Recently we interviewed Jonathan Payton (Arizona State Senator) on KVOI and he was asked by John C. Scott if Tucson should lose the funding for Rio Nuevo because of the economic crisis the state is in and the apparent financial mismanagement of the funds by our officials. His answer was vague at best. He said that under the current crisis everything was being scrutinized. If we lose the funding for Rio Nuevo what will become of our inner city? Some, like Richard Studwell a former city development department employee, believe it might be a good wake up call. If the city was forced to deal with financial realities and perhaps privatize some of the projects and allow business participation on others then it would save tax payer dollars and the project will get done.
There is a balance between the public and the private sector that is very delicate. Too little government control, (where elected officials turning a blind eye because of the flow of contributions into their coffers), is dangerous. We have seen this played out recently at the federal level where democrat congressional leaders took their eye off the ball because of contributions from Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac (and the noble objective to provide home ownership opportunities). The Republicans also were negligent because the housing industry and the banks were fattening their coffers. Both parties failed to regulate an industry that was bound to fail unless housing values continued to tick up at historically (and unsustainable) high rates.
Too much government control and growth screeches to a halt and entrepreneurial spirit is quenched. In Newt's new book "Real Change" he shows what can happen when a city does just that. The example he uses is Detroit. Detroit has shrunk from over 1.5 million residents to 800,000. The democratically controlled city rules what is left of the roost with an iron hand that stifles any opportunity. They even turned down a gift to establish charter schools because the teachers union opposed it. What is sad is that they graduate less than 50% of the students in the Detroit public school system, and the charter schools graduate 95%! Because of their fear of losing control, they take away the academic opportunity of the people they should be serving.
Our city wants to completely control the redevelopment of downtown Tucson. This scares off serious players from participating. A top level business person told me today that he believes Tucson will become like Detroit. We will be ringed with successful, thriving communities like Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita and Vail. I believe this would be tragic. We need to encourage our city council to do work with the business community and look at selling off city property to qualified developers. This would be the best thing for our community.
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2 comments:
Doug,
Good points. Here's a few more from someone who works downtown.
1. A big red flag that Rio Nuevo wasn't going to succeed was when the Foothills resorts expanded their convention and semi nar facilities AFTER it had been authorized. They obviously felt that there wouldn't be any competition worth worrying about.
2. Some restaurants are gov't subsidized while others aren't. hard to draw new pure private sector restaurants when your competition has such an advantage like virtually free rent.
3. Ditto for theaters and music venues. The Rialto is gov't-owned with no rent as long as it makes improvements worth x per year. The Fox was refurbished at a cost over $12,000 per seat and doesn't have to put to to use each night due to the generous repayment terms.
4. The idea that homes could be built for 6000 people downtown is absurd. For example, you'd need 6000-12,000 parking spaces. The footprint for all the garages would be massive.
5. Finally, what's the theme? Most successful revitalizations have a theme or plan that gets attention. Here we have Tucson Origins and a Science Museum. I can't see people driving hundreds of miles to visit them.
Excellent comments from someone on the inside
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