I read the comments readers offer up on Inside Tucson Business’s website and, fortunately our readers aren’t who I’m talking about. I haven’t spent much time reading the comments on the websites of the daily newspapers. I wished I hadn’t last week.
Michael and Maya Luria are friends of mine. They’ve been running Terra Cotta restaurant and, for as much as they tried to avoid it, they reached the end of their financial rope and had to announce that, after 22 years, the restaurant would close for good after Jan. 31.
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We posted our story on the Inside Tucson Business website that night. Afterward I checked to see what people might have written. A handful of readers left some respectful comments. On Jan. 11, the Arizona Daily Star posted its story online and when I checked around mid-day, 45 people had left comments. Some were good but by appearances I would say the collective wisdom of opinion came from people whose combined IQ wouldn’t equal a typical winter’s day temperature in Tucson.
A common thread seemed to be that portions were small and overpriced. The menu items are mostly under $20. That includes the price of the raw goods, coming up with the menu item, expertly preparing it and serving it in an atmosphere it can be enjoyed. I’d challenge someone to do that for the price with something like Terra Cotta’s goat cheese-stuffed prawns.
I suspect the online complainers are people who would be happy bellying up to a pig trough. They wouldn’t care what slop they ate as long as there’s lots of it. And it was cheap.
That same Jan. 11, the Star also ran a story about Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities that elicited some comments from the similar kinds of thinkers saying the economic development organization had not done much of anything to bring jobs to Tucson.
Have any of those people actually talked to executives at La Costeña Foods, Stanley’s high-speed passport processing center or the currently under construction Target fulfillment center? I have, and everyone of them said TREO played a key role in their decisions to come here.
TREO is making a difference. Terra Cotta made a difference.
The people taking cheap shots on newspaper online comments enjoy the cover of anonymity. They’re not the kind of people who stick their necks out to make a difference. Tucson’s real leaders and risk takers shouldn’t pay attention to them.
E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.
Comments
Local Tucsonan wrote on Feb 26, 2009 3:01 PM:
Desert Rat wrote on Jan 22, 2009 4:09 PM:
You have the power of the presses in your building. Must you always have the last word, too? If this forum, or the letter to the editors are the only vehicles for the public to have its say, overriding their small voice with yours is really poor form for a journalist.
The Big Boys play a different game. MSM let's the reader have its say and stays out of the fray. "
Roger D wrote on Jan 19, 2009 6:41 AM:
Why can't we get these companies in Tucson? Chandler's economic development made "no effort". TREO is down with that so we should be getting the companies. but we are nto. What can we learn from this? "
David Hatfield wrote on Jan 18, 2009 2:47 PM:
"Guest" has been writing about TREO and economic development. "
kchulz wrote on Jan 18, 2009 11:57 AM:
Guest once more wrote on Jan 18, 2009 9:29 AM:
Alternatively, here is an edited summary which may make it easier for the Great Leader:
-find a conference in Vegas or Hawaii and they (TREO) are there = investigate their junkets; do a CBA (that's a "Cost-Benefit Analysis Davie, something we business people do) on their (TREO's)
business development trips
-the businesss development folks have never developed a business themselves = research their background and publish it. Oh and starting a company which then fails soon after does not count
- friends who have successfully started business in Tucson and had no interest, support, help, advice and sometimes even no phonecalls from TREO = go to some of the new businesses in town (those with 1, 3, 5, or even 7 employees) and ask them if they had any help from TREO, or even if TREO returned their calls and emails. Ask them how / why / where started their busineses, what help they received from whom, banking and financing, credit and loans, leasing or buying, quality and availability of employees etc.
-The huge new children's hospital at UMC. = what / where / when / why. How paid for. UMC as profit-maker vs. teaching hospital vs. research facility vs. regular hospital
-attend ASBA meetings = not just a column from the boss, but reports on meetings and what their members say and waht and are doing and where they are growing and where retrenching
-call the different chamberrs for weekly updates on businesses and trends = Metro, Black, Hispanic, LGBT and all the networking groups you list in your calendar but never report on.
