Another Day, Another Knee

Sprained my left MCL five seconds into the kiddie game I refereed last night. Excellent.

In other news, the dour parent state legislature stripped control of the Rio Nuevo project from starry-eyed and tragically unfocused Tucson yesterday, taking back what's left of the hard-earned allowance and babysitting money and quashing the dreams of aquariums and museums and rainbow bridges and gardens and mixed-use residential/retail for good. You are building a hotel and convention center, and that's that. Slam goes the door, and Tucson falls facedown onto the twin bed, pounding its fists impotently and sobbing.

Don't talk to Jesus on the field, 'kay? I said to Wilson Middle School's center midfielder yesterday after the third time she followed up a biffed kick with Jesus! So I hope you're not reading this, miss midfielder, because Jesus Urban Planning Christ, what a clusterfuck this whole thing has been. A gazillion dollars pissed away with little but some very interesting archaeology to show for it. Really stellar archaeology, that, and I'm very proud of it, but somehow I don't think even enshrining featured chapters from our technical reports Constitution-style would be the tourist draw/revenue stream the city was hoping for when it began this venture many many years ago.

The city should have given Jim Counts his loan and his land back in the beginning and developed a plaza around that brewpub centerpiece. Attractive open central space surrounded by interesting retail and restaurants has been a fairly successful formula for as long as cities have been around. Nimbus is thriving. Barrio Brewing is thriving. Unfortunately, they're thriving in the middle of industrial areas, so the potential spending energy emanating from the throngs of people they draw dissipates as soon as they stagger back to the vacant dirt lots where they parked, instead of happily spending money in the toy store or music store or vintage clothing store next door, since, as established, they're in the middle of nowhere. I'm just saying that the City of Tucson should have consulted with me first before chasing the herd of rainbow-shitting unicorns they were sure were hiding just behind that tortoise-shaped arena they built in their heads.