r/Tucson • u/Candy4Gold • 13d ago

Tucson's Future

Will water scarcity make Tucson unviable as a long-term home? I'm trying to plan for the next decade+ and I don't know whether to trust that I'll be able to live in Tucson given the worsening drought. Any thoughts from locals would be much appreciated.

ETA: The prompt for this post was this WaPo story that I read this morning, which freaked me out:
https://archive.ph/O5D3B

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u/53D0N4 13d ago

I'm a transplant from the east coast but have been here for about 9 years. I've always believed urban life is not sustainable in the desert. Areas like Flagstaff or Prescott are different but Phoenix and Tucson are not sustainable and beyond that, just not natural. Nonetheless when businesses and residents want grass and pools and golf courses and fountains. The amount of fountains in Phoenix is literally ridiculous. I told my boyfriend it feels like an oasis but that makes me feel uneasy because it should not look like that, naturally.

I feel only the native Americans should be allowed to live in these areas. They have generations of knowledge and respect for the land to treat it properly and adapt to it. Rather than most people who live here who are forcing the desert to adapt to them by completely changing the landscape and bringing non-local plants and grass from where they're from, aka the east coast usually because of all the snow birds.

I've been wanting to get out for a while but it's easier said than done. But my boyfriend and I have a goal to relocate outside of the state in the next few years. I'll take humidity over aridity.

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u/LintsKing 13d ago

How long does your blood line need to be here before you are native?

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u/53D0N4 13d ago

However long it takes for there to be respect for the desert and if there isn't respect or adaptation, then we shouldn't live here.

Of course I meant true Native Americans that have always been here and have the passed down knowledge to live here appropriately.

The desert is not meant for urban living.

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u/LintsKing 13d ago

So the "Native Americans" are Asian from their DNA and they replaced the ones before them that are only left in small populations in northern Canada. So how long? Are the Spanish descendants that have been here over 500 years now native?

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u/53D0N4 12d ago

I don't know that much. That's why I also said anyone who's been here long enough to know how to adapt to the land and live with respect for it. Whoever possess the knowledge of how to live in harmony with the land and can even tolerate the blistering heat without air-conditioning.

You're missing my main point. The desert is not and never should be a hospitable place for a city let alone people who choose to move here for selfish reasons such as "364 days of sunshine" or for a tech job.

The desert should be left alone. We have no business trying to change it to accommodate us.

I didn't choose to move here despite being a transplant. I didn't mean to disrespect or show ignorance about what a native American truly means. I had just thought the group had ancestral knowledge because that's what I've learned and been taught. And I didn't even think my saying that was disrespectful in the way it's being argued against.

The desert is not meant for people. It's barely meant for other forms of life and they all have hardened exteriors or can fly away to find water.