We’re getting closer to election day, can you hear us now?
WAKE UP TUCSON: Taking care of business

By Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone, special for Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, October 23, 2009

Has anyone else besides us noticed the past six weeks — since our column headlined “Until they fear us they won’t respect us” — that the conversation in this year’s city elections has turned to ‘who is the most pro-business city council candidate?’

Like many of you, when we read the Arizona Daily Star’s editorial endorsements, we weren’t surprised but we were amused. While endorsing the Democratic slate, the editors used the rest of the column to detail the anti-business culture in Tucson and this council’s failures over the past four years to fix it. 

We commend the newspaper’s decision to raise issues that most of us in the private sector deal with day in and day out. From the Star’s editorial: “They need to take on the land-use code and fix it. They’ve had four years in office to mull it over and they’ve taken itty-bitty steps. Since when is taking four years to “mull it over” and “itty-bitty steps” acceptable? In the private sector four years of no results and we’d be out of business. In the government sector that’s worthy of being re-elected.

If you listen to talkradio, read newspapers and pay attention to the party and campaign rhetoric you’ll see a loud chorus building to change the Tucson business climate. The pressure is on for the city to make it easier to help a business through development services, redo the land use code, and, in general, push to be more responsive to the small business person. Is this just election season pandering? Do they really mean it this time?  

The incumbents now have a four-year track record. They made promises on the campaign trail and slung a lot of mud. What do they have to show for it?

• The garbage fee that was such a big deal four years ago is still here and has been increased.

• Many of the big bad business people that supposedly controlled former council members Kathleen Dunbar and Fred Ronstadt are now contributing to Nina Trasoff’s campaign. And there are inside deals — the $47 million Fourth Avenue Underpass, free rent on top of free rent in the city-owned train station, development deals that kickback money to select nonprofits and tax increment financing-funded projects benefitting Rio Nuevo board members.

Except for a push to buy local and an attempt to fix a horrendous certificate of occupancy process there hasn’t been much action on the business front.

Take a look at our neighbors in Albuquerque. Their downtown revitalization kicked off about the same time as Tucson’s. Their tactic was to set the table, streamline the process, lay out the plan and get out of the way. The private groups came in and timed the real estate boom perfectly. Albuquerque has a growing downtown with hotels, condos, restaurants and entertainment.

What did Tucson do during the same time? City leaders second-guessed and put government in the middle of everything. City officials backed projects for rainbow bridges, museums and mud walls. They refused to fix the maze of regulations that chase away all but the most determined private sector capital.

Our other neighbor El Paso, is rebuilding its downtown by formulating a plan with stakeholder input and then demanding an up or down vote from the city council on the entire redevelopment. El Paso didn’t piecemeal each project. It didn’t make each developer have to go before the buzzsaw of neighborhood associations and beg for permission or give away concession, to a point where the deals didn’t make economic sense.

At a  candidate forum this month with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the crowd of 80-plus was upset. We interviewed four past presidents of NAWBO who ranked Tucson’s business climate no higher than a 3 out of a possible 10. We heard comments like ‘we wish they would be more helpful during their four years not just a few months before elections.’

The question and answer sessions were emotional and showed the frustrations of small business owners. Delays and red tape at the city translate into real economic hardship. Crazy unclear regulations and inconsistencies can mean the difference between hiring and expanding or being able to make the car payment.  

As election day approaches — one week from Tuesday — let’s hope we are in a community that is realizing the “big bad” businesses and little local shopkeeper play a vital role. Our enterprises put most of the money into local government.

Business people believe in arts and social programs and youth activities. We support police and fire and want a city that is vibrant, clean and going somewhere. Since we pay for most of these things we would like to be treated like a valued customer occasionally.

Who better than a local dry cleaner or neighborhood deli to realize that if you don’t take care of your customers someone else will?

Contact Joe Higgins at or Chris DeSimone at . They’re the hosts of “Wake Up Tucson,” which airs 6 – 7 a.m. weekdays on The Voice KVOI 1030-AM.  Check out their blog at