A tale of two neighborhoods
Though we are a venerable neighborhood, my Barrio Hollywood is pocked with power poles along the Santa Cruz, Silverbell and St. Mary’s. Nearby is the I-10 Speedway exit, a legitimate Tucson gateway. Though thousands of cars a day enter Tucson using West Speedway, city leaders turn a blind eye toward its vacant lots and abandoned buildings.
The Sam Hughes neighborhood wants Tucsonans to underwrite the cost of undergrounding nearby electric lines. Campbell between Broadway and Speedway is not a gateway. It’s just a major traffic artery.
We have a handsome school in Barrio Hollywood, Manzo Elementary, with high fencing to protect children. Sam Hughes abhors installing high fencing in favor of architectural preservation.
Manzo Elementary was named for former principal Ricardo Manzo. Pioneer Sam Hughes provided the guns and ammunition for the Camp Grant Massacre that left eight men and 110 women and children of the Aravaipa Apache tribe brutally murdered on April 30, 1871.
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Bury the power electric lines or unbury the history?
Debbie Collazo
West side
Food and fuel hyperinflation
The “cheapest” Tucson area gas is now $4.50 a gallon, and rising. The hyperinflation in food and fuel that is devastating the poor and middle classes is 100% the fault of the Biden administration. It began on day one of his administration with his war on fossil fuels and continues unabated. Biden cares zero about the little people. His loyalty is solely to the hyper-rich green elites that overlord the Democrat Party. And what are Sinema and Kelly doing to help the little people? Exactly nothing! Their loyalties are similarly to the hyper-rich green elites that overlord the Democrat Party. They care zero about the little people. What can we do about it? Take it. As long as the hyper-rich Democrats running the government are in charge nothing will change.
Rick Cunnington
Oro Valley
Pima Wash development
The developer wants to maximize profit and neighborhoods want retention of existing CR-1 zoning: These are positions with no solution. Pima County should purchase (at current zoning) the northern land identified for apartments with a combination of funds from the flood-prone lands acquisition program and an in-kind donation from the developer for tax benefits. The neighborhood agrees to accept a larger number of single-family homes than the existing CR-1 zoning would allow. Some of the land acquired by Pima County could become a recreation center and the existing building adaptively reused. Amenities could include pickleball courts, an exercise trail course, and an accessible walking trail; putting greens and chipping areas could be reinstated with water harvesting. The remaining land could be developed for low income housing; costs to improve Rudasill Road would not be necessary. The recreation facilities would be beneficial to existing and future residents in the area.
Ken Scoville
Foothills
Legal obfuscation on Prop 412 ballot
Very clever wording on the ballot to make it appear only to apply to the TEP franchise. If I had not read the Star and the information pamphlet, I would have thought that a vote “No” was a vote to stop TEP supplying us with power. In reality, a vote “Yes” is to charge all of us to put in underground powerlines for the U of A and high-end property owners. It also adds a “fee” to electric bills for undisclosed “cleaner, greener and more resilient power.” I also have gotten test messages from a Washington, D.C. area code touting Mayor Romero’s endorsement. So much for local issues! Vote “No”!
David Germain
East side
Lamb not fit for office
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is another right-wing extremist hiding under a cowboy hat asking Arizona voters to ignore the truth. Like Finchem, Lamb fiercely supported “Stop the Steal” and the Jan. 6th insurrectionists but his ties to dangerous conspiracy theories go further.
Lamb’s a founding member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association believing sheriffs have sole authority to interpret and uphold laws and they’re not accountable to any level of government oversight. Lamb is closely tied to the discredited True the Vote organization and formed his own fringe group known as Protect America Now.
While supposedly serving and protecting, Lamb bullied an elderly woman following a Pinal County Board of Supervisors meeting because she spoke up against some of his extreme political positions. The voters of Arizona should be very careful about who we send to the U.S. Senate. Voters rejected Mark Finchem’s dangerous politics and should view Mark Lamb in the same way.
Ralph Atchue
Oro Valley
Government run amok
Re: the April 16 article “EPA awards $177 million to environmental justice groups.”
I read with interest about the EPA issuing $177 million to establish regional centers to assist groups in applying for grant money. It seems to me yet another example of our government wasting money it has to borrow.
Wouldn’t a better solution be to simplify the process for applying for grant money? This sounds more like a government bureaucracy creating another bureaucracy to translate the original bureaucracy. How long before another agency is set up to assist with this new agency?
Simplify the first bureaucracy instead of spending millions to create more complexity.
Jay Allen
Midtown
Why give the problem a gun?
Re: the April 18 letter “Guns do not have a conscience.”
The letter writer states that the problem is not the gun, but the handler of the gun that is to blame for mass shootings. He is partly correct, but for him to liken a six-shooter to an AR-15 (that can fire up to 60 rounds a minute, making it far more dangerous and deadly) is disingenuous and quite ridiculous. In addition, a bullet fired from an AR-15 travels 1,200 feet per second and delivers an impact that can obliterate internal organs. It is a weapon of war and must be banned for private ownership.
That’s step one of gun control. The other is waiting periods, increased red-flag laws, required training for all gun owners and mandatory insurance. I’d also like to see a psych-eval to identify people with emotional issues. After all, if the problem is people, and not the gun, why would you give the “problem” such easy access to guns?
Karen Micallef
Oro Valley
No on Prop. 412
I am going to vote “no” on Prop. 412. Make TEP come back and really bargain about the franchise agreement. Make TEP and its investors pay some of their own money for the underground power lines in the wealthier neighborhoods. Let TEP actually pay some of their own money for increasing renewable resources now, not 10 or 15 years from now. When TEP shows it is willing to do its share now, I will vote “yes.”
John Higgins
Southeast side
How is your IRA performing?
I’m writing to suggest that you examine your IRA or any other retirement account. My IRA was started decades ago and always grew during administrations of Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, and Trump. Now that I’m in my 80s and retired, my IRA is losing lots of money due to the tax-and-spend leadership in Washington. Not only does my family have less retirement money but inflation is raising prices of everything we purchase.
Paul Wilson
SaddleBrooke
If religion is to dictate
Re: the April 19 letter “Religion must not dictate abortion policy.”
I agree totally that it should not. The author mentions that designations such as heartbeats or neural activity or “quickening” are antiquated or inappropriate notions of designating “life.” But for those who would consult the Bible to buttress their views on abortion, may I suggest that they heed the words “the breath of life” which are found therein, therefore suggesting that life comes when breath comes. This would simplify things a great deal, as the Bible doesn’t mention neural activity or such.
Delores Keahey
East side
I’m voting “no”
I’ve just today received my first City of Tucson ballot, though I’ve lived and voted in Pima County since 1995.
Though not before now a voter in the city, as a campaign volunteer I have helped elect several members of the current Council. And I’m terribly disappointed in the way they have presented this issue to us. So disappointed that I’ve voted “no.”
Why the vehemence? The rushed Official Voter Information Pamphlet contained not a word of support or opposition. The sole other mailing I received pictured Mayor Romero but was paid for by an “independent” entity mostly funded by TEP. Among the direct beneficiaries, apart from the franchisee, are residents in neighborhoods whose views won’t be spoiled by tall poles carrying high-voltage lines because lines will be buried with costs mostly absorbed by rate payers. Little will be done toward improving our environment and combating climate change. And the current franchise doesn’t expire for another two years.
Please join me in voting “no” on Proposition 412.
Frank Bergen
North side
