by Gary Nelson - Sept. 1, 2012 08:56 PM The Republic | azcentral.com

When Scott Smith threw his many hats into the 2008 mayoral campaign and promised to banish Mesa's sad-sack reputation, you could all but hear the city, the Valley -- for that matter, the whole state -- raising their eyebrows.

Skeptics seemed to think that Mesa, widely disparaged as the home of broad streets and narrow minds, where snowbirds' Buicks turned into pumpkins if they didn't get home before the sidewalks rolled up at 5 p.m., was here to stay. They doubted that Smith's talk about changing the way Mesa did business, about building a better Mesa, about restoring the civic swagger he remembered from his childhood, would ever become a reality.

But a funny thing happened over the ensuing four years.

Smith defeated two City Council veterans in the election and began turning his happy talk into a new reality for America's 38th-largest city.

Some examples:

Defying historical trends, the city has attracted four liberal-arts colleges to establish satellite campuses.

Mesa found a way to finance a Chicago Cubs training stadium on its own, without asking the state Legislature for financial help.

Mesa got the keys to a top-secret military lab that has the potential to become a national aerospace research center.

An economic-development initiative with the acronym HEAT -- health care, education, aerospace, tourism and technology -- has sharpened Mesa's focus on present and future possibilities for growth.

Read more:
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith's success could lead to governor run