I'm talking about. It's just nice to read folks that agree with us.

There is a basic truth about the geography of young, educated people. They may first migrate to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston or San Francisco. But they tend to flee when they enter their child-rearing years. Family-friendly metropolitan regions have seen the biggest net gains of professionals, largely because they not only attract workers, but they also retain them through their 30s and 40s.

Yup. Welcome to Morrison Ranch.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a short week, and now it is Thanksgiving. I hope you get to spend it with family, like we will. There will be some people missing this year. Gone to a better hope. And there will be great enjoyment of the bonds that family includes.

Have a great day!

Pecan Festival a Success!

Lots of people came out and enjoyed the great weather and the entertainment. The Gilbert Fire Department had a truck on scene. No emergency, just a good will visit. The kids love firemen, and the adults were probably all glad to know the fire department knows where we are!

I am always amazed by the folks who make the balloon animals. At first glance, it is an amazing talent with no great purpose. But if you get to put a smile on hundreds of faces in a hour, what greater reward do you want? We had not one, but two bouncy structures, a house and an obstacle course.

Thanks to all the volunteers who created this event. This was truly a volunteer effort. Without them, it would not have happened. I know a couple of names, but I am afraid to list them, when I know there were several others. I will try to get a more complete list for our thank yous.

Pecan Festival 2007

Am I the only one that feels like the holiday season has snuck up on me while I was still putting away the beach towels?!!!

In that light, I see that our annual Pecan Festival is happening TOMORROW, and I haven't been mentioning it. So here is the scoop:

This year it will be located at the park in Higley Groves, EAST of Higley Road, on Park Blvd. It will be in the afternoon this year, from 2:30-5:30, and I am sure there will be plenty of things to interest the whole family. Come for part or all of the time.

See you there.

Saturday, Nov. 17th, Pecan Festival

The Pecan Festival will be Saturday the 17th from 3-5 or so in the afternoon. It will be in the Higley Groves (East) central park, north of Park Ave.

If you can walk or bike, do so, because parking will be limited. If you need to park, the cul-de-sacs at Cullumber will be a good place.

Speaking of bikes, there will be a bike rodeo, so kids, ride your bikes over and see how you can do. There will be many other activities and sources of entertainment.

See you there!

One, maybe Two Events

If your kids go to Highland Park Elementary, then next Wednesday is Walk to School Day for them. There will be two different places to start, one in Higley Groves and one in Highland Groves. The picture above is from the Greenfield day, and the kids and parents loved it! More details to follow.

No matter where you live, Nov. 17 will be the Pecan Festival. It will be in the central park of Higley Groves. More details on that as well.

Gilbert Values Schools

It was another small turnout at the polls yesterday, but it looks like all 4 items on the ballot passed. The one that interested me most was the one concerning the budget override and the bonding for the new schools.

Those who are new to Gilbert may understand that the town is very committed to its schools, but they may not understand that this has been true for a very long time. Many folks have had the perception for years that a school board position in Gilbert holds more power and prestige than the normal governing positions. So when the rules changed for how schools are built and maintained in Arizona, Gilbert adapted in order to maintain that high standard.

Here is the background of that rule change, from the website of the AZ School Facilities Board:

In 1994, Arizona’s system of school capital finance was declared unconstitutional because it failed to conform to the state constitution’s “general and uniform” clause. That system relied on the secondary property tax, driven by the property wealth of a school district, and general obligation bonding. In 1996, the Arizona Superior Court imposed on the state a deadline of June 30, 1998 to develop a constitutional system of school capital finance or risk closure of K-12 public schools. On July 9, 1998 Governor Jane Dee Hull signed legislation that dramatically reformed the way K-12 schools are constructed in Arizona. This ended the four-year legal and legislative battle and established Arizona as the nation’s school finance reform leader. This legislation/law is known as Students FIRST (Fair and Immediate Resources for Students Today). On November 18, 1999, the Board adopted Building Adequacy Guidelines that now serve as the minimum standards for existing and new school facilities in Arizona.

So when Gilbert failed the Board's formula test to build a new high school, they took it to the voters, and the voters said, "yes, we will fund a new high school and elementary school."

The vote was by a narrow margin; but the town is still committed to schools.

Vote! Today is the day

Today is the day. Get out there and vote.

Here is the article:

www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/1101gr-bond1101-ON.html

A Great Meeting

We had the annual meeting of the Morrison Ranch Residential Association Tuesday night. There were about 20 of us. I wish more had made it. On the other hand, my experience tells me that when few people come it means they are happy with how things are going. I hope this is true for our residents.

There was a great spirit of involvement. We caught up on the lastest developments and reviewed how the assessment money is spent. These meetings are infrequent, but you can always contact Cheryl Miller at Capital Consultants or someone in our office if you need the answer to a neighborhood questions.

Hope to see you next year.

Farmer's Markets at your Fingertips

Now here's an interesting thought; what if there were some sort of directory for fresh farm foods? It turns out that the Arizona Farm Bureau is trying to provide just that. An article in the AZ Republic lays out the concept:

Sahuarita pecans, White Mountain lavender, Camp Verde corn.

The Arizona Farm Bureau's Web page now offers information on where to buy these and many other agricultural goods directly from farmers and ranchers throughout the state.

The object of the new Fill Your Plate feature of www.azfb.org is to introduce individuals, chefs and other businesses to local growers and producers, said Julie Murphree, coordinator and creator of the project.

Some businesses are in cities and others are tucked away in remote rural areas. Although some will ship goods to customers and allow online orders, others are so small that they can only sell to people who drive up, she said. One goal is to let people know of farms in their area that they may not know about.

"The idea behind it is that if you want to get something directly from the farm, you may want to go to the farm. The neat thing about this is that then you get to meet them personally," she said.

"My desire for the public is to feel the farmer-rancher connection, and this is simply one of the tools."

About 40 companies are participating now but Murphree expects more to sign up once they become aware of the virtual farmers market. It is limited to Arizona companies that sell directly to the public.

Check out the rest of the article for some examples of what to find, and check out the website here. Just click on whichever farm interests you and a popup box will give you the information on location and hours.