Voting for the 2022 Best Places in Local Government (aka the #ELGLKnope) Round of 32 opens on March 7, 2022 and closes at midnight PT on Friday, March 11, 2022. One vote per person. Learn more about this award online.
Vote in the #ELGLKnope Round of 32!
Diving Lady
Mesa, Arizona 85213
- Online
- Year(s)/Era: 1960s
- Type of Place: Structure
- Nomination: It’s a true icon of the city, and it’s also representative of their broader effort to purchase and preserve historic neon signs.
- Most notable attribute(s): The diving lady is 70 feet tall and was first erected in 1960. It’s said that at the time she was built, it was the tallest thing in the city. In 2010 a bad storm knocked the whole thing down. It took years to raise the money and find the expertise to fix the sign. The City of Mesa, who doesn’t directly manage the sign, did support the effort by waiving signage regulations for putting it back up and helped raise funds for it. The city has directly purchased other large neon signs from businesses and is preserving them in a safe place until they can be put to a creative use–and so they don’t end up in a scrap heap.
- Special designations or recognitions: The diving lady dives 6 times a minute, is 70′ tall, and each of the letters in MOTEL weigh 350 lbs each.
- Three words to describe: Iconic, Neon, Kitchy
- Anything else to share?
Local Government:
City of Mesa
Mesa, Arizona 85007