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Those who help to grow Maricopa must look down the road five, ten and 50 years and plan so that we are able to sustain ourselves even further down the road. One developer told me a couple of years ago, "I see this as a stand alone project." If that is the case, that development does not need to be in our community. Every single thing that we do in these early years will impact what happens in the future, that is why we need to do it right the first time. Since incorporation, we have continued to build our Small Area Transportation Plan. We have implemented our General Plan. We have a strategy for economic development. We have an excellent textbook for growth. The Phoenix Metro area has done some great things over the past 30 years we need to hold up those examples. There have also been some patently bad undertakings. We can learn from those things and make sure that Maricopa does not make the same mistakes. Our growth is rapid. It is also fluid. We can channel the growth and use that energy to build in the right direction
We live in a society of enclosures that isolate us from others. The largest features on our homes are our garage doors that can be closed without leaving our vehicles. We can drive our cars to the mailbox quickly get our mail without stepping two feet outside of the car. Our automobiles are enclosed bubbles where we are safe to yell and express our opinions of others without the consequence others hearing us. As a community we need to invest heavily in our people and instill in them a sense of community, pulling us out of our isolation and into a caring environment. We can do this by investing heavily in our people and making it easy to fellowship. This can be done by developing strong public programs that are family based. We can build venues that foster moving about in the community. A broad range of community events that take place throughout Maricopa are needed to pull people from their homes.
We need to be safe and secure in our environment. Maricopa is building and planning to make a safe community. I lead Maricopa’s public safety committee, so I know the concerns of those in our community. One hurdle we have overcome is the fact that police and fire services were separate agencies not under the city’s control. We have succeeded in bringing police and fire are under the city’s authority – it's one reason we incorporated. We can now facilitate community policing – citizens working along side the police department to ensure a safe community. We need to invest in a community where the citizens have a good relationship with officers. Now that police and fire are under our communities control communications have improved. As we implement intergovernmental agreements with our neighbors, including the city of Phoenix, our ability to protect our community at a higher grows. .
We are creating an environment that will pull jobs into town. We have established employment zones in which to put manufacturing and industrial businesses. Recruitment is a huge part of the mix. I helped to hire one the best at that game to recruit business to Maricopa. We are out there pulling interested parties into our area. If we recruit medical, high-tech and other high-end jobs into Maricopa, other jobs will follow.
Without a doubt, Maricopa’s biggest asset is its people. Maricopa would be nothing without the people who populate it. People drive what we are doing here. Only with direct input from those in our community can we guide our growth to serve us in the most positive way. It’s not the directive of one, two or even seven people, but the community as a whole that will determine what Maricopa can become. That is why we need to instill a sense of community into each and every person that lives here and build our city on the talents of those people. First off, we have an incredible resource of brilliant, intelligent minds. And, daily we send these minds out of town to work and go to school. We need to keep them here by building good jobs within our city. We need to bring higher education into Maricopa to invest in our intellectual capital. Without jobs and education, Maricopa will continue to send our people out of our town to the benefit of other communities when we need them here. I am awed by the caliber of people we have here and their willingness to give to our community.
Because of our remarkable growth and the way that the state and county must manage their traffic plans, we are facing a serious traffic issue. While the city has a traffic plan in place, it needs to enhance that plan to include a broader scope of service. We need more routes into and out of town. Maricopa needs to compel the state to bring the 303 through Rainbow Valley west of town and connect it Highway 238. We need to negotiate with Gila River Indian Community to bring two additional routes into Maricopa - One in the area of 51st Avenue and the other to the east from I-10. We need fluid routes around our area. That means that we need to have a plan in place now for an expressway around Maricopa - A loop if you will. These plans need to be in place now so that we don't run into problems later when there are home in the path of the route. We need to have these plans in place so that when we have a 100,000 people in Maricopa we have the roads or at least the routes in place. |
brentmurphree.com
Issues
TRAFFIC in Maricopa has increased
exponentially since incorporation.
Alternative routes and agreements with
surrounding communities must
happen now!
exponentially since incorporation.
Alternative routes and agreements with
surrounding communities must
happen now!
GROWTH in residential dwellings
must be tempered by growth in the
jobs sector. Unless we plan well
now for the economic base of
Maricopa, we not be able to take
care of our community in the future.
must be tempered by growth in the
jobs sector. Unless we plan well
now for the economic base of
Maricopa, we not be able to take
care of our community in the future.
Home / Brent Bio / Issues / Articles & Writing / Contact Brent / Link
