Revenge of the Nerds (1984) was filmed in Tucson. The Pi Delta Pi sorority house is a private home at 309 E. 1st Street.:
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Look at the difference in vegetation. In 1984 there was a grass lawn and normal green trees and bushes. That looks pretty much like any front yard in coastal soCal, where I'm from.
In 2025 the grass lawn is long gone. It's just dirt. The green trees and bushes have been replaced with brown desert ick.
This part of Arizona used to be desert
grasslands.
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Rivers ran year round. You could graze livestock and grow crops.
This was the Santa Cruz river on the west side of Tucson in 1889. It flowed all year and had waterfalls. On flat stretches there was a paddle boat service that transported people and goods up and down the river.
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Today it looks like this.
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The reason for this is a plummeting water table. The reason for
that is too political to get into here but it really ticks me off as there are workable win-win solutions that have been known about for years but politicians want to pretend to manage problems instead of actually solving them.
This area could be grasslands again. The rivers could run year round, we could have all the farms, orchards, pasture, parks, lawns, and golf courses we want.
Increases in tourism, agriculture, and recreation would mean an enormous economic boon to the region. Wildlife would also benefit including many species of wild birds for whom this area is a winter home or a stop on their migration paths. This could truly be an oasis in the desert.
We could do all that without touching
any underground reservoir. Bonus: we could stay out of the battle for the Colorado River water and leave that to Colorado, Utah, and Nevada to figure out.
But then what do I know?
(rant over)
