My name is Neal Pollack. I’m the new editor of Arizona Globe, and I live, for now, in Austin, Texas.

How can you edit a site about Arizona politics, you ask, while living in another state? And why would you want to?

These are good questions. The how involves making a lot of phone calls, reading a lot of news briefings, repeatedly visiting the Valley to meet key players, and relying heavily on the Globe’s excellent team of reporters and contributors until I can weave my own web of sources.

The why is a more interesting answer.

I grew up in the Phoenix area. I graduated from Saguaro High School in 1988. Those weren’t exactly mean streets, or even lean streets, though more than one childhood friend saw his father go to jail as part of the Keating Five scandal.

Phoenix was also where I began learning the dark arts of journalism.

I was a teen correspondent and generated my first clips for the green-sheet Phoenix Gazette, the long-gone afternoon newspaper published by The Arizona Republic. Later, while still a teenager, I wrote for the Town of Paradise Valley Independent, finding human-interest features in a community without retail, where many residents hide in giant stone mountain fortresses.

In the summer of 1986, I had my first newsroom internship at KTAR 620, back when it was one of the state’s primary news sources. I walked around downtown Phoenix without a hat, sunglasses, or sunscreen, an enormous tape recorder strapped over my shoulder, conducting man-on-the-street interviews with people who were mostly trying to escape into shade or air conditioning.

My boss was Dennis Lambert, KTAR’s weekend anchor, who later worked as the Phoenix host of NPR’s Morning Edition and is now a Catholic deacon in the Phoenix diocese.

His recommendation letter, written as I sought to internship-hop after that summer, will always stay with me.

“His performances weren’t always flawless,” Lambert wrote, “but he put in the effort. I think he’ll make a fine journalist someday.”

Forty years later, I’m back on the same beat, in a very different Arizona.

When I last covered the state, Scottsdale effectively ended at 96th Street. People farmed in Gilbert. Surprise was a faraway land of little consequence. John McCain was a congressman who spoke at my grade school. Also, Evan Mecham was governor.

Now here I am: a fine journalist who’s enjoyed a career with as many facets as a questionably graded diamond.

I don’t know exactly what shape our coverage at Arizona Globe will take. A lot of that depends on who or what is in the news. But I do know that it will be reasonable, informed and, I hope, occasionally amusing.

In the past, this site has been home to a particular political point of view. It’s no secret that it has leaned right. Those contributors will still be around, and I’m not asking them to tamp down their opinions or discourage their sources.

But as an editor, I’ve always taken a Team of Rivals approach. Arizona is a purple state, and I’m hoping to tint our red with some blue.

Our performances won’t always be flawless. But we’ll definitely have some fun.