Reality Slams Cloth

Tucson, Arizona. Daniel Scarpinato of the Arizona Daily Star has an article today that points to the strong likelihood that the city of Tucson is going to lose its most lucrative TIF funding for Rio Nuevo, a project that was supposed to lead, starting eight years ago, to a variety of attractive downtown enhancement projects. Those familiar with this blog know that it dug into Rio Nuevo last year with a TIF for TAT series that started here and continued here. The series drew quite a bit of readership. A few months later, Rob O'Dell of the Star ran an article that sure looked familiar, but I was not involved, I promise.

I've long since moved on, and odds are high I leave Tucson permanently within the next year. However, it was interesting to read Daniel's piece that just dripped with what I saw years ago, the world of the Cloth, a set of overpaid suits that attend luncheons and flatter each other while accomplishing nothing, and I mean NOTHING, for the citizens of this town. Worse, they attack any efforts they perceive as competing or in any way contrasting with their own lack of results. Local cloth includes TREO, our do less than zero economic development organization, Downtown Tucson Partnership, a group that used to do something under a different name, but since it did something, its leader and staff were replaced by those who know better than to accomplish a result, and MTCVB, a group that promotes tourism.

Sadly, these do nothing clowns and the millions they squander can damage noble and worthwhile efforts like Science Foundation Arizona, which was recently lumped into the same crowd as TREO by state representative Frank Antoneri. Groups that actually produce something can find themselves entangled with the trash and tossed out. In the world of cloth, notions like "deserve" and "merit" and "results" are shaped more by self-flattering fraud than facts.

Well, it's interesting to watch how long a total sham can fool its funders. Rio Nuevo had a pretty good run, snarfing perhaps $100 million to stuff the suits of its pals to pretend to conduct studies and attend luncheons, not a bad take over eight years, but it appears Rio Nuevo's time is running out. The folks in Phoenix aren't particularly impressed with the small stack of blueprints and obsolete stacks of paper.

Remember when TREO flew in Cloth God Richard Florida? For $50 grand of taxpayer money, the snake oil swindler came into town and told us we needed more artists and gay bohemians to boost our creative class. I don't have the slightest problem with gay bohemians, but anyone that talks about them as the drivers of Tucson's economy should consider a degree in Cloth. Last I heard, one obtains such credentials at the Southern Arizona Leadership Council.

Rio Nuevo appears slated for termination. I wonder how long TREO and DTP can continue to swill at the trough. Over a quarter million dollars for a blueprint no one reads. Fifty grand for a one hour con artist that left us with what?

A bill.

See what I mean?