We have our share of challenging issues. Sometimes we need the unforeseen diversion of a ‘snow day’ to redirect our psyche to a renewed place. Check out these zoo critters having fun in the moment and setting aside their cares. Something for all of us to keep in mind when things get to be a lift.
The county is making its way through the 1A and 1B eligible people. The biggest constraint remains the quantity of vaccine being committed, and the timing of arrival. That’s all a function of the state Department of Health. From multiple contacts with our local health care team, I know they’re in constant communication with the state, trying to free up larger quantities of vaccines, and also trying to get longer term commitments on deliveries. Some of the vaccination sites won’t schedule appointments without the assurance of having doses to administer. So one weak link affects the whole vaccination chain. Here’s the chart showing who’s in the target groups right now.
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Last week Arizona had administered 412,000 doses statewide. While that’s good, only 62,000 had received both a first and second dose. This Bloomberg COVID19 Tracker graphic shows where we are currently. They’ve changed to % of population, which is probably a better way of judging how far we’ve come, and how far we’ve got left to go. Some progress, but slow.
There are now 6 pharmacies up and running for vaccinations. Each is in a grocery store setting. They’re not ‘walk in’ - you must register. And the state is forcing adherence to the strict pecking order shown in the chart above. Use this link to get registered. It’s good for each of the various vaccination sites that are open.
And here’s the county-by-county comparison I pull from the state website. Pima County is still near the top in terms of vaccinations administered per 100,000 population. Our TCC site has been chugging along at over 1,000 per day. In the past week over 30,000 doses have been given in Pima County.
As you can see, nobody is beyond Phase 1B yet. There are over 200,000 people in that category, so this is going to take a while. In Pima County, about 18,000 people have received 2 doses. That’s less than 2% of our population.
With the 107,000 doses administered, and now about that same number of people in Pima County who’ve had COVID, we’re at close to 20% of the population that has some level of immunity. Many of the vaccinated people are 1 dose only, and we don’t know for sure how long immunity lasts if you’ve had the virus. So the ‘some level of immunity’ statement really needs to be taken with caution.
If you need a hand with the registration process, please call either 324.6400 or 222.0119. Things change every day with this program, so don’t hesitate to call them if you’re unsure at any point in the process.
Glass Recycle Relocation
Thank you for continuing to participate in the glass reuse program. For the many of you who are regularly bringing your empties by, we’ve had to relocate the bin. It’s actually in a safer location for you – no longer behind the building, but out in front so there are better sightlines if you’re here at night.
Still come around the back, but exit as you have normally been doing and you’ll see the glass bin to your left before you get back to the street. We’re now officially in the ‘no more glass in the blue barrel’ phase, so please pass the word. I know several neighborhoods are having a few homes as their own repository, and are asking a couple of the neighbors to make runs down to the Ward office with large deposits. Thanks for your creativity and support.
We’re also working out the kinks of what to do with the cardboard boxes you haul over with your bottles. When I was doing all the crushing, I’d just break down the boxes and recycle them. I’m working with our Environmental Services staff to get a larger bin out in front for that material now. Patience...
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Small Cell Poles
Last week I shared a picture of one of the cell poles that has gone up in Blenman-Elm. Alongside it were the TEP 4’ tall meter box, and the 5’ tall PVC orange and white warning marker. I mentioned your creativity in the glass section. Well...
the orange and white PVC warning marker is now all tucked in for the winter with its very own knitted scarf. And it’s no longer the ugly eyesore it was when Verizon installed it. I can’t tell you to go out on a mission of encapsulating all of these, but if it happens organically, well, I guess it falls under the category of ’people just do stuff.’
We made a little in-house progress last week. Our city manager and transportation director have agreed to use traffic control sign locations for new cell poles. If there’s a Stop or Yield sign in the area the cell pole is being proposed, we can install the cell pole at the traffic sign location and mount the traffic sign onto the pole. This is of course subject to studying the site to see if there are any underground utilities that would cause a conflict. It won’t eliminate the cell pole, but it will reduce clutter to some degree. I realize this isn’t something you’ll find recommended in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, but as long as we’re all trying to find creative solutions to community issues, this fits into that category.
