In 2006 voters approved a package of road improvements, bus pullout improvements, and bicycle path improvements and the creation of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) to oversee the projects.

RTA construction projects have been popping up all over town– like the bus pullouts at Fort Lowell and Campbell, which seemed to take forever to complete. Whew, glad that one’s done, but look for more cumbersome transportation “fixes” in the near future, as “planners” implement multiple clusterf**ks on our roadways.

Back in March, the local news reported that “planners” want to “fix” the intersection at Grant and Oracle Roads by eliminating left turn options unto Oracle. People who want to turn left will have to go through the intersection and make a u-turn down the road. (People driving westbound on Grant who really want to go southbound will be jockeying for position with hundreds of others who are trying to get to Interstate 10.) This will be a MESS at rush hour. Have the “planners” traveled that stretch of Grant Road between Oracle and I-10 recently? Traffic backs up long before you reach the multiple stop lights near the freeway. Add people driving westbound who really don’t want to go that direction to the mix, and what do you have? Yes, a cluster.

Initially, the local news reported that only Grant and Oracle would have u-turn solution to traffic “management.” Now we find that transportation “planners” are planning to implement the same “fix” at the intersection of Ina and Oracle Roads.  Monday’s Arizona Daily Star reported that “planners” have proposed the same stupid solution for traffic that backs up at the Ina and Oracle intersection– eliminate left turns onto Oracle and force people to drive out of their way to wait at u-turn bays to go back to the light they just went through and wait in a right-turn lane to go the direction they really wanted to travel.

Who’s idea was this? Is this the best idea RTA planners can come up with?

This u-turn mania is reminiscent of the dance Tucsonans used to do on Grant Road when those stupid cones were in place. For people who are new to town, for more than 15 years, Tucson had a ridiculous system on Grant Road and 5th/6th Street in which no left turns were allowed during rush hour, and the left turn lane became a temporary a through lane– aptly dubbed the “suicide” lane because it went west in the morning and east in the evening. Drivers who wanted to turn left off of Grant had to turn right, make a u-turn and then go the direction they really wanted to go. Grant Road was a disaster because people were always trying to make illegal left turns– particularly around midtown where the big grocery stores are. (I used to ride the #9 Grant Road bus everyday when I worked at the University. I routinely witnessed people trying to make illegal lefts; others would honk; and oncoming traffic would come to a screeching halt to avoid smashing into the stupid motorist sitting in the turn-lane-turned-through-lane. One night, I witnessed a full head-on collision.) Why would be go back to this?

I agree with this article: Blame not so easily placed on ‘stupid motorists’. It talks about the dumb idea of paving washes which routinely flood during the monsoons. Arizona’s Stupid Motorist Law says if you get stuck in one of those flooded washes, you have to pay a heavy fine if a rescue team is called to fish you out. From the Star…

The monsoon always brings a flood of stories about “stupid motorists” who drive through flowing washes – but the really stupid practice is paving dips and washes and calling them streets, says a UA researcher.

Most motorists who drive through washes have very rational reasons for doing so, said University of Arizona researcher Ashley Coles.

“The irrational ones are the ones who designed the streets,” said Coles, a Ph.D. candidate in geography… [Emphasis added.]

Whether it’s paving washes and pretending they’re safe to travel or creating unnecessary u-turns which are not only dangerours but also waste time and gas, the RTA needs better planning and fresh ideas to Tucson’s transportation issues. Unnecessary u-turns are a temporary solution at best. The cones were supposed to be short-term, and they cluttered our roads for more than a decade.

What happens when motorists start suing the RTA for accidents caused by the u-turn design? Will that force the RTA to come up with real solutions?

Raytheon– like so many other multi-national corporations– is trying to hold our local government hostage in exchange for corporate welfare. “Give us money, land, and tax breaks and rework your infrastructure to suit us, or we may hire workers elsewhere” is the mantra of corporations and major league sports teams who pit cities against each other to see who will give them the best deal– at the expense of the taxpayers.

