2021 Exemplary Advocate: Robin Arredondo-Savage brings small business, veteran background to Tempe community-development efforts

Collaboration and partnerships are hallmarks of Robin Arredondo-Savage’s nearly 12 years of service on the Tempe City Council. She doesn’t see any other way to do what needs to be done to benefit residents and encourage healthy economic development.  

“You really can’t be successful as a community if you don’t have everyone working on the same page and wanting the same goals,” Arredondo-Savage said. “I’ve seen so many examples of where we’ve been able to come together as a community with different groups and organizations to create things that make the quality of life in Tempe so much more than we ever imagined it could be.”

Take, for example, how the Valor on Eighth apartment complex for veterans came to be. It is a brick-and-mortar representation of Arredondo-Savage’s commitment to collaboration to accomplish goals.  

When Arredondo-Savage, who served in the Army, was first elected to City Council in 2010, she made support for veterans a key priority. That meant spearheading creation of Tempe’s first-ever veterans commission and helping make Community Salutes a major annual event for veterans. 

Valor on Eighth, which opened in 2018, is a thoughtfully designed, 50-unit affordable housing apartment complex like no other in Arizona. From start to finish — from financing the project to securing housing vouchers to finding partners to provide services and amenities for veterans and their families — Arredondo-Savage played a major role in seeing that Valor on Eighth be a point of pride for Tempe and veterans. 

Arredondo-Savage is a lifelong Tempe resident who lives in the same neighborhood where she grew up. That perspective has guided her thinking on City Council, along with her background as a small business owner and her leadership experiences serving on the board of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. For Arredondo-Savage, everything fits together. 
“It’s been really helpful for me to be able to channel some of my experiences to help and support our local small businesses, and really push and champion for us to make sure we have the right resources and good support systems for them,” Arredondo-Savage said. “Small business in the city of Tempe is really the fabric of who we are. We’ve always been made up of a lot of small, unique, diverse, mom-and-pop types of shops, and I think it’s really important that we continue to ensure that they have the opportunity to grow and thrive in Tempe.”

The Apache Boulevard corridor is a microcosm of Arredondo-Savage’s leadership style and community development philosophy.

“We’ve been talking about Apache Boulevard since even before I became a council member,” Arredondo-Savage said. “It’s been one of those things that has been a priority for the community and the council to really make sure we’re paying attention to them, because they’ve gone through a lot.”

Construction of light-rail had a major impact on Apache Boulevard with many businesses not surviving it. 

“I think that’s really important to us to make sure that we are re-investing in Apache Boulevard and the surrounding neighborhoods and areas so that people can get excited, businesses can be successful that we can create new jobs hopefully for people who live right there, and just really create an overall great experience for everybody who lives, works, plays in that area and neighborhood. “

Arredondo-Savage is inspired by projects like grateful now to see re-development and neighborhood revitalization, such as the NFL Foundation/LISC Grassroots Program that provided a new playing field at Escalante Park near Thew Elementary School and the Escalante Community Center. That is a “good catalyst for more things to come” in the Apache Boulevard corridor, she said.

“That was such a cool experience, just to really see the collaboration and the partnership,” Arredondo-Savage said. “To me, that’s what a lot of it is all about and really speaks to the Tempe values. It was really cool to get neighbors, the school district, LISC, the NFL Foundation to be part of it.”

Arredondo-Savage, who is not running for a fourth term on the City Council, credits LISC Phoenix for furthering her understanding of the synergy and impact of transit-oriented development and comprehensive community and economic development.  “LISC,” she said, “has taught me a lot in regards to how we can do things better together and how important it is to collaborate with neighborhoods and areas.” 

There’s a lot of talk these days about how working together is better or about how we’re better together. “I think we live by that motto very significantly,” Arredondo-Savage said of her hometown.