Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Hello Neighbors,Residents and businesses originally voted on the issue July 2, but those results were nullified because: A. Carleton apparently sent out a last-minute announcement that the voting session began at 5:30 p.m. and the original 6 p.m. Residents say business owners showed up to vote early and then left. And, B. When talks of amending the bylaws reached the ears of the city of Tucson, the Office of Integrated Planning threatened Barrio Hollywood to de-register it as a neighborhood association, should they vote for a bylaw that would exclude businesses. The city later said that as long as businesses can weigh in on what goes down in the neighborhood, even without voting rights, it means the bylaws are inclusive and the barrio is not up for punishments.
The special meeting held last night resulted in a deciding vote for Proposal 2 of Article II of the BHNA bylaws. Despite the effort which went into it, the voting process was again full of indiscrepancies and the balloting problematic. The count was overwhelmingly in favor of a Resident Only membership making any formal complaint of the process fruitless.
The formation of an election committee will be discussed at our monthly meeting in September.
The special meeting was called for a discussion and vote of the bylaws since many claimed at the July 2nd meeting that they had had no opportunity for discussion. The majority of the attendees last night clamored for the vote to take place immediately and were not interested in any discussion or contribution.
The meeting and vote were engineered to focus solely on Article II of the bylaws when the special meeting was called to discuss and answer questions of the entire document. The remaining Articles will be on the Agenda of the September meeting for a vote.
Estimadas/os: This is a follow-up to my recent e-mail describing the events, re: Barrio Hollywood and the attempt to lessen the impact of Barrio Hollywood residents in favor of outsiders, and asked for your support of Barrio Hollywood residents.
Long story short: Barrio Hollywood residents won!!!! The bylaw change that would allow only Barrio Hollywood residents to vote in Barrio Hollywood Neighborhood Association matters won overwhelmingly—69-13. The details are below.
To put things in perspective, it’s important to know that:
1. The attempt to dilute the voting power of Barrio Hollywood residents did not originate in Barrio Hollywood. This attack on Hollywood was orchestrated by outside political forces who want to do to Barrio Hollywood what was done to the downtown barrios during the so called “Urban Renewal” (which really was a “Mexican Removal”) campaign in the 1960s: destroy its cultural-historical memory, run the current residents out and gentrify the area and thus destroy the political viability and activism of the west side.
2. This attack on the west side is rooted in the El Rio Coalition-II beating back the plan promoted by the Ward One City Councilmember and the Mayor to convert the historic El Rio/Trini Alvarez Golf Course into a complex of high-rise condos and apartment buildings and commercial establishments, which would have permanently and irreversibly changed the character of Barrios Hollywood and El Rio, including the local Hollywood businesses.
Tags: barrio hollywood , el rio neighborhood center , el rio golf course , margaret mckenna , kasey carleton , regina romero