For as much as I like to maintain a positive outlook on things in Tucson, it can difficult at times. We seem to have more than our share of small-minded people with big mouths. Or, should I say, uninformed people who feel no compunction about spouting off stupid things in a newspaper’s online comment section.

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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When I saw Michael Luria the night of Jan. 9, he was obviously shaken. He wondered what people would think of the demise of Terra Cotta. “Will they remember the good things we did?”

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.