Readers Give the Boot!

We invited Weekly readers this year to join us in our Get Out of Town! revelry. Here's a selection of the submissions we received. We should remind everyone that the opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Weekly editorial staff. So there.


CARL'S JR. (OR WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)AT WILMOT AND GRANT ROADS

I like Carl's Jr. They have great taco salads and French toast sticks. What they don't have is community pride.

The fire that destroyed its store on Grant Road near Wilmot Road and Costco burned in March. It's been a boarded-up eyesore ever since. A makeshift fence surrounding it gets blown down in windy weather, and walls get covered with graffiti on a regular basis.

Either replace the store, or sell it to someone else. Even a Circle K would be better than this.

We miss the food, and we are tired of looking at a burned-out shell. They cut down all the parking-lot shade trees last year, and now they are just letting the remaining ones die. Get this out of town before it becomes just a trash dump!

--Matt Welch


DRIVERS WITH THEIR HIGH BEAMS ON

To all those people who drive on side streets in Tucson with their brights/high beams on: I don't know if it's because of ignorance or malice that you choose to blind every pedestrian and biker within a quarter-mile, but either way, it's an asshole move. Get out of town!

--Andy Breuninger


LUTE OLSON HYPE

The Lute Olson hype has been the most tiresome thing to hit Tucson in the three decades I've lived here. (Before Olson's season-long leave and divorce filing was announced last week), the Arizona Daily Star was having a "Lute watch." God help us.

Some places have Elvis sightings, and others have Britney sightings. At a team practice the other day, we got Lute in the flesh! Stop the presses!

We must be a news-starved town. Can't we just lose our obsession with this nonevent?

--Sally Curd


MY LOUD NEIGHBORS

Seven years ago, I fled the chaos and noise of New Jersey for the peace and quiet of Tucson. And for the past seven years, I have, for the most part, enjoyed it.

Recently, however, the elderly couple that lives in the apartment above mine is putting that peace and quiet in jeopardy.

I've had many people live above me since moving here, and most of them were young people. Younger folks are often thought to be the loudest, rowdiest age group. But the young people who've lived above me have been quiet and respectful.

Think old people are quiet? I beg to differ. The couple who currently live in the apartment above mine are the loudest neighbors I've ever had. I suspect they wear their shoes in the house, as they tromp around at all hours of the day (and night), each step pushing me closer to a headache and further from a good night's sleep.

I have nothing against these people. We've said hello to each other on those rare occasions that we meet outside, and they are always very friendly. But their tendency to walk inside louder than a pair of elephants irritates me to no end.

So to my neighbors, I say: "Get out of town!" But please understand--it's nothing personal.

--Mike Townsend


PEOPLE WHO DON'T SPAY OR NEUTER

People who don't spay or neuter their pets, be they individual pet owners, backyard breeders or operators of puppy/kitten mills, should get out of town! I have been a volunteer at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona for three years, and I continue to be shocked and discouraged by the number of animals that are brought to the shelter. It is a very sad situation that can easily be prevented.

--Meredith Schubach


POLITICIANS WHO IGNORE THE LONG-TERM

It's almost a no-brainer that I'd pick our mayor and City Council to kick out of town, but instead, I'd like to more kindly reframe the matter: I'd remove from power those who do not share my vision of what public officials should work for. And our City Council members do not.

Our politicians are committed to subsidizing developers and seem incapable of looking to the long-term future. Instead of working for a transportation system not based on fossil fuels (inspired by the trains, subways and streetcar networks, like European cities have, and which this nation used to have), they're for spending billions for new highways and destruction of the environment. They cite costs for the fossil-fuel-free alternatives, but seem ignorant of the costs (including in human life) of traffic. They cannot foresee the day that we'll have no oil to waste.

We should be taking immediate, aggressive and desperate action to fight global warming. Even if global warming were not such a critical issue, the council's decisions would still be based on ignorance rather than awareness. They allocate taxes on cockamamie projects, e.g., millions to deny two elephants the opportunity to be retired on a vast sanctuary in another state. Yet they cite costs as they violate campaign promises, e.g., to abolish an onerous garbage disposal fee.

There is probably no corruption in our council's servile obedience to big business, including the flourishing weapons industry (of which they're proud), but they're willing to work for the small change of donations for their elections. For these reasons and many others, I'd vote to fund their tickets out of town. Before this Christmas would be excellent timing.

--David Ray


TOM TAYLOR OF TUCSON GREYHOUND PARK

Tom Taylor apparently decided being director of Tucson Greyhound Park operations wasn't sufficiently challenging, so he took on another role as president of the new (track-sponsored) adoption group. One of his first decisions in this role was to kill an injured greyhound instead of giving it to an independent adoption group that had a representative on the road to the track to pick up the dog.

If this is Taylor's idea of animal welfare (and adoption?), then out of town (on a rail) looks like a great idea to me.

--John Clark


TSO ROBBER CAPITALISTS

So I schlepped to Tucson Symphony Orchestra's North Sixth Avenue headquarters for two cheap-seat tickets to their next concert. Instead of the usual $18 to $25 charge for an upper-balcony seat, my credit card was nicked for $106: $50 per ticket plus a $6 service fee. KERCHING!

Asked what was going on, the ticket clerk said TSO charged more for "popular" concerts close to show time. Admittedly, jacking up ticket prices may boost TSO's revenues in the short run, and affluent snowbird and foothills types probably don't care. But what about the rest of us who don't buy corn flakes at AJ's? Is this the best way to keep current concert-goers, not to mention attracting new ones?

--David Peashock


WATER-STATION-FUNDING BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

The Pima County Board of Supervisors has authorized $25,000 every year recently to leave water in the desert, which "encourages, aides and abets" "illegal aliens" to sneak in. That money could have been used for needy Americans.

Illegals get the impression there is water waiting for them, and they expect it! It encourages more to come who will die. Thousands of illegals come daily, and (some of them) are violent criminals and child predators. Go explain that to the families of the victims they will harm!

Humane Borders disperses the water--Board of Supervisors, take them with you when you leave! The board has no right to be spending Arizonans' money on illegal foreigners.

--Laura Leighton