IT AIN’T WHITE BOY DAY

Jesse Kelly is licking his wounds after last night’s concession call to CD8 victor, Ron Barber.

Kelly admitted defeat around 10pm, when poll numbers indicated that Barber couldn’t even see Kelly in his rearview mirror anymore.

After thanking his supporters, Kelly went home.

Because that’s the way it goes.

But with Kelly likely to also run for the CD2 seat,  don’t forget: Every once in a while, it goes the other way, too.

CEMENT SHOES?

A Rio Nuevo board member — one of only 2 originals remaining, btw — made an impassioned, 45-minutes speech at last night’s meeting, calling the recent string of Rio board oustings a conspiracy to cover up massive corruption and misspending of Tucsonans’ TIF money.

The speech leveled accusation at the Senate President, Speaker of the House, city attorney, local businessmen, at least one board member, and the Daily Star.

And it included a bit about how The City is too incompetent to find millions of missing taxpayer dollars.

Oh, if only I weren’t already married…

PROFILES IN CURBAGE

Gov. Brewer has officially updated her directive on what is considered, under SB 1070, “reasonable cause” for detaining or arresting potential illegals. (The controversial legislation is currently being looked at by the Supreme Court, with a ruling at hand.)

Now, Brewer says, officers in AZ can’t pull someone over just for looking foreign. Suspects must now meet other criteria as well… like sounding foreign and acting foreign.

Smelling foreign was not addressed.

Locally, Vocally’s “Check Out My Briefs” is intended as humorous commentary. If it didn’t make you laugh, try reading it drunk. 

Back in the olden days, when I was a mere journalism student at the UA, then-mayor Bob Walkup spoke to our group about the fledgling Rio Nuevo project. After I pelted him with a series of hard questions about exactly how our TIF money would be spent, Walkup told my classmates to take note of my ability to smell bureaucratic bull hockey.

Well, sir, I hate to have to do it, but here I go again:

Rio Nuevo is — and always has been — a big, stinking pile of cattle manure.

I can’t even think about what has become of the initial 1999 voter initiative without looking for dung on my shoe. Because we, fellow Tucsonans, have absolutely stepped in it.

Remember 1999? Back when downtown was about as attractive to outside investors as a kissing booth full of cold sores? When hopes for downtown included cultural museums, riparian areas, and mix-use housing?

Back when Tucson knew what Tucson wanted: namely to be Tucson?

Back when we voted to rejuvenate our languishing downtown business district by making downtown attractive to Tucsonans? Rather than to real estate moguls and Phoenix legislators?

Yeah, me too… barely. Those were the days.

In the THIRTEEN years since we approved a 10-YEAR tax increment funding program aimed at making modest improvements and preservation, Rio Nuevo has morphed into an politico-ethical monster of Frankensteinian proportions, prompting investigation and an audit. Even the FBI is watching.

Yet, we have virtually nothing to show for it.

All the king’s men (ie: state legislators) haven’t helped to reign in the misspending; discarded plans litter the streets like castoff cadaver bits; mad ranting can be heard from behind heavy doors; and the villagers are sharpening their pitchforks.

Sure, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS (and counting, btw) are missing from our pockets, and Rio Nuevo can’t — or won’t — tell us where the money went.

Because we know it didn’t go to:

The forgotten Tucson Origins Heritage Park…

The nearly-foreclosed Mercado District…

The museum district that never was…

The missing mix-use housing…

The phoned-in Presidio Wall…

The sports arena that didn’t happen…

The non-existent hotel…

The missing science center…

The invisible rainbow bridge…

The crumbling convention center…

The barely-touched Rialto…

The displaced artists…

or

Practically anything else we voted for.

Let the torch wielding begin.

Check it out for yourself: Rio Nuevo spending report

* Read what I wrote about Rio Nuevo back in the day — see my “Feeling of Jeopardy” and “Hookin’ and Duckin’” pieces here ; and my personal fave “Ate & the Fox” here