The Broadway Coalition, a tireless group of Tucsonans who has been calling for reasoned expansion of Broadway Blvd., has issued an urgent call to action. If you don’t want to waste money on yet another unnecessary, unaffordable, and destructive road widening project, you need to speak up NOW– before Wednesday, March 11, 2015. (Details below.)
You can also learn more at tonight’s Sustainable Tucson which features the Broadway Coalition’s vision. (Details here and below.)
The proposed Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Plan calls for widening Broadway from downtown to Country Club Road. The original suggestions were based on growth projections from the 1980s. Unfortunately– or fortunately, depending upon your point of view– Tucson didn’t grow East. It grew North. (Background here.)
Tucson’s needs don’t match the old growth projections. Developers and people who will make money knocking down and rebuilding businesses along Broadway or make money on the road construction, want to go blindly forth on yet another unnecessary road widening project. The Grant Road widening will happen in the future; 22nd Street was just expanded and improved; and the Aviation Parkway is also available as a speedy East-West route from downtown.
With these three improved thoroughfares, why do we need a fourth? Why destroy our historic buildings to make way for more chain stores and strip malls? Why destroy thriving local businesses along Broadway to make way for a road project we don’t need? Enough crony capitalism already.
As mentioned above, shit is getting real now. The latest round of public comment ENDS MARCH 11 (Wednesday). Please read the call to action, and act!
From Broadway Coalition…
CALL TO ACTION
After 3 long years we are at thecritical point of the Broadway Project. This project affects all of us in our community and sets the direction for transportation decisions for years to come. The proposed alignment would wipe out at least 37 businesses and homes, including most of the structures on the north side of Broadway between Campbell and Park! This threatens the Rincon Heights Historic District. We can significantly and creatively improve Broadway without this kind of destructive widening, wasting tens of millions of dollars, decreasing support for transit and other forms of travel. An entire small business sector will be affected.We, that is, YOU, can make a valuable difference now. It will take you about 1 minute. There is a public comment period open now, but it will close March 11th. Doing just one (or maybe all) of the following is critical…
By March 11th Email broadway@tucsonaz.gov and leave a message for the Citizens Task Force and the Project Team.
- Before or after March 11th email your comment to cityclerk@tucsonaz.gov and put Mayor and Council in subject line or call the City Clerk’s office at 791-4213 and leave a message for Mayor and Council.
- Before or after March 11th Email Mayor Rothschild at: Mayor1@tucson.gov.
- Before or after March 11th Like and leave a comment on to the Broadway Coalition Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/broadwaycoalition – and spread the word to your friends!
While using your own words is always better, you can send a simple message like:
- We need Broadway as a thriving destination.
- Give us a narrow alignment that protects our neighborhoods instead of destroying them.
- Give us a smart, vibrant Broadway, not a dead zone.
- Eliminate potholes not businesses.
- Make Broadway better NOT just wider.
- Don’t waste my tax dollars destroying neighborhoods.
- This wide road is more dangerous and ruins Broadway. You can do better.
- We can make Broadway better, more vibrant if we are smart. No wide road.
Mayor and Council have all voiced their support for a good, narrow design. With your voice they may vote that way as well.
From Sustainable Tucson…
Monday, March 9, 2015, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Joel D. Valdez Main Library, Lower Level Meeting Room,
101 N. Stone (free-lower level parking off Alameda St.)
Please ACT NOW! If you can’t come to tonight’s meeting, please send Tucson Mayor and Council the message that we don’t want to destroy buildings and businesses to excessively widen Historic Broadway. City staff and consultants DID NOT LISTEN to the community’s overwhelming opposition to unnecessary road widening. Call City Clerk’s Office: 791-4213.
Email the City manager: citymanager@tucsonaz.gov.
But DO SEND YOUR EMAIL COMMENTS about this BAD PLAN to:
broadway@tucsonaz.gov by MIDNIGHT MARCH 11.
“Broadway Corridor Plan Aims to Demolish 37 Tucson Buildings” reads the Arizona Daily Star lead headline from Feb. 24th. City of Tucson staff and consultants are proposing an alignment of the 2-mile project that contains unjustified widths and unnecessarily destroys historic buildings and businesses. Also troubling, this staff plan varies from what elected city leaders have voiced is their preference — the most narrow solution for six lanes which meets the safety concerns for all modes of mobility.
Clearly, an irreversible Tucson Tragedy is in the making if we don’t act soon.
Come hear members of the Broadway Coalition describe their vision for the Historic Broadway Redesign Project including improvements for bicyclists, pedestrians, autos, and transit riders and creating vibrant places where people want to go to meet, shop, and enjoy life. Hear the Coalition rally the community to communicate to the City of Tucson that very little widening if any is necessary to make Historic Broadway the next great destination of historic significance and thriving small businesses.
The Coalition has already convinced the City, County, and RTA that 8 lanes is excessive. Now we just need to show that the narrowest width alignment is best for all.
Doors open at 5:30 pm. The meeting will begin promptly at 6 pm.
We hope to see you all there.
–Sustainable Tucson & Broadway Coalition
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You have until midnight tonight (March 11) to voice your opinion about the Broadway widening project. BTW, the mayor1 address in this story doesn’t work. Use the mayor’s regular city email address. Here is what I sent. Feel free to copy.
To whom it may concern,
I am a midtown resident of Tucson, and I am against demolition of historic architecture on Broadway Blvd and against widening this road beyond what is necessary.
I stand with the Broadway Coalition in calling for the most narrow solution for six lanes which meets the safety concerns for all modes of transportation– not just cars. It has been reported that the Mayor and Council also have this opinion. Therefore, I don’t understand why the staff is proposing a wider road and the purchase and destruction of 37 buildings.
Grant Road is slated for expansion. We don’t need another massive road widening project on Broadway also. Tearing down businesses and forcing them to re-locate or re-build or close their doors is bad for business. I see no point in continuing this behavior.
There are many unique and historic buildings in this stretch of Broadway. We shouldn’t destroy our history in exchange for generic strip malls and chain stores.
The old traffic and growth projections for the east side should be discarded because they are out of date. We need sustainable improvement on Broadway which fixes the non-ADA compliant sidewalks and improves bicycle and mass transit (including potential expansion of the modern streetcar) on Broadway.
With this decision, we have the chance to both honor our history and choose sustainable growth. Please do the right thing.
Sincerely,
pam
The half cent transportation tax passed in 2006 was expected to raise $2.1 billion over 20 years, ending in 2026. Now halfway through, the tax is now estimated to raise $1.73 billion, almost $400 million less. Pima County and the cities and towns in Pima County have identified about $300 million in other funds that could be used to fund the shortfall in the sales tax. But there is still about an $80 million deficit. Now is the perfect time for the Regional Transportation Authority to trim back the budget equitably. By saving the buildings on the north side of Broadway, the RTA would save close to $40 million immediately.
Thanks, Jim. That’s great information.
We have to get off of this destructive “tear it down and rebuild it” treadmill. I know people from Tucson hate it when people like me talk about “back east”. But you know what? East coast cities don’t destroy historic architecture willy nilly just to make room for more cars. They support public transportation and push people to the buses or trains. It’s sustainable, and it preserves the city’s sense of place. Go up to Tempe, Mesa or Chandler, and you’ll see the developer’s dream for Broadway and Grant — one chain store or restaurant or strip mall after another. Yuck.