Since 1964, Guidon Books has helped put the "charm" in charming and the "funk" in funky of our eclectic downtown shopping area.
The family-owned business that specializes in offering new and old books about American history, including Western literature, has been a staple for many residents and tourists. For more than 50 years, the bookstore has endured fluctuating economies and changing shopping trends.
That's about to change, because next month Guidon Books is leaving downtown and is headed for (of all places) the Airpark.
This column isn't about Guidon Books - it's about the circumstances surrounding the bookstore that its owner, Shelly Dudley, had to confront: an evolving downtown where quaint shops and galleries are being replaced by new restaurants and residences. There's even an emergence of new offices.
Today, there's less strolling the streets by window shoppers and more surfing the web by customers making online purchases.
However, Fashion Square, our downtown shopping mecca, seems to be holding its own - especially compared to the struggling shops and floundering art galleries south of Camelback Road. According to the City of Scottsdale, Fashion Square generates 70% of the sales tax revenue in the downtown area. Trying to quantify how many people annually shop downtown is difficult, but it's estimated that every year 10 million shoppers pass through the invisible turnstiles of Fashion Square.
Almost exactly one year ago, the Voice of Scottsdale published a column called "Art Galleries Still Adjusting To New Normal." That headline said it all. Not much has changed since last summer. Most gallery owners continue to struggle and many downtown merchants are in the same boat. Both need to create a new marketplace paradigm that generates more customers.
But so far many of the businesses have become their own worst enemy. They're resisting adapting to the world that's changing all around them. Many are doing the same old thing to market their businesses and expecting different results.
Earlier this month City Council candidate and China Mist co-founder Dan Schweiker summed up the situation: "My heart goes out to the galleries, but I think they are misguided in thinking that special events are their enemy. The real challenge is that the marketplace has changed and I don't think it will ever go back to the good old days."
Thanks to a coalition of gallery owners and merchants who ran Artisan Markets out of downtown last year, the city was prompted to update the special events ordinance, which hadn't been done for 23 years. It went into effect July 1st.
The updated special events ordinance will allow the gallery owners and the downtown Farmers' Market to be treated differently than other event producers. No events will be allowed downtown on Thursday nights if the applicant is perceived to be in conflict with the gallery-sponsored Art Walk. The Farmer's Market will not be required to apply for an event permit every three months like many event producers.
Some are saying the revamped ordinance may be "overkill." French Thompson, who owns French Designer Jewelers on Main Street, has said he thinks "the pendulum may now have swung back" the other way by creating a more restrictive set of criteria. Mayor Lane said he worries that the new restrictions may create "a perception that we don't want events," or are even trying to discourage them -- which is not the case, he adds.
Meanwhile, Shelly Dudley is starting to pack up Guidon Books' more than 30,000 books in preparation for her store's move from east 2nd Street to the Airpark. She says the new owners of the building from which she's moving will be converting the location into ... you guessed it: office space.
Six More Months of Possible Changes
This is the year a lot of things could change for our city.
When we all look back on 2016, we'll recall it was the year a crusade began that could end up killing what some thought was going to be the city's Next Big Idea: the Desert Discovery Center. It's the year that any discussion of light rail went from simply being taboo to being terminated. And it may also be the year when the Chamber of Commerce is officially declared just a business club that no longer has influence on important issues.
Most significantly ... 2016 could be the period in which mainstream opinion leaders who thought they could rest on their laurels were displaced by the voices of grassroots groups who are "mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore."
These aren't predictions, just possibilities - especially if current trends continue. And if they do, our city may be reaching a turning point.
But don't jump to conclusions about the City Council race. The composition of the Council isn't expected to change. With only four candidates running, voters will likely return incumbents Suzanne Klapp, Virginia Korte and Guy Phillips. All three have the name identification and money to motivate voters. The only other candidate, successful businessman Dan Schweiker, may be in the wrong place at the wrong time - and he could be the victim of what feisty baseball legend Leo Durocher used to say: "Nice guys finish last."
