I’m happy to see that Fred Ronstadt has finally found a cause he can get excited about–raising $8.5 million to build a slightly expanded shelter for Connie and Shaba, the beloved elephants at the Reid Park Zoo. At least he will have something to occupy his time once we vote him out of office in [...]

In the 1960s, dark forces of money & power converged on our historic Downtown–a 150-year-old neighborhood of homes and small businesses–and bulldozed the homes of thousands of people who had lived there for generations. What did we get there in return? TCC and La Placita, which have limped along for decades, weighed down by the [...]

Apparently, even local Republicans are afraid to admit that they are friends of the dark force behind Bush’s political ascendancy, Karl Rove. Rove came to town today to raise money for Senator Jon Kyl at a $500-a-plate lunch at the Tucson Country Club after a $2,000-per-person shindig at Jim Click’s house.
But instead of trumpeting [...]

Ward 6, that is. Did you know that two-time incumbent Fred Ronstadt never won his own city ward? And yet he’s the Ward 6 councilmember. This happened because of our 75-year-old contorted city elections process whereby only Ward 6 voters vote in the September primary, but the whole city gets to vote in the November [...]

We love the Ward 6 Weekly; a propaganda email from Fred to his constituents, funded by taxpayers, where we can try to understand what Fred really means behind the happy-friendly-vague words he types. This week’s edition has a few good examples of Fred-speak that I’ll proceed to deconstruct for your reading pleasure.
Fred is [...]

It was quite a show at the Ward 6 council office last night (3/16) for the Houghton Area Master Plan (HAMP) open house, and Fred managed to make everyone from mountain bikers to central city residents furious while trying to take four or five contrary positions at the same time.
There’s a lot to explain, [...]

This just in: Fred Ronstadt is back from a week in DC (on whose dime?) and claims in his “Ward 6 Weekly” email that he’s personally responsible for bringing home the Federal transportation bacon.
He is specifically claiming credit for a federal earmark of $75 million to be used as a match with local funds to [...]

A perfect example of how the current Ward 6 councilmember disrepects citizen input happened in early February.
Fred has been flipping & flopping back and forth on how to choose a City Manager, every since Jim Keene announced his January departure way back last fall. Should there be a caretaker Manager? Should the search be [...]