If ever there was a city in the American West so determined to screw your young life, it’s got to be Tucson Arizona. The quantitative indicators are unmistakable; and as the coronavirus tips the Southwest into recession, it’s going to get worse.
All the foundational metrics are here: a deep anti-growth ethos, born from a smug and sinecured university presence that rejects active Western values, a corrupt political-class elevating municipal parasitism to new heights, a corrupted dominant print media that “flys aircover” for these dystopic narratives and the dirtbags that push them, and a slavish dependency by local elites on Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex”, with more local government rent-seeking for their downtown real estate schemes.
Gee, what could go wrong?
The dimensions of this immense, convoluted bubble are staggering. To wit:
- ~40% of the unincorporated Tucson Metro is actually in a County (by design), run so corruptly & incompetently, that its dire need for decent streets & roads has caused Arizona state government to seriously consider doubling one of the [already] 5 highest gasoline taxes in America. Oh, this helps the poor, uh-huh.
- It’s the second largest metro in one of America’s best states for business, bordering her #1 global trading partner (as of 1/1/20), with the state’s flagship university….but who’s local economy produced a mere 7% of Arizona’s total job growth from 2010-2018. The walking economic dead.
- Home to America’s enviro-cult Godzilla of lawsuits, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). The City’s ditzy new mayor is an employee alumnus; her first day on the job was spent protesting. I have to ask, was Caterpillar informed of all this before its disastrous mining division relocation to the Old Pueblo? They sure got the “big Green weenie”; just ask Hud-Bay Minerals.
- Other indicators include the recent 2020 synopsis of Arizona’s 100 largest employers by Zippia, the Internet’s largest career consultants. Only 14 were in the Tucson Metro, and half of those were government affiliated or non-profit. No, this doesn’t look good on your resume.
For any student of municipal management, public administration, or a simple, “where can I put my technical degree to work?” ….an intelligent assessment of the situation should be forthcoming.
Tucson has the civic version of “Stockholm Syndrome”; where the victims have come to love & appreciate their squalor & dependency.
Tell Mom & Dad, you’re outtahere.
Sellers is a South Park Republican who lives in incorporated Oro Valley. His background is federal tech-transfer commercialization.