From Inside Tucson’s Business:

$29.1 billion: The total gross domestic product for Tucson region. It’s $187 billion in Phoenix.

By Hugh Holub

…”$29.1 billion – the total gross domestic product for the Tucson region. It’s $187 billion in Phoenix.”

The Phoenix area is about 4 times the population of the Tucson region.

But the gross domestic product in Phoenix is 6.5 times that of Tucson.

Arguably Tucson’s gross domestic product should be around $47 billion.

Tucson’s gross domestic product falls short by $18 billion a year.

$18 billion is the lost Motorola plant. It is the lost General Instruments plant. It is the lost Apache helicopter plant. It is the lost Raytheon Missile Systems’ new production facility and a lot of other lost opportunities that were run out of town by small-minded local “leaders.”

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From Inside Tucson’s Business July 1, 2011:

Is Tucson really still a “western” town?

….Historically Tucson is one of the real deal Western places. It is right up there with Dodge City and Deadwood and Virginia City and all those other places where Western myths were made.

Tucson is the real thing when it comes to the West…at least it used to be.

One of Tucson’s heritages is cowboys…the whole definition of what a cowboy is evolved right here and southwards…cows have been on the range since Father Kino brought the first herd to San Xavier.

But local environmentalists are determined to wipe out southern Arizona’s ranching community

And the Tucson area had its share of wild and wooly mining towns…most of which are now haunted by ghosts and 21st century mining companies who see copper in them thar hills.

Tucson seems to want to turn its back on his important role as a location of minerals which are in fact mined.

Tucson has been relentless in destroying its history and making itself over as a modern American plain vanilla city.

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