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Vintage Voice | Community Involvement & Hands-On History · The Vintage Voice

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  [music]
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  Thank you for joining us on the Vintage Voice.
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  I'm Jessica Rapp and I'm here today with my awesome co-host Kiley Hunter.
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  Today we have some exciting guests from the city of Scottsdale and they're here to
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  talk to us about the Community Involvement Department.
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  We have Joy Racine and Bruce Wall.
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  So thank you guys so much for being here today.
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  >> Yes, thank you.
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  >> So let's get to know you guys a little bit.
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  So Joy, you can start.
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  How long have you been with the City?
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  >> I've been with the City for over 24 years.
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  >> Wow, that's a long time.
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  Dedicated employee.
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  And what, give us a little background about your time with the city and how you
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  got to this point as the manager of Community Involvement.
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  >> So started out as part-time Parks and Rec, summer programming, worked at the
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  Senior Center and then just the programs overall and then worked at Vista Del
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  Camino youth program, after-school program then transitioned into Citizen Service,
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  which ultimately has morphed and changed over the
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  last 15 years and is now Community Involvement.
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  >> That's great.
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  I'm excited to hear more about what you guys do.
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  And then just for something fun, what's your favorite spot in Scottsdale?
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  >> Well, as I said, I started at the Senior Center, so Via Linda will always
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  have a special place in my heart because that is where I
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  got my start, part-time working that front desk.
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  So it just, you know, I look at the senior center and all the people that come
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  through it, it's not, when the number of people who would say, this is a senior
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  center, you know, the image that you have and then, but when
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  you actually go into our senior centers, it's not that at all.
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  And it's just, it's really for anybody of all ages and the people that you meet,
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  the events that they host, the programs that they
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  offer, Via Linda will always be my favorite spot.
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  >> Your special spot, yeah.
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  >> I love that.
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  We both worked at Via Linda, so we understand the charm to it.
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  >> Yes. >> All right, Bruce, your turn.
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  So how long have you been with the city?
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  >> I've been with the city for two stints, one from 2002
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  to 2009, then a second one from 2011 until today.
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  >> Wow.
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  So another long-term dedicated employee.
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  [laughter]
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  >> Tell us about your background with the city and then how you got to this point.
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  >> I was hired as a Neighborhood Safety Advisor with the Citizen Neighborhood
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  Resources Department, and then I eventually transitioned over to the
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  Scottsdale Police Department for about six years.
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  Then I went to the Planning Department, the Office of Communications, and now the
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  Community Involvement as part of the City Manager's Office.
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  >> Wow, that's a fun, different career.
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  You've got a lot of different places.
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  [laughter]
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  >> And I'm really excited to talk to you today because I know you have a lot of
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  history, historical knowledge of Scottsdale, but before we get into that,
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  tell us about your favorite spot in Scottsdale.
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  >> My favorite spot, Jessica, you are not going to be surprised at all.
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  My favorite spot is Cattle Track Arts and Preserve.
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  >> I'm not surprised.
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  Tell us about it.
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  >> Artists just seem to show up and come there and want to stay there.
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  Today there's over 23 artists working there in their shops and studios,
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  and they also have performance events and talks and lectures and visiting artists,
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  and just it's an incredible hive of things going on and great activity.
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  And I was very much part of an archive project to try and capture all the books
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  into one document so that we could, anyone can see all the different books
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  that Cattle Track has to offer because it's an amazing collection.
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  >> Yeah, that place is really amazing, and if any of the viewers have not heard
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  of it or been to it, I think that they should really try to check it out.
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  They have a website, right?
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  >> They do, cattletrack.org, and usually Monday through Friday from about 10 a.m.
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  to 4 p.m.
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  they are open.
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  Not every artist will be there.
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  Sometimes some will have an appointment or something, but you'll see, you can walk
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  through the studios, see them working, and see some of the stuff that they've made.
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  It's really a remarkable place.
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  >> It really is, I agree.
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  >> Cool.
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  >>All right.
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  >> So Joy, tell us about the community involvement team and all the
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  exciting things you're doing for the community.
