Attachment E - Opposition - Z-78-21-8.pdf

City of Phoenix — Formal (2022-05-11)

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From:
Ruben Henderson III
To:
Enrique A Bojorquez-Gaxiola
Subject:
Case No: Z-78-21 & Z-SP-7-21
Date:
Sunday, March 6, 2022 6:26:11 PM
Attn: Enrique Bojorquez-Gaxiola
City of Phoenix Planning &Development Department
200 W. Washington Street,
Phoenix 85003
Case Z-78-21 & Z-SP-7-21
This is a thoughtful story I keep telling. It is someone else’s story. But I like to repeat the story
because the point is clear.  Stop doing what your doing and listen. Please read this below- this is
something you need to think about-
Gloria Steinem, the writer and leader in the feminist movement, once learned an important political lesson as a
student on a geology field trip.
"I took geology because I thought it was the least scientific of the sciences," she told an audience at Smith
College.
"On a field trip, while everyone else was off looking at the meandering Connecticut River, I was paying no attention
whatsoever. Instead, I had a found a giant, GIANT turtle that had climbed out of the river, crawled up a dirt road,
and was in the mud on the embankment of another road, seemingly about to crawl up on it and get squashed by a
car. "So, being a good codependent with the world, I tugged and pushed and pulled until I managed to carry this
huge, heavy, angry snapping turtle off the embankment and down the road.
"I was just putting it back into the river when my geology professor arrived and said, 'You know, that turtle probably
spent a month crawling up that dirt road to lay its eggs in the mud by the side of the road, and you just put it back
in the river.'
"Well, I felt terrible. But in later years, I realized that this was the most important political lesson I learned, one that
cautioned me about the authoritarian impulse of both left and right.
"Always ask the turtle."
Gloria Steinem
Don’t build that storage unit. Can’t you do better? How about a community market? How about an
Adult Community Center? How
about a Desert  Botanical Museum? How about a police sub-station? How about a South Mountain
Museum. How about some place we walk to or ride our bikes to as a destination? How about an
urban forest? How about an urban demonstration garden?
How about something that does  not take money out of our community?
How about adding something to our neighborhood?
You are visionaries-urban planners and all you got is a storage unit!
Attachment E

Listen to the turtle.  
Respectfully,
Ruben Henderson III
2339 West Saint Catherine Ave
85041
 
 
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