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Do what I say, not what I do!
A walking tour of Old Bisbee guided by
Sandy Upson
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As
I listened to comments on the zoning code revisions, it became obvious
that certain issues were not being addressed effectively. Nor, it
seems, are they likely to be any time soon. I am not referring to
abstract and empty legalisms, but rather to what might be called
intra-community ethics. Implicit in these proposed revisions is the
premise that citizens are in place to serve the government and not that
government is in place to serve the citizens. Responsibilities
incumbent upon citizens are negligible, even non-existent, for the
City. Terms like putrescence, rot, junk, dilapidation, health,
safety, etc. are used to advise and admonish citizens about the coming
day of zoning atonement while no mention is made of any reciprocity on
the part of the City government, the most flagrant perp of all, if
proposed criteria are to be applied.
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I would urge interested persons to take a walk from the corner of
Wood and Tombstone Canyons in Old Bisbee. Proceed past the facade of the Old Pumphouse
and turn left crossing the bridge over the
Ditch and ascending the stairs to the Locklin Ridge. At the top, where
the
walkway turns left continue straight ahead with the Locklin Reservoir
on your
left. Circle the reservoir coming back past the old Bathhouses and
rejoin the walkway returning down the steps to the Pumphouse on
Tombstone Canyon. This route will
take you through an area which is almost exclusively zoned R-1, which
is to say
“single family, residential”. The
exceptions are the City’s own in-holdings.
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The Pumphouse is almost the
perfect type-example of “dilapidation” from inattention.
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It
was never much of an architectural gem to begin with given its
utilitarian reason for being. But, if maintained, it would still
show a certain period charm and be a positive presence on Tombstone
Canyon. Currently, the paint and the stucco surface are pealing,
while weeds are allowed to obscure the base of the building. The
windows are covered over with unpainted plywood and chainlink.
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Perched above the roof us a structure which I assume to be a hoist housing. |
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Its
corrugated metal siding is slowly coming off and its wood surfaces have
been left unpainted. Graffiti already adorns at least one wall. As far
as I know, this building presents no menace to health or safety. Still,
it is in clear violation of several laws which its neighbors will
supposedly be forced to observe.
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Turn
behind the Pumphouse and cross, if you dare, Statistic Bridge, named
pre-emptively for what you may become should you walk down its center.
(Residents in the know struggle across awkwardly by aligning their
steps with the supporting beams.) Pause to admire the stream below, if
flowing, by gazing through the planks of the bridge. Notice I said
“through”, not “between”. At this point, we
have entered the category of public safety, and this is your
proverbial lawsuit waiting to happen. The planks of this bridge are
weathered and rotten to such a degree that before long some
unsuspecting person will get “down close and personal” with
the Ditch below. But fear not, for now, and continue up the stairs with
the two sizable pipes running uphill beside you.
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At
the top, where the sidewalk turns sharp left, notice the third pipe
stretched moribund on the ground before you. Until one night a few
months ago, when it split wide open, this was the pipe feeding the
large reservoir ahead of you. It was replaced quite diligently, but
simply left where it fell to bring its rusting process to final term in
all the comfort of home. The section shown is perhaps 18 inches out of
twenty feet or so, jaggedly rusted, with both ends suggesting tetanus
lying in wait. It is anyone’s guess as to why, with a truck
delivering the new pipe to the site, the old pipe was left to rust in
place instead of being trucked away. Once again, quite aside from
esthetic criteria, this is an obvious health and safety issue,
especially as the weeds cover the “dead and down” pipe to a
greater and greater extent every day. Ironically, however, this pipe
serves more as the mute sentinel for the expanse which lies ahead of
you: the City’s old machinery graveyard.
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Randomly
scattered across this area is a selection of what can only be described
as urban debris: old engine blocks and mufflers, other truck and heavy
equipment parts, derelict tires, 55 gallon drums, gasoline jerricans,
twisted orange and white caution barriers, etc. Here and there, as if
dropped from the sky, are large pipes of assorted lengths and
diameters, mounds of broken concrete and “pre-owned”
asphalt paving, some pieces still carrying the center line from their
prior incarnations, huge valves rusted beyond any possible utility, all
of which constitutes a virtual catalogue of the junk deemed
impermissible in the new zoning codes. At the moment, much of this
debris has been obscured by plant response to this season’s very
generous monsoon. The City’s euphemism for this entire area is
“a yard”. In literal fact, it is nothing more nor less than
“a dump” by any reasonable definition. Beyond being
unsightly, many of the items enumerated above are every bit the
“attractive nuisance” that abandoned refrigerators or
unenclosed swimming pools would be. And, it is common knowledge that
tires left in the open are used as breeding sites by the mosquitoes
which are vectors for several serious illnesses.
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As
you turn the corner around the reservoir, you will notice that you are
now on a roadbed passing only a few feet from the reservoir itself. You
will also notice that there is a pathway from the road to the lip of
the reservoir and that at that point there is no protective closure
between yourself (or a child) and the water’s surface some eight
feet below. The wall of the reservoir is shear and without hand-holds.
Should someone fall in, he or she is likely to be there for quite a
while. This condition represents a callousness and recklessness on the
City’s part that approaches the unimaginable. The City accepts
both the expense and the gall of paying for the time of John Charley
and John MacKinnon to ignore existing zoning codes, to compose and
propose new ones and to threaten citizens with fines, or worse, for
doing what the City itself does with calculated and knowing impunity.
This is not the equivalent of debating whether your lawn matches the
standards of a putting green, but, plausibly, whether a child lives or
dies. Such an event would be tragedy enough, and I do not mean to be
attaching a dollar amount to it. Still, the likely awards for liability
would be staggering given that the City has known of this condition for
months and that the condition is not even unique at this one reservoir.
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If
you continue on around to the far end of the reservoir, you will see an
incursion where City trucks have backed over the enclosures surrounding
the old municipal swimming pool to dump loads of “who knows
what” into the the pool. As the empty trucks were driven away,
the fences were carefully left collapsed thus affording easy access to
anyone wishing to “visit” the bottom of the pool. This
condition represents a lesser likelihood of a fatality occurring on
City property, perhaps, but it is certainly more an eyesore than
anything else in the neighborhood. In addition, it should be pointed
out that other states have laws directing that the bottoms of abandoned
swimming pools be perforated in order to allow standing water to
escape. This is both to guard against accidental drowning and to
further mosquito abatement projects. It would be comforting to know
that the City thinks enough of its citizens to do the right things
without being forced to legally.
In short, the question remains the same: what justifies the City
Council and the senior members of the City Staff in sending out their
putrescence police, registrars of rot and dilapidation deputies to
badger citizens over a proliferation of wildflowers or grass length
when the City itself is almost certainly the worst offender around? It
is manifestly unconcerned with the moral, legal and financial
consequences which would result from the liability for its own
negligence and its studied refusal to keep its own property in some
semblance of safe and healthy order. John MacKinnon has already stated
officially that the zoning concept of “grandfathering” does
not trump issues of public health and safety. Left unsaid was whether
this is true also of the City’s own property obligations.
John Charley was on site at the reservoir months ago, and, despite his
“inspection”, the high risk conditions are unchanged, if
not worse. The mindless pettiness of wasting the City’s human
resources on anything but the worst and longest term offenses is
nothing short of shameful. For starters, Staff and Council should be
leading by example asking these questions of themselves, because they
will be coming to us, the people they “represent”, with the
bad news once injury, or worse, does occur.
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