Meanwhile, on the campaign trail ... after Bill Crawford withdrew from the mayoral contest, the race between Jim Lane and Bob Littlefield has turned into the nasty two-man duel that was originally predicted. Lane and Littlefield not only have political differences - their perceptions of the city are diametrically opposed.
Proving that political hyperbole is alive and well in the Lane camp, the Mayor is accusing Littlefield of making Scottsdale sound like Detroit. Littlefield is also starting to get under Lane's skin. "People who know me will easily attest to the fact that I am not an angry or unreasonable guy," Mayor Lane wrote to his supporters. "I am now however astonished to the point of anger that someone who is running for mayor has such an absurdly negative view of our city and our accomplishments since our recovery from the worst economic downturn that Scottsdale has ever endured."
And Littlefield, no stranger to bombastic rhetoric, recently wrote: "If the Mayoral campaign focuses on his (Lane's) record he will be defeated in a landslide, so he is desperate to divert the conversation to any other subject. He most certainly does not want to contrast his voting record with my record of consistently supporting Scottsdale residents during my 12-plus years on the City Council."
Not surprisingly, Mayor Lane has raised five times as much money as former Councilman Littlefield, who has never been a prolific fundraiser. The funding differential could be the game changer - particularly in a general election in which nearly 100,000 residents are expected to vote. Lane will have the resources to reach most of those voters ... Littlefield won't.
However, the contentious presidential election that's driving voter turnout will also bring out more conservative voters - whether they're pro-Trump or anti-Clinton. That could help level the playing field for Littlefield, a populist, anti-establishment candidate.
With six months left in 2016, anything may still be possible:
Gallery owners may finally figure out that shopping patterns and downtown demographics have changed, so Fashion Square will likely be the business, retail and residential hub of downtown. Applications to build more apartments may slow down. And hopefully the Cultural Council's new branding campaign won't be too little too late.
If there's truth to the rumor that the Scottsdale Independent will be increasing the size of it's staff later this year, the Scottsdale Republic may cry uncle and stop pretending to publish a real newspaper.
And who knows ... 2016 just may be the year the city hires a new city manager who stays more than two years.
WANTED: More City Manager Candidates
As temperatures soared to record levels, things also heated up for the City Council. In fact it appears that a political high-pressure system has stalled over City Hall.
After several months of dealing with torturous issues like the next step for the Desert Discovery Center, debating the Transportation Master Plan and dissecting the Police Department's performance study - the Council's discord peaked during the selection process of a permanent city manager.
Their long-awaited decision about a city manager landed with a thud.
Following three stressful hours of deliberation in executive session, the Council was unable to reach a consensus on any one of the three candidates. City Hall watchers know how critical it is for Councilmembers to reach unanimity when hiring a charter officer. Because compromise wasn't in the cards, the Council couldn't reach the all-important 7-0 vote for a single candidate. However, the Council agreed to disagree - and then instructed James Mercer of The Mercer Group, which had been heading up the search throughout the spring, to cast a wider net for new candidates and also initiate a more aggressive advertising campaign.
The Council will be presented with the new pool of candidates in the fall.
That means Brian Biesemeyer could be acting City Manager for up to six more months. Biesemeyer, who has already been filling in for more than a year, was recently rewarded with two weeks of extra vacation when he resumes his duties as Executive Director of Water Resources. Someday.
In the meantime ... two city departments (and maybe more) are spiraling out of control - which actually started about six months ago. As one City Hall dweller recently put it: "While the cat's away, the mice will play." In other words, without a permanent city manager to keep department heads and their employees accountable, some have gone rogue. And if this trend continues for another six months, a couple of departments could become feral.
The next city manager will find him or her self in the unenviable position of repairing the damage done over what could end up being an entire year of some bureaucrats' bad behavior.
There was a time when Brian Biesemeyer was being blamed for much of the upheaval. But it's time for the blame game to stop. If the city bureaucracy were a sport, it would be said that Biesemeyer has not only been playing out of position, but he has been doing it for much too long. When he was appointed to replace Fritz Behring, no one expected him to carry the ball for a year and a half - including Biesemeyer.
