Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

As many of you know, I sit on the Pima County Bond Committee. You are no doubt aware of the hubub regarding Rillito Downs race track.

Former Pima County Supervisor Ed Moore is threatening to sue. Long time Pima County residents will remember bumper stickers that appeared in the late 1980’s that said “I’ve been sued by Ed Moore.” Nice to see some things don’t change.

Here is the argument from Moore: we have another place to build soccer fields near Roger and the freeway, and there is no need to move the track to the Pima County Fairgrounds.

First off, the land that Moore is talking about is not county land, but State Trust Land. The county can’t just ask for it, it needs to be auctioned off. Plus, with State Trust requirements for land to be put to the “highest and best use,” it is doubtful that it would be sold to the county if a developer plans to put an outlet mall there. Also, there are concerns about archaeological sites there. The remediation would mean a large outlay of money from county taxpayers and delays before any fields can be built there.

Not only that, the site he’s talking about is quite a drive from centers of population and is not accessible by bus. Both of these are critical considerations when planning on placing a sports facility that caters to young people.

There is a part of me that wants to see racing continue at the track. As a native Tucsonan, I like the historic nature of the site and the fact that we have horse racing not just near by, but in town. However, if this means we are going to be spending millions of tax payer dollars every few years to support the sport when Pima County is criminaly short of parks and rec facilities, I’m less than enthusiastic.

A bit of background on this: Moore, to his credit, came to the voters back in the 80’s and with an initiative to save racing at the track. As a result of this, the track is now being leased for the tidy sum of $2,500 a year. That’s right, this huge chunk of land is leased for less than it would cost to buy a used car. The reason for this tony deal? The folks leasing the track are supposed to be paying for maintenance. Despite bragging about how much money they make on racing every year, this hasn’t been done. Now, they want taxpayers to pay the bill for this neglect.

The advocates for keeping the track open are claiming that a track at the County Fairgrounds would be inadequate. Pat White, one of the fiercer advocates for keeping Rillito, argues that it would be hard for horsemen to get to the Fairgrounds. I’m not sure how this is the case. Since these folks come from all over the county, and that they drive their horses to the site, it confuses me how a site right off of the freeway would be inaccessible. It has also been argued that the new site would be inaccessible to racing fans. We hold the county fair at the Fairgrounds every year (thus the name…), and I haven’t heard any complaints about attendance yet.

(This means that racing advocates are complaining about accessiblity while arguing that tween soccer players could easilly get to the Roger Road site.)

Another supposed argument against the Fairgrounds is that wind coming up from Sonoita would cause problems for horses. Funny, that, Sonoita is very much a horseman’s community. Heck, they even have a track. I guess horses in Santa Cruz County are just made of sterner stuff.

What boggles the mind is that these folks are arguing that a dilapidated facility with a track that is too short is prefereable to building a new state of the art facility. Many racing advocates have testified before our committee that they would prefer the Fairgrounds site.

One thing that has struck me in the arguments over this is the tone coming from advocates of racing at Rillito. I was a newer appointee to the committee and missed the arguments, but I have seen the letters sent by Moore and White. I don’t know why they feel the need to call into question the motives of members of the committee and why they feel the need to bash the soccer community. A couple of the arguments are laughable: White claims that existing fields are underutilized (try to find a place for a pick-up game one weekend and get back to me on that one). Even if this were true (believe me, it ain’t), it would be a better argument to make if one wasn’t asking for ten million dollars to be spent on a sport whose season consists of four weekends a year.

For some reason, Moore has taken to bashing Gary Davidson, the chairman of the Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of the County Bond committee. Davidson has been a tireless advocate of more park facilities in Pima County. Moore’s claim is that the fact that Davidson has been part of so many efforts to get more parks, this makes him part of some Chuck Huckleberry led conspiracy. Most laughably, Moore uses Davidson’s chairmanship of an earlier committee to decide the fate of Rillito as evidence of this. Of course, Moore also sat on that committee, supported Davidson for chairman and was the committee’s vice-chair. By the way, that committee unanamously recommended moving the track to the Fairgrounds

I’ve written way too much. I have to be off to the meeting, see ya.