The residents of Tucson lie in the sixth poorest metropolitan area in the country. While shopping is down as a result of the sagging economy, outrage among Tucson’s City Council members over abandoned shopping carts is up – high enough to spur a unanimous vote to approve a new ordinance that requires retailers to claim their shopping carts.
Rather than focus on the growing number of boarded up businesses, the Tucson City Council would like to penalize the few that limp along, and the poor vehicle-less denizens who rely on getting their groceries to their paper-thinned walled apartments.
Tucson Metro Chamber President and CEO Michael Varney, who has done little to protect small business owners in town said, “The city has rightfully put the beautification of its neighborhoods as its top priority, and it’s up to all of us as citizens, as business interests and so forth, to make that a top priority as well.”
Under the new ordinance, a retailer will be notified when their carts are found on city property. Retailers then have 3 days to retrieve the carts. If a retailer does not pick up its cart, the cart will be impounded and the retailer will be charged a $30 retrieval fee. If the cart is not picked up in 30 days, it will be sold or disposed of and the retrieval fee will be added to the retailer’s water bill. The money will go to the city’s general fund.
During the economic down turn, the City has done nothing to alleviate the burdens on Tucson’s business community.