- Image courtesy of Shutterstock
In case you don’t feel like spending your time reading Doug MacEachern’s Sunday column for the Arizona Republic entitled “Tucson, where bad fiscal ideas thrive”, here’s a quick summary:
• Speedway is ugly.
• There’s a lot of traffic in Tucson, but not all that many cars and nowhere to go, so that’s weird.
• Rio Nuevo! That was crazy, right?
• TUSD sucks.
• Mexican American Studies sucks.
• The Cesar Chavez holiday was a bad idea and involved brainwashed students.
The last three are not particularly surprising points from MacEachern, who has used his space in the Republic to bash TUSD and Ethnic Studies on a number of occasions, but gosh, that one about Speedway really stings. Thank goodness we have Phoenix and all their beautiful thoroughfares. I used to drive down Jefferson Ave. in Phoenix to get to work everyday and I always thought it reminded me a bit of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, except, you know, more visually appealing.
Thankfully, if nothing else, the column’s comment section allows residents of Pima County who hate themselves and their choices to vent, including this gem from Thomas S. Hunt, who works in commercial real estate here in town:
At least we know that the wealthy people aren’t the problem…if only we could get all those pesky poor people south of River on board. But then again, if Tucson could get its shit together, Doug MacEachern wouldn’t have an easy, go-to column to write when he’s out of ideas.
This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2014.
Speedway was ugly when Life Magazine printed a deceptively-compressed telephoto view of it quite a long time ago. Those who still reflexivly repeat that “observation” have probably not been on it in a decade or so (if ever), but how can you expect a snarky asshole write to do any research?
Meh. Speedway is still ugly all this time later. But hearing that makes me flinch about as much as when someone calls me a honkey. Big deal.
In and around Tucson, the traffic is a HUGE problem. Buses stop to pick up passengers right in the middle of the right lane and low and behold, cars end up stopping in the intersection. The passengers don’t seem in too big of a hurry so the perpendicular traffic can’t leave because the cars are stuck right in the middle.
The city and county keep approving huge project for developers without listening to the traffic problems already in an area. It basically gets gridlocked and there is nothing the residents can do about it.
There isn’t a parkway to help get from one side of town to the other side or around the town so you end up driving the poorly paved streets. There is one horrible area on River Road just around the bend from the JCC where there is a switch back. The road has separated so many times in a pretty little pattern of every 5 or 6 feet that bumps you around and your car looses traction.
Finally, the mid road speeding trap lights have been removed. I have seen the light flash and cause so many accidents at dusk or in the evening, I can’t really count them anymore.
AND one of my biggest complaints is that they don’t set the lights up. To pull out from River Road is suicide. In and area that they allowed too much development for the roadway, you can’t make lefts. There lane in the middle is for turns and the traffic coming from one direction or another finally lightens up and the other direction has been let free from the light and then you can’t pull out again. If they had planned better and given us a place to pull out half way and wait again, it would be a lot safer but I do realize that they might have to change the law because we are not supposed to linger in the middle, painted island.
Tucson is dedicated to serving the poor — And determined to make us all that way.
Dear Thomas S Hunt,
If it wasn’t for those pesky south siders, your house would not have been built, your streets would be dirt roads, your town would not exist. Your south siders more than likely are direct descendants of the peoples that were here before Christopher Columbus “founded” this continent. Which by the way it wasn’t lost. So, if you like Phoenix or don’t like Arizona, leave.
Not completely inaccurate, but tell us something we don’t already know, Phx! We definitely have our issues but we are also trapped, like the rest of the State, by the conservative cowbell around our collective necks in that ‘old tyme revival Mormon camp meeting’ that masquerades as our legislature in Phx. That house sure is the black eye of our state as a whole. We have our issues of colossal mismanagement and incompetence in T-town like anywhere else (anybody ever hear of ‘The BIG DIG’ in Boston?) but people in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks. Keep pumping out all those bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic bills that make our State look so inviting!! Thanks, Mesa and Phx Mormons…I’m mean State Reps!!
Tucson. Fresno without the charm.
go to hell, phoenix. oh, right, you’re already there. enjoy.
