13. Equal privileges and immunities

Section 13. No law shall be enacted granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens or corporations.

Pima County eyes land to prevent sale to bikers

Dec. 13, 2010 07:13 AM

Associated Press

TUCSON - Pima County's board of supervisors plans to discuss buying vacant south Tucson property both for a community garden and to keep the Hell's Angels from buying the property.

The Arizona Daily Star says the board will discuss the possible purchase Tuesday. The land would cost about $220,000.

Supervisor Ramon Valadez, whose district covers South Tucson, says he understands the property's owner called to let officials know the biker club wanted to buy it.

He says he doesn't expect much opposition to the proposal for the county to acquire the land.

He says it's easy to argue that something that could have been a blight can be turned into an asset.

The board would use some remaining neighborhood reinvestment money authorized under a 2004 bond ordinance to buy the property.

Source

Pima may buy site for food garden, and to thwart biker group

Rhonda Bodfield Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Monday, December 13, 2010 12:00 am

The Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday at 130 W. Congress St.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will discuss buying a piece of property in South Tucson for roughly $220,000 to install a farmer's market and future community garden.

But the primary goal, officials say, is to make sure the Hells Angels don't get the property first.

Supervisors would tap some remaining neighborhood reinvestment money authorized under the 2004 bond ordinance to buy the property at 2201 S. Fourth Ave., formerly the site of Lily's Cocina restaurant, which closed earlier this year despite being renowned for its good soup.

Adriana Cohen, a 43-year-old homemaker who lives in her own home about three blocks from the property, said she hopes the deal will spell another place to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables in an area that doesn't have enough nearby grocery stores and that right now has no community garden. And, she said, it would provide certainty, instead of neighbors having to fear it would become a bar or a vacant haven for drug dealers.

The community, which is 81 percent Hispanic, has some challenging demographics. Some 34 percent of household incomes fall below $10,000, while 67 percent of housing units are renter-occupied.

Advocates of the deal on the board say they want to make sure it isn't bought by an organization that South Tucson's proposal states is "known for worldwide criminal activity."

The proposal, accompanied by petitions with signatures of some 60 residents, continues, "The impact of not purchasing this property and surrendering the sale to the entity described above would result in economic death to a thriving Mexican dining destination."

Supervisor Ramón Valadez, whose district covers South Tucson, said it was his understanding that the owner of the parcel called to let officials know that the biker club wanted to buy the property, which is surrounded by seven-foot walls and has a solid steel sliding door for an entrance.

Valadez said he doesn't expect much opposition to the proposal from colleagues this week. "Once people know what the alternative is, it's an easy argument to talk about turning something into an asset that could have been a blight."

His Democratic colleague, Supervisor Richard Elías, said the idea of the organization is a "very scary thought" given reports of drug use and violence against women. "My guess is they're looking for areas where they can get a toehold," he said. "The two options are really an antithesis of one another. One is about the destruction of a community, and the other is about nurturing the community."

Republican Supervisor Ray Carroll said he was still studying the issue and planned to drive by the parcel over the weekend. If the reports are accurate, he said, "I think those are not the kind of neighbors you're going to want to have in the commercial sector of a community that's been blighted over the years."

Brian Flagg of the Casa Maria soup kitchen said that of the roughly 500 to 600 lunches his organization serves every day, many of the meals go to people from South Tucson.

He's hopeful the project would help serve the nutritional needs of more families, especially if families could learn to grow their own food. "One way poor people are kept down is they don't have access to good, organic produce as do people in more affluent neighborhoods," he said. "This will work to strengthen the self-sufficiency of families."

A Hells Angels leader set up a retail shop in March 1999 in a Tucson downtown storefront, selling caps, bandannas and other biker merchandise. Months later, law enforcement officers seized a weapons cache.

An inquiry to the Hells Angels regarding its intention with the property was not answered.

Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at rbodfield@azstarnet.com or 573-4243.