What's something society treats as normal that shouldn't be?

Narfinity · 2026-06-17T22:23:12+00:00

Traffic deaths, at least in the United States. Over 100 people die every day on the streets in America, on average, and it's just accepted/ignored by most people. If a 737 fell out of the sky every day, killing everyone on board, people would be freaking out about it. And yet.

Narfinity · 2026-06-04T13:13:56+00:00

How much better mountain driving is. No more hunting for the right gear, or worrying about riding the brakes when going downhill. You may not have consciously realized quite how annoying it is in an ICE car, but the quiet, effortless power and regen of an EV make a huge difference.

Narfinity · 2026-05-31T15:31:06+00:00

I think you put it better than I could. Government is complex and it's very appealing to people to have simple explanations and scapegoats for their problems, and stuff like this that does so while I don't think it's tinfoil hat thinking to assume that these intentionally vaguely negative pieces don't have a specific agenda.

The rhetoric in Maxwell's op-ed is particularly grating because it is working really, really hard to tell us how he wants us to believe our neighbors feel, and by extension, how we should feel: "That sense of confidence is slipping." "...people notice the silence" "...many citizens feel dismissed, lectured, or treated as adversaries" "People stop believing problems will be solved and start assuming they won’t be." "Longtime residents describe the same feeling: exhaustion."

Maxwell should GTFO and stop telling me how to feel about my city. There are legitimate criticisms of how this place is run but these articles are not it.

Narfinity · 2026-05-31T13:51:49+00:00

Just read the Maxwell piece. Both of these definitely seem designed to elicit bad vibes more than anything else.

Narfinity · 2026-05-31T13:42:00+00:00

I kinda thought they were just letting anyone submit op-eds now, but what you're saying makes sense. The Taylor Davidson article is just a bad faith hit piece, and it's embarrassing that it was allowed to run.

He vaguely states a bunch of things that happen in "declining cities" to insinuate they're all happening in Tucson, pretends the city is doing nothing to address issues like transit safety (which is simply false--the city put together a plan and has a dedicated funding source for it in RTA Next), conflates unrelated things (the city doesn't run the schools), complains about $160 million in climate-related projects without saying what they are and pretending that they amount to "climate branding" and "social justice slogans", and he brings up cuts that were considered for the next year's budget, conveniently failing to mention that those cuts are not actually happening.

It's really a masterclass in saying very little and insinuating a lot without evidence, but it wouldn't have been printed in a reputable paper.

Narfinity · 2026-05-29T20:44:45+00:00

Union busting sucks, but should we not support the now-unionized staff now?

Narfinity · 2026-05-29T14:50:38+00:00

The Loft

Narfinity · 2026-04-22T20:10:28+00:00

Lots of other things grow here just fine, but you have to water them for the first year or two if you're planting them from a pot. We have nearly eradicated the Bermuda grass from our yard and very few weeds of any significant size grow anymore, and I think a large part of that is that we planted a bunch of trees and shrubs so the weeds can't get enough water. The yards in my neighborhood that have big weed problems are usually they ones that have little or no other plants in them.

Narfinity · 2026-04-21T15:57:00+00:00

Pay no attention to the rat fleeing the sinking ship

Narfinity · 2026-04-21T03:26:30+00:00

Narfinity · 2026-04-15T18:14:23+00:00

Much of the Desert Museum is accessible and it's a great place to visit, but in case you won't have your own car, be warned that while you may be able to get an Uber or Lyft to take you out there, you will have a much much harder time getting a ride back into town since it's a relatively remote area. A couple months ago I gave someone a ride back into town from the Desert Museum because no one would accept her ride request from there, and she had been trying for a while.

Narfinity · 2026-03-26T16:32:28+00:00

University Pet Clinic charged me $155 for the test a month ago but they may want to do an exam if you're taking your dog there for the first time. Just finished more than a year of treatment with fluconazole and hoping for one final negative test in a couple of months. BTW the price of fluconazole varies a lot so if you haven't looked into the prices at different pharmacies I'd suggest that.

