The Star has good news about downtown (So why wrap it in gloom?)

by David Safier

Wanna read some good news about Tucson's downtown? Read the story about Fletcher McCusker, CEO of Providence Service Corp., and how his belief in downtown and love of music have made him a central part of the surging revitalization in the area.

Terrific story. Just skip the downer of a first paragraph, which talks about "the gloom of Rio Nuevo's failure." And don't read the caption under the upbeat photo of McCusker on the front page, which says Rio Nuevo failed to "pump some life into Tucson's city center."

McCusker has moved his business downtown. TEP is getting ready to set up shop. UA is about to open part of its school downtown. That means lots of people in the downtown area who like to eat and shop. New businesses and restaurants are cropping up all over the place. Things are already happening, and none of it would have been possible without Rio Nuevo, for all its flaws, laying the groundwork.

The "gloom of Rio Nuevo's failure" is an article of faith, and the center of all Rio Nuevo articles, at the Star. They refuse to admit the major failures happened in the past, and the past few years have seen the ground prepared for success, with early signs of success popping up all over the area.

Speaking of preparing the ground, Josh Brodesky has a column today which could be about how things are moving forward, but he chooses instead to look backward, into the gloom. (I'm just asking: Does Brodesky suffer from chronic indigestion? ["Dyspeptic" is the wonderful 19th century term for the condition.] He writes like the whole world, and especially downtown, has a bad taste to him because of a sour stomach.)

Today's column is about the groundbreaking for the Cushing St. Bridge. Brodesky even hints it's a possible remediation for the cutting in half of downtown by I-10 by bridging the major downtown area and the western side, including the coming streetcar that will run from the UA area to the area west of I-10. But he's much more interested in downplaying what's going right (the indigestion thing again) and carping on what went wrong in the past.

Toward the end of the column, Brodesky has to work at turning a positive comment into a negative. The bridge will be named after Luis Gutierrez who was City Manager in the early days of Rio Nuevo. Gutierrez likes what he's been seeing these days, but Brodesky makes it sound like Gutierrez is in denial because he "will speak only of hope."

OK, OK, I'm writing like my breakfast didn't agree with me this morning. Actually, I feel fine. So let me end on a positive note.

One good downtown story in the Star! Notice of the Cushing St. Bridge project getting moving! Good news!  Good times!