THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 AT 7:00PM | REGULAR ADMISSION PRICES at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E., Speedway Blvd. Tucson
Featuring a post-film panel discussion with Luis Alberto Perales of Tierra y Libertad, Bob Cook of Sustainable Tucson and Diana Liverman of UA Institute of the Environment.
This presentation is part of Science on Screen at The Loft, an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloane Foundation. (info from Loft website below)
What if confronting the climate change crisis is the best chance we’ll ever get to build a better world? Filmed in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change.
From their FB page:
At this family-friendly event, meet community organizations and companies that are creating a sustainable future for our city and region. Enjoy exhibits that highlight their work and get involved through hands-on activities and learning experiences. Explore key sustainability issues, covering everything from solar for the home to growing food and native plants, from preparing for heat emergencies to environmental concerns, and much more.
Festival Highlights:
* the starting point for PAG Solar Partnership’s Solar Tour — pick up your tour map at the Solar Partnership table and visit a great selection of solar-powered homes.
* an expanded display of electric vehicles, presented by Tucson Electric Vehicle Association, with owners and other TEVA members available to answer your questions.
* Southern Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce presenting its Climate Leadership Challenge awards
* the “Co-op Cluster,” featuring local co-ops, including the Food Conspiracy Co-op and Vantage West Credit Union
* the kick-off event for 10West, a weeklong celebration of local innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship
* the annual Green School Recognition, which goes this year to Davis Bilingual Magnet School, with a multi-faceted program that integrates school gardening, aquaponics (in the school library), and ecology education with classroom learning.
* the next generation of sustainability leaders, represented by students from Drachman Montessori Magnet, last year’s Green School Recognition recipient, and teens from Changemaker Academy, sharing their work for environmental justice
Recently at a Sustainable Tucson meeting someone asked how many of us ride the bus in Tucson, and out of about 30 people, only 2 raised their hands (including me). So here’s my thoughts on riding Sun Tran:
No worries about driving in town: it’s actually fairly relaxing to just sit on a bus and let the bus driver worry about the changing lights, pedestrians, motorcycles, traffic signs, construction, etc.
No worries about parking the car/truck: looking and finding parking downtown, plus worrying about having enough $ for the meter or time expiring on the meter are eliminated with bus riding
Environmentally friendly: to ride public transport with lots of other people; supposed to save gas emissions for each car/truck not in use.
Sightseeing: enjoy the sights along the bus route without being distracted by driving
Exercise: walking. It’s easy to leave your house & just get in the car parked in the garage/carport, but it’s definitely better exercise to walk to the bus stop, and walk again to your destination when you get to the end of your bus trip. I definitely walk a lot more when I ride the bus to downtown.
Inexpensive: only $1.50 each way, with a 2 hour transfer. And you can use the Sun Link modern streetcar as well, if you can transfer to that 4 mile route (or vice versa).
For more info on Sun Tran, call 520-792-9222, or go online at www. Suntran.com.
The Chase Bank at Broadway and Country Club (yeah, it’s weird) is actually famously weird as an example of mid-century modern architecture. It is located in the Broadway redevelopment area.
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…
With John Farrell. Policy Director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Opening comments by Ron Proctor, Co-Chair of the City of Tucson Climate Change Committee
Local Climate Change update from Dr. Gregg Garfin. UA Institute of the Environment
Our window to mitigate the worst effects of Global warming is rapidly closing. 2040 is the year by which we must “decarbonize” in order to have a chance to stabilize a “safe” climate.
