Guess whose coming to Tucson?

I was talking to a friend of mine who has been very connected to Tucson politics. He shall remain nameless because he is still involved in the downtown redevelopment. I asked him what went wrong. He explained that when the money came in for Rio Nuevo instead of investing it in projects that would generate revenue the council members divided it up in a quid pro quo fashion. The money went to pet projects that generate no revenue. He went on to say that he believes we can turn the corner and he is working to make that happen, but I am not sure that it is possible. We were asleep at the wheel while other communities were driving their cities to prosperity. I have shared before about Salt Lake City’s “I believe in Utah” campaign that helped change the attitudes and bring economic growth to their city. They enjoy a 3% unemployment rate during a time that our nation is inching close to 10%. And I am continuing to be impressed with Albuquerque (where I grew up) and depressed that they keep beating us to the punch. They have lured the film industry to New Mexico and now they have announced that they are the solar capital of the U.S. Bill Richardson was wooing companies on CNN saying bring me your energy starved masses and we will give you solar power. He made it clear that if you want to locate your solar company in New Mexico that he will work with you to make it happen. I was talking to David Welsh from Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities a couple of months ago. Albuquerque was offering a high tech company free land and job training to get them in. I asked him what we were offering and he said sunshine. And now Albuquerque has taken that! As the clock ticks we are moving closer to becoming the Detroit of the Deser; we must act swiftly before our demise. During these economic times smart business people have made adjustments to reposition their companies. Our city needs to do that. We need to take a page from Bill Richardson’s playbook and begin wooing businesses to move to Tucson. The city should not be building a new hotel for the convention center; they should be giving incentives for private development. I encourage you to call or write your council person and give them some good advice; otherwise it might be you that has to move.

Open For Business

One of the things that I have been focused on is the plight of small business people in the Old Pueblo. It really got my attention when I was doing the business roundtables with our city council members and government officials. The main concern I heard from business people was that our development services department was a stumbling block rather than a stepping stone. I spoke to the city council and they voted to give Ernie Duarte (the head of the department) the authority to make the changes in the culture and policies to become business friendly. During that process I kept wondering who stands up for small business people in our community. The silence was deafening. I joined the board of Arizona Small Business Association this year. ASBA has over 2500 members statewide (500 in Tucson) and has been a leading advocate for small business at the state level. Joe Higgins (Wake Up Tucson) and I made a presentation at the last board meeting concerning our lack of advocacy and meaningful events for small business in Tucson. The good news is that ASBA will now be taking that role in Tucson! Joe is forming a committee that will get input from small business people about their concerns. These will be reviewed and position statements put together for the approval of our CEO Donna Davis. She will represent ASBA to our government officials and bureaucracies. Small business now has a real advocate in Tucson. ASBA already has strong membership numbers, but these numbers will grow as small business people realize who is representing them. ASBA will also be doing forums that will keep business people informed on government regulations and policies that affect us. If you are a small business person I urge you to contact Suzette Colley at ASBA’s Tucson office and become a member. ASBA also has great membership benefits that offset the nominal membership fee. We now have a voice and would like to add yours to our chorus to change Tucson and get our economic engines running! Here is Suzettes contact info:

suzettec@asba.com