The following is an unedited email from a LOVE reader who would rather not have his name published. His name is not important. The issue he addresses----Vice Mayor Dankwerth, is what's important.
We hope you'll take the time to read his thoughts and let us know what you think.
Art
******************************************************************************
Please don't attribute any of the following to me, but you should place Dankwerth's "expert" testimony as a mental health professional ["feet planted firmly on the ground"] against past comments like:Dankwerth played on her experience as a mental health professional by joking that new shopping opportunities would raise the moods of women in OroValley.As we all know, she said; "happy women create a happy home." [this statment is extraordinarily offensive and ignorant.]
Editors Note-- Dankwerth stated: "Realistically, anyone who thinks that we can exist without (a property tax) doesn't have his feet planted firmly on the ground." (Explorer article April 18, 2007)
"As we all know, happy women create a happy home." Alluding to the Vestar shopping experience.(Explorer article March 28, 2007)
Vestar promised me that I would never have to pay property taxes to Oro Valley if the deal went through. I'm sure you can find this stated in their promo literature. Dankwerth was elected on a self-defined anti-big box platform:Desirable businesses would include high end clothing stores, boutiques, home decorator and accessory shops, sports equipment outfitters, fine dining, art galleries and booksellers. With the continued influx of retirees, and the development of higher-end housing in neighboring communities as well as in Oro Valley, we are in an ideal "destination shopping" location, allowing us to derive tax revenues from a population other than Oro Valley residents.
Businesses will naturally "come to the money" - but we have to lure them with attractive, unique, and quality "village-type" locations. Our low crime rate and high per capita income, coupled with insistence on tasteful building complimenting our environment and the ever broadening "circle of opportunity" will attract stable, well-funded enterprises which look to long term gains rather than a "quick fix." Undesirable businesses would include additional fast food eateries, car washes, big-box stores and more drug stores. We have enough such establishments to meet our needs - more of the same will not attract the type of buyer we wish to target.
So let's try to connect some dots:
1. Dankwerth vows to oppose big boxes.
2. Vestar promises no property taxes.
3. Dankwerth hails the new Wal-Mart as a boon to mental health.
4. Dankwerth implies that anyone who doesn't believe in property taxes is crazy.
What a tangle! How can Dankwerth both support Vestar - who vowed no property taxes - and support property taxes. By Dankwerth 's learned testimony, Vestar - who says they don't believe in property taxes, "does not have their feet planted firmly on the ground." But they have their grubby greedy hands planted firmly in our pockets and their footings for the terrible development planted firmly in the soil at the corner of Tangerine and Oracle.
Full disclosure: When I served on the ****(Editor's Note: To protect the writer's anonymity , we eliminated the committee he served on) I supported, and still do, property taxes. That's not the issue, hypocrisy is.
And don't even get me started on that scum Weir!
