OK, now I’m getting depressed about Tucson’s future. It’s one thing to see our local leaders make a wrong decision or two but overall I’ve tried to maintain a generally positive outlook about this region’s future.

Lately, though, how can I? How can anyone? Have you been reading Steve Emerine’s columns in recent weeks?

Downtown Tucson has never been more dead than it is right now.

I’ve had family living in the Tucson area since the 1940s. As a youngster I spent extended periods of time here, though, frankly, I never paid much attention to downtown as economic engine. It was just there. When I moved here permanently in 1972, I initially worked downtown.

Today, there are still a few things in downtown including the Hotel Congress, Barrio restaurant, the Fox Theatre and Temple of Music and Art but how much longer are those expected to shoulder the entire burden for what brings people downtown? There’s no energy or excitement for the future. It’s dead.

But what really got me depressed was an event I went to a week and a half ago put on by the Reno-Tahoe Convention and Visitors Bureau. It was at Janos. That was impressive - and not downtown. The catalyst for the event was ExpressJet’s non-stop flights to Reno from Tucson. Most of the invitees seemed to be event planners, though I didn’t know any of them.

As the folks from Reno introduced themselves, one after another stood up and gave a pitch. One hotel boasted of a multi-million dollar renovation. Another topped that. One bragged that it was the only hotel with private direct access to the convention center.

Can you imagine that? Reno not only has multiple hotels downtown, but one that spent money to be connnected to its convention center and brags about it!

As I looked around the room one of the few others I recognized was Rick Parr, general manager of the Pacific Coast League Tucson Sidewinders. The team will be playing in Reno next year. I asked Parr if he was there trying to make a connection with folks in Reno.

"I’m going," he told me. I had missed the fact the team’s new owners, SK Baseball, had hired Parr to be their general manager in Reno. Parr was really excited. He always is when he talks about AAA Baseball. But he was really excited about the move to Reno.

They are more than two months along on building a new $50 million baseball stadium in downtown Reno. They’re also developing a retail and restaurant complex outside the ballpark. The team has also signed a two-year deal to continue as the Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate.

I was dumbfounded. I had lost track.

"It’s not you," Parr said. "It’s Tucson, the media here has already written us off."

Parr’s excitement about Reno got noticed. One woman came up and asked "Are you with the baseball team?" Others gathered around and I was squeezed out.

That’s Tucson. A downtown that’s never been in worse shape in my lifetime and a ballpark out where the only thing likely to be moving a year from now are some tumbleweeds.

I think Parr had it backwards. It’s not the Sidewinders who have been written off. They’ve got a promising future. I think it’s Tucson that may have been written off. What’s our future?

E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.