I’ve lived in Tucson for more than 30 years and I have mourned the steady erosion of social cohesion, the death of the village that raises the child (HCN, 2/20/12, “Extreme Arizona”). Whether due to a transient population only invested in selfish seasonal pleasure, or to rugged land and a challenging climate, to dry air or political hot air, the end is the same: fragmentation ripe for exploitation. The fragmented social climate mirrors the fractured land, the fruits of divide-and-conquer politics fueled by greed. Overdevelopment is killing Tucson physically and socially.
If any good will come from the dead and wounded, it is recognition of the problem. You can’t really fix a problem until you know what it is. So I ask readers to view this sorry portrait of Arizona as a warning for other Western states and cities.
Deb Dedon
Tucson, Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Falling to pieces.
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