We held a follow up meeting with Verizon related to the relocation of a pole that’s programmed for the Right of Way in front of a residence just off from Grant Rd. To their credit, Verizon is engaged. As has been the case far too often in this mess, we’re finding out about the pole so late in the process that our ability to effect change is limited. But Verizon is considering options.
In Chandler, they’re using a pole style that eliminates the electric meter box. Here are a couple of examples:
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Yes, the pole is still there, and is still the major issue, but I’ve asked Verizon if we can begin this approach in some Tucson locations.
And there’s yet another corporate piece to this. We have the cellular providers, TEP, and now comes the fiber company. Century Link had plans for trenching across the ROW in front of multiple neighbors’ homes in Garden District to connect their fiber with the Verizon pole. They’d generally tear up the landscape, perhaps killing the trees. And the subcontractors have already done a number on some of the existing trees in the area, clipping them in a way I’m positive they would not do in their own front yards.
I’m grateful to our transportation director. She has told them to trench in the street, and avoid the ROW. This won’t be an available solution in every case, but it’s a small win here. I’ll continue working this from all angles. If you see suspicious Blue Staking around your house, ask us to check it out. Once they get to digging, it’s way too late. I’m requesting another study session on this item for March 9th. What we’re seeing is way out of control, and saying ‘there’s nothing we can do about it’ is not an answer.
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Harvest Dispensary
Three weeks ago, the state issued Harvest Dispensary a license to sell recreational pot. As you can see, it didn’t take long for word to spread. If you live in the Treat/Grant area, you know what a nightmare this has been. One part of that is that all of those people standing in line – they drove to the place.
 With this result. That has been the norm from 6am until 10pm pretty much every day until our Park Tucson folks got out and did some curb painting. But really, it shouldn’t take artwork on a curb to keep people from totally blocking someone’s driveway like the red car is doing. And if you drive a red car, don’t take this personally, but...
 Even with the curb painted, some people just didn’t grab ahold of the concept.
 I’ve been in touch with the city manager, city attorney, parking director, transportation director, planning director, TPD, TFD, city real estate and the Pima County Health people to help get solutions in place. And I was able to track down one of the dispensary owners – in Tulsa – and three times he spent time on the phone with me talking through solutions. We had good exchanges. Unfortunately, I heard from one of the neighbors late last week that the guy’s tone changed. She evidently suggested that the dispensary help fund some portion of fencing she has to put up to keep the crowd out of her property. That’s when it shifted to defensive mode. At $140 for a half-ounce of pot, they could afford to help the lady.
If you live in the area and you see parking issues, please call 791.3154 (M-F, 8-5) and 262.7373 after 5pm and on weekends. That will get a much quicker response than trying to use 911. Parking will not jump to the top of the emergency response queue at the 911 center.
Thank you parking staff for getting the curbs painted red so quickly. So far it’s only areas that are already illegal to park, such as where that red Mustang is parked – in front of someone’s driveway. TPD has been on site a lot, writing tickets, walking the customer line and advising people they’re subject to a citation if they’re illegally parked, and generally trying to keep peace in the area. There have been threats to neighbors, guns pulled and loud, disruptive behavior all day and into the night. I’m grateful for TPD’s work.
As I was walking past the place on Saturday night I saw one car parked right next to a fire hydrant, another parked on the wrong side of the street heading in the wrong direction, and another parked up on a sidewalk. We had a Park Tucson person on duty. I assume he saw what I saw and took action.
Another piece of this is the city working with the dispensary to temporarily allow them to use a city-owned vacant lot to park. I’ve asked the owners to use a ‘stay in your car and we’ll text you when it’s your turn to come in’ system. They had something like that for medical marijuana, but nothing for recreational. They could try ‘by appointment only,’ but the reality is they’re pretty much enjoying the local monopoly the state has given them. You see, there will eventually be 11 of these licenses scattered around the city. Right now, Harvest is the only game in midtown. What you see in the pictures is the result. They’re likely not going to the ‘by appointment’ system, but are looking into the Text Queue idea.
I have a standing wager offer with our fire chief; that is, that he can’t get an emergency vehicle up Treat during the ‘rush hour’ for Harvest if a single car is coming in the other direction. I’ll be happy to take his $5, but more to the point, this is beyond a nuisance. It might require taking out parking on one side of the street completely. It’s a work in progress.
We will be reviewing our zoning regulations for dispensaries to address the new world recreational pot sales have created for us. That discussion will begin in March/April. Right now our rules are restrictive, which means some locations such as an empty storefront in a shopping mall that has a ton of parking may not qualify. We need to take a hard look at easing up some of the rules so these places are not effectively forced into inappropriate locations such as this one on Treat. Even with medical pot only, Harvest has always been a traffic/crowd problem.
The RTA Grant Rd widening project will eventually take out ½ of the Harvest building. That will mean a forced relocation. I’m checking to see if we can accelerate that process in order to address a public safety condition that was created by the licensing of recreational pot sales at this location. The Phase 5/6 Grant Rd project is already financially challenged, so I’m not sure how successful moving up the relocation will be. Until then, we’ll continue working this location hard to do what we can to preserve quality of life for the nearby residents.
Harvest is hiring their own security to help monitor parking. TPD is working with our transportation department to also provide assistance in that area. I’ll be dropping by a couple of times per day to check in on the place. And our planning department sent out a letter on Friday to all of the remaining dispensaries. We’re going to have to revisit our local zoning regulations now that recreational is legal. This is a part of what we put out to the other places last week for things we want from them as the new licenses are rolled out.
Free Speech and COVID
Many of you know my thoughts on the UA’s action towards eliminating my position as it related to my being outspoken about their off-campus COVID testing program. Or lack of one. They have of course said that my termination was due to financial reasons, and that there was no ‘speech’ issue at all. Lots of people don’t buy that. With that in mind, I found it interesting to see a longtime professor of education at Collin College, Suzanne Jones had her 3 year contract extension revoked last week. Why? She believes it was due to her speaking out criticizing the college’s COVID-reopening plan.
Collin is a community college in McKinney, Texas. You might remember my mentioning them in a COVID update earlier in the year. They had an employee die from COVID, but only gave recognition of it near the end of a longer memo sent out to the community. Well, they also canceled a faculty panel that was to discuss faculty burnout due to COVID. Now with the termination of Suzanne Jones, the morale at the place has tanked. Every school that clamps down on speech activities, especially over an issue that affects the health of the surrounding community should be concerned with morale.
The Collin faculty prepared this resolution. The UA took action in my case a week after they lobbied hard to get the M&C to vote down my non-binding mandatory testing Resolution. The Collin College resolution called for delays in returning to in-person classes. Despite having received glowing performance reports, Jones’ contract was revoked after she signed onto the document. She believes it’s retaliation, and will be seeking legal counsel. I certainly wish her well.
People, Communities, and Homes Investment Plan (P-CHIP) Applications
Last month we finalized the P-CHIP program. It’s a game plan for addressing the needs of homeless people in the community. Included are elements of housing stability, emergency housing, and lots more. Right now our Housing department has sent out a call for projects related to the ‘People’ component of the program.
Under the People category there’ll be a variety of possible funding sources available. Those will include Community Development Block Grants (CDBG,) Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG,) Housing for Persons w/AIDS (HOPWA) money, and some general fund allocations. The call for projects is for our upcoming fiscal year.
On Tuesday, February 2nd, city staff will host a Zoom session during which they’ll give an orientation for this phase of the call for projects, and answer questions you have about getting an application in. The meeting will run from 3pm until 4pm. Please use this link to register for the meeting:
Also, if you’re considering applying for a project that would be funded by our CDBG program, or our general fund, you can email Latifah Bowser with your questions. She’s at latifah.bowser@tucsonaz.gov. And for ESG or HOPWA projects, get ahold of Thelma Magallanes at thelma.magallanes@tucsonaz.gov. These are important opportunities to get involved in providing some much needed services. We’re grateful to all of the agencies who participate.
