Chase bank

Broadway Coalition Calls for Sustainable Expansion that Protects Businesses & History

Chase bank
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…

Read more

An Energy Partnership Climate Solution for Tucson?

Climate-Solution-2With 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.

Read more

Sustainable Tucson: Preparedness for a World of Change, March 10

Join the Sustainable Tucson community and extended network to hear Nicole Foss, world-renown lecturer and co-creator of TheAutomaticEarth.Com speak from their DVD on Preparedness. Time will be taken to discuss this important subject which all of us are interested in. Topics include Navigating an Epic Predicament, Psychology of Contraction, De-Globalization, Community and Society, Energy and Resources, Goods … Read more

Building a Sustainable Economy in Tucson: Public Forum Tonight

6a00d8341bf80c53ef017ee86ad563970d-800wi

Tonight— February 11– Sustainable Tucson will host a panel discussion and public forum focusing on creative ideas for building a sustainable economy in Tucson.

Tucson is one of the poorest cities in the southwest, has a fragile desert ecosystem, and relies far too heavily on defense, the University of Arizona, and tourism for its vitality. We need diversification and creativity in our economic development efforts.

Tonight’s speakers represent wide-ranging ideas from public banking and time trading to TREO’s efforts in building Tucson’s economy. The meeting will be held in the downtown library’s lower level meeting room. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; program begins at 6 p.m. Details after the jump.

Read more