The Arizona Daily Star has recently filled a real vacuum in local civil society by encouraging Tucsonans to take a closer look at what kind of place they want to live in the future. I have quibbles, of course, but they are to be commended for acting as a catalyst and resource for a community faced with some serious choices. There are deep divisions about our future course between those who seek to manage growth (either more or less) and those who believe the facts indicate that we are far past their point where we can just grow smarter, we need to stop growing.

The Star certainly provided some interesting raw data to chew on from their survey earlier this month. Admittedly, some of the questions were intolerably leading and biased, or just plain dopey. But there is some gold in there. I found some insights into Tucsonans’ attitudes toward water, transportation, and development.

Read more about what I see—and failed to see—in the data…

Any time a wealthy special interest wants the help of local politicians to pick the tax-payer’s pockets, they’ll seek to justify it by touting the wonderful economic impact their conspiracy will have on the community. The standard method is a figure out a multiplier reflecting how the stolen money will ramify through the community. Then … Read more

Mike Brewer recently participated in Tucson’s own locally grown project, My Commentary. He says: "After 39 years of tolerating the nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and psychic ravages of war, I feel impelled to purge myself, at 60 years old, from some of the questions that have lodged themselves in the calcium of my bones. It is … Read more

by David Safier I’m wandering away from my usual education postings today. I’ve been waiting to see a recent Pat Buchanan column taken up by the media and hoping to see MSNBC demand an apology and suspend him for a few weeks. I’ve seen nothing, so the least I can do is say something myself. … Read more