Corey has been the Mayor of Tempe for just 6 weeks and is learning quickly how to deal with difficult problems. He expects to see a 14% decline in revenue this year. The city has a rainy day fund which is allowing them to maintain most services, only needing to furlough about 500 part-time staff. Projects that are delayed or reprioritized include park improvements, Tempe Center for the Arts, and hiking and bicycle pathways.  The homeless population has increased by 6% compared to Maricopa county's 14%. The morale remains high in all departments and the public has not been complaining.The Mayor is going to lead a task force to look at ways to improve services in the coming years with less revenue.  His presentation can be seen HERE and a question and answer session can be seen HERE

 

The following video will be available until September 15.

 

Alyson showed us a video that gave an overview of the Rosie's House programs as well as some of the students. She told us that Rosie's House was the creation of Rosies Schurz over 24 years ago. It was founded to provide free after school musical education for students who come from economically deprived families. In 2018/2019 they provided over 19,000 hours of instruction and loaned over 300 instruments. They are organized into 6 departments and 3 major programs. which are: Activity in the Community; Mentoring in classrooms; and College path. Students range in age from 5 to 18 and the majority come from South Phoenix where most schools are under-resourced. In Arizona, 53% of students go to college while 97% of Rosie's House students go to college.  The goal of the organization is to increase enrollment in Rosie's House by 30%. Today approximately 1/2 of all applicants are accepted. See Alyson's slide show HERE.

 

 

Jared began his studies at University of Arizona and finished at ASU in 1989. He began as an archeologist, moved into history and then became a historical archeologist, first in Mesa and then in Tempe. He told us how veterans from both sides of the civil war settled in Tempe. An interesting tidbit is that Waylan Jennings began his career at JD's in Tempe. He said that many people in the "wild west" moved around and new each other. He recommended visiting the Museum website which has several major categories to see. He explained the boundaries of Tempe and how they originated. His presentation can be seen by clicking HERE.  The question and answer session can be seen by clicking HERE