There is no Phoenix, they do it with mirrors off of Los Angeles.
I hope they put speed enforcement cameras every half mile. I’ll never get flashed and it will help the people drive at a reasonable and prudent speed (like you’re supposed to). Crashes are random events but you can reduce the chances for having one if you monitor your speed, don’t follow too close and drive defensively.
Traffic signals are set to regulate the flow of traffic and provide right-of-way. There is little regard, during the peak hour, of whether you can make a left across a major roadway at an unsignalized intersection or driveway. Take a right and make a U-turn or find a different route.
Phoenix is a shithole…its got about as much charm as a wal-mart parking lot, because that’s basically what it is, with a few ugly glass office-space-esque buildings mixed in. in a couple centuries, it’ll probably go the way of Detroit, once all the water drys up. good riddance.
It is simple. All the old rich farts that run Tucson need to die off, So the younger people that really care about Tucson Arizona can take over and make Tucson great. I say it how I see it.
After 45 years of living here in Tucson I can honestly say that Phoenix sucks like an Electrolux.
Tell ya what…I will never buy a house for that snobbish elitist wannabe jerk Thomas S Hunt. There’s no need to look down on anybody in a cowtown like this!!
I’ve lived in Tucson for fifty years, he’s pretty much correct. So, why do I stay? Simple, it’s still my home town, good or bad. IF the money ever quits running Tucson, it might make some changes for the better. Either fire the city manager, mayor or both.
Moved to Tucson from Southern Cal 5 years ago – I’ll never go back. Tucson’s traffic is really nothing – nothing compared to OC/LA. I’ve figured out The Difference – the reason why people like places like Phoenix/So Cal is because they have beautiful center dividers in the middle of vast roads – green sprawling lawns with perfectly groomed landscapes on roadsides and vast center dividers. That illusion is supposed to remind you that you live in a beautiful place. Tucson has a great culture, with fantastic culinary options, many great schools, and for those who can see beyond the weed riddled roadsides and center dividers, it’s a great place to live and one I intend to always call home.
So right on the money about speedway. It’s so upsetting to really look. When u do,u realize each year looks worse. It’s sad. It’s starting to look like the ghetto. I’m being dead serious!!! As far as TUSD!,horrible!!! Something has to change or these children will all be “left behind”. Arizona. Worst place for kids to attend school. Not one single school here is ok!? It’s so embarrassing.
I moved to Phoenix for 1 year in 1995 when I first came to Arizona. That was all I could take. Came to Tucson and have been happy here ever since. Phoenix is a mean town, the rudest people I have ever seen.
Tucson is a big town with a small town feel and one of the most generous towns, always ready to help out. Phoenix sucks and so do Sottsdale snobs.
Yes, Thomas, it’s awful here. Please stay far far away.
Mini, – it’s not the schools it’s your kids.
There is a charm and a mellow beauty that we who live in Tucson know to be true. It is our secret. Keep thinking like you do and stay up there in Phoenix-land. We love our mountains and hills, our “traffic” which is nothing like Phoenix, our hidden pockets of beauty all throughout the city, our great restaurants, our multi-cultural events held weekly, our university, our blue (vs smog) skies, our community which manages to get along despite all that can still be improved. We who live here, like it!
Thomas Chunt(your middle name really should’ve started with a C) u really prove the value of ‘be part of the solution,or part of the problem.’
You people are pissed because he is right. He did not lie. The truth hurts. $230,000,000 for nothing should piss you off but it doesn’t. Shameful. Your kids can;t find a decent job and you are mad at the writer??!! I have been here since 1966 and my wife’s family since 1919. We are so screwed up. We deserve it all.
Go sell your shitty tie dyed t-shirts and Birkenstocks to each other. Progressive pukes.
Tucson streets would be in better condition if the state legislators hadn’t stolen all the state gas tax money and spent it up in Phoenix. But where are the pothole fillers? Treat Boulevard, 3rd Street, and many other streets are un-driveable and un-rideable. I’d like to see a report on where the pothole fillers are every day.
Every time my wife and I fly in from DC, we have a good laugh about what you call Rush Hour. Every time.
