The Trouble With Tucson

I admit it – I love Tucson. The weather is extraordinary, the culture is fabulous, and the history is fascinating. Professional photographers’ come from all over the world to capture the beauty of places like Sabino Canyon and Mt Lemon – places that are the backdrop for our daily routine. Sunset and sunrise are natures canvass, and the night sky is Gods fireworks show -- I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Like anywhere, we have our challenges, though. Our average income is an embarrassment, there do not seem to be enough good jobs to go around, and we celebrate when ten dollar an hour call center jobs come to town. We think we hit the jackpot when government, (or government contractors), build a factory, or when snowbirds come back to town in the winter. We never seem to figure out that money earned elsewhere and spent here is not altogether a good thing.

Tucson needs to create its own wealth instead of depending on wealth made in other places and brought here. That money might spend just as well, but it is not wealth that is sustainable and reliable. We need to develop reliable revenue that promises long-term security.

We’ve done it before.  Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s Tucson hosted a good number of Hollywood production companies. This was the era of cowboy movies and the beautiful desert just outside town made Tucson a perfect place to make a movie. Lee Marvin made his home here, and John Wayne lived in the top floor of what is now Tucson House on South Oracle near Pima Community College.

Attracting film companies didn’t cost the city anything because they were attracted by a natural resource – the Sonoran Desert. Saguaro cactus and desert vistas symbolized the cowboy history that movie audiences could not get enough of during that period. However, when movie tastes changed, so did the need for desert locations. Today cities like Toronto and Vancouver, both in Canada, are popular backdrops for the urban storylines that are now popular.

In the 1980’s defense industries populated much of the south side of town. High tech companies supported by tax dollars were building Sidewinder missiles, researching noise canceling equipment for submarines, and making early versions of UAVs. But tax money rides the winds of politics and economics – never a reliable long term revenue source. During the 1990’s most of that tax money left, and with it the highly paid engineers, managers and technicians that supported Tucson businesses.

What to do?

The problem is that there isn’t much here. Any corporation contemplating a move to the Southwest stops looking when they get to Phoenix. There is no point going another hundred miles south unless business with Mexico is important. Tucson is home to about a million people but we don’t have unique features that attract business.

Or do we?

Tucson is the only American city of any size in the Sonoran Desert. It is a unique place, unlike anywhere else in the United States. And there are plenty of people who would like to come here – and not just for a vacation or a conference. Anyone who loves the outdoors would love Tucson. The biggest skydiving center in the world is a few miles up the road in Eloy. There are enough motorcycle enthusiasts around Tucson to support 37 dealerships. Summit Hut does a brisk business selling all sorts of camping and hiking gear to people who just can’t get enough of the Southwest desert.

Many of the people who support these businesses came to Arizona specifically for the climate that allows them to enjoy their outdoor hobbies. It wasn’t jobs, or a huge corporate move or a defense contract that brought many of these people to Arizona. It was the natural resource of the Sonoran Desert, and the weather and culture that one finds here.

So why not capitalize on what many of us love about Tucson – the thing that brought us here and keeps us here – the Sonoran Desert.

One of the biggest advantages of using our beautiful desert to attract ambitious young business people is that it costs nothing. Every big employer promising low paying call center or insurance jobs expects tax breaks in return for moving here. Low paying jobs never make up the difference in tax receipts lost in attracting companies, partly because the companies never stay long enough for the city to recoup the tax breaks. We need permanent businesses that come to Tucson because of what Tucson is, not because the city gave a lower tax quote than some other city.   

The city of Tucson should market our Southwest ambiance and desert lifestyle to young entrepreneurs in every city and university between rainy Portland, Oregon and snowy Buffalo, New York. Attracting a cadre of smart and outdoorsy young people who dream of opening a business would increase employment and broaden the tax base for years to come. If only one up and coming entrepreneur is lucky enough to launch an IPO in a few years, Tucson would enjoy enormous financial returns.

Attracting people who love the desert and Southwest culture would bring environmental and social benefits as well. These people would support preserving and managing our culture, history and environment, instead of developing it for short term gain. We need people who can balance a vision of economic growth with a mission of preserving the ambiance and natural beauty of Tucson and Pima County.

This is also the perfect time for bringing young entrepreneurial professionals to Tucson. Jobs will not be coming back for a long time, so more young people than ever are considering self employment or small business ownership. Add to that trend the emergence of the Internet as a medium mature enough to allow online business operations without regard for geography, and a perfect combination of ready talent, economic opportunity, and technological advantage emerges.   

If you always do want you have always done you will always get what you always got. Tucson needs to do something different, and think about attracting people who will love the city and the desert as much as the rest of us.