Dennis Ottley has written a letter to The Explorer finding fault with the grassroots group Oro Valley First. He says that they should be offering suggestions on who should be in the Oro Valley Marketplace.
We are certainly not the spokesperson for the group. Salette Latas does an outstanding job in that capacity. However, I find it very easy to point out to my friend Dennis, that he totally misses the point. Oro Valley First definitely understands that, for the most part, the voters of Oro Valley feel that David Malin and Vestar intentionally mislead us in believing we were to get a "unique, upscale" shopping mall.
We all understand that Nordstrom will not come here due to demographics---and why the previous Oro Valley Council spent $50,000 to have an outside consultant tell us that, is another example of wasting our tax dollars.
The point is this; Who amongst us believes it is worth giving Vestar $23.2 million of our revenue to bring in a Wal-Mart, a store that will cannibalize a major portion of its sales from our existing retailers?
Perhaps that is why a handful of volunteers have been successful in getting thousands of residents to sign a pledge stating they will not shop in the Oro Valley Marketplace if and when Wal-Mart shows up.
And, by the way, Dennis, Oro Valley First has in fact offered to meet with Malin and Vestar to discuss alternate retailers. Sadly, without any help whatsoever by Mayor Loomis----whose help was solicited, this meeting has not yet taken place.
2 comments:
It seems that some people want their name published and like to find fault--without knowing the facts :)
Yes, the people who make negative comments and false accusations about OV1st have no idea how much work we have done. They think we just go around collecting signatures. They do not know about the untold hours of research we've done, the letters and phone calls we've made, the contacts we've made with the Town Council, the Town Attorney, the Attorney General, the questions we've asked, the legal issues we've raised, etc.
For example, they don't know that OV1st looked into whether OV has an ordinance to prevent truckers from sleeping overnight (with their engines running all night long)in store parking lots. Turns out, they don't! So we requested that the Town Council work to pass such an ordinance before the mall opens. A council member is planning to put this on the July 18th agenda.
To all the people who would have had to endure the noise and toxic fumes from these trucks all night long...you're welcome!
Some people like to sit back in their Lazy Boy recliners and do nothing but complain and gossip about other people. Meanwhile, the other people are out there actually DOING SOMETHING!
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