Rio Nuevo stalled? Let’s have a full accounting of what money is left and what has been spent. Reorganize and come up with an affordable project that can be accomplished with local employees. Use the full bid process with local preference after a background and experience check for all bidders. Giving somebody an exclusive with deadline extensions wastes time.
Nimbus? They should quit asking for special deals and act like a self sufficient business. Why expect taxpayers to subsidize that business? That is not free enterprise. The City Council should not be in a rush to ‘develop’ this land. Let it sit there a while and put it out to bid or hold on to it if the bids don’t meet expectations. Make it into a parking lot and make some $ without much investment.
Or how about this? Charter Schools downtown for employees children. Charter schools downtown with direct connections to the UofA. How about a transitioning from high school to UA Charter school with classes at the UA? Ride the goddamn trolley that goes over the tracks, has stops along the old warehouse row and then on to downtown and past all the charter schools close to government and UofA.
Leave the old 4th Avenue underpass alone. It’s an icon. Walk down to the lowest point and whistle and you will hear the echo. We used to sing as we bicycled or walked through. Don’t break it.
Route the trolley down 4th, around and over the track. Cheap! More stops and more business exposure. And no need to close roads and reroute traffic on a major scale.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Friday, June 02, 2006
4,300 Acres of Owl Habitat
Let’s look at these projects that are proposed to be built on owl habitat:
The Tucson Daily Star said these projects would bring in 1200 new housing units.
It is my opinion this population increase would create water demand that might be difficult to meet these days. If you use the average of 3 residents per housing unit average and water consumption at 125 gallons per day, per individual, 450,000 more gallons of water per day would be demanded and that does not count business and school consumption.
I wonder if good old Tucson Water is ready to up water production for these new local developments? How is the water table? Is it falling or what? What is the official word on this?
How secure is the Lake Mead water supply to the Central Arizona Project? What is the relationship between Lake Powell and Lake Mead water extraction?
In short, can we afford to ‘develop’ these new lands? There are so many reasons not to develop this owl habitat. The encroaching drought is impacting our water supply and the wisdom of adding to the water burden at this time is questionable. Deny building permits and give our water infrastructure time to recover. Let the owl live a little longer.
We are experiencing a slowdown in real estate and a surfeit of houses for sale, fewer buyers and falling prices. So I ask you, is this the time to invest in more houses? Why destroy habitat, deplete our water system and then lose your ass when the homes don’t sell? What about the bad press the Homebuilders get when they stomp owls to make money?
So let’s list 3 of the projects that are determined to add to the housing glut by wiping out habitat of one of God’s creatures, leaving the conservation of this scarce owl to others.
These must be projects of huge importance:
Summit Vistas (Tucson, NW side)
Mission Peaks (Sahuarita)
Cahanza Springs (Apache Junction)
The Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association is pushing to cheapen this precious land inhabited by tiny owls. Some highrollers would pay good money to have a pad in the midst of that but the bulldozing fools can’t envision fitting a home into a beautiful landscape. They can only envision changing the environment to enable them to use heavy machinery…for ease of building and their preconceived notions of what it ought to look like. A real artist would design to fit the landscape, not alter the landscape to fit the design.
The price of gas does not encourage long commutes and houses far out from employment are not going to be as salable. White elephants eat a lot, don’t they?
The Tucson Daily Star said these projects would bring in 1200 new housing units.
It is my opinion this population increase would create water demand that might be difficult to meet these days. If you use the average of 3 residents per housing unit average and water consumption at 125 gallons per day, per individual, 450,000 more gallons of water per day would be demanded and that does not count business and school consumption.
I wonder if good old Tucson Water is ready to up water production for these new local developments? How is the water table? Is it falling or what? What is the official word on this?
How secure is the Lake Mead water supply to the Central Arizona Project? What is the relationship between Lake Powell and Lake Mead water extraction?
In short, can we afford to ‘develop’ these new lands? There are so many reasons not to develop this owl habitat. The encroaching drought is impacting our water supply and the wisdom of adding to the water burden at this time is questionable. Deny building permits and give our water infrastructure time to recover. Let the owl live a little longer.
We are experiencing a slowdown in real estate and a surfeit of houses for sale, fewer buyers and falling prices. So I ask you, is this the time to invest in more houses? Why destroy habitat, deplete our water system and then lose your ass when the homes don’t sell? What about the bad press the Homebuilders get when they stomp owls to make money?
