Trash is seen down an alley where homeless people will stop and spend time but not sleep there in midtown Tucson on June 28, 2023. This area is considered a Tier 1 area by the city and needs to be cleaned up.
Question
Is there anything like a moderate Republican anymore? Or even a (gasp) liberal Republican?
Thad Appelman
Northwest side
Always Trump
Most days the former president is at the top of the news headlines as if he was the most important person in the world. Even in the supposedly liberal Star, most days there is nothing about the other people vying to be nominated to run on the Republican ticket or their ideas and platforms. Some of those people are actually worthy of holding the office, like Nikki Haley. You in the media are guilty of giving him what he wants and needs. Please stop already! Put 45 on the back page where he belongs!
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Holly Finstrom
West side
Tucson’s Housing Crisis
Re: the Aug. 1 article “What developments confirm about Tucson’s bleak future.”
The writer described two recent approved housing proposals as indicators of a larger problem here in Tucson. How wrong this is, on so many levels! Tucson has a critical housing shortage, and the only way to solve this is to build housing. We need urban infill housing, built within the metro area, not on the perimeter. We don’t just need these two developments, in fact we need ten or fifteen more developments like them. We need apartments, we need market-rate housing, we need affordable housing, we need townhomes, we need all of it.
There are two primary obstacles to solving our housing crisis: First, our local zoning codes have over 50% of the land area limited to single family housing. There just is not enough land available for developments. Second is the inevitable NIMBY opposition to every proposal. Developers are not Tucson’s primary problem, as the writer seems to suggest. Zoning codes and NIMBYS are.
Robert Lanning
Downtown
Trump kids profits
Re: the Aug. 3 letter “Biden business.”
Typical of many letters is the failure to provide factual information and the letter writers opinion about Hunter and Joe Biden is a classic example. The writer blasts Joe Biden (JB) and his son for participating in negotiations with Ukrainian “Gangsters”. Wonder how he confirmed that, plus he states that the transcripts will bear out his information. In reviewing the actual transcripts, Devon Archer (DA) offered a stark rebuke to the claims leveled against Joe Biden. DA offered that nothing of importance was discussed the 20 times Hunter called JB. Additionally DA was not privy to any conversations between Hunter and JB in which they discussed how JB would take any action on behalf of Hunter, nor did DA have any knowledge of any alleged bribery scheme nor profiteering involving Joe Biden when he was the VP. This pales in comparison to the Trump kids who made up to $640 million during the Trump administration for their activities. Let’s get our innuendos cleaned up!!
Wayne Kielsmeier
Foothills
Move to Russia
Re: the Aug. 5 letter “Congress — hard right and hard left.”
I object to the writer who says, “There are far more Democrats in Congress that are in the hard Left than Republicans are in the hard Right.” Look where he got his outrageous data: from The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It held international meetings in Hungary to learn from and cozy up to its authoritarian prime minister, a would-be best buddy (like Putin) of former president Trump. I’ve learned it’s in the anti-democracy, autocrat playbook to accuse your opponents of exactly what you do. “... the Republicans have moved more to the middle,” asserts the letter writer. Maybe the writer should move to Hungary or Russia, where he’ll feel more comfortable “in the middle,” but please, don’t move Hungary or Russia here, thank you!
Amy Gaiennie
East side
Master of mendacity
The Master of Mendacity manipulates the MAGA milieu. Air is permeated with his phony righteous indignation as impious perspiration pores from pores and sanctimonious sweat glistens. He vilifies the innocent, violates tolerance and venerates vengeance.
But more and more people are realizing “The emperor wears no clothes,” and the Overlord (Underlord?) is being exposed for what he really is: an interpreter of iniquity and bodacious bully who is subject to the law of the land like anyone else.
Stella Miles
West side
Trump’s assault on America
All along the way, Trump has brilliantly understood the wayward propensities of his accomplices and supporters. He knows that they are by and large gullible, unethical, non-astute, and criminally inclined. Aided by the Murdoch-Fox empire of strategic deceit, Newsmax, and much of Conservative talk radio, Trump continues to play them pitch-perfect. How sad. How dangerous to decency and to our country.
