Tucson

Rothschild proposes transforming Congress St. into pedestrian mall

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Mall3000web

by Pamela Powers Hannley

If you want to read about Mayor Jonathan Rothschild's latest big idea for downtown Tucson, don't look for it online — except here at The Blog for Arizona. The Arizona Daily Star published Rothschild's brain storm only in the "dead tree" editon, dooming it to the recycle bin tomorrow morning. 

As the light rail tracks are laid on Congress Street, Rothschild is proposing converting Congress into a pedestrian mall. I think this is a GREAT idea, and I also think that the Star— which is beholden to a certain wealthy car dealer for most of its print advertising– is trying to bury the idea by putting it in the print-only edition.  

Rothschild says that a pedestrian-only Congress Street will complement the modern street car, the new apartments and dorms downtown, the businesses, and the music/art scene. He's spot on, in my opinion. Alluding to Denver's 16th Street Mall– pictured here– Rothschild goes on to say, "Where it works, it's a great attraction."

In the past, some Congress Street business owners have lobbied to increase traffic congestion on Congress by proposing that it be converted to two-way traffic. Somehow they equated more congestion with more business. (Luckily, the City Council didn't fall for that one.) On the contrary, I think reducing traffic congestion and promoting foot traffic, light rail, and bicycles would be good for business, good for downtown, and good for the citizens of Tucson. 

With several cousins in the Denver area, I have spent quite a bit of time there. The ambiance of Denver's 16th Street Mall is relaxed and eclectic. The light rail comes in from the suburbs, right passed the Denver Convention Center and the famous blue bear statue, and glides through the pedestrian mall, which is dotted with cafes, outdoor seating, trees, trendy retail shops, and hotels. It is the perfect place for people sip wine or coffee and watch the scene. There are also bicycle rentals downtown to facilitate taking the light rail.

Allowing customers to move freely around Congress Street without worrying about dodging cars promotes a symbiotic relationship among the entertainment, retail, and food venues downtown. A pedestrian mall on Congress would be business-friendly, arts-friendly, tourist-friendly, and more sustainable and less congested than the current car-based downtown.  Dream big. Let's do it, Mr. Mayor. 

More photos after the jump.

‘Cyanide Beach’: Rosemont Mine documentary premiers Aug 23 in Tucson (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Investigative reporter John Dougherty's InvestigativeMEDIA LLC has produced a short documentary about the proposed Rosemont Mine and a sister operation in Italy. Entitled Cyanide Beach, this short film will premier on August 23 at the Crossroads Cinema in Tucson. Click here to RSVP for this free event, which includes the movie and a discussion.

From InvestigativeMEDIA…

What does a small town in Sardinia, Italy have in common with the pitched battle over the proposed Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson?

The same Canadian mining speculators that are now seeking government permits to blast a mile-wide, half-mile deep hole in the Santa Rita Mountains and dump waste rock and mine tailings on more than 3,000 acres of the Coronado National Forest once owned and operated an open-pit gold mine in Sardinia.

What happened near the iconic Sardinian farming town of Furtei provides crucial insight into what could happen here, in southern Arizona.

InvestigativeMEDIA, LLC’s 23-minute video documentary “Cyanide Beach” tells an important and timely story that anyone interested in the Rosemont copper mine project needs to know.

“Cyanide Beach” will premier at 7 p.m., Thursday, August 23 at the Crossroads Theater in Tucson.

InvestigativeMEDIA founder John Dougherty will answer questions following the screening. Admission is free. To reserve your seat, please RSVP here. “Cyanide Beach” is also available for private showings. Contact InvestigativeMEDIA for more information.

Check out the movie trailer after the jump.

Questions about employment and MAS purity: Will the real Kristel Foster please stand up?

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Activist and educator Kristel Foster began campaigning for a seat on the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Governing Board not long after the board voted 4-1 to shut down the embattled Mexican American Studies (MAS) program– rather than lose $15 million over a program that had been declared illegal by the state of Arizona.

From the get-go, Foster made it clear that she was running as a "save MAS" candidate. In fact, when Foster and fellow "save MAS" candidate Ralph Ellinwood spoke at Drinking Liberally (DL) in June, the audience was twice the normal size, due to a strong showing of MAS stalwarts who came to cheer them on– including ThreeSonorans blogger Abie Morales and Tucson Weekly reporter Mari Herreras.

