Carolyn Classen

Carolyn Sugiyama Classen, a life long Democrat, was born & raised in the State of Hawaii, was a Legislative Aide for U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye on Capitol Hill, and practiced law for a while. In Tucson she worked as a tribal staff attorney for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and later was the Interim Executive Director of the now defunct Domestic Violence Commission. In 2008 she became a “My Tucson” guest columnist for the Tucson Citizen newspaper, then continued blogging for Tucsoncitizen.com for over four and a half years. Her blogsite was entitled “Carolyn’s Community” about community events and some political news, until Gannett Publishing shut down the site on January 31, 2014. She started with Blog for Arizona on Feb. 11, 2014. Part time she sat as a Hearing Officer in Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts Small Claims Division since April, 2005 for 15 years. She is married to University of Arizona Distinguished Professor Albrecht Classen, a native of Germany. They have one son, who lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and daughter. She is also the Editor of the Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition website, www.southernazjapan.org (since Jan. 2013).

Take up backpack challenge to help the homeless

by
homelessbackpacks
Homeless Backpack Challenge is a project of The Carlos G Figueroa Foundation in partnership with The Tribe (press release):
Their purpose is to get people to challenge two other people to purchase a backpack and place in it specific items. The items are specific so that no one homeless person receives more than another.
Items:
Socks
Winter cap
Gloves
Lotion or sunblock
$5 dollar gift card of choice
Lip balm
Snacks
Water bottle
Any items not on the list will be accepted but will be handed out separately from the backpacks.
All back packs must be in by December 7th.

Read more

Over 200 in downtown Tucson protest Ferguson shooting (photos)

by

fergusontucsonprotest

200 protesters of all ages, ethnicities were at Ronstadt Transit Center tonight to exercise their freedoms of speech and assembly, against the failure of the Ferguson Missouri grand jury to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson in the August 9, 2014 killing of 18 year old Michael Brown.

All photos taken by and courtesy of freelancer Henry Barajas, former reporter with Tucson Weekly.

Ronstadtprotest

Read more

Sun Link should offer one-way tickets

by
Sun Link modern streetcar, courtesy of Donovan Dean Durband
Sun Link modern streetcar, courtesy of Donovan Dean Durband

Now that the Sun Link modern streetcar has been operating for almost 4 months, I’m suggesting that some change is needed.  Operations started on July 25, 2014, with the first 3 days of riding for free.

People have been complaining of no one-way passes/tickets.  Not everyone who rides the 4 mile route needs a round trip one day (24 hour) pass, which costs $4 at the kiosks.

Offering one way passes at the Sun Link station kiosks would encourage ridership by people who would use it one way to get somewhere. Currently people who want a one way trip realize it costs $4, so they are opting out.  There is no option to buy a one-way pass at the kiosks.

A one-way ticket for $1.50 or $2 would be highly beneficial for students (who don’t usually have a lot of extra money), new riders, families.  I’ve ridden Sun Link a number of times and have encountered frustrated riders who desire one-way tickets. Even walkers in the All Souls Procession on Nov. 9 needed one-way tickets back to the 6th Avenue/6th Street start-up point, where many had left their cars/trucks/bikes.

Offering one-way passes may help families save some money. For example, a family of four on a day trip in town would have to pay $16 to ride both ways under the current system,  but with one-way passes would pay only $6 – $8,  then could choose to walk back to save some $.  AZ Daily Star columnist Tim Steller and his family encountered this problem just recently: http://tucson.com/news/local/column/steller-streetcar-ticketing-discourages-spontaneous-trips/article_9a4d9b0c-3eb5-54fa-a98b-a4b8a19532e9.html?id=201408

Read more