David Sax

Coming off four years in New York and my fifth cross-country move in the books, I’d yet to wipe the pizza sauce from my chin when I stumbled into the halls of public service -- Phoenix City Hall, to be exact.

It was November 2014 and to some fanfare, the city was hosting its Plan PHX Summit, the formal unveiling and public review of its General Plan Update, a wide-ranging document intended to shape various sectors of urban and economic development in the decade to come. It would be approved by more than 75 percent of voters in a general election held the following August.

The summit gave members of the public the opportunity to engage with elected officials, city managers, community leaders, observe panel discussions and give input. A far cry from my experience in New York as researcher and speechwriter to the director of a public policy institute on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

In NYC, you're limited to your title

There I rubbed shoulders with foreign and civic leaders, Supreme Court justices, renowned academics, former New York City mayors and one legendary songwriter. But my encounters were just that -- encounters. Nice people, many of them, but New York is a place where, to borrow the phraseology of historian Marvin Meyers, the “basic principles and institutions [are] firmly settled.” In such an unforgiving climate, most can only dream of advancing in New York beyond the limits of that title underneath their name on their LinkedIn profile.

My first brushes with Phoenix’s civic leadership at the Plan PHX Summit told a different story, violating my preconceptions like a close encounter with an alien kind. You’re telling me I can actually approach these people? Now we’re chatting about urban policy? Now you’re asking me questions? I came with no fixer. No ace up my sleeve, nothing profound or immediate to draw the ear of Phoenix’s power brokers.

Over the past two years, I’ve gotten to know many of these influencers and decision-makers, and have found in the city’s leadership affirmation of my first impressions. There I stood at the Plan PHX Summit, and now I stand, a beneficiary of the supportive culture that has shaped our history and will elevate our future.

Phoenix has accomplished great feats

To some degree, Phoenix and Arizona have always been this way. Our modern state was shaped by intrepid statesmen and women whose creativity and entrepreneurship in their unlikely desert setting set the foundation for our current, thriving metropolis. Consider monumental feats of statecraft such as the Central Arizona Project and, in more recent years, the creation of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) alongside the transformation of Arizona State University into the New American University.

These are remarkable products of our uniquely open climate, part of a culture of connectivity that continues to inspire leaders today.

This week, PBS NewsHour is featuring the story of one such result with their national broadcast of a two-part series celebrating the work and impact of the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC) and First Place AZ. These sister nonprofit organizations owe much of their success to the supportive community that grew up around them and that they cultivated through public-private-charitable collaborations.

Thanks to Phoenix’s connective, pioneering spirit, First Place, SARRC and a host of partnering organizations are turning the dream of jobs, friends, continuing education and new housing options into reality for adults on the autism spectrum and others with special abilities.

We enable problem-solvers

This spirit is enabling, within the wider community, the incubation of generations of dreamers, problem-solvers and entrepreneurs and must be recognized as a valuable asset to be embraced and nurtured as we endeavor to raise the profile of Phoenix, both regionally and on a global scale. At the same time, it is imperative we confront pervasive structural inequalities that persist along socio-economic fault lines.

Gaps in education, employment, criminal justice, housing and health care sadly exist and prevent many individuals living in our state’s marginalized communities from engaging in this open exchange of ideas.

Take my inside/out perspective of our beloved city as an offer of encouragement against the backdrop of recent events, the contentious tone of the presidential cycle and every other expression of unrest sowing seeds of uncertainty in America today. Progress is being made and the momentum to act is in our favor.

Our ability to look at our city in the mirror and say, we’re not perfect, but the possibilities are endless -- that is an uncommon gift.

David E. Sax is an account manager with the public relations and marketing group, DRA Collective. He previously worked in New York City as researcher and speechwriter to the director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute.