Henninger: Can future Scottsdale leaders transcend stagnant directional planning?

Don Henninger, executive director of the Scottsdale Coalition of Today & Tomorrow, shared his opinion in an editorial in the Scottdale Independent that Scottsdale residents have installed a new City Council and presumably a fresh set of objectives and goals moving forward for the city yet
the idea that a new year and “new” council means a new set of goals and objectives for the city remains elusive.

"There is nothing happening to suggest the city won’t continue bumping along from one issue and controversy to another with little insight," he wrote.

"In 2003 a group of civic and business leaders, worried about the city’s future, partnered with the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University to identify issues that would help shape the direction of the city. They produced a set of questions to offer guidance in setting a strategic map for Scottsdale.

"The questions remain valid and basically unanswered to this day," he wrote.

"The report said the challenge is to bring the different parts together so that Scottsdale does not become Splitsdale,” he continued. "An updated General Plan would help address these issues, and there is talk that the city might take another shot at that.

"In 2020, three council seats and the mayor’s office will be up for grabs. Let’s start posing these questions to candidates and let them articulate where they see the city headed in the next decade. Let’s ask them to start forming a vision for the city’s future," he wrote.

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