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  >> Sure, so with community involvement, that's exactly what it is.
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  It's how do we engage, how do we involve the community with local government?
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  We want to strengthen the relationship with the community, because a lot of
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  people, they think local government, they think politics
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  or something out there, you know, making laws and policies.
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  But when you really get down to it, local government is all about our
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  libraries, our parks, our tourism, our, you name it, senior centers,
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  the community centers.
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  You know, we have so many resources.
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  We oversee water, solid waste, so there's so many things that we do.
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  And so with Community Involvement, our job is really
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  to help residents have an understanding of what we do.
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  And through that, we host a lot of educational programs.
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  So we have our Citizens Academy, Government 101.
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  We have our offshoot of that, Government 202, where residents can really take a
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  deep dive and meet departments, understand what the departments offer,
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  what resources and programs are there.
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  We also host the WIMBY event, What's in My Backyard, another event where residents
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  can meet their departments, because so many
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  people, as I said, they don't know what we do.
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  They don't know who to go to.
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  They don't know who to ask.
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  They see something and they see something.
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  Well, who do I go to take care of that?
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  Or who can I go to for help?
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  How can I help?
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  How can I give back?
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  So being able to provide those educational opportunities
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  through WIMBY, Government 101, Government 202.
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  Bruce is going to talk a little bit about Neighborhood College.
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  That's another one.
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  So that educational component.
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  We also do a lot of engagement.
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  Going back to that policies, a lot of our departments, they have strategic plans.
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  They have visioning processes.
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  They have character area plans, you know, things like that, marketing concepts
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  And so we really want to get feedback from the residents.
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  What does that mean?
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  How do they play into it?
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  It's our residents who approved the General Plan.
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  It's residents who helped build the Old Town Character Area Plans.
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  It's residents who help us make those policies.
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  And if we want the city to make policies, develop
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  programs, then we need that resident input.
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  We are here for the residents.
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  And so we want to hear from them.
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  And so that's the other half of community involvement.
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  The education is giving them the information.
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  And then there's the engagement part, which is, well, let's get your information
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  Let's get you engaged.
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  And how can you give back?
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  How can you give us that feedback?
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  How can we work together?
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  And again, all of that is just building those relationships with each other,
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  building those relationships with the city through a lot
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  of our different programs, a lot of different events.
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  >> That's awesome.
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  That's incredible.
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  >> Just a side question.
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  If somebody wants to get involved with any of
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  your resources, how do they contact you guys?
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  So we have a generic email, communityinvolvement at scottsdaleaz.gov.
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  >> So they can get us through the email.
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  You can also reach us through, we have our Get Involved, there's a web
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  page which talks about a lot of our neighborhood programs.
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  So a lot of our neighborhood programs, Neighborhood Watch, Adopt-A-Road,
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  Speak Up Scottsdale, the educational ones.
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  If you go to any of those options, then they
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  can get us directly through that as well.
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  Or they can call the city call center and just say,
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  hey, who's that person that helps me find information?
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  [laughter]
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  And they'll get it, they'll get them to us.
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  >>Yeah. >>Awesome.
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  All right, Bruce, you're up next.
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  Let's talk about the Neighborhood College and what that's all about.
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  Tell me what topics you cover and a background of what the purpose of that is.
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  >> Neighborhood College, unfortunately, is the best kept
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  secret in Scottsdale, and we don't want it to be a secret.
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  It's been around since 2002, so it's not new.
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  But it has evolved over the years.
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  Now, for the last 10 or so years, there's
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  three tracks of information that you can go to.
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  And you can sign up for any one, you can sign up for all of them,
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  you can pick and choose, they're free.
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  Some are at night, some are in the afternoon, sometimes they're in the
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  morning. It's all when the speaker is available.
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  But right now, our current tracks are, we have one on homeowners associations,
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  community associations who are trying to be boards of directors, and maybe they're
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  new on the board, or maybe the laws have changed, or
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  maybe they want to get better at some aspect of it.
