Something I think some of you are missing a point. The City's waffling from allowing these developments to now deciding they are not allowed under the zoning for the N ...... it means the City of Tucson will have to spend $$$ millions on legal defense and compensating developers. Prop 207. And who brought us Prop 207? An out of state developer sponsored and paid for the campaign that sold the public which was staffed by local developers .... the same people who will now be suing "us." My frustration, and part of Steve's, is the waffling on this. Making this decision a long time ago would have created far less liability for the City. I have experienced the same kind of waffling on issues for the neighborhood for which I am the Chair.
If the Giving Tree "goes down" in terms of its its shelter operation, it has to do with safety and zoning which is intended to protect the people there as well as the neighborhood. The actual info given to TW about crime was that a report given to the City in June 2008 from TPD statistics showed that 50% of the police incidents occurring in the Toumey Park neighborhood were occurring within a one block radius of the agency. The letter writer, Ivester, needs to have come to the neighborhood meetings and heard the complaints from the neighbors. They ranged from inappropriate approaches to children to smoking and drugs being used behind people's houses to aggressive panhandling to people having sex openly behind neighbor's houses. Not only does the facility not belong in the neighborhood, in the opinion of the neighborhood, it is entirely too small for the number of people who have been staying there. Wright claimed 80-100 per night to the media earlier in the year. Not only is the shelter in violation of zoning, which Wright should have known for a long time, in the view of the City, charging people to sleep there amounts to running a business. There is a need and a place for agencies serving the homeless, but not inside neighborhoods. Our neighborhood has been clearly stating that it does not want this agency in the neighborhood for 3 years, and it is an issue of safety and security for the neighborhood and the people who live here, in their opinions.
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