I think most people would agree that life can be strange. I generally find the opinions of others confusing, but this past week, I’ve found myself shaking my head more than usual.

First, we ran a comics survey online, mostly to get an idea of which of the national strips we run people like the most. Plus, we included a space for suggestions of what we might consider adding to our roster. A few people provided actually useful information (including local musician Cassie Van Gelder on Facebook, who probably should be teaching a class on modern comic strips somewhere), but then, probably predictably, there were comments about how comics are dumb and we shouldn’t bother running them in the first place. I understand one or two of these comments, but some people actually clicked the link and took the time to offer their incredibly unproductive input on the survey itself. Probably not a great use of time, but I’m probably in no position to judge.

Now, on Tuesday, we broke the news that Chris Bianco, a James Beard award winner and one of the country’s most prominent and respected chefs, is bringing a second location of Pizzeria Bianco to downtown. Because I’ve been around Tucson a long time, I knew comments from the “Keep Tucson Shitty” crowd were coming, and I’m not entirely unsympathetic to their complaints. After all, no one wants an outdoor mall full of chain outlets up and down Congress (well, I don’t think anyone wants that, at least). Bianco, however, isn’t that guy. He’s deeply committed to Arizona (passing up the offer to open locations in L.A. and Vegas, for instance), so you don’t have to necessarily buy into the hype over his pizza (although I make an argument that you should on page 13), but I didn’t think anyone would make the argument that his move is a bad thing for Tucson. Nope, people managed to do just that, complaining about everything from some connection to the Ronstadt Center’s proposed move to a contention that there’s too much parking downtown (wait, what?).

There are probably things that are worth disliking on principle alone (racism, the post-1984 career of Van Halen, Scientology, etc.), but c’mon, comic strips and great pizza don’t fall into that category.

This article appears in Apr 18-24, 2013.

The editor of the Tucson Weekly. I have no idea how I got here.

6 replies on “Editor’s Note”

  1. Agree with them or not, I always enjoy your rants, Dan.

    Don’t change, and just remember, there are those, under the guise of internet anonymity, who will bitch and denigrate anything and everyone.

  2. It must be admitted that currently there IS too much parking downtown, but I believe the idea is that we are planning for a somewhat more glittering future, perhaps if the construction crews ever finish the streetcar tracks. When they ripped into Congress again, it became so surreal that now I expect them to always be there, surrounded by mostly-empty giant garages.

    I had to laugh about the Keep Tucson Shitty contingent. I am partly guilty. I don’t miss the Greyound station as our Welcome Mat, but I do miss the gentle entry to downtown, the view of Joe’s murals on the Rialto. Suddenly, when approaching from the east, it’s a multi-story assault, giving no view but a wall of what to us can only be called skyscrapers.

    Of course I understand that we have to make parking while the sun shines, and while we have useful people in office who can actually get things done. (I love you, Mr. Rothschild.)

    But yeah, I mourn a bit for the lost gentle view of the Hotel Congress, the murals, the mountains. Soon, though… maybe we’ll be swank. And those garages will be full of cars. I’m personally stoked about Bianco coming in. Maybe this one we’ll be able to get into without a two hour wait. I’ve given up at the one in Phoenix as often as I’ve gotten in.

  3. I think the decision by Chris Bianco to locate a new Pizzeria Bianco restaurant in Tucson is great. Unfortunately, as others have commented, the mega-student housing buildings that are increasingly changing the view and the composition of the downtown area are troubling. Does Tucson really want the downtown to become a monoculture of college students and little else?

  4. If you want to stop being confused by the opinions or actions of the people surrounding you Mr. Gibson, then you’re gonna have to relocate to a different part of the universe. Hell, even that probably will not work. It’s more than likely a universal epidemic.

    I think Lucy Van Pelt said it best when she screamed “Stop the world, I want to get off!”

    R.I.P. Charles Schultz.

  5. “Agree with them or not, I always enjoy your rants, Dan.

    Don’t change, and just remember, there are those, under the guise of internet anonymity, who will bitch and denigrate anything and everyone.”

    Says lc69hunter who called Gabby’s heartfelt plea for gun control ‘capitalizing on a tragedy.’

    Oh look we have pots calling kettles black!!

Comments are closed.