By Sergio Arellano-Oros
For many Tucsonans the lack of high paying, quality employment or owning your own business is simply an impossible dream these days. Still, even in Tucson, the sixth poorest metropolitan area in the country, there are those who legally grab the fleeting opportunities when they can…. for however long they can.
All they expect is to be able do business in peace and safety. After all, they paid their dues, and fees, and followed all the rules.
There is a slight problem however; despite having jumped through the City of Tucson’s bureaucratic hoops, there is little peace or safety provided to the entrepreneur by the City.
During the same week that the Tucson Police Chief announced that he was considering hiring guards for the City’s part-time mayor, Jonathan Rothschild, Jovinia, an optimistic and opportunistic small business owner was being robbed and the Tucson Police couldn’t be found.
When her daughter, a young soccer player, needed more medical care than was covered by insurance seven years ago, Jovinia went into action. Valentine’s Day was just around the corner and Jovinia knew that the same love she felt for her daughter drove others to spend outrageous sums of money on stuffed bears, stuffed hearts, and other kitschy stuff in the days leading to the Hallmark holiday.
She marched herself down to the City of Tucson offices and applied for a two day Event Permit, talked a man into letting her set up her awning and tables in his large parking lot facing South 12th, and proceeded to make enough money to pay for her daughter’s medical bills.
Now, every January, Jovinia makes the same journey and dutifully pays her City of Tucson fees. Those daily fees, by the way, are more than half of what a year round full time business owner pays. She doesn’t mind. She obeys the laws even when the laws aren’t always completely equitable.
Jovinia eventually earned enough money over the years to cover the fees and legal expenses of becoming a citizen, after paying the cost of doing business; bows, ribbons, tape, shipping, City fees, and inventory.
The legal immigrant mother from Mexico was working on the early evening of February 13, when two young thugs ran up to her “store” and stole two large stuffed bears. They took off running with her expensive and hard earned inventory. Her husband and sister pursued the robbers, who ran in opposite directions. In the meantime a call was placed to the police.
Jovinia’s husband finally caught up with one thug and wrestled the bear away from him only to be threatened with a rock by the other young thug. He knew there was little to do but let them flee.
He picked up the now damaged bear and headed back to the “store.” After it became apparent that they would have to sit and wait for the police all night, they finally called to cancel the report. Jovinia chalked the lost bears up to another cost of doing business in Tucson.
The most confusing aspect of the lack of protection is the fact that immediately prior to Valentine’s Day, many legally licensed small “stores” pop up along South 12th; one every few blocks or so. It seems to many in the area that if they are going to pay the fees, there should be some police presence in the area.
Instead the only presence in the area from anyone associated with the City of Tucson are fee collectors who travel down the street making sure that the vendors have paid their fees.
One man, who has had a “store” on the corner of 12th and Valencia, was contacted by the City’s collectors on Valentine’s Day. He has set up “shop” for nearly seven years and since his “shop” is on his friend’s private property did not realize that he had to pay a fee for his one day enterprise.
After being visited by the City of Tucson employee who demanded a payment of $25 for his “Special event” license, his friend said, “When you pay mordida you get protection. With the City of Tucson you pay it and get nothing.”
On South 12th the chances of getting robbed are pretty good; stats back up citizens’ concerns. But for the Mayor, it is a different story.
According to the Arizona Daily Star, in a memo by Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor, only “unspecified events” forced a closer look at how to increase security at City Hall and for the mayor while not making it “an overly restricted atmosphere” for city employees.”
To which one South 12th entrepreneur asked, “What about the overly restricted atmosphere for business owners?”