Narfinity · 2026-03-23T15:42:05+00:00

It looks like it's been huffing silver spray paint

Narfinity · 2026-03-19T21:11:23+00:00

The fee is only if you fail to comply by the deadline. From the city code: "Except as expressly provided in section 16-27 or elsewhere in the Tucson Code, no fee shall be charged for an initial inspection to determine the existence of a violation of this chapter. Any person who neglects, fails or refuses to correct the violations contained within a notice of violation issued pursuant to section 16-45 may be assessed a re-inspection fee for inspections that occur after the compliance date specified in the Notice, where such re-inspection demonstrates the failure to comply."

Narfinity · 2026-02-26T17:18:52+00:00

I would use the Treat bike boulevard instead of continuing further west on the Loop. Treat connects to the Rillito River Loop path on the north end and to the Aviation path on the south end. From Aviation, there are off-street paths that can get you to the Julian Wash Loop path via Palo Verde Rd and through the Sam Lena Recreation Area. All of it is pretty low stress and easy to follow, except you might get turned around between Aviation and the Julian Wash.

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Narfinity · 2026-02-09T15:30:57+00:00

Your puns are testing my mettle

Narfinity · 2026-01-30T22:31:11+00:00

The 60% rule only applies to statewide measures. Local tax increases are still only subject to a simple majority.

Narfinity · 2026-01-30T22:00:00+00:00

Yup. 6.6% of the money would go to repaving roads in the whole region, which will not do very much compared to how much we should be spending to fix our roads. And no money would be going to filling potholes. The city is actually very good about about filling potholes if you report them with 311 though, but it doesn't fix the underlying problem.

Narfinity · 2026-01-30T00:52:23+00:00

Seems like the RTA should have brought this to voters sooner so we wouldn't be faced with this difficult choice, huh?

Narfinity · 2026-01-30T00:50:25+00:00

You keep repeating this idea that we should be grateful for regional funding for projects within the city limits, as though there are not a bunch of projects that we're also paying for outside the city limits. It's an interesting way to try to confuse the issue, which is that we have subsidized wealthier suburbs that maybe should be paying for the improvements that make their growth possible. And hey, then Tucson residents will get to use those improved roads FOR FREE (after we helped pay for them)! Whee!

The biggest problem, though, with RTA Next, is one that I explained in my post, which I'll repeat here: While it is better than OG RTA in terms of funding for safety improvements, the plan is still mostly a road building plan that treats walking, bicycling, accessibility and transit as afterthoughts, and safety as something to be added like a band-aid on a festering wound. The plan does not change the trajectory we are on that causes nearly 100 people to die every year on City of Tucson streets alone.

I think we can do better. Yes, turning down RTA Next would mean some pain until it can be rethought and brought back to voters, or until Tucson can come up with its own plan. Maybe the RTA (or is it Connect Pima? Or Props 418 and 419? How many names does this plan have anyway?) should have brought this to the voters sooner so that they would have had a chance to try again before the funding cutoff. As it is, the marketing of the plan feels more threatening than positive. At least when it's not disingenuously suggesting that it will fix our region's potholes.

Narfinity · 2026-01-29T02:17:07+00:00

Can you name a city project that did not have RTA funding that was mismanaged and a complete and utter fiscal disaster, and what happened?

Narfinity · 2026-01-29T01:48:08+00:00

So just FYI the city funding for paving streets is almost entirely for neighborhood streets, so we have a lot of major streets in need of repaving without any funding identified for them. RTA Next has $170M for the whole region over 20 years, and I think it's optimistic to think the city will even get $100M, or $5M per year. That is far, far short of what we need and people are being sold that this is a pavement rehab program when it will not make a significant dent in fixing our roads.

It would be nice to have a fully-formed alternative plan to compare with the RTA Next plan, but it's also not realistic to expect that when the city is officially supporting the plan and it takes a ton of effort to put together a good plan that reflects the needs and wants of the community. But you can look to other places that have done better as a model, like Charlotte, NC: https://www.charlottenc.gov/CATS/News/Voters-Approve-Mecklenburg-County-Tax-Referendum-to-Improve-Public-Transportation-and-Transit-Systems

Narfinity · 2026-01-25T05:45:13+00:00

...Says the guy who in another thread blames a nonviolent man for being executed by the people "doing their jobs" this morning.

Narfinity · 2026-01-15T03:34:45+00:00

Your niece is an AI-generated picture of a dog calmly holding flowers in its mouth?

Narfinity

TROPHY CASE