Iskashitaa Refugee Network
An agency I highlight from time to time that’s also involved with taking care of underserved populations is the Iskashitaa Refugee Network. Many of you take part in their work by offering to let their workers come and glean from your fruit trees. Even during COVID, they’re still out there harvesting and making the food available to refugee families. The needs don’t go away just because we’re all living very abnormal lives right now, and Iskashitaa is looking for people who’ll stay involved.
If you’ve got fruit trees and can offer up some of the harvest, or if you’re interested in other ways you can help our local refugee families, please reach out to their Harvesting Coordinator, Allison Doty. You can get her at 440.0100 or connect through their website at www.iskashitaa.org.
CROWN Act
In the past week, I’ve heard more and more support for the CROWN Act ordinance coming to M&C on February 23rd. The Tucson Black Women’s Task Force (BWTF) is one of the prime catalysts behind a local law preventing discrimination based on natural hair. Check them out – they're prominent Tucsonans, many of whom you’ll likely recognize:
To refresh you, CROWN is an acronym that stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. States and cities across the nation are signing onto this anti-discrimination law that essentially says you may not treat others differently based on hair style. Last week I shared the picture of the young guy who was forced to cut his locs in order to compete in a wrestling tournament. And I shared data from a Dove survey about black women who have been treated differently in workplace settings as a result of having worn natural hair styles. It’s all wrong.
The Tucson BWTF was formed to advocate for women’s issues in the community. They are meeting virtually every 2nd Saturday. You can find out how to sign onto those meetings through their website at www.blackwomenstaskforce.org. They’re a group of moms, daughters, sisters, friends, professionals, neighbors, teachers, parents and retirees. And as you can see from my friend Alison in the upper right portion of the picture, they’re inclusive.
I appreciate the NAACP, the BWTF and all of the other community-concerned groups who recognize the importance – especially now – of rooting out discriminatory practices. It’s past due time.
Tree Planting
Last weekend, Ariel joined the residents of Poets Square neighborhood in a mass tree planting project. On Saturday, teaming up with Trees for Tucson, the neighbors got together for what is now their ‘2nd annual’ tree planting day. Last January they did 87 trees along the wash/median in the neighborhood. Last weekend they gathered again and planted over 50 new trees. The Mayor needs to send them a copper letter for getting her closer to the 1,000,000 tree goal.
 And yes, it was a family affair. It’s great to see good habits being taught at early ages.
 We love it when residents take this sort of ownership in their neighborhoods. Thanks to Poets Square president Zack, his board and the folks who live there and took part in this work. Saturday was a beautiful morning for the project. And the rain softened up the soil just enough to help make things go a little easier than otherwise.
COVID on College Campuses
The CDC conducted a study that compared COVID outbreaks in communities where colleges opened with in-person classes vs colleges that stayed on a fully remote learning platform. The results are similar to those from another study I shared in last week’s newsletter. The short message – bringing students into a community results in increased viral spread. That can come as no surprise to any college administrator who has been weighing costs and benefits of reopening. I pulled this graphic from the CDC report.
Up the road in Tempe, more than 1,500 ASU students have canceled their campus housing contracts this academic year. State Press reports student disenchantment with campus life during the pandemic. One of the kids who moved out is quoted as saying “I was paying so much money just to sit in a room by myself on a computer.” I cannot blame her for leaving. The report also said ‘thousands more students had moved out of residence halls without attempting to cancel their contracts.’ An ASU spokesman said many of those are simply delaying their return to campus. Delaying reopening would have been the responsible way to handle the spring semester during a pandemic.
This is a picture of the UC Davis recreation center. They turned it into a testing site.
But the leadership at Davis didn’t stop with on-campus work. They instituted a program by which they made 2x p/week testing available out in the community to anybody who wanted to take part. They offered overnight results. They trained nearly 300 grad students to work as contact tracers. They reached out to apartment landlords to get them to offer free quarantine quarters for anyone in their town who tested positive. And they’ve caught over 850 outbreaks before they spread throughout their town.
Brad Pollock heads their Department of Health Sciences. He’s leading the project. One of his quotes strikes home for me: “What does it mean to keep your campus well when everyone else is getting sick around you?” said Dr. Pollock, the project director. “The university is part of the community.”
