Phoenix Rises: Opportunity for all
Phoenix’s success depends not only on the strength of our economy, but on the opportunities available to everyone.
Over the past six years, Mayor Stanton and Phoenix have been building toward a shared goal: create a city that respects, welcomes, and fosters real opportunity for everyone.
Whether it’s at work, at home, in our courts, or on our city streets, Phoenix has shown that government can be a positive force for good.
We’ve made equal rights the law, opened up doors for adults and youth to earn a quality education, and reshaped city processes to be more accessible.
Making Anti-discrimination the Law
Taking a stand against discrimination isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s good for the economy too.
Mayor Stanton led the City Council in passing the state’s first law to safeguard LGBT individuals, veterans and those with disabilities against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. Phoenix also achieved another first, becoming the only city in Arizona to offer transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits to city employees and their families. Those initiatives helped earned Phoenix a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign on the Municipal Equality Index — five years in a row.
Phoenix also made strides to close the gender wage gap. Stanton and the City Council unanimously approved an Equal Pay Ordinance, which guarantees women and men earn equal pay for equal work at the City of Phoenix or with vendors who work with the City of Phoenix.
Carving Pathways of Opportunity
To build an economy that can succeed in the long-term, Stanton worked with the City Council to forge pathways of opportunity for everyone.
Expanding opportunity includes making affordable housing options available to low-income, working families. Over the last six years, Phoenix has invested more than $188 million to add nearly 4,000 affordable housing units.
Phoenix passed commonsense criminal justice and court reform. Today, the city meets residents where they’re at financially, setting up payment plans for traffic tickets and fees. That’s just not good government, it’s turned out to be good for the bottom line too: In just two years, more than 25,000 people made good on more than $13.7 million in delinquent obligations.
With its near a dozen reengagement centers, Phoenix became a model of how to reengage youth. The City teamed up with several community partners to actively connect opportunity youth — people ages 16–24 who are not in school or not working — to career and education opportunities. The results: Phoenix saw a 26 percent drop in 2017 of the number of opportunity youth. And through the Career Online High School at Burton Barr Library, adults who didn’t finish their high school education earn not just a GED but an accredited high school diploma.
A More Efficient, Transparent City Hall
In 2017, Governing Magazine named Phoenix the highest performing government in the country — and for good reason: We’ve worked to cut the red tape and increase transparency in government.
Just this year, in a historic moment, the City Council approved sending a proposal to voters in November that would amend the City Charter, requiring disclosure of “dark money” campaign donations that are intended to influence city elections.
Stanton took the hammer to pension spiking through several civilian retirement system reforms — getting costs under control and saving taxpayers more than $1.1 billion over the next 25 years.
Under Stanton’s leadership, the Phoenix Planning Department launched 24-hour online permitting and moved all minor construction permits online. To streamline services, the City of Phoenix also co-located with Maricopa County on the second floor of City Hall to create a one-stop shop for businesses seeking a wide range of permits.
To increase transparency and civic participation, all Phoenix City Council meetings are now televised on public access channel PHX11 as well as streamed live online.
Driving Economic Opportunity Through Public Transit
Investments in our growing transit system are closing the distance between Phoenix residents and access to career as well as education opportunities.
In 2015, Mayor Stanton and the City Council asked voters to approve Proposition 104 — now known as Transportation 2050 — a 35-year, $31 billion plan to transform how we move around the city.
It’s helping make Phoenix more accessible: Transportation 2050’s first capital project is building a light rail station right next to Ability 360. When it opens in 2019, the new Washington/50th Street station will be a model of accessibility for individuals with disabilities.
Bus ridership is in decline nationwide, but it’s been growing in Phoenix after the expansion of bus and Dial-a-Ride service hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to match light rail. Bus frequency also extended to at least every half hour.
Transportation 2050 builds on the light rail extensions to northwest Phoenix neighborhoods, where Stanton and the City Council worked through tough economic times to accelerate the construction of the three-mile extension of light rail to Dunlap Avenue. It opened in 2016 — a full seven years early.
And more tracks are on the way. Phoenix will open the light rail line to Metro Center three years early, and the South Central Extension more than a decade ahead of schedule.
