Letters: People must get involved with city government

I’ve been a resident of Surprise since 2004 and I’m not happy with the development of Surprise. Lots of promises made and none kept over the years. Do you feel the same way?

I feel Surprise is turning into a crap hole with industrial complexes, storage facilities galore due to new home construction builder greed making home lots so tiny so no one has bigger garages for storage or a yard, fast food chains on every corner, proposing ugly billboards, government funded HUD housing possibly coming and now a homeless shelter, too. 

I attended the [Aug. 17] city council meeting and the room was pretty full. Right away the mayor said the billboard topic will be tabled for now and no one was allowed to speak to that even though there were many people there against this.

Seems like a trend that hot topics get pushed aside to the next meeting, so why is that? Does the mayor and council hope people of Surprise just go away and give up? Is it because they want to avoid the people of Surprise whom they represent? 

I’m new to getting involved with our local city government and gotta say I’m not liking what I’m seeing or how our city is developing. We need mom-and-pop restaurants, entertainment, fun things to do, shopping, family-oriented things to do, maybe a concert amphitheater, some bars, comedy club, etc.

When I first moved to Surprise there were so many great things supposedly coming and none of those happened. We were told the downturn of 2008 was the reason plans got scrapped, but fast forward to 2021 still not much developed, but more red roofs and now everything is about COVID halting the progress of the city.

Now because of the COVID pandemic builders are pushing high density HUD housing in our city. Do any of you see progress in our city the way you thought Surprise was going to be developed when you bought your home here? 

The only way Surprise will see improvements is if we the people of Surprise get involved in our surprise local government and start flooding the city council and P&Z meetings because I think our elected officials do need to remember whom they represent and make decisions based on what we the people of surprise want.

We gotta start getting involved and take care of our own city and neighborhoods, fight for what we want in our city not what the builders pitch and what the council approves. We need to get involved with our economic and development department. Email, call and go to your city council meet-and-greet meetings and tell them what you want. 

I’m mad at myself for not getting involved sooner, but at least we can all start getting involved now and make a difference. I think our local government is use to people not paying attention or getting involved. 

We need to change that and help shape Surprise into the great city we all envisioned it would be. We all need to step up, pay attention and get involved in our local government to make Surprise better and keep Surprise beautiful. 

You can go to the city of Surprise website and find out when city council and planning and zoning meetings take place. Sign up to speak at these meetings.

Follow your council members on social media as they meet with the public monthly so please start showing up and get involved. Just like everything that is happening in the world today it all comes down to power in the people whom stand up together for what we believe in.

Let’s all rise up to make our city better together.