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  So we'll bring in attorneys or property managers who are experts in their field
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  who can teach those board members how to be better as a board member.
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  And that actually helps the city because it results in less phone calls to the city
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  of, you need to fix my HOA, which of course, the city can't fix an HOA.
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  That's something that residents have to work through and work with their boards,
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  or become a board member and learn how to do it better.
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  So that helps the city, but it also helps the residents.
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  Our second track is sort of developed because the person
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  who ran the program before me, Joy, challenged me.
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  [laughter]
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  She said, try and come up with a topic that will bring more people because our
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  community association classes always get a good number of
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  people, but I've tried other things and they just didn't get it.
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  So I approached my supervisor and I said, can we do history?
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  And I was told, you know, it doesn't really work.
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  We've tried it and we don't get more than about five or six people.
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  There just doesn't seem to be an interest.
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  So I said, how many people would have to show up for us to be able to run these?
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  And my supervisor at the time said 20, if you can get 20 people.
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  So we created this program called From Scott
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  to Drinkwater, the History of Scottsdale.
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  We released it into the wild and we waited.
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  And now I can't say that it was all because of me and it was all because of...
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  we also happened to be right in the perfect year for the app called Nextdoor.
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  And we put something on Nextdoor and we would,
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  within an hour, would get like 25 registrations.
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  In the end, we had so many people register for the room that we had to do a second
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  presentation two nights later in a bigger venue.
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  And the first one had 68 people and the second one had 191 people.
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  And there's never been a question about if people like local history since then.
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  >> Where did you hold the one with 191 people?
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  >> In the Civic Center Library Auditorium.
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  The only one that could really fit that short of the
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  Center for the Performing Arts.
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  >> Small buildings besides that one.
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  >> Yes.
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  So the history series has been very successful, very well attended.
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  In fact, this time we're going to do something
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  we've never done before on November 9th.
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  Joan Fudala and I are going to combine to do a presentation
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  called The Grand Ladies and Gentlemen of Scottsdale.
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  And Joan's going to feature four great women who have come here in the past.
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  And I'm going to talk about two men who did incredible
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  things and not a lot of people know about them today.
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  >> That's exciting.
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  It's always, it's never too late to learn something new.
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  >> Absolutely.
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  So that's the second series.
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  The third series is called the Good Neighbors series.
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  It's just what's good information to know.
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  It's all just sort of thrown into like Medicare, having a trust versus a will.
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  What do you need to know about just general good information to have?
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  This year, we're looking at doing a section on if you're a first-time
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  homebuyer, are there programs out there to help first-time homebuyers?
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  So we're trying to promote that one and we'll see how it goes.
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  And then there's a session that's in the fall from September to November,
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  and then a session we call the spring, January to March.
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  >> That's amazing.
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  >> So many good resources.
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  >> I know.
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  How do people register for those?
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  >> You could always just do a search on the internet for Scottsdale Neighborhood
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  College, and we're usually the very first thing.
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  Sometimes Scottsdale Community College comes up first and we're second.
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  It all depends on which browser you're using.
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  But you can also go to the city's website and just
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  search Neighborhood College and it'll come up.
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  >> It's easy.
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  >> Perfect.
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  Well, it's Scottsdale's 75th anniversary.
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  Tell us about this new book.
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  >> Well, the new book...
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  >> I have to see it.
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  It looks great.
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  I'm excited.
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  >> It's called Hands-On History.
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  And we don't call ourselves the authors.
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  We call ourselves the compilers.
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  Joan Fudala and I compiled this book.
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  We asked 75 people to write what they love about Scottsdale or what part of
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  Scottsdale's development were they a part of or enjoyed.
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  And so there's 75 different authors, wrote two pages, and then you can actually
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  see everyone got a couple pictures to throw in and a biography.
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  >> That's great.
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  >> Yeah, that's really neat.
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  >> I can't wait to buy my copy.
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  I'm going to buy some for holiday gifts.
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  >> I got to buy one for my mom.
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  She'll love that.
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  >> It's available from Amazon.
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  And the city doesn't make any money.
