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Editorial: Forward thinking brings progress at the polls

Yesterday, Tucson voters made the right choices on the ballot's most important issues.

Bob Walkup won with a commanding lead, overcoming his Democratic opposition Molly McKasson and Libertarian Ed Kahn. However, this is nothing to celebrate. Walkup was, as always, the lesser of three evils. Hopefully, Walkup will prove to be the effective administrator that he has shown himself to be in the past. In any case, he will almost certainly prove superior to McKasson, who had in the past, and almost certainly would in the future, alienate the City Council in her drive to pursue a liberal agenda.

In what was the only major misstep of election day, Proposition 100 passed. City Council members will enjoy increased pay, and it seems that voters were more swayed by the arguments for raising the pay of their city representatives than the arguments against. It will be interesting to see if the increase in pay will have the desired effect of attracting more capable, confident, charismatic leaders to our local posts. More likely, however, the current incumbents will remain in office; but we can always hope.

Thankfully, reason prevailed over Bob Beaudry, and Proposition 200 was shot down. While it's never good that Jim Click should come out as the victor in any sort of political battle, at least this time he was on the right side. Beaudry and his cohorts spent thousands of dollars on absurd political commercials, pointing out that the mixed water that Tucson utilities intend to deliver has roughly the same chlorine content as pool water. What they failed to point out, however, is that this chlorine content is almost identical to that found in our current well water.

Voters erred on the side of caution by ensuring that Tucson will have a water supply, regardless of how it tastes. Perhaps the 90-degree November weather reminded Tucsonans that we do live in a desert, and we need to take full advantage of any water that we can get.

Proposition 400 passed, giving Flandrau Planetarium a new home and hopefully restoring some semblance of economic stability into what has been, up to now, a wasteland. Today, the land that will be the home of the Rio Nuevo complex is the site of a bus depot. In the next few years, it will be transformed into a cultural center designed to remind us of our past while allowing us to look toward the future.

Plans call for the complex to be built on what is the birthplace of Tucson. Thousands of years ago, native American settlers built their first settlements in the Tucson valley in the shadow of "A" Mountain. After the remains of their buildings had fallen into dust, Spanish missions were built on the same site.

Architecture of the site will include references to all of these previous visitors into the valley, but will reflect the diversity and forward thinking of modern Tucson.

Overall, that sentiment seemed to be what drove Tucsonans at the polls yesterday. With luck, that will be what continues to drive us into the new millennium.