Local opinion: Three unique projects to enhance Tucson's appeal

Respectfully submitted in the interest of somehow trying to show Tucson still offers a different, and albeit competing Arizona experience vs. that of TechnoCactopolis (i.e. Phoenix). And no, it’s not more foodie festivals, tradeshows, sports venues, street music, art fairs, wine and LARPing gigs, etc. etc. … things most Western cities of Tucson’s size and smaller already do in abundance.

Not only do these three concepts enhance a totally unique Tucson, but they are something we can control, sustain, grow, and profit from. Inasmuch as they’re environmentally friendly, they help the metro attract higher-paying global industries with the same values, and they employ our young people who are leaving in droves. This keeps families together and acts to prevent the kind of urban demographic disaster that is fast looming.

Project No. 1. Build an aerial tram to Mt. Lemmon-Summerhaven from inside the metro. Here’s a tremendous tourism asset with incredible environmental teaching and appreciation potential, not to mention recreation, that’s being largely ignored due to the lengthy drive and growing parking problems. And no, when I say ‘recreation,’ I am not referring to creating any new resort or knick-knack nightmare, a la Dollywood. Albuquerque’s 58-year successful biz and environmental experience with Sandia Peak Tramway (wiki that) gives us a data-validated model. Local environmental elitists like CBD need to stop depriving the masses of something they, too, need to value.

Project No. 2. Have short-haul, commuter flights back and forth daily to smaller airports in the Baja. Another unique tourism asset. The American aircraft manufacturer Cessna has just FAA-certified a 19-seat, twin-turbo, cargo-passenger hauler, the SkyCourier. It was designed for operators of short-haul routes (45-90 minutes) to make money and stay in business. Tucson’s geographic position, relative to the Baja’s overall length, gives it flight accessibility to smaller airports that various Mexican governors are starting to realize the potential for. This is genuine eco-tourism with industrial strength novelty, devoid of the giant resorts and all that commercialism. It reinforces people-to-people relationships at scalable levels and acts to help those who have lived there in harmony with nature preserve their way of life. And helps give them a new voice over vast strategic forces, now on the move in the Eastern Pacific. If you’re skeptical of that coming geostrategic reality, watch what happens as Mexico’s FerroMex railroad builds out its new bypass & interchange to Union Pacific RR’s link from Tucson, around the eastern Nogales metro.

Project No. 3. Entice the U.S. Space Force to put their new national laboratory at DMAFB. This is perfect for a diminished Davis-Monthan, a base clearly declining, now surrounded by Tucson, with what little noise protection the boneyard’s storage spacing still affords the metro. My experience with and contacts at the U.S. Dept. of Energy National Labs tells me the new U.S. Space Force is shortly going to get its very own national lab facility. Not only that, the political forces are resisting locating such in California, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, where so many other assets have been sent. Tucson is the perfect spot, and assuming the feckless University of Arizona can get out of Woke-Morbid Obesity-Rehab in time, their optics, engineering and astronomy expertise would be invaluable. Seriously, I could see UA being part of the management team for a Space Force “GoCo Lab” (govt-owned, contractor-operated) that has been the standard management model since Oppenheimer. Not only this, the tech-transfer commercialization potential of such a national lab in Tucson is off the charts. Oversight and spin-off revenue to the university would complement UA research efforts and offset increasing dependency on professional sports and gambling.

So there you have it Tucson, focus on some bigger, more meaningful stuff. If you’re going to “run with the big dogs,” you can’t pee like a puppy.