Oh, and I’d rather be living where you live. But I would stay in DC before I’d ever live in Phoenix again.
I am so surprised by the bigotry in the comments..
Why if you folks are so unhappy do you stay here.. if it doesn’t work for you – find somewhere that does.. maybe PHX? LOLOLOL.
I left phoenix because I could never tell which block I was on.. they all look the same. The same chain stores on every corner, the same nondescript clone neighborhoods..the blatant segregation.
but mostly I left Phx because of the status loving, keep up with the Jones’, I’m better than you attitudes.. No one will talk to you unless they are in their car.. I guess that is because they can drive away when they are tired of looking at you. And, when they do talk to you its all about how much money they make or how affluent they are (not!).
The 60’s in Phx were nice..
I have been happy in Tucson.. in spite of the city council and the lack of environmental and civic commitment (you folks in the foothills know who you are…).
Doug MacEachern is an egg-sucking, neo-colonialist dupe.
Bite me.
PS I can’t tell you how relieved I am that the wealthy people aren’t responsible.
#2 is classic Yogi. Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
The slogan for Phoenix should be “Everything you don’t like about Tucson, only more of it”.
Wow he didn’t even touch the moronic racist city council that wants to give American jobs to Mexico or the Money wasting RTA our the country manager that fixes elections.
I forgot to mention the racist police chief and our crazy sheriff?
The biggest problem it seems with some people in Tucson is they do not like criticism.
Speedway: It is a problem having the “main” street of Tucson lacking any character. No offense to great restaurants and stores along Speedway, but they are dwarfed by over 30 Chain Restaurants between I-10 and Houghton. We do have some great local places along that route. Sadly, one of them (Ike’s Coffee and Tea) is being shut down to make room for another crappy chain restaurant (Jersey Mikes). I hope this is not a trend. Even De Anza Park is mostly a homeless community and does not look very “family” friendly.
Traffic: I agree traffic is not a major problem, but it will be since Tucson keeps growing and we do not build a loop to help with traffic flow. We are basically a generation behind on many of our roads and even the proposed projects will still not be enough. Currently, I think the traffic is more of the fault of a few motorists that feel like we all should be going as slow as they are while driving in the left lane.
Rio Nuevo: 230 million dollars sucked down the drain. That is millions of dollars that could be for improving ALL of Tucson and not just a few miles of downtown. What is the end result does look nice, but it is no way worth 230 million dollars. If you live in Tucson and are not mad at the fraud, waste and abuse this project allowed, than you are part of the problem.
TUSD: No offense to the actual teachers, but TUSD does suck. The author points out pretty clearly we are paying on average more per student and getting worse results. I am glad I live in the Vail School District.
La Raza Studies: Nobody had a problem with African American Studies, they only have the problem with the Mexican American Studies. The African American Studies were not turning children into little “Che” Guevaras. It even use to state these aspects of their curriculum.
•A counter-hegemonic curriculum.
•A pedagogy based on the theories of Paolo Friere.
•Student-teacher interactions centered on authentic caring.
Which is basically teaching them they are controlled by a more powerful group, and are victims of a oppressed society. Personally, I want children to learn to be productive members of society and not to blame anyone for their failures in life. Lets focus on Math, Science, and English to help prepare students for college, and not teach them of Arizona used to be Aztlan….
Cesar Chavez Holiday: I personally do not care if they give him a holiday, but having children push a political agenda is crossing the line.
Doug MacEachern had good points, especially since Tucson is now rated the 6th poorest city in the US. Maybe instead of blaming this author, we take a look around to try to change our over 20% poverty rate.
The blame is on both sides of the political spectrum. The Right hates taxes and even though we do need a increase in revenue to improve our schools, roads, public safety, and overall community. They would never agree to it. The Left is too fixated on the special interests that mostly are downtown, to care about the rest of Tucson. They do not support organizations that actually contribute to this community like DMAFB and the Border Patrol. Both organizations have thousands of employees that pay taxes and give back to this community. If both sides can not compromise on issues, this city will be move more towards looking like a third word country. A lot of the roads are already there….