UC Davis could have done what most universities did – bring back students and try to create a campus bubble. Instead, they created a city-wide bubble, and they’re being lauded by health experts across the nation.
And more college presidents are testing positive for COVID. Michael Benson runs Coastal Carolina U. He told their local media that he was “not feeling so great at the moment and will remain in quarantine for the next 10 days.” Let’s hope for his sake that’s all he’ll need.
Dennis DePerro is the St. Bonaventure U President. He has been hospitalized with COVID for over a month. Last week he was placed on a ventilator. They say his condition is ‘serious but stable.’ The 10 day quarantine for many people is the starting point of a very bad outcome.
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New COVID Variant Strains
There are now 3 variant strains of COVID making their way across the country. This January 29th map shows they’re in 32 states, with 437 total cases. The source for the map is the CDC. I know we’ve now seen some of the new variant in Arizona, so this map will be updated this week to reflect that.
You can see that 3 days ago Arizona wasn’t affected. Given that the new strains are much more infectious, I don’t think anyone in the health care community was counting on that lasting. One of my concerns is the outbreak in Florida, the northeast, and in California. Those are huge population centers. With people feeling more inclined to travel, spread is likely.
COVID Risk in Arizona
Back to our COVID-19 virus. Two weeks ago I told you we had just passed 11,000 COVID deaths in Arizona. Last week that was up above 12,000. Now we’re over 14,000 COVID deaths in the state. That ‘plateau’ some people are talking about is meaningless to the families who are still impacted by this disease.
In Pima County we’ve now had over 100,000 cases, and over 1,700 deaths. That’s nearly 3x the number of fatalities we had when we hosted the Week of Mourning at Himmel Park in November. The holidays and the UA reopening have had an impact on that increase. How can I say that with any confidence? Let’s start the count 10 days after Christmas. This is the daily increase in Pima County fatalities since January 5th. They did not have to happen at these levels.
That’s 676 deaths since January 5th. And they were bunched up in clusters 10-20 days after both the holidays, and after the return to school.
Might there be a leveling off? Perhaps. This is a side by side comparison of new cases in Pima County from two weeks ago vs last week:
There weren’t any days of over 1,000 new cases last week, but remember, if there is a plateau, it’s slowing down from extremely high levels, and is not a situation where we can relax and pretend we’re done with COVID. I’m really hesitant to even speak in ‘plateau’ terms. I did that right before the surge that happened last summer, and we haven’t gotten close to those numbers again. And with the new variant strains emerging, well, we’re still in very much uncharted waters.
The national map kept by the Harvard Global Health Institute shows some promising news. I have no idea what’s up with Maine being green and good to go, but there are more and more places in the country where the high risk warning has been reduced to Orange.
Arizona continues to be completely in Red. And as a reminder, even people living in those Orange risk level areas aren’t out partying. Here’s what those levels mean:
No change in the zip code rankings since last week, but the 85706 area is really a hot spot. It’s located in the southern part of Tucson, beyond the downtown area.
The State Department of Education continues recommending all-virtual right now for teaching protocols in every county in the state. There is still no movement in any of the tracking metrics for reopening schools, to include colleges and universities.
The State of Arizona is no longer leading the country in terms of percent cases p/100,000. From the Covid Tracking Project site, this map shows whose leading the pack now. Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee and Pennsylvania have higher numbers than we do. But at 691 cases per 100,000, we’re way over the 100 per 100,000 the state calls ‘substantial risk’ for the purposes of reopening schools.
Here’s our statewide map. The infection numbers are why Harvard has the whole state in the high risk category.
Finally, the infection rate. Each of the regions being tracked (state, county and UA area) continue to come down slightly. The 1.05 Rt still means every sick person is infecting more than one other person, so as is consistent throughout the newsletter, the message is to keep being safe and wearing a mask.
Responsible health care officials are saying this is now a footrace between continuing the slow declines we’re seeing in COVID-19, spread of the new variant strains, and getting vaccines out widely. Please continue the CDC safe behavior activities you’re doing, and watch the vaccination chart for when it’s your turn to register for that.
For the NY Times data sets, use this link:
The State Department of Health site is at this link: www.azdhs.gov.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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