The staggering economic, social, and moral consequences of Tucson’s paralyzed leadership are just starting to show. Without seminal change, the future looks grim going towards 2030.
Forget the growing daily compendium of Tucson street crime, drug-related crime, homeless-crime, all manners of property-crime….forget numerous shootings, current & past, at the University of Arizona; forget the unsolved arsons; forget the trashed-out neighborhoods and 3rd world street infrastructure…. None of that stuff matters to the little Wokie politicos that Tucson’s ineffectual elites have allowed to rule.
Pay no attention to the hundreds of residents and biz-owners recently assembled in Flowing Wells (I was there), and at other similar venues over the last few years …to vent about the rising tide of criminality & lawlessness. It was never reported in the hard-left’s newsrag, the RedStar, so it didn’t happen. (after all, what’s propaganda aircover for?)
Seriously, I’m mystified at what it’s going to take before Tucson organizations like SALC, the 25+ yr old Southern Arizona Leadership Council, SunCorridor and others …come to realize the demographic enormity of the corner they’ve been painted into.
That said, IMHO the only solution feasible given the growing poverty and lack of private money—is to incorporate individual cities from that ~40%+ of the Metro still in Pima County. This one fact alone should be breathtakingly obvious, inasmuch as no major municipality in the American West has such disproportionate governance.
And clawback all those localized tax monies, now pilfered by a bloated & corrupt Pima County.
Maybe it’s time for SALC, SunCorridor, and others to simply write-off the standard PimaCo political drama? That means become an effective organization, one true to their own claims & doctrines.
Upgrade the corporate motto or mission statement (so 1980’s) from, “Give it the old college try”, …or “robust, caring endeavor”, …or “adherence to our skill sets or corporate culture”….blah, blah, blah. In other words, cut the crap and just try to be effective.
It’s also breathtakingly obvious you guys have some deep internal philosophical differences, huh? (cause you’re damn sure not effective with the operating ones you’re using)
Here’s a repair idea I’ve seen work before: Create a separate, [Super] action committee comprised of executives from both SALC and SunCorridor. Forgetting your funding sources for a second, and knowing certain executives will overlap, pick committee members for their actual project management expertise, ground-up.
Then establish 2 lists: Tucson 2025, and Tucson 2030, and rank in each list a handful of accomplished goals [3-5 max]. They’re “infrastructure goals”; actual and political, forget social because it’s not in your economic development charters, right? Some goals done in the short-haul, others take time. The calendar dictates the low hanging fruit, and the goals are very exacting & hard-edged. No touchie-feelie wokerisms inputted from non-profits, public health care, educrats, cable cartels, etc, etc. Don’t let those types in your action committee.
Have simple majority approval [Everyone Votes], for the goals [All or Nothing!], by both entire organizations and mandatory for the select committee’s funding [Yes, real money is involved]. And for committee membership, don’t pick people with too much on their plates; but do pick ‘get-it-done’ people. Make it a challenge; after all, isn’t that also in your charter?
Here’s one final dirty little secret: once you’re effective, everybody else will toe the line. That’s how you know you’ve arrived.
Sellers is a Southpark Republican living in incorporated Oro Valley; his background is federal technology commercialization