I first heard the “Dirty-T’ moniker describing Tucson coming from some departing UA engineering grads; evidently little has changed since. It’s been, and continues to be, a real tragedy for Tucson’s poor, uncredentialed, and those inflicted with the City’s uber-liberal version of helicopter parents, i.e. the soft racism of low expectations, writ large.
Tucson IS the “Dirty T”; the red-headed, bastard stepbrother of its larger, wealthier, more consequential & worldly in-state companion, Phoenix. I now call Phoenix “Techno-Cactopolis” (TC), reflecting its remarkable evolution. Youthful losers, who disdain this relationship and have stumbled around, wasting precious time here, might all snarl accordingly. No matter; Techno-Cactopolis could care less about Tucson, except in one very cynical and reasonably important way.
The “Dirty T” is a magnet for all Techno-Cactopolis doesn’t need or want; it performs that important “waste-receptacle-diversion function.” In fact, after observing this relationship for nearly 10 years, I’m more convinced than ever this is exactly the case. Meanwhile, Techno-Cactopolis is about to become that most magical of global urban destinations, the “World City”, and I should know; I’ve been to a bunch of ‘em, recently living in one in the Middle East.
The chief excuse of the Dirty-T’s wretchedly incompetent & mendacious political class can be summed up in 1 sentence, “if we do that we’ll become like Phoenix”. Ergo, no novelty is allowed. A ‘novelty’ preceding complexity, as the late philosopher Terence McKenna noted. Techno-Cactopolis never bought into Tucson’s sanctimonious, self-serving hogwash. Here, you cannot do zippo, and these incredibly self-destructive practices have finally migrated down to a granular level of parasitic consciousness. Tragic.
Imagine risking tens of $ millions for something worthwhile, employing hundreds in its design, engineering, construction, and operations, not to mention all the sales & property taxes it generates, only to be told by bozo neighborhood associations, with no skin in the game whatsoever, this is unacceptable. And these idiots are backed by City Hall. Somehow they all knew you were going to create crap; how enlightened.
Or living next to some incredible mountains, but you cannot run a well-designed, environmentally friendly, self-sustaining cable-tram to their top. Something genuinely novel; nope, can’t do that. Or have a 1 or 2-hour commuter air service entrepot to one of Planet Earth’s most unique natural environs, Mexico’s Baja region; nope, can’t do that. Or get back your AAA-baseball club, lost to El Paso (nuts!) with a new stadium, located where patrons with money (vs. some remote poor part of town) might want to attend; nope, can’t do that. Let alone build a bypass system, or cross-town freeway to funnel-off the murderous congestion from one, single cross-town Interstate; and it opens shovel-ready industrial sites for a coming shift in global trade….nope, can’t do that.
It’s stuff like this, where Techno-Cactopolis grins from ear-to-ear, re: the Dirty-T. “We don’t want gullible fools that put up with such nonsense; it’s good they stay down there, in the Grijalva Gang’s poverty & squalor”… i.e. Stockholm Syndrome Tucson. Unfortunately, history is full of such jaded & cynical arrangements; chocked full. Why you ask? Because they work.
The real danger here is Tucson’s continued rebuttal to novelty, i.e. “we can’t do that”, has now become S.O.P. Moreover, the people in the past who “could do that”, are LEAVING. Ditto the grads with the real degrees; you’re now left with functional illiterates who can’t do anything, except maybe cater to wealthy, white, Liberal geezers.
It’s only a matter of time before your remaining bigger employers figure this out.
Sellers is a Southpark Republican living in incorporated Oro Valley; his background is federal technology commercialization