By Tommy Acosta —
Sedona, AZ So, it looks like the referendum on the Cultural Park made the ballot.
Now comes the rallying, meetings, community forums, ads, and arguments between those who support or oppose the Safe Parking concept.
There are good arguments that elected officials should be allowed to do their elected jobs and that the public should lean back and let them work.
But you can’t beat a good old-fashioned referendum that brings the final say to the citizens themselves.
That’s the bottom line, the foundation upon which democracy is built. Get over it. The council’s only job right now on this topic is to listen to the people’s will.
The fascinating question is how people will vote on this issue.
Would Sodonans prefer a new music venue over parking for the working homeless? Will opposition to any homeless facility win in the end?
Would enough citizens be motivated by compassion to vote for the facility to be put into existence?
With a reputation for being the epicenter of love, mystery, spiritualism, art, healing, meditation, and beautiful music, one might imagine most of the tree-hugging community would create a majority and support the Safe Parking concept.
But then, how many of the spirituals actually vote? Most retired homeowners would be those who are most likely to vote because they are concerned about their property values, etc.
It’s a pretty good bet that the community’s music lovers would like a venue that could draw mainstream acts. But are live-music lovers voters? Residents are so old; the acts they would want to see are all retired in Florida, if not already permanently deceased.
The greatest chance of success for stopping the Safe Parking concept would be for opponents to play the fear factor to the hilt, promulgate images of homeless drug addicts stealing hubcaps, and entice our youth with Tylenol, with the thought of a class-act concert venue as the cherry on top.
For supporters, playing on the voters’ heartstrings would be the best way. Paint pictures of shivering homeless workers with their kids huddled under torn blankets, parked in lonely parking lots on the edge of town, after fighting Javelinas over tipped-over garbage cans of leftovers.
We can be sure there will be a lot of press on this one, even more juice than the council election itself.
Forget about traffic, ATVs, STRs, unbridled growth, destination marketing, and all the other boring issues.
Safe Parking is the issue, the third rail of Sedona politics, which the candidates will have to navigate. Here is where the political rubber meets the road.
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15 Comments
Safe Parking is funny. It will be anything but safe. Reminds me of “affordable health care act” and “patriot act” health care is far from affordable and patriot act is not patriotic. Vote No on parking lot. It will be a mess. Will cause nothing but trouble. Every restaurant I have gone into the last 4 months is fully staffed, jeep companies, and all other tourism are thriving. Hotels are full. One more thing, if you retired in Sedona, stop trying to change it, it’s not a sleepy retirement comunity. If you don’t like the tourists and tourism activities, move to a gated gold course in pheonix or palm springs. Bring on the music and more things for locals to do.
You have zero idea what Patriotism truly is.
Fight? You mean Democracy at work? Only thing that is silly is the vote itself. Council was hired, by the people, to make choices. So they chose. And when it passes by popular vote, the same old losers will bitch moan and complain…You know, those after over 30 years still complain about Sedona being a city!
Anything the government focuses on and throws money at you get more of. The war on poverty, the war on drugs, now a war on homelessness. Government programs NEVER decrease, and are NEVER short term.
On a more focused level, it having workers live in their cars presents a bad image of Sedona.
I can see the new Chamber of Commerce Ad now ” Come to Sedona and see the workers living in their cars. ”
Is that what you want Sedona to be known for?
So where do you propose the city house these folks temporarily while permanent housing is being built where the lynch mob angry about our workers being provided a safe place to park (vs. parking out in BFE where anything can happen to them) won’t lose their minds more than they already have?
Im sorry, why would the City house anybody at all who comes to Sedona to work? Are suggesting that only retired people should pay for their own housing and working people must become the city’s problem?
Uh they’re NOT housing them, rather they are trying too but as of now are only preposing temporary safe parking NOT housing. Why because there is zero affordable housing available anywhere at this time that Sedona’s un-housed workers can afford even working 2-3 full time jobs.
So I guess they should just
mosey on to another town somewhere to work and leave Sedona employeeless and stores forced to shutter. That makes so much sense-NOT!
And all just to one day maybe possibly have a low rate artist play the Cultural Center as a lane assed excuse to NOT help our many un-housed workers. Brilliant!!
Still not hearing any logical counter argument as to where Sedona business owners will get workers who already have housing available to them. Why because there isn’t anyone willing to work here who are not already doing so and it does NOT change the fact that zero affordable housing will still remain unavailable to workers regardless of where an employee may come from. So the problem will persist unless the City Government at least attempts to make life a little more humane for its un-housed workforce until a permanent affordable housing solution can be achieved which will likely be never the way folks have selfishly and hatefully reacted to the Safe Parking Plan.
Better a City and City Government who take measures to protect their work force than one that lets them struggle and fend for themselves thus reducing the likelihood they will stay on the job and increasing the likelihood of Sedona businesses shuttering their doors permanently.
Without a workforce you won’t have the choice of which kind of city you want to see because there’ll be no city to see just another abandoned small town.
The Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado brings in about $40 million a year for the city of Denver. If properly managed, Cultural Park 2.0 could achieve a similar sized revenue stream, plus a significant increase in annual revenue for all local businesses that serve the public. This has the potential to all but eradicate homelessness in Sedona, enabling local businesses to pay a “living wage” and ensure their employees the means for the basics of healthy living, starting with a roof over their heads, not a parking lot! A fund could also be created from a percentage of the revenue stream from Cultural Park events – to provide year-round affordable housing for the less fortunate, getting them out of their cars and into local “hostil-like” facilities as a worse case living scenario for local workers that find themselves homeless. The Cultural Park itself has the potential to solve the current problem of affordable housing in a far more humane way. Development should be underway now, to hasten the solutions it can bring. Turning the Cultural Park into a Parking Lot for the homeless, or into a new neighborhood of high end housing does nothing to create solutions. The City Council’s current frothing-at-the-mouth bent to gather plans from “developers” to turn this land into another neighborhood demonstrates local capitalism at its worst and does nothing to solve the homeless issue in the long run. I was completely disgusted to read this response of the city council – immediately after the referendum on parking temporarily tied their hands. It’s as if they are determined to ignore the will of the people and to permanently erase the Cultural Park from ever becoming the asset it can be to our community, both culturally and financially. Revitalizing the Cultural Park as a major concert venue in the Southwest is the humane solution itself, to our current homelessness issue, not turning it into a parking lot or a high end neighborhood. For this reason, I stand on my claim that the Mayor and the City Council are determined to “Kill The Golden Goose and eat it”, rather than having the foresight to use its financial potential (Golden eggs) to develop humane solutions and eradicate homelessness permanently.
Uh, Denver is a major city and therefore can and does generate big money. Sedona wouldn’t even compare to Greeley CO so far as the revenue generated by local businesses. Who will come play the Sedona Amphitheater that isn’t already playing at locals uptown? Sedona would need to grow in residency and tourism some 30 fold before it could ever realistically be considered a place big ticket shows would book on a regular basis. Meanwhile why not provide some support to those who support our community the most?
Again, like statistically ALL the reporting on the ballot referendum, the reporting confuses the intent of the vote. It’s to decide that the zoning should or should not change to support the Safe Place To Park program. THE VOTE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A MUSIC VENUE, OR ANY USE OF THE PARK BESIDES FOR THE SPTP PROGRAM. It also has nothing to do whether the city runs the SPTP program. The city could start this program tomorrow at an alternate location.
I believe the people who live in Sedona are compassionate. This is what the supporters of the homeless parking plan are counting on. BUT this plan is anything but compassionate. Instead create a compassionate plan. Find these 30+ hour Sedona workers Verde Valley housing where they can sleep in real beds, with indoor toilets and a kitchen and when necessary supplementing the housing cost for a while.
Sleeping in a car is not healthy. Moreover this program makes the car sleeping situation more unhealthy than it is now. For example, this program prohibits the car people from keeping the engine going to heat or cool the car when necessary to avoid freezing or heat exhaustion UNLESS the car person stays awake. Then the next day no matter how the driver feels he/she must drive out into the 89A traffic before 8 AM. That is an accident waiting to happen. And then where does the driver go? To work perhaps but only if you have work to go to at 8 AM, otherwise he/she has all of the rest of the day until 4 PM to illegally park. Remember that Arizona, which is footing most of the bill, has required the program to not only be open to those with jobs but also to all retired and disabled people and they do not often have jobs..
More. At night elderly people living in cars.often have to go to the bathroom and likely may not be able to make it to the outdoor toilets as they will not be close to most cars. What does this do to the car parking grounds? The city also says these people may cook on the land nearby but no cooking facilities or sinks to clean dishes and pots are provided. Where do the pots etc. get washed – the only place available is the small sinks in the toilets and this will create a mess. Etc. etc.
The plan is not a good solution and it is the start of more problems.
It’s not the government’s job to house people. If the people they are talking about cannot afford to live in Sedona there are other places they can live that are less expensive and they can drive into town for their jobs. This is how it works most everywhere in the country where people have common sense. This idea is nonsensical and far left socialist thinking that will only lead to poor results.
Guess you’re gonna forfeit your far left socialist social security, Medicare and other socialist benefits you get then huh? A good government takes care of its people to include providing housing when needed. There is NO affordable housing anywhere so sending our un-house workforce to live in another town would only benefit the other town.
So who’s going to stock, make, serve, sell you your food in Sedona if they all go away? You think adding distance to their barely affordable fuel for the commute to Sedona to serve you is gonna work? Get real!
BTW Hitler claimed to be a Socialist until he met Mussolini who swayed him rapidly into fascism! True Socialism does not and has not ever existed due to mankind’s inherent greed! But if you like Fascism you’re in luck because it’s coming to a world near you thanks to the Orange Insurrectionist! And if you think that’s a good thing you’re in for a rude awakening when it does happen.
How would the city do more than what they prepose when what is proposed being the bare minimum is getting bombarded with complaints and roadblocks created by Sedona residents who depend upon the services these folks provide them without giving a damn for their well being in the first place?
I keep seeing complaints about the safe parking space not being enough. Imagine if the City said they were going straight to brick and mortar accommodations for them prior to attempting the safe lot? There’d be lynch mobs at City Hall within minutes if they had done so. There practically is now!
Baby steps!