The Right is in the hands of the Tea “Government is Bad” Party and the Left are in the hands of the NIMBYS. This city is screwed…
Tucson is and will always be a better place to live than Phoenix. Phoenix is full of old teabaggers who shit their pants at the sight of anyone young or brown. If you don’t like Tucson Mr Hunt, stay in your toilet you call a city.
Once he started talking about Saul Alinsky I knew he was a Glenn Beck regurgitator and he lost all credibility.
And no mention of the constant noise of “Freedom” in the skies over our head? Helicopter traffic day and night? Noise that spills out over the mountains and rattles windows in other counties? Car traffic is inevitable when people live in proximity. The air traffic is brought to you by people who live in fear…in Tucson, and the people who are making money off DM. Like, car dealers and realtors?
Tucson is a magical city that is full of charm, history, culture and great people.
We can all be proud our our University of Arizona that seems to be in the national news for many of the space exploration programs and does not do to bad when it comes to sports.
We have a city that you can still see the stars at night, right in the central part of town!
Our city may be slow to change and maybe we designate everything as historical but I will take that everyday over the voided culture and ugly stucco buildings that all look the same in Phoenix. By the way, the freeways work really well in Phoenix as long as you travel between the hours of 10 pm to 4 am.
I get a pit in my stomach each time I have to go to Phoenix and see green median strips between lanes and the multitude fountains shooting water in the air only to evaporate and serve no purpose at all. Most of all I really don’t want to be so close to the politicians that run this state. They seem to make it their mission to cause embarrassment at every possible moment. We have survived Ed Mecham, John McCain (thanks for unleashing Saran Palin on the world), The Keating Five, Fife Symington, SB1020 and our lovely current Governor Jan Brewer. who has become a joke on youtube for the whole world to see. There is plenty to criticize about our ugly step sister city to the north. So maybe you should stop throwing stones our way and take a look at your own house.
Tucson may be a poor city, but its a great desert.
Geographically the north of Tucson is awesome but urban planners will take care to turn the last land available like Oro Valley into an ugly tract housing/ strip malls urban sprawl.
Horrible wages,cheapskate employers, A proportionate cost of living twice that of New York City, the most offensive,law scoffing drivers west of the Mississippi,living next door to the same people for ten years,and can’t even get them to wave much less talk. Blast furnace heat that keeps you locked up indoors ten months a year. Roll up the sidewalks at 10 PM. If you don’t drink like a fish,there is nothing to do.
Terrible school system. The dumbest most disrespectful children anywhere. A city government that still tries to run this place as if it were still a cow town. Only city its size in the country without a cross town freeway. Try so hard to ‘not be like Phoenix’ you are worse.
Add to the list:
1. City of Tucson Mafia Government who NEVER listens to the will of the people, just the rich fat-cat cronies who live in the foothills and oro valley.
2. Too many pigs. Why is it you live in one city yet are under the police state of three police agencies? We don’t need that many taxpayer welfare recipients with badges, get a real job you Gestapo wannabes.
3. Roads suck unless you live in the rich parts of the region.
4. Nazi border patrol checkpoints INSIDE THE BORDER. If you can’t catch them at the border, that doesn’t give you the right to turn the rest of my state into a pig checkpoint utopia for sadist, oath-breaking pigs.
As a native Tucsonan who no longer lives there, I just laugh at people who complain non stop about the old stereo types that will follow Tucson even as it transitions into the 21st century. The native Tucsonans who complain about the traffic and things along those lines really need to try and live somewhere else for awhile. Compared to similar and larger cities, the 520’s traffic is nothing. As a twenty something that has spent time in Phoenix, I found it incredibly lame with zero charm or culture… the suburbs there are even worse WITH some of the meanest people I’ve ever came across in my life which made sad for Az as a whole. I now find myself in Denver, Co; I have family from here so I’d thought I’d give it a whirl. The chance for opportunity in economic growth here seems endless and the state is becoming much more progressive compared to the days when I would visit 10+ years ago. All that being said; I’m moving back to Tucson. I miss the charm and culture flat out. Tucson could be on the verge of a boom that can propel my sleepy, dusty town into a thriving, top notch mecca for smart, art inspired people, businesses and corporations that want to be apart of the community appose to the ones who are just using the city for cheap tax incentives, lonely local politicians of past, Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce like every other American city/town. Tucson has to break bad habits of the past and believe the community is worth the world, which it is, and fight for it; it could be the crem de la crem of the southwest and the west as a whole if we dream big.
