Interesting thought for the City of Tucson to consider….

There’s a Yiddish term for this called “chutzpah”. 

From Wikipedia:

Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. The word derives from the Hebrew word ḥuṣpâ (חֻצְפָּה), meaning “insolence”, “audacity”, and “impertinence.” The modern English usage of the word has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in film, literature and television.

In Hebrew, chutzpah is used indignantly, to describe someone who has over-stepped the boundaries of accepted behavior with no shame. But in Yiddish, chutzpah has developed ambivalent and even positive connotations. Chutzpah can be used to express admiration for non-conformist but gutsy audacity. Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish defines chutzpah as “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts,’ presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to.” In this sense, chutzpah expresses both strong disapproval and a grudging admiration. In the same work, Rosten also defined the term as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

One hopes the Tucson Mayor and Council realize that Lopez is holding himself hostage, and no one really cares if his hotel closes.

Was talking to Mike Brewer, a friend who was very involved in downtown stuff a few years ago, and he and I agreed that downtown seems to be cursed.

The city of Tucson can spend millions and millions of dollars trying to revive downtown, and all they end up with is a lot of invoices and a lot of vacant lots.

The problem goes back to the original urban renewal scheme (called the “Mexican Relocation” by some) where a major portion of Tucson’s Hispanic barrio was flattened so Tucson could build its convention center, La Placita and a bunch of government office buildings.

A tale of two cities: the failed urban renewal of downtown Tucson in the twentieth century

Journal of the Southwest, Spring-Summer, 2003 by Juan Gomez-Novy, Stefanos Polyzoides

…..Demolition began in 1967. Bulldozers erased a uniquely irregular street network and obliterated a rich heritage of adobe structures, some dating back more than one hundred years. Three hundred nineteen homes were torn down and more than one thousand residents were forcibly relocated. A unique three-plaza settlement was lost. A crime involving an incalculable cultural loss was finally completed.

Thousands of Hispanic residents were thrown out of their homes and businesses as a result.

Read entire paper…

The trauma of being driven out of downtown is still a bad memory for many of the Hispanic victims of “progress”.

Read Three Sonorans post about the cultural genocide that was Tucson’s “urban renewal”.

Maybe before another penny is spent on Rio Nuevo or whatever the latest scheme is being called, Tucson should hire a priest and perform an exorcism downtown.

There are thousands of unhappy spirits haunting downtown making sure the public and private sector folks responsible for the destruction of Tucson’s Hispanic heart will fail.

So….what’s next in the endless and expensive efforts to “save” downtown Tucson?

Maybe the first question to ask is does Tucson even really need a “downtown”?

The place folks call “downtown” Tucson is mostly a cluster of government buildings. It is a “government center”. The only reason most people have to go to that part of Tucson is to deal with (or be abused by) government.

Most downtowns are big office centers for private enterprises. Tucson has relatively few businesses big enough and rich enough to want to spend big bucks on fancy offices in high rise buildings. That speaks volumes about the failure of Tucson to actually have much of an economy.

There are lots of law offices in downtown….because the lawyers need to be close to the government offices and the courts.

Maybe the city government could spur more private office building construction by creating even more government mischief creating more lawyer jobs.

Oops…in this era of trying to shrink government, the prospect of inducing more private office construction to house more lawyers is a seriously bad idea.

Many downtowns serve as financial centers with lots of bank buildings and offices. Does anyone believe Tucson would ever have a financial center downtown?

Another characteristic of other downtowns is the function of an arts and entertainment center. Interestingly a vibrant art community emerged adjacent to downtown in all the old warehouses that were going to be torn down for a freeway extension. The emergence of the arts district was due to the failure of government to be able to proceed with the road project. If government has its way all the artists will get pushed out and replaced by expensive condo projects so people can live in an “arts district” which happens to have no artists.

The idea of a bunch of museums and stuff downtown was a cool idea….but somehow got lost in the mad dreams of rainbow bridges and aquariums.

Somehow the hotel scheme got linked to saving the Gem and Mineral Show. No doubt Tucson needs more hotel rooms to accommodate all the folks that come to that show….but why does the taxpayer have to be on the hook for a hotel for this? If there are enough people wanting to rent hotel rooms, someone will get the money to build a hotel. The problem is that a hotel needs guests for a lot more nights than just the few weeks of the gem show. There needs to be a reason for people wanting to rent hotel rooms all year….and Tucson does not have the attractions to justify more rooms.  I still think giving the site to an Indian Tribe for a hotel casino complex is the only way to go if they want a hotel downtown without taxpayer subsidies.

This keeps coming back to the question…why does Tucson need a downtown? Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe the best thing that can happen is for the city government to quit spending taxpayer money trying to create a city center in a place that clearly doesn’t want or even need  a city center.