The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Why does Tucson not install and enforce speed limit signs, and why does the city allow drivers to drive as fast as they want without any concern for the safety of drivers, pedestrians or cyclists? Tucson citizens and visitor drivers have been pleading for the city to monitor driver speed for a long time, to no avail. Tucson must make street safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers a priority.
Why is Tucson’s Sunshine Mile connectivity looking like it is meant to become the new Las Vegas strip? All it needs is for a casino to be built near “A” Mountain.
Why do so many TEP customers become apprehensive about reading their monthly bill? Why is Fortis Canada running and profiting from our electricity usage? We need a change in leadership. It appears that residents are paying for other customers who cannot afford their bill. I imagine that Fortis is given some type of tax write-off for customers that cannot pay while the paying customers have their charges increased. Something is very wrong with this. Perhaps we need to go back to wood stoves, lanterns and no electric vehicles.
Why are city employees whose jobs require little education paid more than teachers who are required to have a four-year university degree? U of A tuition for a 4-year degree with basic living expenses such as rent, food, utilities, transportation, computers, etc. is $125,000. Most of the U of A graduates had to go into great debt to pay for their degrees. Road workers are paid up to $30 an hour, and many fill potholes to look like molehills. These employees used to fill holes to be level with the street. Services that empty trash bins dump broken glass, sharp objects and miscellaneous trash into the bike lanes. Along with trash bins dropped onto their sides, blocking the bike lanes. The city wants to raise customer trash fees. Instead, they should audit all city salaries and benefits and adjust accordingly.
Why does the city not clean up the debris left on the road from car accidents? It appears their idea of clean-up is to brush debris into the bike lanes.
Why does the U of A farm regularly fill the east-end Limberlost bike lane with slippery dirt? When cyclists contact the city for a sweep, the employees report back that it does not need sweeping. Perhaps the city needs to educate their employees about cycling hazards.
Why does the city allow the car wash on Speedway to continue to spew chemical odors onto pedestrians and splash them when they are walking on the public sidewalk next to it? The machine noise is so loud that pedestrians have to cover their ears to walk by. A pedestrian safety shield must be required.
Generally, great financial wealth and the nonstop pursuit of money are associated with greed, a lack of conscience, and corruption. There is a heavy shadow of global connectivity and big money hanging over Tucson, and it is trying to change Tucson for the worse.
Tucson has always been a humble home to people of all cultures who greatly value the breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, abundant wildlife and unique nature of the Sonoran Desert environment. Tucson needs leaders with good morals, values and ethics to step up to manage, lead and ensure citizens that Tucson is a safe, humble and affordable place to live. We do not need the brokers’ financial greed, global connectivity or arrogant big money that brings aggressive, ill-mannered people to Tucson.
What Stephen Stills of the Buffalo Springfield band wrote in 1966 is relevant today.
“There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear…
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?”
