Topics in This Issue:
Blue Light Recognition
I’m going to add another group to the blue light front line workers we honor this week. They’re equally deserving of our thanks for putting themselves out there for the good of the community. That’s our educators.
Since March I’ve written several times about the mental health effects social isolation can have. Much of that has been geared towards seniors. But there are growing impacts of isolation for young people as well. And our teachers are making it possible to help alleviate some of that.
I write about the Department of Education metrics for reopening schools and the most recent guidance is that we’re not able to safely fully reopen. And yet we have teachers – and school staff – in the schools taking part in distanced and reduced classes for students whose situations necessitate them being in a classroom. At the same time, those teachers are doing double duty by preparing hybrid course material and teaching kids online. I run past Davidson School from time to time and on their marquee, it says “We’re providing quality online instruction.” And they join many other schools in providing needed in-person classroom instruction for students who must be there.
Thanks to the teachers and school staff who are working extra hard to be sure all of their students’ health needs are being addressed; educational, emotional, mental, and physical. The State can give its recommendations about opening, but without someone at the front of the classroom, the doors would remain closed.
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Testing with a Purpose
Our financial resources for testing are limited. We’re spending CARES Act money, as is the County. It’s not an endless supply of cash, so each of our testing efforts must come with an understandable purpose. Just setting up randomly and stopping people on the street is not a good use of our limited dollars.
The Downtown Tucson Partnership (DTP) has been working with Pima County health for months getting ready to reopen downtown. I’ve written about the Ready for You campaign in previous newsletters. Last week, the reopening began. It’s my Local Tucson item for this week.
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If you head downtown, look for this emblem in windows of businesses. It’s a signal that they’ve gone through all of the health guidelines laid down by Pima County so you can be assured the place is a healthy environment.
The Partnership has also been planning for a well-thought-out testing plan for downtown. They surveyed all of the member businesses and asked about interest in a testing location for downtown. Included in the survey were things such as location, days and times most convenient, and of course, cost.
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With the survey results now in hand, the DTP is sitting down with Pima County Health this week to hammer out the final details. Working with the County contractor Paradigm Labs, they’ll be deciding on a downtown location for the tests. These will be free to anyone who comes by. But the “purpose” piece is that the site will be up for 2-3 months, depending on how the virus evolves. That means employees, customers, and downtown residents will have a defined site they can visit, multiple times per week if they feel the need, and get a COVID test done. It’s the regularity and repeat visit piece that gives the plan a purpose.
Over the weekend the Mayor’s office set up shop downtown and did a 2 hour testing/mask giveaway event. There was a purpose in the mask give away, but spending the money on random testing, in an area that’s not one of our known hot spots, with no offer for repeat testing for positives? A better use of those dollars would have been to offer them to the DTP and County to support their upcoming program.
Downtown’s back open – partially, and safely. Repeat testing opportunities are coming to downtown. Please support these local businesses. They’ve done their part in providing a safe environment and need us to pay a visit to help keep them up and running.
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Virtual Camping
And while we’re on the topic of virtual vs in-person activities, how about a virtual campout? When was the last time you went camping? Not sleeping in a hotel and calling that camping. But the real deal – on the ground, in a sleeping bag with a rock right underneath where you’re trying to get comfortable? Well, it doesn’t have to be quite that way. To see how click on cruisinandcampfires.ck.page.
This isn’t another Zoom meeting. The Cruisin' and Campfires folks have spent the COVID days traveling to various campsites around the Southwest – with a couple of little kids in tow - coming up with creative ideas for camping activities. But the activities can be done in your backyard just as easily.
Each day from October 15th through the 17th, they’re going to email everyone who signs up activity ideas for kids ages 2 through 6. Things such as scavenger hunts, or art projects they’ve come up with using nature as the canvas. The activities are all going to be done offline, so you’re not getting involved with a situation where you’ll be perching your kids in front of another monitor. And there’ll be some prizes included for parents who email in pictures of their kids doing the activities. By going to the site, you can get all the details on how to sign up. And it’s free.
