Mesa Mayor John Giles reflects on his term in office and on Mesa's skyrocketing growth

Mesa is one of the fastest-growing cities in Arizona. The East Valley community is now just shy of a half-million residents and has been a magnet for growth. For the the past decade, this boom has been shepherded by Mayor John Giles.

He chalks up Mesa's success to several factors, including smart investments in the city's properties. This, in turn, has paved the way for many of the world's biggest companies – Amazon, Apple, Google – to lay down roots there.

As Giles begins his last year as mayor, he stopped by The Gaggle studio to reflect on how Mesa has evolved, the challenges it has overcome and ones it still has, and where he sees himself going next.

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Read the episode transcript here. Please note, there might be slight discrepancies due to the AI used to transcribe the conversation.

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Contact the producer at kaely.monahan@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @KaelyMonahan.