Mailbag

Money Is Green, Too

To the Editor,

Re: Susan Zakin's "The Wild Bunch" (June 21).

As Tom Doucette (of whatever consensus group) said: "Nothing is black and white." Unless, of course, it comes to money, which is always green. But to the Center for Biodiversity, a local nemesis for people like Doucette and his developer friends, green means a clean and wholesome environment filled with a diversity of healthy species. This is the "big picture" that energizes the Center. The only picture Arizona developers see is the one located on every piece of legal (or illegal) moola.

Now, I know "it's considered rude to argue," according to the business community, but that "community isn't as unified as it looks from the outside" because it's all manners behind closed doors. I can say with some certainty that business people don't talk about brotherly love behind those doors, except to the extent that honor resides among thieves. I'm sure your own Deep Hammer (Tucson's own Deep Throat?) will verify this.

Hammer has also uncovered that "developers don't have a clue about what makes environmentalists tick." Why, for example, would Kieran Suckling, a member of the Center for Biological Diversity, tell a fellow believer (Brock Evans) to "take a hike" after that fellow tried to get the Center to back off its suit relating to the Mexican spotted owl?

I guess Suckling had to explain to Evans that the Center doesn't know what the word "compromise" means. The Center for Biological Diversity isn't referred to (in the article's title) as "The Wild Bunch" for nothing. I mean, how dare the Center call anything black or white, especially the motives of local developers.

And here's another call by the Center: "If the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan looks like a loser, the Center will sue." I wonder if that's black and white enough for our friendly developers?

The color of money is their color, but it will be red by the time the Center for Biological Diversity exposes their black underbellies.

--Denny Banks


Rode to Ruin

To the Editor,

Catherine O'Sullivan's "Saddle Sore" (June 21) really hit a nerve and, quite frankly, both infuriates the hell and scares the bejeezus out of me.

We recently purchased a home on a few acres in northwest Tucson, brought the horses home, and ride on the trails and in the washes in the beauty of the unspoiled desert that surrounds us. So, after years of planning and saving, we were able to make the dream happen. Probably just what the people on the east side of town enjoyed before The Lakes at Castle Rock (oh, brother ...).

Now, a week ago, we got a document in the mail from The Planning Center (don't you just love that name, too?), representatives for the owners of the 500-plus acres of open desert north of us, and guess what? They're going to the City of Marana Planning and Development to get the OK to cram not one but two gated communities (approximately 300 homes) into that area.

And don't you just know that they'll get the big okey-dokey because developers are who really run this city. Oh, but hey, they promise that 80 percent of that land will remain undeveloped (only because of the pygmy owl issue and the fact that FWS lords over this decision, or else all 500-plus acres would be a cookie-cutter community faster than you can say "pink plastic tile roofs"), and they promise that the trails and washes that the riders, bikers and hikers currently enjoy will be left alone and untouched, to be shared with our new neighbors.

What a bunch of crap. What will keep from happening the exact thing that O'Sullivan reports? Anyone with half a brain knows that once that development goes in, the developers and the "we promise" planners move out, and the poor schmucks like us are left to contend with the likes of the shovel guy with their world-scarcity views.

Gee, I can't wait.

--Stacey Hines-Holdcraft


To the Editor,

In regard to "Saddle Sore": It breaks my heart to hear of another story like this one. Here in Tucson we are so blessed to have beautiful desert in its most natural state. And horse folks, locals, hikers and bikers who make up our unique community. How shameful it is to hear of this "Lakes" community and its behavior and disregard for those who truly belong there.

--Gwen Morgan


Authority Figure

To the Editor,

Re: "Downtown Downturn," June 28.

Tattoos are not art. Well, I am glad that was finally cleared up once and for all. But now I am sitting here very worried and confused. I can't help but wonder what else I have seen that I mistakenly took for art. Perhaps Mr. Dominguez could just provide us with a list of what is and is not art. I, for one, would feel much safer that way.

--David Wright
Museum of Contemporary Art