School’s virtual – camping can be. But at least with these fun ideas for your kids, you won’t have to wake up limping out of a sleeping bag. That guy in the picture up above – he's smiling, but wait until he tries to move...been there/done that.
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UA and COVID
We also set up shop for more testing last week. Ours was at the UA high rise towers. We know there’s a purpose in testing at a COVID hot spot. The students had other ideas.
We were told straight up that they didn’t want to test because if the results came back positive, they’d have to isolate. Instead, there was a huge party happening in the room circled. Yes, I passed the photo along to authorities.
This is the data from the most recent UA dashboard:
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 UA and COVID
It simply does not include information based on what’s happening in the high rises and other private apartment buildings surrounding campus. The only entity with the authority to compel testing is the UA. I’ve been pretty clear on record suggesting they make it a condition of taking classes that students test negative. The City cannot compel that. The Pima County Health folks can’t either. And the private management of the towers won’t. It’d be bad for business. In fact, when I sent an email to all of the on-site managers last week asking that they send a notice around their respective buildings letting the students know we’d be across the street testing, not a single one responded.
There’s the old saying ‘ignorance is bliss.’ In this case, it’s also very convenient. Don’t test and avoid quarantining. For those of us more concerned with the health of the wider community, that self-absorbed attitude is concerning from the standpoint of how it will impact residents. I’m told the Pima County Health group will be sharing my thoughts on mandatory testing with UA leadership.
COVID Week of Morning
The impact on residents has been fatal for over 600 of our neighbors in Pima County. And more than 25,000 have become ill due to COVID. Here are the most recent Pima County data.
 Sunday, my staff and I hosted a local event that was tied to the National Week of Mourning. Ours was held in Himmel Park. This is the notice I sent out to alert people:
We're grateful for the excellent coverage Mark Mingura from KVOA, Channel 4 news gave to the COVID-19 Himmel Park vigil. It's an important memorial to the community, and his report did it justice.
I’m also grateful to Sam Hughes neighbor Diane for helping to be a catalyst for the event. She’s the friend of Art Rotstein’s wife. Art passed away last summer from COVID. He’s the guy in the middle in this photo – a former local journalist, surrounded in the picture by other AP staffers. I received a letter from Art’s daughter leading up to the event in which she expressed deep gratitude for the event, even in the heartbreak of the loss. There was lots of that to go around on Sunday.
The bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace followed by the reflections offered by Rabbi Saulson were the perfect prelude to peoples’ own quiet time remembering lost loved ones. It would have topped the night if kids from the towers would have stopped by to talk to family members who are grieving those losses. None did.
The 10 day totals from the UA dashboard show a 4.1% positivity rate. If we can’t test the hot spots, that figure has virtually no meaning for impacts on the community.
And this trend graph shows how the infection has progressed since classes opened up. It hasn’t been updated by the UA to include the past couple of weeks.
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 This is from a Chronicle article I came across last week showing how the 7 schools in Arizona are sharing in the COVID outbreak. It’s showing the UA at just over 2,100 cases, so it’s not as current as the dashboard figures shown above. But it gets the point across that we’ve got issues around campus in midtown. And I know those numbers do not include off campus infections Pima County has tracked. That’s likely true of the ASU totals as well.
 All of this is affecting the economy in multiple ways. People aren’t planning on travelling this holiday season, which will have downstream impacts on our entertainment, restaurant, hotel and other leisure industry partners. This is from a Visit Tucson survey, making the point:
 On Saturday the Pac 12 football schedule was announced. Since there will be no fans in attendance, the out of town guests will not be what they’ve been in the past. But here’s the upcoming UA football schedule, with game times yet to be determined. Home games are in Bold.
 More on COVID below. There are clearly multiple moving parts to tracking this issue. Sunday’s event in Himmel was one of the emotional parts.
TEP Substation Livestream
Over the past months I’ve shared updates on the TEP substation project. It’s their desire to upgrade service from the existing 46Kv up to 138Kv by upgrading old infrastructure. There will be another public open house – offered virtually – on Tuesday, October 6th from 6pm until 8pm. Go to this site to get the link for signing on. They’ll post that link on the day of the event.