Oro valley just as bad . . .
https://youtu.be/7arjSSGKAsI
Tucson needs to work on the roads. They need an overhaul. And if we could crack down on the constant dog barking.. I think we’d all feel good about having a decent nights sleep. It’s embarrassing that there’s so many websites saying that Tucson is “one large dog kennel.” But I have to agree, it sounds and looks like it. It really has become a problem. Tucson is becoming a very noisy city.
Dogs aren’t just for guarding your house, you have to give time & exercise them. These dogs seem caged up & bored ..so they bark their heads off all day and all night because they’re trying to get out energy. It’s sad, yet also disturbing any peace we could possibly have. I sleep with headphones.. It’s that bad.
I hate Tucson. Ugly, horrible city with terrible roads. The road system is a total joke for a city of its size. Moving to CO soon and feel as if I’m literally escaping from hell. Very happy to be leaving, even though I grew up here.
Doug MacEachern is RIGHT. Tucson is so far behind the times it’s pathetic. Phoenix actually has freeways and parkways like every other major city. If Tucson would come into this millennium maybe they’d realize freeways and parkways are a “thing”. I saw someone once say on a message board that Phoenix took a big crap and produced Tucson. I couldn’t agree more. It’s like the ugly, self-hating, little step-sibling to Phoenix.
No Lights so you can see the stars. Stargazing is apparently more important than people’s safety. (Observatories are obsolete in this day and age anyways. People’s safety should come first! But so-called “progressives” don’t care about public safety.) “light pollution” they call it. Oh you mean I can actually see where the road is going to turn so I don’t crash and die. The term “light pollution” is a joke. This is also a disadvantage to the many poor in the city who have to ride bikes to and from places in the dark, even with a light on the bike its still not safe to do so with how dark they keep it.
Crappy roads make it so that people have to spend more on vehicle maintenance every year. As soon as I got here the roads instantly reminded me of some of the old beat up roads in the north east. At least in the north east they have a valid excuse for their crappy roads with the all the heavy snow and rainfall they get every year. Ah Tucson “Progressivism” at it’s finest. Yes, let’s live like some backward third world country! Gotta love that “old pueblo!”
Before moving to Tucson I had multiple people warning me just how horrific TUSD is. One of them being the wife of a teacher who works there. Even the socialist regressives *cough cough* I mean “progressives” know how terrible TUSD is whether they admit it or not. Yes, lets spend more money on funding racist Mecha instead of actually really educating kids so they are prepared for the real world.
So many businesses here have signs on the outside banning guns from their businesses. Wake-up regressives! *cough cough* i mean “progressives”. That psychopath who was going to shoot up your place doesn’t care what your sign says. Tucsonans like to ignore statistics and facts. Especially the fact that places that are armed are more safe. Again another backward regressive mindset the “crunchy, hippies of tucson have”.
Tucson likes dirty looking roads and weeds in the center dividers and adorning their roadways. Forget clean aesthetically pleasing roadways. Phoenix actually takes pride in the way it looks and actually grooms and manicures its roads.
Hippy, granola eating, pot smoking, capitalist-hating, free enterprise hating Tusconans complain about how many chain businesses are everywhere in Phoenix (in nice clean beautifully manicured shopping centers.Something Tucson is seriously lacking might i add). Even though most of them probably frequent places like Wholefoods, Chipotle, Target, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, and Panera. Instead of having these businesses conveniently and frequently located they’d prefer to have less of them around requiring them to drive farther, burning more gas in the process especially while they idle their cars at all the stop lights (due to lack of adequate and efficient thoroughfares aka freeways that they always protest against screaming NOT IN MY BACKYARD). Makes perfect sense in a metropolitan area of over a million.