Unfortunately for Foster, since the August 8 Drinking Liberally kibitz fest, Morales has started attacking her for being an MAS turncoat. (He's even calling for MAS supporters to suggest possible write-in candidates.)

The special guest for the August 8 meeting was supposed to be Cam Juarez (also a "save MAS" candidate). Unfortunately, it poured down rain that night, and the DL turnout was very low. As a result, Drinking Liberally reverted to DL Classic Mode (ie, everyone sits around and endulges in free-form political discussion, with no official speaker). On that fateful night, four TUSD board candidates were present– Foster, Juarez, Betts Puttnam-Hildalgo, and incumbent Mark Stegeman. 

Stegeman asked the others the $15 million question: Would they have voted to shut down MAS in order to avoid the $15 million fine from the state? Puttman-Hildalgo and Juarez said, No. They said they would have defied the state ruling and voted with board member Adeltia Grijalva to retain the program– regardless of the cost to the district. (This is the MAS true believer stance.) Foster said she would have voted with the majority to shut down MAS, hence the attack from the ThreeSonorans blog. This looks like a giant flip-flop from a long-time, in-the-trenches MAS supporter.

After the jump is her Facebook explanation. Also, the plot thickens with the question: Should a Sunnyside School District employee vote on the next superintendent of TUSD?

Peace activist Medea Benjamin on drone warfare (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Traditionally, war is a messy business– all that blood, sweat, and tears– not to mention danger, death, destruction, dismembered bodies, human suffering, nightmares, guilt, wasted taxpayer dollars, mounting deficit spending… you know the drill. (Pun intended.)

In recent years, the US military-industrial complex has made war less messy and less dangerous, at least for a select group of American soldiers. Drone pilots sit in secure bunkers and, armed with banks of sophisticated computer hardware, “fly” unmanned killing machines.

Drones– killing machines aimed at faceless targets– AKA fellow human beings– thousands of miles away.

No-muss, no-fuss drone warfare is no less deadly, destructive, or perverse than traditional war. It’s just easier and cleaner– just like playing the same violent video game day after day.

Although you hear about drones in the news, there is never any real analysis or detailed reporting of what the US is doing. Recently, Code Pink co-founder and author of the book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control Medea Benjamin gave an eye-opening talk to an audience of about 60 Tucson activists. Personally, I was shocked how deeply entrenched in drone warfare Tucson already is. Davis-Monthan, The University of Arizona, Raytheon, and Fort Huachuca all have ties to the drone business. According to Benjamin, Fort Huachuca trains more drone pilots than any other facility in the world.

Last winter, Mayor Rothschild, then Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' office, and the  Davis-Monthan 50 held a press conference promoting Tucson and DM as a drone warfare center. (You can see the Tucson Sentinel’s raw raw footage here above and in KVOA’s edited news footage here.) We already have a dearth of good-paying jobs in Tucson that are not connected to the military industrial complex. Why court more

 Videos of the Benjamin talk after the jump.

Code enforcement crackdown past due: Slumlord millionaires, part deux

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3500 BL CAMDE N SIDE 7-22-12

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Exactly one month ago, I wrote a blog post trying to shame lazy landlords and trashy tenants and trying to push the City of Tucson into holding property owners accountable for illegal dumping. Apparently, slumlords are shameless bunch… but I perservere.

Instead of uploading another collection of trashy photos, I decided to focus on a case study– the midtown property owned by Alice Reynolds-Jordan and Gregory Jordan, 4160 Old York Rd., Monkton, MD. Why the Jordans? Because their collection of duplexes in midtown were in my July 2 code violation article (photo below), and a month later, the trash pile not only still sits in the curb lawn, it’s gotten bigger.

Alghough there have been several complaints to the city about this property, the original mattress is not only still there, but a couch and other pieces of furniture are now piled on top of and around the original couch (photo above). Also, often than not, there is junk furniture or just junk dumped illegally in the curb lawn in front of this property. My question to the city is: Why does it take SOOOOO LOOOONG to crackdown on repeat offenders like this?

The city has a graffiti reporting app to aid in rapid the reporting, clean-up, and tracking of graffiti. Why not a code enforcement app to report, clean-up and track illegal dumping? It could work the same way: concerned citizen snaps a digital photo and poof sends it to the city with the address and complaint.

Why don’t we have this app? The only reason I can think of is that the graffiti app potentially catches “criminals” while the code enforcement app would catch businessmen who are relying on the inefficiency and glacial speed of the city to aid them in breaking the law. (The plot thickens.)

More after the jump.