From outright refusing to enforce the law to imposing mandatory “green” mandates, examples abound of local governments violating Arizonans’ rights this past year.
Here are three of the worst ones:
1. Phoenix: “The Zone”
It’s one of the most tragic cases of government gone wrong. Phoenix’s homeless “Zone,” where law and order gave way to death and destruction, was once the largest homeless encampment in America, with more than 1,000 individuals sleeping on the streets in front of businesses and public property. After a group of law-abiding property and business owners in The Zone sued the city for maintaining a public nuisance, a judge ruled that the city was not only blatantly refusing to enforce simple laws, but also actively perpetuating the life-threatening situation in The Zone. (Goldwater filed briefs in support of the business and property owners and published investigative reports exposing the crisis and the city’s inaction.) While officials were forced to clear out The Zone—which included cleaning up tents, feces, urine, needles, and other biohazards that have been overrunning this area for the last four years—their years of inaction will forever stand as a blemish of disgrace.
2. Scottsdale: “Green” Mandates
Scottsdale is forcing “green” mandates on anyone trying to bring a new development to the area, even as officials are fully aware that these unpopular mandates raise the price of new developments by up to 20%. From telling developers which construction materials they can and can’t use, to restricting water use, to actually banning grass, these mandates are a terrifying example of what happens when the powerful hand of the federal government reaches across the country to impose DC’s top-down climate agenda on hardworking Americans. Perhaps the worst part: these codes were optional in Scottsdale for the past 15 years, and only 30 developers opted in. By this point, the city council knew neither the community nor developers wanted the new codes—but officials made them mandatory anyway.
3. Tucson: Lawlessness
If you’ve been to Tucson, you know that it is a city in despair. Laws are rarely enforced, charges brought forward by the police are dropped regularly, and the homeless population continues to overrun parks, sidewalks, private businesses, and the motels that officials converted into homeless shelters (on the taxpayers’ dime). Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, who has received significant pushback from the public over her outspoken desire to “revolutionize the criminal justice system” and who frequently fails to hold criminals accountable, is responsible for much of what’s gone wrong in Tucson.
Tucson has made public transportation free, which has essentially created mobile homeless shelters across the city. Riders are forced to deal with public drug use, urination, and defecation, and sometimes even assault or theft. With Conover refusing to protect law-abiding citizens, while also refusing to enforce laws against criminals, Tucson is slipping closer and closer to the same dire situations that Los Angeles and San Francisco find themselves in. And it’s all because the government refuses to do its job.
Austin VanDerHeyden is the Municipal Affairs Liaison at the Goldwater Institute.