Finally, the day of decision-making came to determine who would get government’s CDBG funding. Previously, the Mayor, a Republican, explained to his peers how the City had included a large portion of unsightly empty land, growing ugly tumble weeds, adjacent to El Membrillo, as part of the CDBG Grant request. Despite that there were no low-and-moderate-income people on that land, it increased the amount of money the City could ask for, and extra money for the City was a good thing! Naïvely, I thought that it was deceitful. If they could get away with that, their plan to extend the Community Center was likewise of dubious benefit to low-and-moderate-income residents.
“Typical,” said my friend Ray when I asked him if the mayor of a city could get away with that. “He is a Republican,” he responded, as if that explained it all. Both parties voted for it.
The Citizen’s Review Committee for CDBG, of which I was a part of, recommended the Barrio Proposal as we wrote it for one third of the City’s. $30,000 the first year, assuming it would take some time to get started, as part of a total $500,000 three-year plan. At first, it would take less staff and overhead to get started. Unbeknownst to us until then, the City Staff from the Community Development Department submitted their proposal for $80,000 for the first year for the same area of Barrio Viejo, and much higher for later on. In their proposal, they would do the work by using their own pre-approved contractors.
The volunteer review committee did not support the City’s proposal. We tried to convince the Council that a bunch of committed locals could do better than their professional staff.
The Council’s vote was 4 to 3 in favor of the City Staff Proposal. Three Democrats had voted in our favor, one Democrat and 3 Republicans voted in favor of the City Staff running the program. It was a unanimous vote to do work in Barrio Viejo, but not for the TBA to administer it. We lost by one vote. Had it stayed that way, many would have been denied a better future.
Kelly Rollins had submitted a proposal as well, but it received no consideration. By pure luck, during the lunch recess, I got in the elevator alone with the only female City Council member, a Democrat, who had voted for the City proposal, as she headed up to her office in the eleventh-story building. I somehow convinced her in the way up that by letting the residents do the work, it would guarantee a better selection of who was needy and better goodwill toward the council members.
After the lunch recess she brought up the issue again, which a Council Member voting from the winning side could do, and she reversed her vote. The TBA was approved for funding as per our smaller request, and as sub-recipient. Four Democrats voted for the Barrio and three Republicans voted for the staff. Our Council Member from the elevator said she was impressed by the fact that we were asking for less money and not for more. There was a lot of cheering from the audience. This was the first time in Tucson that a civilian group got money for rehab as sub-recipients and would have the power to administer their own housing rehab program.
I was not politically savvy then. Rather, I was downright politically ignorant. They do not teach politics in architectural school. I kept wondering why being in either party had anything to do with how a person would vote. It was obvious to me that everyone should vote based on the value of the ideas presented, but I was developing a negative view of Republicans.
“Did you notice, in the last vote, who voted in favor of the Barrio and who did not?” asked Ray one day.
“No. Who?” I responded.
“You are a knucklehead! The Democrats, except for the woman at first, all Democrats voted for the Barrio. The three Republicans, including the mayor, voted for the City to do the work.”
“Why was that?” I asked.
“Probably because the Republicans are more traditional. They think the City can do a better job.”
“And the Democrats?”
“They think that way because they can get more votes. To them it doesn’t matter who can do a better job.”
“But they all know that Barrio people don’t vote. What difference will it make for them?”
“They know the new people moving into the neighborhood will vote, in the meantime they look good speaking for the little guy.”
“I see!” But I didn’t.
Then he added, “The Democrats pretend to pay more attention to the poor people. The Republicans to the business people, but as you often like to say, things are seldom what they seem to be.”
His last comment was an enigma to me, but I thought I was learning the harsh realities of political life. What Ray failed to point out, and what would be of significance later, was that Republicans also care about home ownership no matter by whom.
It seemed we could count on a four to three margin in our favor from there on, so long as Democrats were the majority. However, all the Council Members did vote for monies for the Barrio, even if it was through different proposals. We were attempting to raise the economic level and participatory level of the community. Why would that goal raise any contradiction between the political parties? How naïve could I be?
What Ray didn’t tell me either, and he should have, since I wasn’t smart enough to put it together then, was that the moment the number of people moving into the neighborhood, and who voted, exceeded the very few existing residents that did vote, the Democrats’ allegiance would shift to the newcomers. However, at that point in time, I would not have believed him. Democrats were on our side.
The media had a lot of interest in the results of the vote reversal. I was interviewed by a newscaster, a young, beautiful woman who had been caught up by the excitement of the unusual vote, and as we walked out of the Council room, she had given me a hug. That unexpected hug has been one of the most pleasant experiences of my time in Tucson. During the interview, very innocently, she asked me what I did to the councilwoman in the elevator to make her change her mind. I turned red. She edited that question out.
It would take three more long years before we would see a single dime of that money. The Community Development Department would throw every possible monkey wrench into the works to prevent the release of those funds. The only two people fighting day in and day out to keep the government honest were Ellen and me. However, we had the full support of the TBA Board, and we were very busy doing other things during those three years. Projects such as a mini park, the Tool Library, the Centro Histórico, an office, an Adobero Yard thanks to the Challenge Grant from Washington D.C., a neighborhood entered into the National Register, the pool reopened, and other things of value like fiestas and events. As we’ll see soon, we were to obtain the support of the Planning Department and the Inner-city Neighborhood Coalition, which accounted for several thousand votes. Three years later, when we finally got administrative funds and were ready to hit the ground running, for one more year the City CDD staff prevented us from using any funds for nuts and bolts, only for more administration. Then, as we came back to Mayor and Council for the next year’s allocation, the staff told the Council we did not deserve the funding because for a whole year of spending administrative money we had nothing to show for it in accomplishments.
This backfired on them, we got fully funded by unanimous vote. We got there by doing our homework and keeping the Council informed of all the roadblocks we encountered from their staff, and besides, they could see that we were not sitting on our derriere waiting for others to bail us out or for Government handouts. We had kept increasing with a three-year track record of accomplishments outside of any CDBG funds with hard work and without salary. This strategy was working.
I asked Ray why the Republicans came around to our side. He said, “The Republicans favor property owners, people who work hard, and seen results.” Then he thought a little bit longer and said, “Be careful... There are those who do not like other’s success, doing well is not always to your advantage.”
Stupid answer, I thought, everyone favors people who work hard, and succeed, as we were doing, and ownership figures in the Barrio hadn’t changed, or not much, except for a few houses falling apart. I have gotten ahead of myself again, let me backtrack some. Much took place in those four years, and I still had much to learn.