Saturday, November 14, 2009

Time Out in the Old Pueblo

I'll be at a meeting in the Old Pueblo for part of the day at the Arizona Historical Society. For those of you who are non-Arizonans, the "Old Pueblo" refers to Tucson and honors its history as one of the oldest cities in the state.

I went to college in Tucson at the University of Arizona and became steeped in local attitudes. To many hard-core Tucson residents, Phoenix is the Great Satan, a overpopulated and polluted locale filled with land developers and growth maniacs; in other words, the same way many Phoenicians regard Los Angeles. [Phoenix and Tucson are very different politically. One wag called Tucson "the Venice Beach of Arizona politics."]

Anyway, I like Tucson. Its desert is beautiful, the climate is cooler, and I see and think of history every time I visit. Truth be told, the two cities could learn a lot from one another.

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