Good morning, Arizona. Here’s what you need to know to start your workweek.

Today’s forecast for the Valley calls for a high of 91, with a low of 65. The relative calm won’t last, unfortunately.

Forecasters say we’ll be back in triple-digit land by Wednesday, when the high for metro Phoenix is predicted to be 103. The highs will rise like stair steps from there — 109 on Thursday, 111 on Friday, 112 on Saturday and 113 on Sunday.

IS PHOENIX A ‘REAL’  CITY?

Phoenix is now the fifth-largest by population. Its land area exceeds New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. But those looking for a “big city” feel might not find it here, azcentral’s Brenna Goth writes. 

In terms of development, Phoenix looks more like a real city than it has in decades. Since it lost its top-five population spot in 2010, new apartments, university buildings and residents have transformed downtown. Neighborhoods outside the urban core are bustling with hubs of bars and restaurants.

Phoenix has an estimated 1,615,017 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More people moved here from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016, than any other city in the country, according to the census. 
 
But as Phoenix moves up the popupulation list, it raises a question: Will Phoenix ever have the cachet of cities such as Philadelphia, Seattle or San Francisco — or is that even our goal? Read the full story for more. 

MCSALLY FORECASTS BRUISING ELECTION BATTLE

Arizona Republicans are getting more explicit about the political headwinds they face in next year’s congressional midterm elections.

In a secretly taped meeting with the Arizona Bankers Association released last week, U.S. Rep. Martha McSally warned prospective campaign donors recently she would lose her Tucson-based seat if the election were held now.

“They (Democrats) only need 23 seats. The path to that gavel being handed over is through my seat, and right now it doesn’t matter that it’s me,” McSally said. “It doesn’t matter what I’ve done. It doesn’t matter. It’s just that I have an ‘R’ next to my name, and right now this environment would have me not prevail.” 

ASU TEMPE CAMPUS REVAMP GETS UNDERWAY

The first phase of a project that will fundamentally reshape the east end of the Arizona State University campus and help fund the university’s athletic department is under way. 

ASU and Oakland, California-based Catellus Development Corp., aim to develop 330 acres of ASU property and ultimately expect to bring about 20,000 jobs and 5,000 residents to the area. 

The sports facilities district project, dubbed the Novus Innovation Corridor, has been in the works since 2015 and could create hundreds of millions of dollars for athletic facilities over the next two decades. 

The first phase of the project includes 1 million square feet of office space just north of the light rail station at University Drive and Rural Road, according to a June 7 news release from ASU and Catellus. Urban residences, a hotel, restaurants, retail space and a parking structure also are expected to be built later in the first phase.

STANTON PUSHING TO CHANGE CONTROVERSIAL STREET NAMES

In his quest to rename city streets with racially insensitive titles, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is trying to change the city’s policy so it can be done without the support of affected homeowners.

Stanton has called for renaming two streets with controversial names: Squaw Peak Drive and Robert E Lee Streetr.

But homeowners on both streets are outspoken in opposing the effort, citing inconvenience and the cost to change their addresses. They also say the names carry a sense of nostalgia or history.

That’s why Stanton is proposing to change city policy so Phoenix can rename streets even when homeowners refuse to go along. The city’s current policy requires support from 75 percent of adjacent property owners.

TODAY IN HISTORY

• In 1776, Virginia’s colonial legislature adopted a Declaration of Rights.
• In 1898, Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain.
• In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Coolidge had become president in 1923, upon the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding.)
• In 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
• In 1963, civil-rights leader Medgar Evers, 37, was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)
• In 1979, 26-year-old cyclist Bryan Allen flew the human-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.
• In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
• In 1997, baseball began regular-season interleague play, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series. 

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