With a run of positive pieces about Tucson in the media lately (seemingly all of which mention Hippie Gypsy, so ok), there had to be some balance provided by the universe, so today, we get an article in Slate by smart weatherguy Eric Holthaus remarking upon our impending drought-induced doom!
Holthaus interviews Mayor Rothschild to discuss what the heck we’re going to do about the general unsustainable nature of living out here in the desert, but I guess because he lived here once (“my home for two years and my wife’s home for six,” he mentions), he gets the knives out as well:
Before the housing crash, Tucson was one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. Since then, the area has seen some serious reversion to the mean. Tucson is now one of the poorest big cities in the country with a per capita income of slightly more than $20,000. Tattoo parlors, seedy dive bars, and gas stations seem to make up the bulk of the retail establishments. There are few sidewalks, so The Walking Dead—esque scenes of people stumbling through the street at all hours of the day or night are commonplace. Tucson is off-the-charts poor and getting worse.
From the city’s reviews on Yelp:
I have never felt more depressed by the environment around me as I have been living in Tucson. A strong runner up would be Baku [Azerbaijan].
Honestly, the piece is totally worth reading (despite a sponsorship by Arizona State), but man, Holthaus would feel right at home shittalking our town on one of our right-wing talk shows (outside of believing in climate change, obvs):
Tucson was recently named one of the top cities in the country for twentysomethings. But the overwhelming feeling my wife and I got from living in Tucson was that most people there were transient. It didn’t feel like a permanent place at all, or that it even should be a permanent place to live, at least not in its current state. Maybe it was an effect of living in the desert—it’s a place you go to visit, not to live.
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2014.
Did you notice that “off-the-charts poor” was a link to a Tucson Weekly article? http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/off-the… Guess you provided him all the ammo he needed. 😉
Cool. All the people who don’t love Tucson should pack the hell up and get out. Go back to wherever they came from.
Hmm, that’s interesting. I walked on plenty of sidewalks when I lived there and never had to stumble through the streets like a zombie. And there are plenty of people who are permanently living there. But there’s nothing wrong with just passing through, either! Part of the diverse culture are the people who pass through for days, months or years, bringing their stories with them and adding some spice to the scene. The author of this article should probably have lived in Phoenix if he couldn’t appreciate the wonderfulness of Tucson.
Off the charts poor… except for the Louis Vuitton and Tiffany store that somehow stays open… sure.
With 20% of the Earth covered with Desert and only 2% of the worlds population living in the Desert, I takes a special kind of person to handle life around here. Once a person figures out how much they love it in the desert, and how beautiful the desert life is, they could care less what that other 98% of the world thinks about it.
It’s Slate, so who cares?
This article is so true and anyone that likes it has lived in Tucson their whole life and not experienced the rest of the world. LAZY and unambitious people live in Tucson (yes there are exceptions, but 97% of this sentence is true).
Don: I did say he made some good points.
WOW. He linked to a nearly three-year-old TW article about Tucson being “off the charts poor?” Tucson certainly isn’t any boomtown, but honestly, a lot about the economy nationally and locally has changed in that particular three years. He might have had more credibility if he had linked to something more recent, like maybe last year’s weeklong Arizona Public Media series on poverty here, or the other weeklong series the Star did, also last year.
Oh, well may I suggest to him to live in Fort Wayne, Indiana where we moved from 2 months ago. Talk about a shithole. I’d like to slap the silly right off of this guy’s face. Tucson is heaven compared to where I moved from. I plan to stay here for the rest of my life. I love it. I love the zombies that I meet walking down the very few sidewalks every day and night.
Arizona State WOULD sponsor an article that bashes Tucson.
At least Tucson’s state representatives don’t vote overwhelmingly for bigot bills and our university’s sports are consistent.
I’ll wait until someone with some actual credibility features an article about Tucson before I get get angry enough to send Slate any attention (and, honesty, any would be better than the attention they receive now).
“LAZY and unambitious people live in Tucson…97% of this sentence is true.”
Well, at least you know when you’re feeding people a load of bullshit.
I suppose the employees of Raytheon, DM’s Air Force personnel, and University staff isn’t a part of this list. I also assume that people like Linda Ronstadt, Ian Kinnsler, Lute Olsen, and Calexico aren’t counted, either. And, surely you are striking any achievements in astronomy, medicine, and agriculture made at the U of A, as well as any of the many succesful graduates from Eller.
