East Valley (Phoenix metropolitan area)
[1] The East Valley Tribune, a newspaper that serves the region, considers Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek, and Tempe as its service area.
A newspaper publisher, Charles Wahlheim, started using “East Valley” for articles in Mesa Tribune, Chandler Arizonan, and the Tempe Daily News.
[6] Wahlheim approached Chandler grocery-chain owner Eddie Basha and asked him to help create a business group as answer to the East Valley's Phoenix 40.
"[6] Ten years after the regional concept was introduced, it was politically institutionalized with the state legislature's creation of the East Valley Institute of Technology.
This figure is also higher than the median price of a single family home in Metropolitan Phoenix, the West Valley, all of Arizona, and the United States.
It has a composite score of 102 (NOTE: US average = 100), compared to 109 of Las Vegas, Nevada, 110 of Denver, Colorado, 118 of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and 147 of Los Angeles, California.
The airport and campus are on the grounds of what was Williams Air Force Base and in an area focused on aerospace industry development.
ASU describes Skysong as "an innovation center designed to help companies grow by providing business services and programs offered or facilitated by Arizona State University.
The courses prepare students with skills for immediate entry into the local job market, but many are on career tracks that lead to higher education.
The campus's long-time culinary and automotive technologies programs are highly regarded, but EVIT also serves the East Valley job market with such course offerings as 3D animation, electronics/robotics and engineering science.
Programs offered to health and science students include biotechnology; nursing; sterile processing and distribution; and dental assisting.
Aviation students are trained for jobs in the East Valley's and state's robust aerospace sector.
[15] Boeing will test the unmanned helicopter in restricted aerospace near the town of Florence, a short distance south of the East Valley.
[16] In Chandler, the company designs tests and manufactures space launch vehicles, including the Pegasus and Minotaur rockets.
[16] In a 2011 press release, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said, "With this contract, Orbital becomes part of the most significant commercial space project in the world.
The East Valley is also home of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport one of the nation's most successful military base reuse projects.
[17] Formerly Williams Air Force Base, the growing reliever airport boasts a remodeled passenger terminal, convenient parking and three runways, the longest of which is 10,401 feet.
[18] Alion Science and Technology manages the 97,500 square foot facility and describes it as ideally suited for hosting classified research programs.
[19] According to a news backgrounder that Intel prepared for a January 2012 visit by President Barack Obama, the company's annual economic impact in Arizona tops $2.6 billion.
[19] Intel is currently expanding its Ocotillo campus in Chandler by building a new chip manufacturing facility, called Fab.
[22] Prior to the Great Recession that marked its beginning at the end of 2007, phenomenal population growth was a powerful driver of the East Valley's economy.
[23] Like many Sun Belt regions, the recession took a tremendous toll on home construction and ownership in the East Valley.
[24] As of March 2012, home sales in the Phoenix market had increased by 22 percent over February, according to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service as reported in the East Valley Tribune.
[23] The Arizona Republic reported that median March home prices in the Phoenix area climbed by 7 percent over February.
The East Valley is known for golf, eco-tourism and outdoor recreation enthusiasts, including hikers, bikers, birders, river rafters and floaters, fishermen, horse-back riders, climbers, hunters and four-wheel drive desert explorers.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department stock the river with Rainbow trout during those months, though an occasional bass is also caught.
A series of four national forest parks follow the Salt River and just minutes from the Red Mountain Expressway.
The Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park with its collection of desert and riparian plants and wildlife is less than 45 minutes from most East Valley locations.
The first attempt was in the early 1990s and included the cities and towns of Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Tempe, and Guadalupe.
Russell Pearce's tenure as a State Senator has since ended in November 2011 and the issue of county secession has not resurfaced ever since.