Tucson let down your pride and humble yourselves to constructive criticism. Doug MacEachern is really just offering constructive criticism that could improve your city. Which I realize many of you are denial that it is actually a “city” and not just a small quaint desert town. But who am I to tell you who you can’t “self-identify” as?
You all obviously have never been to El Paso. That city is the Detroit of the southwest and the roads are worse. Tucson is much better and I love it here and Phoenix is better than Dallas in my opinion.
I will be nice and start with the good parts of Tucson: November through March, sunrise/sunset, Christoper Columbus Park at Silverbell, Himmel Park, Reid Park and The Loop bike path system.
And that’s about it. Otherwise:
Poorly planned city. Traffic bottlenecks and terrible roads never cease even in the face of the constant road construction. What they do to try and improve the traffic flow only winds up being redone within a year or two, so they rework the same streets over and over again. I’ve traveled better dirt roads!
What they don’t embezzle of our tax money, they spend foolishly. And these dumba$$ citizens regularly vote “yes” on propositions that give this crooked government even MORE of our money! All they have to do is say that it’s for the children and these idiots open their wallets.
The only real industries here are health care in it’s various forms, insurance companies and places to get drunk and fat. No real backbone jobs here! If you’re a tradesperson who is thinking of moving here, STOP NOW! After 20 years of living here, I’ve given up on the trades here. The companies are a joke with a woeful lack of leadership and talent.
I wouldn’t buy a house here. An HOA run hunk of adobe crap that looks just like all the other adobe hunks of crap in the middle of a parched cat box? That’s a firm NO. Property taxes are high for what you get, too.
The people: some fairly friendly, but many are either crazy drug addicts or very flat-lined with a generic personality. Neighbors are rarely neighborly unless they want something. A lot of transients and high rates of property theft and damage. Dirty, poor and stupid. Almost no real middle class. You’re either very poor or very rich. Will be leaving soon.
Oh, and I’m sure I will see some smug comments regarding my opinion. Classic Tucsonans love to drop those in. I guess it’s cool that they are at least willing to stand up for their pile of crap.
The obvious target of urban sprawl, building in a water strapped state, some dope who allows grant and silverbell, Grant rd and 6th and at Oracle slated for many a roadway blunder. The Pima County supervisors giving out permits to variances of every code thats set forth to keep the once charming aspects of the Old Pueblo. Despite the many chances to control the evolution of a tenable, resilient city-town each choice is blown by decisions made behind computers with aerial views rather the seeing the neighborhoods thereby adding unattractive and more dangerous environs. Perhaps denying these problems is more profitable but making people worse off by a serious lack of integrity instilled by rubber stamping before any real thought is applied. The people are mostly well spoken, reasonable, and sensible. So I feel the process in city and county imprison an otherwise grateful populous, with antiquated foolish terms set by policy.
Tucson way to hot in summer. Can’t enjoy outdoors. I dread it. Strees are in poor condition its like your outbacking. Streets are flat not angled like back east amd few rain gutter drains so they flood. No highway to get you from one end to other end of town. City buses stop traffic to drop off passengers very few pull ins for bus stops. City council spends road tax money on frivilous projects like soccer fields rather than roads. City Council chases away businesses becausr city codes prevent many from coming here. The town Chandler Arizona and Phoenix are more busimess friendly. Tucson has only three major employers and the wages here are poor. The school system wants to teach your kids LGBTQ and and other political activism rather than readimg, math, science, and American History. Homeless people are everywhere and be prepared to ne hawked. College kids go elsewhere for employment for most part rather than Tucson because poor wages not much opportunity. Police must be having poor morale because the chief is a Democrat activist. So many retire or transfer. Crime must ne high I do not know the statistics. I do wamt to retire and move out of state further north. If you enjoy the oven andi ignore my complaints more power to ya. Good luck.
Ever notice how Tucson’s economy take a huge downturn every time the Stock market falls and there’s a recession. The mines close. The railroad lays off. Raytheon lays off. The city lays off. The state lays off. The university lays off…and the whole economy falls off a cliff.
Just an observation.
That’s nothing more than the government “right sizing us.” isn’t that fun?