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  The authors don't make any money.
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  Joan Fudala and I don't make any money.
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  This is all just... Amazon is putting up the money to make the copy.
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  So they make a profit on it.
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  They set the price.
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  We have no control over any of that stuff.
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  >> Yeah.
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  >> That's so awesome that... I know you're not the
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  author, but that your name's on it as a compiler.
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  >> Yeah.
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  >> You and Joan.
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  >> Yeah, thank you.
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  >> Well, you're like Scottsdale history buff.
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  I mean, you tell the greatest stories.
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  >> Well, thank you.
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  I prefer instead of buff, history storyteller.
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  >> History storyteller.
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  Well, that brings me to my next question.
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  You have a really great story to share about the Scottsdale history.
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  >> There are so many great stories in this book.
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  Let me tell you one right now.
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  Dick Campana used to be a city councilman and he was approached by Guy Stillman.
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  Guy Stillman was the... McCormick Stillman Railroad Park.
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  Guy Stillman was the Stillman of McCormick Stillman Railroad Park.
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  And he's the one who donated the trains that
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  are at the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park.
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  And his mother, Ann Stillman McCormick, donated
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  the land that is McCormick Stillman Railroad Park.
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  So, Guy wanted it to be a railroad park and they tried to acquire railroad
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  buildings from around the state.
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  Whenever a city or town wanted to get rid of their building, Guy Stillman would try
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  and arrange to buy it and bring it to Scottsdale.
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  So, the town of Aguila, Arizona had their train depot that they were getting rid of.
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  And Guy Stillman said, get this area ready
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  because we're going to bring this building here.
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  I don't know exactly what happened and Dick Campana doesn't really elaborate,
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  but somehow someone forgot to buy a permit to move a building across the roads.
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  So, they, I guess, apparently left around midnight to go and pick this up,
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  pull in, and in the book he tells the story of DPS around Wickenburg pulling
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  over this building and saying, essentially, what are you doing without a
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  permit to move this in the middle of the night?
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  And somehow it was all, everything was fine and the
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  building is now at McCormick Stillman Railroad Park.
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  >> Oh my gosh.
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  So, which building is it?
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  >> The Aguila Station is, oh it's still marked with Aguila.
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  >> Yeah, Kiley used to work there.
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  >> I did back in like 10 years ago.
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  That's where I started.
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  [chuckle]
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  >> So, that's just one story.
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  There's so many stories, so many people told different things.
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  And it's not just, you know, people that are in their 80s and 90s telling stories.
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  We have one guy in here who is 19 years old at ASU, born and raised here.
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  He's already started four businesses in Scottsdale.
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  >> Oh my goodness.
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  Non-profits, for-profits, and he tells about, you know, that only in Scottsdale
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  would someone so young be encouraged to become a business owner.
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  >> Wow.
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  >> That's very cool.
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  >> He's going to be successful, sounds like.
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  >> So, there's some great stories.
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  It's a really fun read.
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  It's really easy.
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  It's like, you can pick it up.
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  And some people have told me that I started just to read five or ten pages and
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  then before I knew it, I finished the whole book.
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  >> Yeah, that's fun.
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  Yeah.
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  And especially if you get distracted easily like I do.
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  [laughter]
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  Just, you know, pick it up.
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  >> Read a couple pages a day.
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  >> Yeah. >> It's easy to get through.
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  >> Yeah.
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  >> Well, thank you guys so much for being today and telling us about your department
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  and then the book, the new book and everything that you guys do.
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  There's so many things out there for the citizens to
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  get involved, especially older adults, it sounds like.
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  I think I'm going to reach out to you after this podcast and see if we can bring
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  some of your history talks to the senior centers.
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  I think that would be fun.
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  >> It would be really cool.
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  >> So, thank you for joining us today and thank you so much for being here.
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  We hope that you all learned something new about the Community Involvement team and
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  we hope that you are inspired to get involved.
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  Thanks for watching and listening to the Vintage Voice and we'll see you next time.
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  Stay vertical, Scottsdale.
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  [music]