Tales From The 'Hood
To the Editor,Regarding "Roger The Dodger" (The Skinny, Tucson Weekly, August 24): Right church, right pew, wrong day.
Sadly, the move by departing "stealth council-member" Roger "The Dodger" Sedlmayr to deliver a politically motivated acceleration of the park and pool project for the stalled Rita Ranch/RTC development is a done-deal.
The vote to proceed with funding this year for the newest addition to the sale brochures for Rita Ranch developers won't happen in September as your Skinny suggested. Happened weeks ago.
Yes, the $900,000 project was slated for completion in 1999. Yes, it'll be done now before any other 1994 Bond amenity in Ward 4.
No, there was no attempt to accelerate long promised and vitally needed projects in other areas of Ward 4. No effort to meet with other neighborhoods where folks have waited since the '70s for city promises to be fulfilled.
Guess it would have helped if his brother had owned property closer to town.
But hey! It's not over yet. You can still catch the action. Ever seen neighborhoods clubbing it out in public hearings to get a few morsels in return for their tax dollars? The World Wrestling Foundation has nothing on the spectacle of hard working folks going at it tooth-and-nail while the city pipes the tune.
According to Glenn Dixon, City Parks and Recreation, there now is a plan to "reconsider" development of the too-long awaited indoor recreation/multi-use facility identified in the 1979 master plan for Lincoln Regional Park. And while the cover-their-ass bureaucrats are quick to point out that they never said "exactly" that the new center would be built at Lincoln, consider the following:
Lincoln Regional Park, with more than 340 acres of prime recreational real estate, was acquired by the city for the express purpose of building a regional park. The city doesn't own a large enough piece of ground anywhere else in the immediate vicinity so they would have to buy, steal, condemn, or trade for a suitable place to build the center if they don't build it at Lincoln Park.
Lincoln Regional Park, which sits dead between Pima Community College East and Santa Rita High School (a nice place for a central rec center), already has a couple of ball fields and some nice grassy areas which would ideally compliment a new facility.
Since 1979, when the original master plan for Lincoln was drawn up, the most significant development of homes has been to the east and south of Lincoln Park. And, it looks like that trend will continue.
Instead of proceeding with what is clearly the sanest, most cost-effective, and legitimate plan, there now will be a blood-bath as neighborhoods in the area are forced by Sedlmayr and his cronies to fight it out amongst themselves.
Maybe Roger will do the play-by-play.
Immediate and comprehensive study of the needs of southeast-side residents is extremely important. A study soon to be released offers only hints about what residents want, but fails miserably to honestly measure the views, needs, and concerns of most of the residents of Ward 4.
This study, while a good step, should not be used wrongly to further the political aspirations of "The Dodger."
Ward 4 has waited nearly 20 years for city government to do the "right thing." I'm glad Rita Ranch won't have to wait as long.
Anyone interested in watching how neighborhoods work each other over will have a chance to view an emotional, counter-productive, wasteful and acrimonious battle of the neighborhoods in October.
The prize? The first and in all likelihood last, significant public indoor-facility to be built in Ward 4 this century.
City Parks and Recreation officials say a public hearing on the issues will be held at Booth School (not Fickett) from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on October 5. Watch out for a last-minute schedule change to make things interesting. Call City Parks and Recreation for more details.
This meeting, by the way, can't be held in a City of Tucson facility in Ward 4.
There aren't any.
--John Macko, President
Lakeside Park Neighborhood Association
Primal Therapy
To the Editor,Jeepers! I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Jeff Biggers ("Bad Penmanship," Letters, Tucson Weekly, August 17). Golly! By self-admission, he's aquainted with the works of Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Ann Rule, Jack Olsen, John Nichols, Bernard DeSoto, Ed Abbey, Leslie Silko, Russ Meyer, Vincent Buglioso, Ursula LeGuin, Denise Chavez, and Wallace Stegner--just to name a few.
I personally became acquainted with the works of Chuck Bowden about a year ago and was delighted with his adventures in nature. It was a pleasure not unlike reading Abbey's non-fiction.
But now I find out that he is nothing but "a gluttonous bantamweight, a wanna-be white trash poster child in middle class denial." Granted that I have no idea what that means--but it certainly doesn't sound very good.
Speaking of denial, I wonder if Mr. Biggers has given any thought
to Primal Therapy. Maybe put a little focus on that anger. Baking
dogs, indeed.
--Stanley B. Carruth
More Deadhead Claptrap
To the Editor,It is clear to me you're gonna take a lot of shots about your headie-scribed insight on Jerry G ("Dead And Jerried," Tucson Weekly, August 17).
If I saw you on the street, I would not take a shot at you; instead I'd give you a hug and maybe a kiss on the cheek. Then you could see if you really do feel anything outside of your ego. Then I would wisper in your ear,"Are you kind?"
Music, my little white bro, is art of the soul; if you process it in the brain bucket you're gonna loose 99 percent of its quality. And that's why you think white people can't dance, too, because the music missed the body.
I did do some Dead shows and the parking lot grouping. I saw a few things. First, the family atmosphere helped a lot of younger brothers and sisters get a handle on a family and also in time find direction. Even if it's just selling cool hippie shit on a stick. Second, the drugs accessability removed the mystery. Self-control was always the outcome for all old GD fans. And I couldn't resist shutting the dealers down with a rant that would make Moses blush. That's the way it's done. Cause believe me, Mommy and Daddy are not watching the kids at the shows. Me and the family was. And third, the Dead music sounded like folk music and rock and C&W, and as far as what the music did to me personally during a long version of "Not Fade Away" was unite my spirit and body with 15,000 other souls. We're talking one common body, one soul. Have you ever felt that? Ever? This is the essence of the Grateful Dead.
I was in Mexico when I heard about Garcia's passing. The kid
really wasn't shocked. It just seemed like the natural process
of drug abuse at that extreme. Now, John Lennon's death really
broke my heart. That man was getting on with his life, and, so,
when his life was taken, I cried.
--William "Freedom Digger" Welsh