It is always easier for those without an argument to attack the messenger. Hatfield has an opportunity to do a great service for Tucson business, but instead pumps up himself and attacks those who do not share his enlightened perspective. According to my friends in the hospitality industry, Terra Cotta failed because it moved. That is what you should be investigating instead of decrying its critics (and restaurants will always have more critics than fans, that is the nature of food). If that is true, then there are two stories: what lead to their decision and how do they feel about it, and an analysis of where they went and whether it was a good fit for them.
You see Davie, Journalism 101 students are taught to look laterally. Shame you never took Journalism 101, but at least perhaps you can listen to others (and eat less at corporate events - less often and less quantity). "
David Hatfield wrote on Jan 18, 2009 8:41 AM:
You do a lot of complaining beyond the mask of anonymity without offering much in the way of solutions. Considering most of the things you wrote about me are not factual, I've got to put everything else you've written in the same category. "
Guest again wrote on Jan 17, 2009 4:04 PM:
David Hatfield wrote on Jan 17, 2009 3:13 PM:
David Hatfield wrote on Jan 17, 2009 3:10 PM:
Employer wrote on Jan 17, 2009 3:03 PM:
I own a business that serves a niche market, and we employ 50 people, so 50 families earn their living from us. Sadly, since we do not serve the upscale public niche that Terra Cotta did, I doubt that when outside forces end our company, that we will merit 3 "woe is me" newspaper articles, but our 50 families will not suffer ant less. "
Guest again wrote on Jan 17, 2009 1:31 PM:
David Hatfield wrote on Jan 17, 2009 12:46 PM:
Guest wrote on Jan 17, 2009 10:35 AM:
Guest wrote on Jan 17, 2009 10:28 AM:
Former Resident Jim wrote on Jan 17, 2009 10:13 AM:
Peggy wrote on Jan 17, 2009 9:10 AM:
George wrote on Jan 17, 2009 7:35 AM:
Angus Hendrick wrote on Jan 17, 2009 6:43 AM:
I loved Terra Cotta when I lived here in the early 1990's. When we returned two years ago, we returned, but found an environment where we felt like our order of an assortment of appetizers with wine was an inconvenience. We never went back. "
Jan wrote on Jan 16, 2009 8:50 PM:
As a small business owner (restaurant, so I know about food and labor costs) and also a work a day wage slave for a large organization I think I understand why.
When it's your own place and small enough that you can do hands on service, that service is generally the best you can offer. And the staff you work with side by side are generally personally motivated by your dedication. However no matter how much you would like to infuse remotely managed hired hands with your dedication and motivations, they have different drivers and generally fail to perform at to the level you would if you were able to do their job (and the fifty other jobs that have to be done to ensure excellence in a larger setting.)
That said, I doubt that any of the people commenting so nastily *got* "Atlas Shrugged" or "Fountainhead" Or even managed to turn off the eye pablum tube long enough to read them.
After 22 years in the hospitality industry, the Lurias are most likely very tired of the crassness and sense of entitlement that seem to be embodied in many Americans these days.
To all you baggage-ridden, negativity-emitting life-force-sucking leeches, Sucks to be you, eh? You'd probably be miserable with an all expense paid week at Disney World.
To all of you wonderful people that can look around to appreciate the beauty and bounty that comes your way because of the wonderful *little* people that make you more comfortable in this world as a product of their personal efforts, BLESS YOU TO THE SEVENTH GENERATION! (To the 14th if you actually say "Thank you" and mean it.)
I personally wish the Lurias well and thank them for all they have tried to contribute to Tucson and this area. My world is a better place for them being in it. Thank you! (And if people don't shape up, see you in Galt's Gulch...) "
Tom Clowes wrote on Jan 16, 2009 7:03 PM:
Michele wrote on Jan 16, 2009 4:11 PM: