In Defense of Andrew Greenhill

Typically, I read your publication with a healthy dose of humor. However, I feel compelled to correct your recent column mentioning my chief of staff, Andrew Greenhill ("City Hall Shuffle," The Skinny June 19). I am not sure what your source of information was, but they led you astray.

If The Weekly is going to fault Mr. Greenhill for the administration's unfinished business, then you also have to give him some credit for its successes.

These include: The tripled recycling rate; the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance; cracking down on slumlords with the SABER program; water impact fees; mayor's Back to Basics and downtown revitalization; the Mayor's Arts Awards and Family Arts Festival; Men Against Domestic Violence; and the Mayor's Good Business Partnership, just to mention a few.

Also, just to be absolutely clear, Andrew Greenhill is a trusted and valuable associate. He will be working with me in the office of mayor as long as the public chooses to keep me in office. We make changes in office structure from time to time, so in the future, if you have any questions about what's happening in the office or around town, feel free to contact me.

--Mayor Bob Walkup

We Like Andrew, Yes We Do

Andrew Greenhill does an outstanding job as Mayor Bob Walkup's chief of staff. His loyalty to the mayor and Tucson are obvious to those of us who have dealt with him professionally. He is in the difficult position of keeping the mayor's office running smoothly during a re-election campaign.

As a state senator, I have worked with Mr. Greenhill on a number of issues that are important to Tucson. He works equally well with all members of the Southern Arizona legislative delegation and is always available to us. I have never known him to be arrogant or politically biased in his work on behalf of the City of Tucson.

It may be unique to have a Republican mayor with a Democrat chief of staff. However, the work that comes out of the mayor's office is always professional.

Your characterization of Mr. Greenhill is undeserved and regrettable.

--Sen. Toni Hellon
R-District 26

We Like Andrew, How 'Bout You?

While I generally find The Skinny entertaining in much the same way I am entertained by the tabloids in the checkout line, this time you have gone too far.

Andrew Greenhill is a highly educated and qualified chief of staff who has chosen public service for honorable reasons. By attacking Mayor Walkup's Democratic staff members you have laid bare your political agenda. The goal is obviously to elect Professor Tom Volgy, using tactics such as character assassination, innuendo and outright lies against Greenhill. Volgy has been staging similar attacks for the last six months against many other high-profile Democrats who support Mayor Walkup.

I'm confident that readers of the Skinny recognize the difference between fact and politically motivated gossip.

--Julee Dawson

For the record, The Weekly has no such political agenda. Also for the record, The Weekly stands behind the story.

The Anti-Science Conspiracy's Been Uncovered!

Let me see if I understand this correctly.

Ron Quinn ("Mysteries in the Mountains," May 15) thinks he has discovered a natural phenomenon that "alters time." But he presents no real evidence, just a bunch of hazy new-age claims about "vibration of the crystals" and unimpressive anecdotes that have more plausible explanations.

Altering time would bring fame and fortune. If I'd discovered such a place, I'd do anything to have it investigated by real scientists. I'd be on the phone with the physics department at the University of Arizona. But not Quinn. He refuses to state where the location is, and apparently hasn't made any effort to have it studied by physicists.

Jimmy Boegle excuses publishing this third-rate science fiction by saying "there's no harm to be had." But there is. It's part of the same breakdown in American education that leads Nancy Reagan to consult astrologers, the Pentagon to waste money on "remote viewing" and states to remove evolution from science textbooks. You should be ashamed to print this garbage.

--Jeffrey Shallit

UA Students Creating a War Zone

I was totally revolted by Vicki Hart's article bemoaning the Tucson Police Department's treatment of those 100-plus UA students partying on Mabel Street who weren't released until the next day. I hope they liked the drunk tank.

Where has Vicki Hart been spending her time? She needs to get her head out of the sand--I'm being polite here--and spend a few weeks trying to live in the area north of the university bounded by Mountain Avenue, Grant Road, Speedway Boulevard and Campbell Avenue.

My family purchased a home in that area 40 years ago when it was a quiet, well-kept neighborhood of established families and young families. My sister still lives there, and those same "poor, victimized" students have turned that area into a living hell--more like a war zone than a neighborhood. On her block alone, there are five houses that are rented to students. The only time she and her husband get any sleep is in the summer when the students are gone.

Every fall, they are invaded by a horde of self-centered, rude, destructive, drunken slobs and idiots who think they own the neighborhood. Here is a partial list of the incidents my sister has had to put up with the past several years:

· A carload of drunk males, from a party three doors down, beat up a young hooker, stole her money, and threw her and her purse out on my sister's front yard. My sister called the police but doubts that charges were filed.

· Drunken students have urinated in her yard.

· Drunken students have knocked on her door demanding to use her bathroom.

· Drunks have driven erratically or over the speed limit.

· Drunks, leaving parties, have smashed several mailboxes, including my sister's.

When I went to college our parties rarely had more than 30 people. Now hundreds come, often uninvited. The streets and yards are littered with beer cans, broken beer bottles, plastic cups, condoms, trash and vomit.

Hardly a weekend goes by that my sister and brother-in-law don't hear guns--usually semi-automatic weapons--being fired into the air. It's a miracle someone hasn't been hit.

Kudos to TPD. Keep up the great job. I hope the courts raise the fines. That seems to be the only way these students will get the message.

--Janice E. Mitich
Governing Board
Marana Unified School District

Stop Lab Animal Torture

These animal cruelty cases ("Cruel and Unusual," June 12) tell us there are monsters in Tucson. Over the years, I've read about hundreds of similar cases and have even seen videotapes taken by the perpetrators themselves.

What's even more unfortunate for these victims is that there's no legal means to stop their torment, because the activities of their torturers are protected by tough government and industry security.

Proof that has come out of this country's vivisection (live-animal testing) laboratories details cruelties such as those mentioned in the article--and much worse. There is literally nothing that vivisectors are forbidden from doing to animals, and the people who don't believe this have not seen the proof. The videotapes stolen from laboratories in night raids by abolitionists are so gruesome they won't be aired by news outlets.

Hans Reusch published a book, Slaughter of the Innocents, which documents the insane cruelty committed on animals in labs. I was skeptical and had to check on every one of his sources in the medical journals at the University Medical Center library; I found that there was no exaggeration.

--Gary DiNardo

Card-Carrying Republican

Renée Downing's "I Can See Clearly Now" (June 12) was inspirational. Like a large minority of the German people, prior to the burning of the Reichstag and the invasion of Poland, I, too, shall cleanse myself of prior sins and join the Republican Party. To go against the party is to blaspheme our founding fathers. I urge you all to go out and join the party NOW, as the party needs to be able to count you.

Oh, Renée, this doesn't mean we have to vote like they do, does it?

--Gregory Travis