Ron Rude
West side
Water use issues
Re: the Aug. 7 article “Proposed rural groundwater-control laws are bad.”
Have to say it sure sounded convincing — Representative Griffin has deep roots in rural Arizona — until I read The Arizona Republic’s online OpEd penned by other rural Arizonans, the Mohave, Coconino, Yavapai and La Paz County Supervisors supporting the legislation Griffin opposes.
Water is the number one most important issue in our State and I would love to hear expert non politician testimony so I could make an informed judgment — the rock basis of our democracy, an informed citizenry. But Representative Griffin blocked any testimony on this legislation, she blocked any hearing whatsoever.
Arizonans cannot allow water use issues to be controlled by one person. Legislators, lobbyists and staff tiptoe around her fearing reprisals for crossing her. That itself is outrageous behavior for a public servant.
You want to talk about water? She earlier blocked the Community Choice Energy Legislation from a hearing, legislation that if enabled has the likely path to save millions of gallons of water annually-millions! What kind of legislator are you madam? How dare you!
Rick Rappaport
Oro Valley
Robbing us dead
Re: the Aug. 3 article “Fossil fuels are killing the planet” and the July 20 article “How’s everyone enjoying their politicized heat waves this year?”
When I read this, I was still feeling agitated by Rachel Marsden’s July 20 column claiming that all the fuss about heat waves is just the “nanny state”. . . “imposing a climate-related guilt trip as an excuse to rob us blind.”
Sorry. We’ve already been robbed blind by a fossil fuel industry that lied for decades about the dangers of its product. We’re just beginning to pay the price.
Now it claims to be leading the transition to a carbon-neutral future, but a recent International Energy Agency report debunks that falsehood. (See NY Times 8/7/23 “Behind All the Talk, This Is What Big Oil Is Actually Doing.”)
Big oil is failing us, and if you don’t trust “nanny state” regulation, why not let the market do some heavy lifting? Mike Carran’s proposal for a carbon fee and dividend (HR-2307) might save us yet.
Greg Lewis
Midtown
Cancer treatment
I want to thank all the people at the Rudasill Arizona Oncology for all the help with my Leukemia. We found at age 84 that I had come down with cancer early this year. The chemotherapy has been very rough but everyone at Arizona Oncology has been so great and given me back some time with my daughters and partner Jan that I can’t thank them enough. All the doctors and nurses are really the greatest and I just want thank them all publicly.
Thomas R. Crawford
Foothills
Quality control over elected officials
Re: the July 22 article “An open letter to all elected officials.”
Mr. Chester’s open letter to the elected officials expressed what we, the voters, wish in all our elected officials; it inspired me to propose the following.
It would be extremely hard to expect enough elected officials to establish laws governing ethical behavior described by Mr. Chester, e.g., some Supreme Court justices under public scrutiny openly objected any rules be applied to them. While we still have the path to referendum by petition in Arizona, before the legislators try to block it again, let’s initiate and pass a proposition requiring all candidates running for office take an oath modeled after Mr. Chester’s list of standards before their names be printed on the ballots. This is our only way for quality control over the elected. As soon as such a proposition is drafted by some able minds and set to motion, I will participate in collecting the signatures.
Ke Chiang Hsieh
Midtown
Homelessness and immigration
A recent letter stating that homelessness has been swept under the rug has prompted this thought. I am frustrated that we, as a country, can argue about any number of things like “woke” “LGBTQ” and immigration but unfortunately there has been no resolution in what I consider an important area of concern on the subject of homelessness. This problem has been with us for a number of years with little or no effort to reduce or eliminate it all together but we insist, as a country we have great resources to do whatever we choose and I believe that we need to pay attention and solve this crisis because it will only get worse if we don’t.
Fred Thompson
Midtown
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