The Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee of the Phoenix City Council met on June 12, 2025, to hear updates from the Office of Innovation and the Community and Economic Development Department. The meeting included approval of prior minutes and a consent item, information reports, and a public comment period.
Office of Innovation Update (Michael):
Economic Development FY2024-25 Review and FY2025-26 Work Plan (Christine Mackey, Zandon Keating, Nathan Wright, Lisetta Hogans, Gretchen Wolf):
among Japanese American communities on the West Coast. Those early Taiko players repurposed the Y baroles to make a drums and they which gave a rise to the unique sound and a look that became iconic over taiko draw me. Traditionally Taiko was performed at festivals and shirai in Japan and that spirit continues today. In the US the powerful sound of Taiko Drama means has become a staple of Japanese American celebrations and festivals. And today's there are hundreds of taiko groups across the the North America and they continue to celebrate a Japanese heritage and bringing together players from all different Baygrounds. So this is the fifth Venture Cafe City of Phoenix hackathon. It's an all-day hackathon where members of our community come together and they hack solutions to top city priorities. Today we're hacking solutions to smart cities and we're focusing on three key areas accessibility public spaces and transportation. This is the first time we have about 60 participants coming together we randomly assign them teams and they work together as teams all day to hack on the problem and they do dry runs through their pitches and then they pitch on stage at Venture Cafe tonight for a chance for cash prizes as well as audience choice. Tonight as a judge for the hackathon I'm really looking toward seeing what the groups have outlined for accessibility for all types of disabilities in the community. So a smart city to me really means that it's accessible for everybody. So we looked at how can we improve the public transportation system in Phoenix and so what we looked at doing is essentially finding a way to collect and leverage data using AI technologies so that we can better service a wider range of people provide better accessibility and make buses more useful for people who live in Phoenix. We have a project called exit queue lighting helping drivers understand like what lanes are going slow, which lanes are going fast kind of preventing accidents as well as just keeping the flow of traffic going we've designed an app called Phoenix Moves that's gonna incentivize people to get out and use the bike lanes but more importantly it's circularity in that businesses will give them rewards. Community engagement is a very important component of our work as a city and getting to do this in a hackathon setting is a unique opportunity to explore out of the box solutions things that we might not think about every day over in City Hall or have the capacity to get really creative and dig into the opportunities out there. This has been a fantastic partnership between the City of Phoenix and Venture Cafe we've been able to implement some of the solutions that we've created here at the hackathon. The City of Phoenix prioritizes innovation and our innovate Phoenix challenge is an excellent opportunity to put this into practice to see what we can create together as a community and make the lives better for all of our residents here in Phoenix Check me. The Broadway Curve Project is in the works prepare for lane closures and detours stay ahead of the curve at I10 Broadway curve.com hello welcome to Phoenix in about a minute today we're here at Bert Run Bar Library in downtown Phoenix this amazing library is not just a normal library it has multiple special rooms on each of its five floors but not only that its unique architecture allows it to have a special and welcome to the June 12th 2025 economic development and housing subcommittee meeting Good afternoon and welcome to the June twelfth, two thousand twenty-five uh economic development and housing subcommittee meeting. I would like to call the meeting to order. Um I'll go first to our city attorney to please explain public comment. Thank you, madam chair, members of the subcommittee for citizen comment during citizen comment, members of the public may address the subcommittee for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern to them. The Arizona open meeting law permits the subcommittee members to listen to the comments but prohibits members from this discussing or acting on matters presented. Should there be a person who wants to comment on an agenda item? They may speak up to two minutes on agenda items to be discussed comments to be related to the agenda item and action being taken or considered by the subcommittee. The city, the council or subcommittee and staff can I discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations or litigations. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, sir. And next we will have our interpreter, uh Mario Barajas introduce himself. Yes, madam chair, thank you. Well, once again, my name is Mario Guarajas. I'll be serving as today's uh Spanish interpreter for the meeting. I will now introduce myself to our Spanish speakers. Yo soy Mario Guarajas voy a estar siguiendo como interprete a los habla hispana. Is there a repasar brevemente con ustedes uhlespotra ayuda a poder uh participar mejor manera possible? Primeramente caremos informal de que si es que van a dar un comentario publico, but in a manera lenta y clara, this manera podemos uh interpretarles mejore y secondo su comentario completo y al final de que usted termine su comentario andar sin necessidad de hacer pausas. Muchas gracias. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, Mario. Um, I believe we do not have any public comments for the first section. Awesome. Um the first agenda item is approval of minutes from the May 28th, 2025 EDH um meeting. Do I have a motion to approve? I move that we approve the May 28th, 2025 meeting. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. Item two is on consent.