This is the proposed route map. During Tuesday’s meeting, the project team will whittle down the number of options to 6. The process includes TEP proposing a preferred alternative to a siting subcommittee of the Arizona Corporation Commission, and if that’s found to be compatible with surrounding concerns, the full ACC will vote on it. There are ‘surrounding concerns’ still being discussed.
 Many of the concerns fall into the category of aesthetics. They’re not trivial. This is an image of what the new power poles may look like. This is from downtown -
Note the 3 lines. That’s for the 3 phases. High power transmission lines are pretty obvious when you see them. Thus, the concern over aesthetics.
There are other concerns being voiced. Some of those include issues of property values – a concern the County, in particular, might have issues with since they rely on property taxes for their revenues. The impact on historic neighborhoods, viewsheds along scenic gateways, orphan poles – the leftovers when ‘upgrades’ are made - and just visual clutter are also being discussed.
Options to the 115’ tall poles exist in other areas. Here’s are 2 examples from Bystrup Power Poles – used in Denmark and around the U.K.;
 They call is ‘visual stewardship’ on their site. And of course, there’s the discussion of undergrounding.
 The City will consider a special exception zoning request related to the substation being proposed for the Banner UMC location. It’s not on our posted agenda yet, but given TEP’s preferred timeline, expect it in the next few meetings.
Small Cell Poles
Another utility-related item that is on our agenda is the process we’re seeing followed by small cell pole providers. It’s largely governed by State law. And it’s not working.
For the October 20th study session, I’ve requested this item:
 You’ve seen them while you’re out and about -
When one of the poles replaces an existing street light, the new cell pole will include a light. They’re currently being installed primarily by AT&T and Verizon. Right now, the AT&T poles are 4G but count on them being upgraded at some point.
The purpose of the poles is for the home WiFi we’re now relying on, and also for first responder communications. So, the study session request isn’t saying we don’t need or want the technology. It’s about process. That is, cell companies are just showing up in peoples’ front yards with heavy equipment ready to dig, having engaged in zero advance discussion with residents about optional locations.
In 2018 the State Legislature passed a law that removes us from much of the conversation over the location of the small cell poles if they’re in City right of way. It also says that if we don’t issue a permit within a specified time, the application is assumed to have been approved. Our transportation department right now manages the application process. The breakdown is outreach to neighbors.
This isn’t NIMBY. Consider your reaction if you woke up and found this outside your house:
 Or this – note the two homes hidden in the background behind the barricades that are blocking the right of way. This AT&T site is taking place with no outreach whatsoever given to the property owners who live around the area.
 And this is a shot of the next site location they’ve chosen – taken from back in the olden days when it rained, but we can anticipate at some point in the future Pima Street where they’re targeting the next pole could look similar to this once more.
The detention basin AT&T has selected was a part of a $500K federally grant funded water harvesting project the Garden District worked on for over 7 years. It’s safe to say that the residents are less than thrilled to hear it’ll soon be the home of another small cell pole.
We’ll have this discussion and see what leverage we can impose on the companies who are asking for our business. Similarly, TEP will be on an upcoming agenda. Nobody I’ve heard from is anti-technology. But everyone I’ve heard from doesn’t want our City to continue down the road of being one utility pole after another along our rights-of-way.
Another Utility Issue
Water. We can live – uncomfortably – without electricity and cell coverage, but we cannot live without water. Join Sharon Megdal, Director of the UA Water Resources Research Center for a presentation called “Wicked Water Problems; Scarcity, Sharing, and Sustainability”. It’ll be held virtually on October 23rd at 9:30am.
The title covers the presentation pretty well. Sharon will give examples of each part of the title, using the Middle East, but also Arizona and the Colorado River Basin as cases in point. We joined several other States last year in adopting a Drought Contingency Plan. That is a stop-gap measure. Water scarcity is still an issue, and it’s not going away.
Sharon is our elected representative on the Central Arizona Project board. You need to pre-register for this presentation. Do that by going to www.tgda.org. There’s a $10 registration fee. This is being presented as one of the Tucson Great Decisions Association series.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Each October our partners at Emerge help this community understand more fully the impacts of domestic violence. This year in particular it has been a significant concern for many who have been forced to shelter-in-place with an abuser. COVID has had this collateral impact on lives throughout the region.
