Scottsdale's getting noticed in the BIG cities now....

Edited on July 11 to add:

It's nice to be ahead of the curve for once. The local media has finally picked up on the Chicago Tribune's article.

AZCentral.com's Plugged In has a piece on it, the Scottsdale Republic mentioned, and the East Valley Tribune ran the entire article on Monday.

Wonder if the Mayor and City Council are enjoying the free publicity....

End edit.



Thanks to my sister Patti for sending the link to this article to me...

From the Chicago Tribune:

A new sin city: `Snottsdale'

Arizona enclave of the rich and famous is gaining
a national reputation as home of the vapid and lustful

The story starts with the ep of MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen that featured the conspicuous excess of a Scottsdale teenager (and her family), moves through the (cancelled!) bored tawdriness of Tuesday Night Book Club, breezes past the hubbub over Jenna Jameson, her strip club, and the SOB ordinance, and enthusiastically dwells on the dedicated priggishness of the Pink Taco affair.

There's even a good quote or two in the piece.

From Councilwoman Betty Drake, talking about the late, unlamented Tuesday Night Book Club -

"Oh, get over it," she said. "So what if people want to make fun of us? Every city has its own particular brand of strangeness. For some it may be gangs or drugs or troubled youth. We just happen to have some over-Botoxed blonds with oversexed tendencies."

From Scottsdale resident Bob Amato, on the Pink Taco fiasco -

"Listen, dear," Amato, 85, said in an interview. "Nine out of 10 of us would have never known what that term even meant without the mayor and others explaining it."

For the record, I guess that I'm a top 10%-er, because I *did* know what the term meant before Mayor Manross got all flustered, and in terms of problems facing our city, I will gladly help the city address the over-sexed blondes issue. Maybe in a research capacity???? :)

More seriously, while there is a lot of truth to Councilwoman Drake's point, Scottsdale has gangs, drugs, and troubled youth in it; however, since nearly everyone involved is rich, white and Republican, they aren't considered "problems."

I realize that the "powers-that-be" in Scottsdale are very image conscious, but a lot of this is their own fault. The small amount of buzz from the TV shows has already faded, but the SOB and Pink Taco notoriety was brought on by the Mayor and her associates creating conflicts where none existed. And more significantly, that notoriety will continue so long as the Mayor and City Council believe that safeguarding the morals of freely consenting adults is more important than safeguarding the City treasury (see: SkySong or that stupid freakin' tent in north Scottsdale.)