The Arizona Daily Star recently ran two chirpy stories that cheered some business news in Tucson but didn’t mention any associated negatives.
“Past liabilities in Tucson now economic assets”
Arizona Daily Star
Saturday, April 26, 2025
By Gabriella Rico“Huge investments in industrial projects mean job growth”
Arizona Daily Star
Saturday, April 26, 2025
By Gabriella Rico
There’s nothing wrong with being a cheerleader for one’s city and accentuating the positives instead of the negatives.
A caveat: That’s true as long as ignoring the negatives doesn’t result in the city being an economic laggard and remaining mired in low wages, high poverty, high crime, and low K-12 test scores.
The first story (behind a paywall) claims that the city’s former liabilities of a crummy downtown, a dysfunctional community college, and two competing business development groups have been turned into economic assets with the revitalization of downtown, with Pima Community College getting its act together, and with the Tucson Metro Chamber and Sun Corridor merging to become the Chamber of Southern Arizona.
Color me cynical. Having lived in Arizona for 38 years, with the last seven in Tucson, I’ve heard many times that the Old Pueblo was on the cusp of being an economic star. But other than population growth, key socioeconomic indicators have remained flatlined, including the most important indicator: median household income (when expressed in constant dollars).
Bigwigs at the newly formed Chamber of Southern Arizona say that the revitalized downtown is a big plus. Maybe. Maybe not. Time will tell. Many other cities revitalized their downtowns long before Tucson did, with mixed results.
The bigwigs also say that another plus is Tucson’s proximity to Mexico’s manufacturing. They didn’t mention four qualifiers.
First, a lot depends on whether Trump’s tariff fever subsides. Second, a lot also depends on whether the feds proceed with the plan to bypass Tucson to the west with a
new interstate for the shipment of goods from Mexico to points north. Third, low-margin produce is the main import from Mexico that comes through the inland port of Nogales. Manufactured goods tend to come through the inland ports of Laredo and El Paso. Fourth, Nogales is a pipsqueak compared to the port of Laredo, where nearly 20,000 trucks come through every day, for an annual total of $200 billion in shipped goods, as detailed at this link.
The bigwigs are correct that the University of Arizona being in Tucson is a plus, but they would’ve been more accurate if they had said that it is a potential plus. Under its new president, the university might finally be a catalyst for business start-ups, venture capital, and technology transfers, instead of being known for a faculty senate of angry cultural Marxists and critical theorists.
The bigwigs suggest that defense and biotech help Tucson to “stand out.” Well, standing out are the demonstrators that can often be seen outside the main entrance gate to RTX’s missile division, carrying signs that accuse the employees of being baby killers and enablers of Zionist colonialists in Palestine. The demonstrators resemble aging Flower Children and hippies who want to relive their youth of pot smoking and demonstrating against the Vietnam War.
This reflects the biggest problem facing Tucson: its politics, which are similar to the politics in Berkeley, Ca.
Although the politics are similar between the two cities, Tucson doesn’t fare as well as Berkeley. Tucson’s median household income is only half as much as Berkeley’s, and only 30 percent of Tucson adults have a college degree, versus 75 percent of Berkeley’s adults.
Regarding biotech in Tucson, I have no idea what the bigwigs are referring to. Maybe they have Tucson confused with Boston.
The second Daily Star story (behind a paywall) touts industrial development in metro Tucson but is mostly about new distribution and logistics centers. The story doesn’t state the fact that such centers are being built around the country, or the finding of ZipRecruiter that the average pay of hourly workers in distribution centers in Tucson is only $17 per hour, or one dollar more than the pay at Tucson car washes.
Also unmentioned is a report by Kenco on the top ten cities for distribution centers. The cities are:
1. Dallas/Ft. Worth
2. Phoenix
3. Savannah, Georgia
4. Inland Empire, California
5. Chicago
6. Allentown, Pennsylvania
7. Atlanta
8. Indianapolis
9. Las Vegas
10. Memphis
Nor is it mentioned that a mammoth air cargo hub is being built at metro Phoenix’s second airport, the East Mesa/Gateway Airport. It is expected to be the primary entry and exit point for goods traveling by air between Mexico and the United States. When fully built out, it will have 3.5 million square feet of industrial space (assuming that Trump get over his tariff fever). The full story is at this link.
In closing, it sure seems that Tucson’s economy is rather blah and not deserving of cheers.
Mr. Cantoni can be reached at craigcantoni@gmail.com.