The First Step is to Admit that You have a Problem.

It looks like the Arizona Daily Star has had a breakthrough on Rio Nuevo.  For years the Star has resorted to name calling and blame shifting by claiming that any skepticism the Legislature shows to the Rio Nuevo project results from ideology and regional prejudice.  The most recent example occurred this week.

The Republican ideologues calling the shots at the Legislature could cut Rio Nuevo off at the knees.

 Here's an example from last January

These could be perilous times for Southern Arizona when the state's Maricopa County-dominated, Republican-majority Legislature opens Monday.

Southern Arizona's largely Democratic delegation will have little clout on legislative committees and perhaps even less leverage with the Legislature's conservative GOP leaders.
What's at risk?

● Add to that lawmakers' threats to withdraw funds from Tucson's special Downtown redevelopment district, Rio Nuevo, after the Star reported its spending could not fully or transparently be accounted for.

Here's the Star from May of 2006.

...there remains a problem with members of the Legislature who are trapped by their own provincial myopia, men and women who rarely venture beyond the Phoenix metro area and who seem to believe that if a community is not within the urbanized center of Maricopa County it simply isn't worth talking about.

If the community happens to be in Southern Arizona, where Democrats outnumber Republicans , there is all the more reason for Republican -dominated Maricopa County to ignore it.

We cannot see that there is any other reasonable explanation for the reluctance of the Legislature to approve the Tucson TIF bill.

Really? The Star can't see any other reasonable explanations other than myopia, ideology, provincialism and Maricopa County Republican domination? 

Well the first step in any recovery program is to admit that you have a problem and the next step is to stop blaming others.  It looks like the Star is making remarkable progress. 

This morning's editorial recognized  Rio Nuevo's shortcomings without resorting to name calling or blame shifting. 

Thus, Rio Nuevo had $60 million over 10 years with no real plan or vision. Costly, pie-in-the-sky projects such as an aquarium and the Rainbow Bridge that would have arched over Interstate-10 with the science center extending from it were on the drawing board.

The editorial board has even made enough progress that it recognizes that if the project can't be fixed, the myopic, territorial, ideological, Maricopa County Republican-dominated Legislature is right to shut it down.

But at this point Rio Nuevo is on life support. The mayor and council must exert real leadership — making a solid case to the Legislature and the public for the district's continuance; making transparency and accountability a priority; generating private-sector investment; and setting aside petty differences and pet projects for the greater good.

 

Otherwise, pull the plug..

 

So, maybe the Legislative skeptics were right after all?  Wow, that's progress. 

Comments

[Jim Torgeson]

I still want to know what do-gooder stole, er, consulted all that money away.

$60M is wasteful even by Tucson Democrat standards. I smell fraud.

[Stewie]

Excellent, Greg.

You missed a few salient points, not the least of which where they had to get their digs in on the GOP majority in the legislature:

"The committee summoned Shelko to Phoenix and was waiting to ambush him, eager to grab the money from the tax increment finance district that funds Rio Nuevo and use it to help balance the state's projected $2.4 billion shortfall next year."

So, essentially, the Star is saying that they support cutting it for the same reasons that the legislature supports cutting it but the GOP is evil and the Star was just irresponsibly optimistic. Republicans lie in wait to “ambush” while the Star liberals are somehow only “victims of their own optimism” in this whole sorry affair. Gee, so now asking what they did with the money is an “ambush”. That they were going to be casting a critical eye on the project was a surprise to anyone? Just absolutely juvenile posturing at the Star.

And then they are presenting Councilwoman Romero's suggestion for a change in direction involving a focus on infrastructure and revenue production. I liked that idea too...when Representative Frank Antenori called for it months ago. Typical that the Star condemns a Republican for saying something and then compliments a Democrat for “borrowing” his idea.

But the entire reversal of their editorial stance on this issue with scant acknowledgement that they were completely wrong on the issue. Oh they did say that they had "hoped against hope" that it would work. More like they "hoped" while ignoring an avalanche of evidence that they themselves repeatedly published.

That's the whole problem with this whole hope thing. I "hope" Tucson will have a crosstown freeway someday but I know the realities of this pipe dream.

They also apparently misidentified the Ward of Councilwoman Trasoff judging by several of the online comments but they apparently corrected that in the online version.

I don't think the Star admitted they have a problem, they just softened their position, reaffirmed their hatred of Republicans, and are trying to move forward acting like nobody noticed the gallon of milk that they spilled on the carpet in the form of their prior editorial stance on Rio Nuevo.

The dullards at the Star's opinion section probably don't think that they HAVE a problem. They can be in denial all they want but the 20 cents a share report card that the market is giving them is one strong Op-Ed.