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This month, this past February 5th, marks the 5th Anniversary of the LOVE Blog. In five years we've made nearly 1,700 posting, received ten's of thousands of comments, and had hundreds of thousands of visits. We birthed the blog from "The Oro Valley Watchdog." This was an online publication created by Phil Richardson, who, by the way, was our first commenter.
The LOVE Blog furthered Phil's efforts. We added the feature of blogging, where you, the reader, could comment on our postings. Even five years ago, blogging was not the "norm". We were at the forefront of the technology. You embraced it.
During the past five years, we have commented on every major issue Oro Valley has faced. We started with what Art defined as the "Outrageous Giveaway". In fact, that was the subject of our first post.
The "Outrageous Giveaway" is an agreement between the Town and a Developer where the town gave away half of Oro Valley's sales tax revenues to the Developer for 20 years in return for having an upscale shopping center. The Developer, Vestar, had mailed thousands of glossy, expensive postcards (like Steve
Solomon's expensive postcards) which purported benefits that turned out to be lies (like Steve
Solomon's expensive postcards). Voters, giddy with the prospect of a beautiful upscale center and a movie theatre, approved the agreement. Instead of LaEncantada, however, the voters got the Foothills Mall! Today, the Oro Valley Marketplace has such upscale stores as Wal-Mart, the haute cuisine of an In 'N Out Burger, a Petco, a Famous Footwear, and a host of other middle of the road, see them anywhere restaurants and stores. Oro Valley will be living with this agreement until 2026!
What is striking about Art's sharp and continuing analysis of the "Outrageous Giveaway" was that Art was dead-on. He was never wrong. He saw the Marketplace for what it was, he told it like it is, and he was right.
Since that time we have fought many battles.
We warned that the Utility Tax would be just another permanent revenue building measure when it was approved by a previous council with the promise that the tax would "sunset". It did not "sunset." Instead, this Council's gang of five, used it as a means of doubling your utility taxes. We led the fight against a property tax for the Mayor Paul "Looney Tunes" Loomis' Naranja Theme Park. We were right. The voters turned it down by an astounding majority vote. This fall, we advocated to kill apartments for the Ford Property and on 7-I in Rancho Vistoso. The residents arose against these "travesties". They won. We won.
That's our tradition. You may not like what we say, but you will find that what we say is dead-on. We simply won't back off. We are going to continue to "call it like it is".
The LOVE Blog is stronger than ever. There are LOVE Blog "reporters" everywhere. The Blog is no longer a one man show or even a two man show. The LOVE Blog has a life of its own. It is your blog! So this is your anniversary too!
Happy Anniversary to all!
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