Leveraging Glendale\u2019s established base in sports and entertainment for long-term economic growth is incoming City Manager Patrick Banger\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
Institutions like the State Farm Stadium, the home of the state\u2019s football team, Arizona Cardinals and the Camelback Ranch stadium, the spring training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox, will be key drivers of this process, he said.<\/p>\n
Banger was selected by Glendale City Council earlier this month to succeed Kevin Phillips, effective Jan. 12.<\/p>\n
In an interview, he spoke about his tenure as Gilbert\u2019s town manager and what he hopes to accomplish Glendale.<\/p>\n
He was philosophical about his move, saying the lure of a new challenge ultimately beckoned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been over 14 years, actually going on year 15 in Gilbert, and it\u2019s been an absolutely wonderful experience,\u201d Banger said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very difficult decision to make\u2026I have truly, truly enjoyed being a part of this community and working with the wonderful staff within the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, he quoted second-century Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius to explain his decision: \u201cThink of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what\u2019s left and live it properly,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking about the last 10 years of my career, and what would I like to do with it to make the most out of it?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s really when it became very clear to me that Glendale\u2019s opportunities were motivating to me, and I\u2019m not afraid to go prove myself all over again in a new role, a new setting, a new set of challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Banger believes that where Glendale is concerned, \u201cIt is the strengths they have and the strength that\u2019s going to bring additional investments in destination entertainment and sports-related destination entertainment opportunities.\u201d.<\/p>\n
He anticipates leveraging the revenue from these bases to fuel the redevelopment of Glendale regional airport into a \u201ctrue corporate class airport serving the community\u201d.<\/p>\n
Glendale also has close to 24 million square feet of industrial land to be developed, Banger said, which can lead to job creation and help fuel the city\u2019s downtown revitalization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Glendale, you have this beautiful historic district, and you\u2019ve got these beautiful structures, and there\u2019s been redevelopment occurring, but there\u2019s a lot of opportunity to do more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Several higher education institutions also have a presence in Glendale, like the Midwestern University, the Arizona Christian University and Arizona State University\u2019s west campus.<\/p>\n
Banger said reinvestment in these campuses will certainly be a catalyst in Glendale\u2019s growth, along with long-term community building.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always try to focus on this \u2014 community partnerships and relationships, I have some pre-existing in Glendale, I was an honorary base commander at Luke Air Force Base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you can\u2019t emphasize enough the importance of higher education for a community, the workforce, families and employers, what that means \u2014 so really diving into community partnerships as well, and building relationships and trust with those key stakeholders and groups are also very, very important to Glendale\u2019s success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite his big plans for the the city, Banger noted that the first thing he would do when he joins Glendale\u2019s workforce in January next year will be to \u201cjust listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get together with all of the directors and their departments and just get to know them, get to know their service lines, their approach to service delivery, how I can support them in areas where major ongoing projects or initiatives are underway or on the drawing boards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to know how I can best serve them and support them, because their success is my success, and our success is the council\u2019s success, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re all here to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banger noted that Gilbert will soon be transitioning into the \u201csustaining\u201d phase of the community, and with Glendale\u2019s opportunities for growth, those are the challenges he sees himself tackle in the last 10 years of his public service career.<\/p>\n
Banger, who currently lives in Gilbert with his wife and their three daughters, said that the family is already working on a move to Glendale, as is the norm with many city administrators.<\/p>\n
Between working at his current job and learning about his new job, house hunting in Glendale and November nuptials of one of his children, he confessed he is \u201cstretched pretty thin at the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to getting settled into Glendale as quickly as we can, because you just learn so much about by just being a part of a community in the community, day in and day out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also trying to maintain his role in Gilbert during the hectic transition, adding he\u2019s leaving the town with \u201ctremendous staff members\u201d as it decides how to find his replacement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that some of them are at a point where they\u2019re willing to throw their name in the hat for the position,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leveraging Glendale\u2019s established base in sports and entertainment for long-term economic growth is incoming City Manager Patrick Banger\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":343017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,22076,1587,168951,168952,154066,1589,32252,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-343016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-arizona-state-university","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-glendale-city-coouncil","13":"tag-kevin-philllips","14":"tag-patrick-banger","15":"tag-phoenix","16":"tag-state-farm-stadium","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115462904592465243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}