And, local restauranteurs like the owners of Lindy’s and Guerro Canelo who have been featured on national television must round out your 3% of exception.
Sit down with your uninvited bashing of the only city that keeps Arizona from sinking into a Republican cesspool. You sound like someone defending a piñata at a Mezican birthday party…no one wants to hear it.
Move on, Troll.
We moved here 2 months ago. We started looking for jobs last week. My Fiance’ started his job yesterday, and I started next week. Neither one of us have college degrees, and we both will be earning a living, as well as be able to save, and invest.
What did the author do? Hang out on 4th avenue for his whole stay? Give me a break.
Slate can fuck off. Yes, the economy is bad, I’ve put in 50+ job applications this week and have yet to get a call back, but this is a sickening case of kicking a group of people while they’re down. I know for a fact that my hometown has a promising music and art scene and is full of ambitious and hard-working people. And I’ll have him know that a lot of the “tattoo parlors and seedy dive bars” happen to employ many of those hard working people. Just because his snobby coastal ass doesn’t value the work being done does not invalidate the effort put forth. I’ll take Tucson any day over the festering Tea Party douchebag cesspool that is Phoenix.
This is the west, it’s hard out here and it’s a fucked up world we inhabit, but I know also that your average Tucsonan is tougher and smarter than some elitist dipshit who writes for Slate.
To Gonzo Sorcharchi:
I was not sure if you were talking about the high number of illegals who live here?
I moved to Tucson in 1998 from the snow belt of NW Pennsylvania. That summer, I set out for AZ in my 1985 Pontiac Sunbird, and I arrived in Tucson with 3/4ths tank of gas and $3 in my pocket at 18 years of age. I met amazing people, I met shady people. I loved the openness of the community here. I loved that I was rarely marginalized by my crappy car, or my tiny 2 bedroom apartment. People liked me for me. Like most 20 somethings, i made some pretty big mistakes. I saw the seedy under belly of Tucson. I saw all it’s ugly parts. I left Tucson for a year, ended up back in PA, and moved to Hawaii. After a while it was time to come back, refocused. I returned strong, focused, and open to possibilities. I put the past Tucson out of my mind. And you know what? I had the best years of my life here. I grew up, I went to college at Pima, worked for an amazing company, and married a handsome airman from DM. Last year his job forced us to relocate to Virginia. I have never been so miserable in all my life. We are currently visiting Tucson this week…and I just have to say regarding this article that your experience here is relative to what you put into it. My husband and I plan to return to AZ as soon as possible, and to retire here. The sun, the mountains, the palms, the people, the places, and the food are one of a kind, and this will always be my home. And I’ll always be proud to call myself a Tucsonan. Screw the people who don’t appreciate the Old Pueblo!
The water issue is certainly being ignored by municipalities that could strictly limit the number of new home building permits. SOMETHING has to be done to discourage people from moving to an area with such an untenable water supply.
Interesting, but life is truly what you make it. I am surrounded by interesting, successful and intelligent people here. Honored to be associated with the U of A (at the very top of the list of research Universities in the US) and an active part of the community, all I can say is the author sounds like a really unhappy person and my guess is he won’t find what he is seeking unless he looks within himself. Not a surprise that he complains about the transient population when he was a transient resident. Go figure.
He definitely missed the irony that Rich Watson pointed out, a transient against transients.
I have been here for ten years and I have certainly felt the squeeze of a bad economy and I definitely have concerns about the water (most people probably aren’t or weren’t aware that we have the largest resovoir of water than any city in the US, enough for a year). Honestly, it just sounds like he and his wife didn’t dig the vibe and that’s fine. The best part about it is that they moved out of here. This place isn’t for everyone. Sure, it could be the heat, it could be the magnetic north for bums is Speedway and Stone but instead of being that couple that complains and never left, did, for me, it was all the examples of their ‘ties’ here that left me puzzled. Very odd read. I was left thinking, Um…ok?
I lived a lot of places before coming here 7 years ago. It was the time in almost a half century of existence that I ever felt a sense of community. You can take that for what it’s worth.