Guest View-Art Segal: A View of Oro Valley From A Distance

Art Segal was a LOVE Cofounder. He worked tirelessly on LOVE from 2007 until 2016.  LOVE is the product of many people. Not just me, the publisher. I want to recognize and thank them all.  LOVE really is: “Of the people, by the people, and for the people.

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Hi Everybody,

Hopefully, there are still some Oro Valley folks that may remember me. I'm Art Segal, a former resident who, along with my wife Martha, left our beautiful home in La Reserve to relocate to SW Florida in 2016. Time seems to go by so quickly, and we have vivid recollections of moving into our new home in Oro Valley in 1993. At the time, Oro Valley's population was approximately 14,000.

After 23 years of mostly good times, in July of 2016, we decided to leave our friends and acquaintances and the home we really loved. Some may ask, "if you loved the home and area so much, why would you leave?" That's certainly a fair question, and l'll try to answer it truthfully, and straight forward. It had nothing to do with the glorious weather, or the fact that the population grew to be in excess of 44,000.

What made us leave was seeing from a close up view what was happening to our community. I wasn't a "political person," but as a result of the local politics in Oro Valley, back around 2007 (if my memory is accurate), Richard Furash and I started a blog we called "The LOVE BLOG"-----an acronym for "Let Oro Valley Excel." Our sole purpose was to give a voice to the people of Oro Valley, as---- our opinion, the big developers and the elites were running the town----and getting away with it. We tried----mostly unsuccessfully to get candidates that were "people first" candidates elected as mayor and council members. Unfortunately, the big money financially supported "their" candidates, and for the most part, due to many uninformed folks that were apathetic, things kept getting worse.

Some of the examples that made our decision to leave were the subsidies given to the big developer out of Phoenix, Vestar to develop the prime land on the corner of Oracle Road and Tangerine. We understand that once the subsidies ended after 10 years Vestar sold the property that was to be a "unique and upscale" shopping center, to another big developer. The site hardly became what was promised, and what it will become next----I don't know. Another example of the big developers "running the show"-- that was the final negative for our community and for me, was the purchase by the then mayor and council of the El Conquistador golf courses and other amenities. I can't tell you how much that decision cost the Oro Valley tax payers, but it was excessive.

So, that's a relatively short history of why we no longer are a resident of such a beautiful location. Now, to the main point. I don't how many of the folks living in Oro Valley appreciate the time and effort that Richard Furash has given to the community for so many years. While I tried my best, but ultimately gave up, Dick has persevered and for the most part, has been a singular voice of reason in his attempt to Let Oro Valley Excel.

 There's still much to accomplish, but hopefully, enough Oro Valley residents will elect only those candidates that are for the people. Thank you Richard for your yeoman effort, that should make you very proud.

My best to you, your family and the residents of Oro Valley.

Art Segal

Guest View-Art Segal: Its Deja Vu All Over Again

A number of years ago, before many of our citizens made Oro Valley their home, a handful of residents initiated a group, Stop Oro Valley Outrageous Giveaways---(SOVOG). The group came about to fight the then majority council who determined it was in our best interests to offer three developers approximately $42 million dollars in our future sales tax revenue to develop three parcels in Oro Valley.

The most egregious of these “giveaways” went to Vestar, a Phoenix based developer who assured the residents they would bring us an “upscale, unique” shopping mall on the land that subsequently became The Oro Valley Marketplace. For those of you that were not living here at the time, you might wonder, “What am I missing? There’s no “unique, upscale” shopping mall there. All I see is a Walmart and other big box stores!”

Well---what happened was this. The people who bought into the Vestar sales pitch, got totally snookered. The end result is, we gave (still giving) Vestar something like $23 million dollars of our sales tax revenue.

SOVOG fought this giveaway as best we could, and if memory serves, after six court appearances, we finally achieved our goal of overriding 4 council members (two of whom were defeated in the next election, one retired, and one got defeated in a future election), and were able to get the issue to the voters.

Sadly, we couldn’t compete with Vestar’s advertising blitz, and the result was the aforementioned Marketplace.

So much for history. That brings us to where we are today. Once again, a majority of 4 council members have bought into a developers sales pitch and determined it is in our best interests to buy 45 holes of old golf courses, in the need of much repair and upkeep, not to mention a Country Club facility that is decades old, and hardly worth the millions of dollars necessary to bring it “up to snuff.”

Quoting Yogi Berra, the ex New York Yankee Hall of Famer: “It’s deja vu all over again.”

Once again, the people of Oro Valley find themselves in the unenviable position of being forced to do something that 4 people believe is in our best interests. Once again, it’s a developer with deep pockets that has supported the election of those council members with the credo; “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours".

There’s only one difference between then and now. Then, it took an election or two to dump those that thought they could get away with their egregious actions. This time, hopefully, we the people will “take the bull by the horns,” and initiate a recall petition to rid ourselves of these four.

For the record, we’re talking about Mayor Hiremath and Council Members Hornat, Snider and Waters. Oro Valley will be a better place the quicker these four can do no more damage.

To use another cliche: “Strike While The Iron Is Hot.” Initiate a recall petition. Get the required signatures. Get four new candidates that will work for us, not the Special Interests, and watch as we Let Oro Valley Excel!
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Art Segal is a long time resident of Oro Valley. He is also the cofounder of Let Oro Valley Excel. Art has worked tirelessly for our community for many years. We always welcome his comments and his wisdom. Click here to read about LOVE, Art, Freedom of Speech, Oro Valley, and the Goldwater Institute.