And cash-strapped local and state governments trying to “do the right thing” fall for this scam all the time. Currently, our bankrupt state is considering offering million of dollars in tax breaks to unnamed corporations to move here, and now the cash-strapped county and city are considering offering millions to Raytheon and Diamond Ventures.

In Plan aims to assist Raytheon expansion, Arizona Daily Star reports that the county was “stung by Raytheon Missile Systems’ decision to build a new missile facility in Alabama instead of Tucson”, and that this is the reason it is considering going further into debt to help Raytheon expand here. Part of the expansion is $8 million for the purchase of land south of Raytheon– now owned by Diamond Ventures.

I know that the county is considering this in the name of keeping “good jobs” in Tucson, but frankly, this deal is just corporate welfare. According to the Star (quoted below), one of the reasons that Raytheon expanded in Alabama recently instead of here was that there wasn’t enough room physically to expand in Tucson.

Taxpayers need to help facilitate Raytheon’s expansion because one of the reasons Tucson lost out to Huntsville, Ala., for Raytheon’s new missile facility is that Raytheon didn’t have enough room at its south-side site here, [Pima County Administrator Chuck] Huckelberry said.

When it awarded the new facility to Huntsville – which will employ an estimated 300 workers at an annual average wage of $60,000 – in July, Tucson was a finalist. But the company said Tucson was bypassed because of limits to expansion at Raytheon’s current missile plant and a lack of development-ready alternative sites.

Richard A. Mendez, Raytheon’s director of facility management, told the City Council that Raytheon is confined in a box where it is now, which causes problems for the company and limits potential expansion.

If Don Diamond has $8 million worth of land south of the existing Raytheon plant for sale, that sounds like there is room for expansion. This issue is that Raytheon wanted it for free; perhaps you could call it another corporate bailout? Certainly, it is corporate welfare. (Another question is: Where is this land in relation to the TCE-contaminated land near Raytheon, and is it really worth $8 million? From the map on the EPA Superfund website, Diamond’s land is definitely close to the contamination– if not overlapping. What would Diamond do with this land — other than sell it to Raytheon or the Tucson International Airport? No one would want to live between those two noisy and environmentally messy neighbors. And, if Tucson funds the purchase of this land, who owns this wasteland in the middle of no where? The taxpayers or Raytheon?)

I have an alternate proposal for that $40 million. Give most of it– say $30 million– to The University of Arizona to create well-paying, clean, non-violent jobs in research and emerging technologies. The UAFoundation has mounds of data that show small donations that fund pilot research projects help UA scientists gather data to win large research grants. Grant funding and the spin-off businesses that often are created by new research findings provide good-paying jobs, often in emerging industries.

With the remaining $10 million, invest in local small businesses and help them expand. Small businesses created by local residents have an investment in Tucson; they’re not going to Huntsville, Alabama or China. (You’ll note in the Raytheon deal that there is no commitment to stay or expand in Tucson.)

Raytheon and Diamond Ventures should be weened off of the teet of the nanny state. Let them make their own deal without taxpayer funds greasing the wheels. Also, if Raytheon wants the county and city to rework the roads south of town, maybe they’d be willing to pay a bit more in corporate taxes. (I’m sure they’ve got some sort of sweetheart deal now.)

Wry Heat in his column today questioned the plans to rework Pima County’s roads on the south side (at taxpayer expense) to suit Raython and offered alternatives.

I question why Pima County would offer $40 million in corporate welfare to a highly profitable, multi-national corporation whose primary business is fueling violence worldwide. If the county and city want to grow the local economy and create new jobs, invest in research and education at the UA and in local businesses.

Tucson Tea Party– where are you on this? You railed against corporate welfare for the big banks and the auto companies. Where do you stand on using taxpayer funds for corporate welfare for the military-industrial complex? State Senator Frank Antenori, what about you?