When all is said and done, the buck now stops with the City Council.
Some Councilmembers weren't convinced the finalists for city manager were the best the city could find ... or, in other words, not up to "Scottsdale's standards." Other members weren't keen on the process that was used to winnow down to the final three candidates - especially when all the charter officers, except candidate Jeff Nichols, became part of the screening process.
Before Councilmembers even began the two-day interview process with the candidates, Biesemeyer was asked if he would consider serving six more months, just in case the Council failed to reach a consensus. He accepted. So Plan B was already in place if things didn't go to the Council's satisfaction during the interviews.
Is it possible that the City Council created a self-fulfilling prophecy?
FYI: Our overworked and underpaid City Council meets next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Following next week's meetings, they will take their summer recess and return to action on Tuesday, August 30th.
Is The Next Big Idea For Scottsdale in Jeopardy?
It's astonishing to watch all those who have worked so hard for so long to make the Desert Discovery Center a reality being so outmaneuvered by a grassroots group of citizens staking claim to our McDowell Sonoran Preserve.
The silence of the DDC supporters is deafening.
The proponents of the DDC have settled into "silent majority" status. In doing so, they're conceding momentum to their opposition in the battle to win the hearts and minds of the public - the same ones who may some day vote on where to locate the DDC. Or maybe even have a say in whether or not it's built at all.
Guy Phillips is having a heyday, thanks to no opposing opinion from the DDC supporters. But Councilman Phillips is just getting warmed up. He's making his opposition to the DDC the cornerstone of his re-election campaign.
Phillips may be a Pied Piper. But he's not a one-man band.
The Coalition of Greater Scottsdale (COGS) is helping build grassroots support to stymie the construction of the DDC at the Gateway Trailhead inside the boundaries of the Preserve. COGS, citing a petition signed by more than 600 citizens to prevent the DDC from being located in the Preserve, suggests erecting the project at the site of the former Loloma School at Goldwater Boulevard and 2nd Street or on land the city owns near WestWorld or in Old Town next to the Museum of the West.
Scottsdale's Tea Party affiliate has also piped up about the process. According to remarks directed at DDC supporters by the organization's spokesperson, Pat Shaler: "I respect the many years of effort many of you have placed in establishing the Preserve; however, neither that, nor the fact that some of you have been planning on a DDC at Gateway for a long time, justifies going forward against the wishes of the voters, now that we see what you want. We approved the Bonds for a Preserve - not for Disneyland on the Desert."
Make no mistake ... most people who criticize the DDC object to it based primarily on its proposed location inside the Preserve. However, many are also not amenable to tax dollars, including bed tax dollars, being used to underwrite the project's construction costs. That means the controversy over the DDC can be expected to drag on for months ... maybe even longer.
In the meantime, the DDC supporters have a story to tell. But, unfortunately, no one is telling it. And, as a result, those who are opposing the DDC are, in political terms, "owning" the argument. They have also for all intents and purposes declared themselves the sole stewards of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. And no one is challenging them.
If anyone or any organization was willing to speak up, they would tell the public how important the DDC could be in helping to expand tourism and make the Preserve a destination, not just an interlude between shopping, dining and golfing. Just ask our Convention and Visitors Bureau: today travelers are looking for an "experience." Plenty of places other than Scottsdale have beautiful weather, scenic open spaces and majestic mountains for people to commune with nature.
If they took the time, supporters would explain the critical role the DDC would play in educating those of all ages from a lot of places about the Sonoran Desert's eco-system.
And if they got around to it, supporters would make the case that the DDC would be a one-of-a-kind facility like no other in the country. In other words ... Scottsdale's "Next Big Idea."
However, the most important thing proponents of the Desert Discovery Center could do is tell people that Guy Phillips, COGS and the Tea Party don't speak for everyone -- even though it seems that way since no one is saying otherwise.