So let’s list 3 of the projects that are determined to add to the housing glut by wiping out habitat of one of God’s creatures, leaving the conservation of this scarce owl to others.
These must be projects of huge importance:
Summit Vistas (Tucson, NW side)
Mission Peaks (Sahuarita)
Cahanza Springs (Apache Junction)
The Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association is pushing to cheapen this precious land inhabited by tiny owls. Some highrollers would pay good money to have a pad in the midst of that but the bulldozing fools can’t envision fitting a home into a beautiful landscape. They can only envision changing the environment to enable them to use heavy machinery…for ease of building and their preconceived notions of what it ought to look like. A real artist would design to fit the landscape, not alter the landscape to fit the design.
The price of gas does not encourage long commutes and houses far out from employment are not going to be as salable. White elephants eat a lot, don’t they?
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Hello From West Tucson
Ah! We sit here today with the wind and dust and no rain in sight. Not much mention of drought conditions except Channel 13 Tucson published a video article on the notorious Colorado river, stating historical proof of severe fluctuations and drought. The Colorado River is like a faithless lover who promises much but cannot deliver, dashing the dreams of entrepreneurs and developers who want to develop something that is no longer there. I feel sorry for them and their money, bereft of cheap land and plentiful water.
There's plenty of water in New Orleans. Maybe KB Home could start a subdivision called Storm Surge View! Desert Views around here are being Mojaveized. Possibly the Sonoran Desert will vanish into the merciless maw of the Mojave with genuine sand drifts at the base of alluvial fans no longer flowing.
So the Tucson paper prints a story about certain developers getting bidless deals while everybody else looks in from the cold except it almost hit a hundred in the shade today, particularly for those listed as having received cushy deals. This is just plain old corruption, the good ole boys running things to make a fast buck. Where are the good ole girls? Mascarading as women? Downtown has always been creepy at night and too many Indian Spanish ghosts cruise all those empty buildings. So Downtown is primarily a day destination but some in the city would subsidize 'development' that is so often aimed at the consumption of alcohol. Interesting. Now they think they have the money to put in a trolley from the UA to downtown, I guess so drunken college kids can safely ride from the S&M store to the bars and back to their cloisters paid for by their parents.
Tucson is no Spokane, dearie. We had pueblo style houses with little courtyards, not miles of red brick. We looked more like Santa Fe, before that awful Urban Renewal.
Why if you will think about it, you might even think of Tucson as a gateway to Mexico. How about a first class passenger train to Nogales, where it will hook up with one built by the Mexicans, with connections to Guadalajara and Mexico City? That would make downtown boom and nobody would have to pay anybody to start a business there. Mexico is our best ally and we should recognize that fact and use it to make money here in Tucson. You might even help somebody
There's plenty of water in New Orleans. Maybe KB Home could start a subdivision called Storm Surge View! Desert Views around here are being Mojaveized. Possibly the Sonoran Desert will vanish into the merciless maw of the Mojave with genuine sand drifts at the base of alluvial fans no longer flowing.
So the Tucson paper prints a story about certain developers getting bidless deals while everybody else looks in from the cold except it almost hit a hundred in the shade today, particularly for those listed as having received cushy deals. This is just plain old corruption, the good ole boys running things to make a fast buck. Where are the good ole girls? Mascarading as women? Downtown has always been creepy at night and too many Indian Spanish ghosts cruise all those empty buildings. So Downtown is primarily a day destination but some in the city would subsidize 'development' that is so often aimed at the consumption of alcohol. Interesting. Now they think they have the money to put in a trolley from the UA to downtown, I guess so drunken college kids can safely ride from the S&M store to the bars and back to their cloisters paid for by their parents.
Tucson is no Spokane, dearie. We had pueblo style houses with little courtyards, not miles of red brick. We looked more like Santa Fe, before that awful Urban Renewal.
Why if you will think about it, you might even think of Tucson as a gateway to Mexico. How about a first class passenger train to Nogales, where it will hook up with one built by the Mexicans, with connections to Guadalajara and Mexico City? That would make downtown boom and nobody would have to pay anybody to start a business there. Mexico is our best ally and we should recognize that fact and use it to make money here in Tucson. You might even help somebody
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