Breaking Things as Fast as They Can

The Scottsdale City Council’s out-of touch majority is making their mark all right.  They’re breaking things quickly, no one seems to be in charge and they don’t seem to care.  

Sound familiar?   

The city is on the brink of yet another bone-headed decision by this council: turning our backs on $31M dollars of federal revenue that would make a high-accident intersection safer, leaving the city on the hook for replacing those lost dollars some way, some how because the intersection needs fixing.

I’m not a big fan of roundabouts but I AM a big fan of fact-based decision-making.  In former council member Betty Janik’s recent newsletter, she cites these facts - the ones that support the previous council’s decision when it voted in favor of this this project last September. 

“The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHYTO) and the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) report that modern roundabouts result in a reduction of fatal crashes by 90%, injury crashes by 75%, pedestrian crashes by 30-40%, and bicycle crashes by 10%. And roundabouts avoid T-bone crashes, which produce the most injuries.  …they also slow down speeders and drag racers.”

Another side benefit of roundabouts?  They increase traffic capacity by 30-50%, creating better traffic flow and less congestion.

Solange Whitehead provided a great description of what’s at stake in her recent newsletter.  I urge you to read it and I also urge you to subscribe.  You can do both, here.

Need more?  Former Councilwoman Betty Janik recently published a piece on this in the Scottsdale Independent. You can find that here.

Rounding out this lineup, longtime Scottsdale observer Don Henninger nailed it in his own newsletter in a piece titled, “Is Scottsdale’s Reputation on the Line?”  You can read that here.

What to do, what to do?  For openers, attend the council meeting on April 8th.  Gather your personal courage and make a public comment.  I cannot be there, so I’m going to do the next best thing - email the council.  You can, too.

Here’s how:  read the links above, get your facts in hand and, in your own words, write to citycouncil@scottsdaleaz.gov.  We need to keep the pressure on this council.  The more we do, the more attention they’ll get in the press which helps us lay the groundwork for effectively campaigning against this crew in 2026. 

Just getting up to speed on our out-of-control council majority?  Here's a primer on how the council is supposed to work with a bunch of helpful links.  You can subscribe to get council agenda notifications, here.

Just to get you mentally prepared for the 2026 council race, we will be voting for 3 council member seats.  Solange is running again, Barry Graham will run for re-election (ugh!) and Kathy Littlefield is term-limited and cannot run again.  Get informed and stay tuned.