As I’ve done in the past, I’ll be sharing items on DV in these newsletters throughout the month. Emerge is leading the charge in terms of creating a space for us all to hear about DV through stories brought by victims. This month the messages about DV will be framed by author Caroline Randall Williams. She’s a Black woman of the south. I’ll share a recent NY Times piece she wrote in which she lays bare the reality that our history is one of having normalized violence against Black women in the south. And based on the DV experience of many, that normalization continues – in Tucson.
Nothing about DV is easy, so as I give these spaces in the newsletter to them, expect to be challenged to act and/or perhaps reexamine perspectives. We each live a unique reality and can learn from those that others bring to the conversation.
If you know of someone who may be being victimized by domestic abuse, please call the Emerge hotline at 795.4266. You can find their website at www.emergecenter.org.
Sister Jose Support Event
My office has a long relationship with Sister Jose homeless women’s shelter. It’s not without some irony that the shelter is hosting its virtual annual fundraiser during domestic violence awareness month. Women on the street are significantly and uniquely vulnerable to abuse. The team at Sister Jose are sensitive to and address the needs of women experiencing homelessness.
The virtual fundraiser will be held on Saturday, October 24th beginning at 5pm. You can find all the information about the event on their website; www.sisterjose.org. The event link is located at the top of the home page.
Please consider taking part in this event. It could be one of your DV bucket list ‘to-dos’ for this year. If you have questions, contact Brenda @ 250.5195, or to get involved as a sponsor call Julee at 808.8558.
Halloween Activities
Each year, many of our neighborhoods throughout the City have lots of kids walking through for Halloween. The recommendation from the Pima County Health Department is that we discourage that this year. Issues related to strangers meeting in doorways, passing food back and forth, and likely doing only minimal distancing is troublesome. I agree with their recommendation.
Broadmoor/Broadway Village Neighborhood is one of the W6 neighborhoods that has a rich history of foot traffic on Halloween. This year they’re sharing the message that BBVN is not gearing up to host trick or treaters. No haunted houses, no hosting sidewalk parties – please do not take your kids through that neighborhood this year. The area is bounded roughly by Country Club and Tucson Blvd, and Broadway back to the Arroyo Chico. And I’ve received word that the Sam Hughes neighborhood leadership has taken a similar position. Everyone wants to stay safe and to keep the kids safe. I applaud that.
Don’t let that stop you from taking part in our W6 office costume contest. We’re judging 2 human costumes and 1 pet costume. There will be prizes for the winners. Please email us your entries on, or about Halloween and we’ll sit down together – distanced – and pick some winners.
 The goal is fun. We can help with that without spreading the virus.
What’s Happening in Colleges and Universities Across the Country?
Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he was reopening their State. No more COVID restrictions – free swing at the ball. Last weekend though the Tallahassee police were busy breaking up huge parties around the Florida State U. campus. This is a part of a post the Tallahassee PD issued:
We’ll see in about 2 weeks if the reopening results in a resurgence of COVID in Florida. I’ve said before that the virus sets the rules. If that’s true, it’ll apparently have plenty of opportunity if this partying is an indication of how Floridians are responding to the reopening.
The U. of Iowa set up a hotline for people to report violations of their COVID restrictions. In the past couple of weeks, they’ve received over 450 complaints. According to The Gazette over the weekend, Iowa City police broke up several parties that appeared to involve fraternities and sororities. In Pima County if you see a business that’s not complying with COVID rules you can report it here and their Consumer Health Food Safety team will look into it. For out of control parties, call 911, or email to redtag@tucsonaz.gov.
Cal St. Long Beach went on a 2 week quarantine last week. For that period of time, all in-person classes have been cancelled. They took that action after 5 students had participated in an off-campus party and then tested positive. By way of comparison, here’s the UA dashboard from last week (also shown above).
And for more perspective, the NY Times reported last week that Colleges and Universities have now passed 130,000 cases of COVID this year.
