Victor Vidales

Photo Credit: Phil Soto

Advisory Board Member

When Victor Vidales left his hometown 35 years ago, he didn’t know if he’d ever return.

Chaos had defined his early life — shuttled between his parents after their divorce when he was 5, exposed to his dad losing his home and job, in-and-out of 14 schools before age 18, and raised in a cycle of poverty  typical of a long-neglected community like his.

And worse. 

“I was involved with the gangs here in South Phoenix, and that got me into a lot of trouble,” Vidales said. “My mom and little sister were murdered when I was a freshman in high school, and that kind of set me into a tailspin. By God’s grace, I got caught.” 

Relatives intervened, bringing the teenager to live with them in Morenci, where four generations of Vidales’ had settled. He finished high school, then joined the military and served during Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Gulf War. In 1995, at age 21, the Army veteran came back to South Central Phoenix where he’d left his heart five years before.

“I wanted to get back to the community that I survived from.”

Vidales went to college, jumped into community activism, built a successful business, is raising a family and, with others, pushing for change in his beloved community. “Collaboration, man. It can move mountains, you know.”

Building a future 

Vidales used the G.I. Bill to attend Phoenix College, where he was inspired by student leaders in MEChA, the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan, and its advisor, history professor Pete Dimas. MECha’s chapter president, Juan Rodriguez, now the mayor of Tolleson, invited Vidales to join an organizing effort in the Wilson School District to increase resources for student success. 

Vidales saw little had changed in his community since he was in school, and the same cycles of poverty and violence were wrecking young lives. At every opportunity, he spoke with at-risk students and was involved in neighborhood cleanups. 

And he started building his career, first in sales and security, and later as a real estate broker and developer, and owner of  RE/MAX Desert Showcase in South Phoenix. He was the buyer, broker and project manager for Raza Development Fund (RDF), which pursued a purchase of 83 acres just south of downtown to develop Plaza de Las Culturas, a retail, office, education, and recreation center showcasing South Phoenix’s rich culture and history. 

Now 50+, Vidales was heavily involved in the $1.3 billion extension of the City of Phoenix’s light-rail extension along Central Avenue from downtown to Baseline Road. He’s a founder and advisory board member of the South Central Collaborative (S.CC), a nonprofit formed 10 years ago to ensure the community’s voice and ideas are heard and positively impact the multi-faceted transit-oriented development Corridor. 

Tommy Espinoza, former RDF president and CEO, introduced Vidales to S.CC executive director Shannon Scutari. The Collaborative includes professionals, residents, artists, advocates, neighborhood leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners working to ensure community members understand the current and future impact of the massive rail infrastructure investment, and that it truly enhances the neighborhoods.

With fellow Realtor Javier Espinoza, Vidales founded the SoPho Convening, which works on bringing equitable and sustainable development to the area.

“That helped us get educated on what we were about to go through, and to understand the system and what was currently in place. From there, we suggested to the city and Valley Metro what we felt was needed in South Phoenix to really make the light rail work for the people who live, work, play and pray in this community.” 

Pitching in at every opportunity

Vidales' contributions are many. 

He’s worked with architects on potential multi-family affordable housing and transit-oriented development in the South Central Corridor. He helped achieve  the first-ever public-private bioswale, a channel that collects and treats stormwater runoff while removing debris and pollution. 

He joined efforts to procure local artists to create public art along the rail extension, and pushed for commitments from elected officials and the city’s light-rail contractors to employ local residents during construction.

“My faith primarily pushes me to do things beyond just myself. I guess this is my calling in life, and it keeps unfolding as I get older. The more I got involved, the more I realized that I cared more about these things than just going to work, making money, being successful, all that.” 

He also is in the inaugural class of the South Central Collaborative Developer Mentorship Program, which aims to train community members who are aspiring developers to build affordable/attainable housing projects in the Corridor and statewide. 

As a product of the Roosevelt School District, father of five children ages 27 to 13, and a passionate advocate for public education, he was invited recently by district Superintendent Dr. Dani Portillo to form and chair the Roosevelt United PAC. It built the case for the Roosevelt district's $150 million bond initiative that was approved on the Nov. 5, 2024 ballot.

The funding will be used to build or replace Roosevelt’s school buildings and student facilities, renovate and improve school grounds such as sports facilities and playgrounds, modern classrooms and labs, upgrade technology, and improve security, among other capital improvements.

“Every single child in our neighborhood deserves a high-quality, world-class education. You can’t give that to students who are still going to school in post-war classrooms. They have to have facilities that inspire them to want to come to school and learn and become great adults. To give them minds to innovate, create, build by investing in them and giving them a vision.”

In this fast-paced world, with technology moving at the speed of light, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and seismic changes to the way people work, quality education matters most, Vidales said. 

“We don’t know what the jobs will look like, what things will be in the next 10 to 20 years, so that’s why it’s really important to educate our kids to understand that you can build your own community, your own neighborhood, your own quality of life in this part of the world.”

‘We just kept asking’

The progress made so far by S.CC and SoPho Convening is foundational, VIdales said. 

“The Collaborative has helped us to not just blindly advocate for things,” he said, crediting Scutari’s expertise in transportation, infrastructure and policy advocacy. “We had the desire, the willingness and the energy, but before we could go out and advocate we had to make sure we weren’t just out there making noise.” 

One example is the group made the case that property and business owners in their communities paid taxes just like everyone else and deserved to have a world class light rail project — from street lights and sidewalks to landscaping, innovative bioswales, artistic and cultural elements, and seamless connectivity to the rest of the Valley. 

But now is not the time to rest on their laurels, he said.

“We’re going to keep our momentum going and get the resources needed to actually implement the plan we've all worked so hard on,” said Vidales, referring to a comprehensive South Central Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Community Plan that S.CC partners and the South Central community created with the City of Phoenix. 

A policy guide for future land use, redevelopment and infrastructure decisions, it was approved by the city of Phoenix in 2022. 

“The S.CC helped us elevate our voices and elevate the desire to be self-determined. The next challenge is how do we develop this community, these thousands of people who are rooted here, without displacing and gentrifying?”

Vidales doesn’t want South Central Phoenix to be like other American cities where light rail brings escalating home prices that push out the community. 

“The biggest challenge is keeping people involved and going and raising the next generation of leaders who are going to continue to fight.”

A vision for the future

Vidales threw his crystal ball out in 2005, around the time he learned of urban studies theorist Richard Florida, and his position on the “Creative Class.” Florida says raw materials or natural harbors have been replaced by “creative people who generate innovations, develop technology-intensive industries and power economic growth” as the source of economic growth.

Vidales wants his community to be a Creative Class. 

“I can see this next generation of people in our community saying, ‘I want to be a part of this,’ of contributing to the quality of life in our neighborhoods, whether it's serving food or building homes or apartment buildings or creating the latest and greatest innovations.”

Vidales has traveled many times around the country and the world, visiting vibrant cities — from Seattle to New York City to London — with the best public spaces and transportation,  restaurants, the most interesting public art and celebration of culture, and the most prosperous small businesses. Each time, he comes home with one thought. 

“Why can’t Phoenix evolve to this level? We’re not just this little city anymore — we’re the fifth largest now in the country. Why can’t we start acting like it and really build a city that functions for everybody? And eventually you think, ‘OK, well, we can do it, too.’”