Another Friday night, another Friday Roundtable on Arizona Illustrated. We talk about where the candidates stand on the Public Safety First initiative, next year's gubernatorial race and more, after the jump.

UA professors Tanis Salant and Tom Volgy stop by Arizona Illustrated's Friday Roundtable. A good observation from Tanis that throws cold water on the idea that reforming the city charter is going to magically result in better elected officials: "There isn't a structure, a form of local government that guarantees any sort of person will run for local office and be elected."

Both Volgy and Salant oppose the Public Safety First Initiative because it's bad public policy to enshrine spending requirements in the city charter. Translation: Prop 200 will lead to deep cuts to city services or tax increases.

Watch it all after the jump.

Damn, we're not ready for this weekend to be the last Saturday at the De Anza Drive-In. Can you make it next weekend? Please?

The local daily confirmed what we all knew was inevitable since it was first announced last year that a development company was interested in the property for a commercial project. I was sorry to read in the story that the property won't even be developed right away, but the drive-in will still close. Evidently, it's just not financially viable. I don't have time this weekend to say good-bye, or re-create that night when my cousins put me in the trunk of their car and snuck me in to see Up in Smoke. Sigh.

What will replace Tucson’s last drive-in theater remains unclear, although it will almost certainly be some kind of retail complex.

“We really don’t have a plan,” said Gregg Alpert, Evergreen’s managing principal. “We do not have any immediate plans to develop it. We just like the property. Its infill location and heavy traffic count make it an intriguing purchase for us. But we are going to take our time to develop it.”

Evergreen is known for creating “neighborhood marketplaces” with grocery store anchors. Its projects in the Old Pueblo include Steam Pump Village in Oro Valley, Madera Marketplace in Sahuarita, several Walgreens stores and a grocery store project on the southwest side’s Yaqui reservation.

Los Angeles-based De Anza Land and Leisure Corp. purchased the old drive-in theater in 1977 when it was called the Cactus Drive-In.

Today the theater is in need of numerous costly improvements and the company had to sell it, Teri Oldknow, senior vice president for De Anza Land and Leisure, said in a written statement.

“The closing comes at a critical decision point for the business — in the near future, De Anza Land and Leisure would have to make major capital investments in the infrastructure of the drive-in which was not financially feasible for us,” Oldknow said.

We got our first peek at the Tucson Vision Committee today, when the independent campaign that's targeting Democrats in this year's City Council election filed a campaign-finance report.

The biggest contributor is Michael Goodman, the man who is destroying the quality of life of homeowners north of the University of Arizona by demolishing existing houses and replacing them with gargantuan mini-dorms, with little regard to the existing residents. Goodman kicked in $5,000 of the $9,000 that the committee reporting raising between Sept. 15 and Sept. 21.

The committee showed only three other contributors through Sept. 21: Grace Howard of Phoenix ($500), who evidently has a vision of making money in Tucson; investor Charlie Bass of Tucson ($1,000); and Richard Studwell of Tucson, who has been angry with council Democrats for some time now ($2,500).

We reported on the group's first ad last week.

• Holly Harris
• Barb Dolan: "It does not make sense."

Barb Dolan, government affairs liason for the AMA, said that Prop 200 would likely force the Tucson City Council to raise taxes or cut services to pay for additional police officers and firefighters.

Says Dolan:

An unfunded mandate is bad public policy anytime, but especially with the current economic conditions. It is fiscally irresponsible. It does not make sense to impose this mandate when the city has already experienced overwhelming budget cuts to services. This mandate will only further those cuts.

The AMA strongly supports police and fire and has a successful track record of working proactively with first responders to promote safe communities. We do not believe that Proposition 200 is the best way to address police and fire staffing levels for Tucson.

Tucson is fortunate enough to be one of the dozen or so cities that will screen Paranormal Activity beginning tonight at midnight at Century El Con 20, 3601 E. Broadway Blvd. (800-326-3264, ext. 902). It's not showing yet in some major cities, with more than 230,000 fans "demanding" that the film show in cities such as LA, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix and others.

There's a lot of buzz about the film, with a tagline of "one of the scariest movies of all time." To learn more about the film, visit www.paranormalmovie.com. And to read about the making of the film, read this story from the Los Angeles Times.

Guitar Center (4720 E. Broadway Blvd., 320-9900) is participating in the nationwide search for the top undiscovered drummer. Here are the competition dates:

Store preliminaries: Oct. 1 and Oct. 8
Store finals: Oct. 15
District finals: Nov. 5
Regional finals: Dec. 3
Grand finals: January 2010

The winner receives $45,000 in cash, prizes and endorsements. Visit www.guitarcenter.com for more info.

Batucaxé Afro-Brazilian drum and dance ensemble is searching for original artwork for the cover of their upcoming CD.

Submit a medium to high-resolution jpeg (smaller than 5MB) to [email protected] OR send a CD with the artwork to: Batucaxe Art Contest, 3321 E. 25th St. Tucson AZ 85713 OR send a hard copy of non-digital artwork to the address above OR e-mail [email protected] to make other arrangements.

Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of work. Deadline for submissions is Friday, Oct. 16.

The winner receives membership in Batucaxé, a $420 value, which includes drum/dance lessons, workshops, Culture Night events and more.

Visit www.batucaxe.org to learn more about the ensemble.

Get ready for a big advertising blitz: The latest campaign finance report shows that the Public Safety First Campaign had raised $268,988 through Sept. 21. The Tucson Association of Realtors and assorted real-estate professionals around town remain the biggest donors, with TAR giving $135,276. Car dealer Jim Click kicked in $50K and the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association's total contribution has risen to $30K.

The campaign had spent $239,412, with most of the money moving through political consultants Zimmerman and Associates.

Wonks can look over the report themselves: PSFOct1.pdf

More reports to come later today. Track themselves yourself at the city's Web site.

We're looking forward to peering behind the curtain of the mysterious Tucson Vision Committee that has been running hit ads against Democratic incumbents. What do you bet that National Republican Committeeman Bruce Ash is mixed up with that one?

The Ward 3 City Council debate between Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, Republican Ben Buehler-Garcia and Green Party candidate Mary DeCamp from Arizona Illustrated, after the jump. Who knew that trying to get a simple answer about park and rec fees could be so darn difficult?