I mentioned last week that finances are certainly a part of the decisions being made at schools across the nation. Last week the U. of Delaware announced it is furloughing all of its staff, will lay off some undetermined number, and that it’s taking $100M from its endowment in order to work down some of its $250M budget gap. That’s the same figure the UA has cited since the March shut down.
Last week I noted that Notre Dame had to cancel their football game against Wake Forest. This week their coach identified where the virus spread through his team. You do not have to be symptomatic in order to pass COVID along to others.
And that’s Chad Dorrill. He was a student at Appalachian State. Last week, at the age of 19, he died of COVID-related complications. He had been feeling extremely tired, went home and tested positive. After quarantining and then being released by his doctor, he returned to school, fell ill again and was hospitalized. Chad was an otherwise very healthy young guy.
In a statement, App State admin reminded faculty, staff and students, “All of us must remain vigilant with our safety behaviors wherever we are in our community. We can flatten the curve, but to do so, we must persevere. From the smallest acts to the most important personal relationships, we must actively work each day to reduce the spread of this highly communicable disease.”
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Pima County Trends
By way of reminder, here’s the dashboard from the UA that shows where we were the week before Labor Day.
 And here’s the data from the UA dashboard I shared above – from last weekend:
Pima County Health is putting together a new online portal that allows tracking COVID by census tract. It’ll let us point to locations such as off campus housing and demonstrate the infection levels that exist in those specific areas. But it is still a function of having been allowed to test and gather the data. If people refuse to be tested, the data will be skewed.
Here’s the Harvard Global risk level assessment.
 Last week I shared that we were at 21.5 daily new cases per 100,000, and the daily new case figure over the 7 day moving average was at 225. That placed us in the Orange risk category. Here’s what appears in the current Harvard dashboard for Pima County:
It puts us in the Yellow. My premise for all of these data has been that we don’t know what we can’t test. There is right now a negative incentive for students to test; quarantine if you’re positive. We can either live with that or compel testing. Only the UA can break that tie.
And this is the NY Times ranking of Arizona Counties’ top 10 for over the past 7 days:
 The message is the same. Let’s get the University student population included in those numbers before jumping to the conclusion that this is all on a steady downward slope.
Be Kind
The American flags we had in place for the COVID memorial didn’t just appear on their own. First, Kaimas Foundation funded its purchase. Their focus is on touching lives of the less fortunate. In this case, it was touching lives who have been shattered through loss due to COVID. We at the Ward 6 office are grateful for their Kindness.
And we’re grateful for all of the volunteers who showed up in the near-100 degree heat on Sunday afternoon to do their part in the flag planting. We had Sam Hughes residents and Salpointe students who took the time to help get things ready for the event. And of course, my staff and some of their family members. Without all of their efforts, the community would not have had the chance to share those special moments during yesterday’s event. If you stop by, you’ll find photos people left behind to honor their loved one who has passed. I’ll be passing through several times this week to take it all in.
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COVID Raw Data
Above I gave the Pima County data from last week. Here’s how it looks Statewide.
 Also last week, Pima County schools had failed to meet the 3 benchmarks laid down by the State Department of Education for reopening. This was the one of the 3 we still hadn’t hit:
 Well, we still haven’t. From the DOE dashboard over the weekend, this is the current summary of Pima County results related to reopening schools:
 I’d add this though. Look at the comparison in data points for the top benchmark – comparing this week’s numbers with what they had reported last week. They don’t match. It once again points to the difficulty many of us have in placing a ton of confidence in what’s being reported, and therefore how it’s being used in decision making.
And consider what the State Department of Health Services has on their dashboard from last weekend for percent positive tests:
It’s above the DOE guideline and does not align with what they’re reporting on that State site.
At least in this case the variances were relatively small, and the conclusion was the same; don’t reopen schools yet.
Here’s your weekly update on the Statewide COVID numbers, by County. From last week’s newsletter:
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 And here are the numbers from AZDHS as of last weekend:
And for your own research – these links:
For the NY Times data sets, use this link:
The State Department of Health site is at this link: www.azdhs.gov.
And here’s the UA daily update link. www.covid.arizona.edu. When it opens, click ‘See Latest Updates’ and it’ll take you to a screen with the updated data.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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