As a citizen and a resident of Kingman, Arizona, I often find myself feeling a certain doom. Every day, it becomes abundantly clear that the city is in deep, disturbing trouble.
According to the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau, Kingman has a diverse population of 34000 people, ranging from the 25% of Senior residents, across the remaining population of average American working families, children, and right down to aspiring young, ambitious, newlyweds. Having said that, Kingman is no honeymoon, but it does conjure up the same perpetual frustration that predominated the character of Ralph Kramden (portrayed by actor Jackie Gleason) in the popular 1955 TV sitcom “The Honeymooners”. I am sure the Senior population will remember the ultra-high anxiety of the character Ralph Kramden, a New York cab driver, and his wife, Alice.
Research the topic of Economic Development, you will clearly see the pending dangers of UNCONTROLLED growth as you witness Kingman’s open desert landscape being urbanized at a heartbreaking pace and with little or zero regard for the average citizen’s quality of life or the city’s current feeble, failing infrastructure. Why must we pay more for less?
The issues we face in Kingman are only growing worse every day, with rapidly rising costs to the average citizen for ALL utilities, INCREASING sales taxes, and ADDITIONAL city fees. The city is spending your money with reckless disregard for the welfare of the majority of Kingman residents. It defies logic to foster UNCONTROLLED growth in a city with grossly deteriorating roads and a broken foundation. Even the children's fairy tale, the Three Little Pigs, has more wisdom than the Kingman City Council. Now, I am not saying the City Council is 7 little pigs, but they may well be collectively the deceptive Big Bad Wolf. I do not believe the Kingman people are as naïve as Little Red Riding Hood or the Three Little Pigs, so there is still hope the city won’t blow your house down on the way to the suburban nightmare they are allowing.
After years of pacification, double talk, and chicanery from the city, I believe the only conclusion is that Kingman City Leaders are tone-deaf to the pitch of the people’s voice, but rather fast-handed in taking your hard-earned money. The concept that they are really leaders is, however, a fairy tale or a whimsical classic TV sitcom. For years, the people of Kingman have taken a respectful and responsible position of tolerance and trust in the face of continued adversity, but those days are now as long gone as is actor Jackie Gleason and those iconic sitcoms. Gleason’s first TV sitcom in 1949 was called “The Life of Riley”. Unlike Gleason’s portrayal of Ralph Kramden in “The Honeymooners”, Gleason played the lovable and bumbling character of Chester A. Riley. Just as the City Council has continued to bumble with our very lives, our pocketbooks, and existence, Riley always found himself in uncontrollable predicaments.
I think it is safe to say that the predicament the people of Kingman are trapped in is, as Chester A. Riley would timidly lament, “A Revolting Development!” The difference is that the dire mess the City Council has created is a harsh, real-life drama, and there is nothing humorous or entertaining about it.
The people of Kingman have become victims of a Revolting Development, not Economic Development. We live in an environment of perpetual frustration, just as did the sitcom character Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners. We can shout at the City Council with the same sentiment, Ralph would shout at his sitcom wife Alice, “One of these days, bang, zoom, and to the moon”, except in real life, we will do that at the ballot box in 2026 by voting out ALL City Council incumbents.
Whether it be TV sitcoms or fairy tales, in real life, the people of Kingman must adopt the same faithful and heartfelt eternal optimism that the sitcom character Ralph Kramden always displayed at the end of every episode of The Honeymooners. We, the people of Kingman, will never back down until the show is over and we vote in a new City Council.
Respectfully,
Elliot Chalew, chalew@gmail.com
Please join my group CAUSE (Citizens Against Uncontrolled Social Environment)