Rosemary is a health care worker who’s administering vaccines in one of our Points of Distribution (POD.) She saw my moaning about feeling lousy after my 2nd dose and shared this metaphor. She uses it with people she’s poking to give them a little warning that the second time around, your body might react differently than the first time. It goes like this – if someone snuck up and robbed you, your first reaction would be surprise. But if you recognized the person and saw him again, you’d respond in ways to fight back. Your body is taking that baseball bat to the virus the second time it shows up. That won’t make you feel any better, but you’ll know why you feel like you just got popped with a baseball bat.
Thanks, Rosemary. Oh, and if you ever hear I’m about to have major surgery, please don’t call me ahead of time to prep me for the after-effects...
Vaccine Update
Last week, the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and Ducey announced that in the Phoenix area, they’re starting to make vaccines available to people down to the age of 55. We’re still in the 65 and up phase. That’s a commentary on how many more doses they’re receiving in Maricopa County than we are here. Pima County Health is administering everything they send us. And the Governor has been advised multiple times that we have the capacity to administer at least 3x that number.
A week ago, ADHS opened up nearly 50,000 vaccination appointments for 55 and older at State Farm and Phoenix Municipal stadiums, combined. That age group is also now able to schedule appointments at Phoenix-area pharmacies and other qualified health centers. They opened to the lower age group because ADHS set a new threshold for moving to the next phases. If you’d reached 55% of a given age group that has been vaccinated, your county can move. Getting to that point is a function of the number of available vaccines. That’s controlled by the state.
How close are we to dropping below the 65 year age group? The Pima County population in the 70-79-year-old category is about 94,000. As of last week, about 52,000 of them had received the 1st dose. That’s just over the 55% level. But we drop below that when adding in the people 65-70. Pima County just recently began with that group. We’re close – in the high 40th percentile – but have a ways to go before meeting the new state 55% mandate.
Also, as of last week, there have been over 267,000 doses administered in Pima County. That’s just under a quarter of the county population. We’re still below 100,000, having received 2 doses. So there’s a long way to go, but progress is decent. Here’s a breakdown on the number of doses and which sort has been given to Pima County residents so far.
|
|
Please continue to register and get the vaccine. Use this county link to register for their PODs. It includes pharmacies, as well.
Here’s the Bloomberg COVID19 Tracker data for Arizona. The nationwide total is up to 27.2 doses having been administered per 100 people. Arizona is just over 29 doses per 100 people, so we’re doing better vs. what the rest of the country is doing. But with only 10% of the residents having received both doses, we’ve got a long way to go.
If you need a hand with the Pima County 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.
COVID Testing Costs
Last week I shared with you that the county was going to vote on whether or not to stop testing. That was based on the state not paying for the tests they’ve already administered. The costs are well north of $40M for Pima County. More if you add in the city costs.
The state is still sitting on well over $300M in federal dollars that were to be sent out to cities and counties to cover testing costs. Ducey let loose of $14M for Pima County but said they couldn’t use it for anything that took place before January 15th. This chart shows how the county had continued testing during the holiday surge – which is what we’d want any responsible public health agency to do.
We’d also expect any responsible state public health agency to understand the importance of COVID testing during a surge and pay them for the work done. A trip down memory lane will remind us all – Ducey included – that all the testing the county was doing throughout last fall was in response to significant COVID infection numbers.
It was during that time the UA approached the county to ask for help managing their own on-campus test facility. So Pima County stood by ready to help. The state has the money to pay them. UA President Robbins seems to be best buddies with Ducey these days. It’s time they remember this very recent history, do the right thing, and make the taxpayers of this region whole for the work done in support of keeping the pandemic under relative control.
Finally, as a reminder that even as we hear that states are opening things up again, COVID is still taking lives. Remember this guy? He’s Dennis DePerro, the St. Bonaventure president I wrote about last December when he got COVID. Dennis died last week at the age of 62 from COVID-related causes. He had been hospitalized for over 6 weeks, trying to recover.
The Trend Does Not Mean "It's Over".
Last week I showed a graph indicating the steep drop in cases had leveled off. That leveling off continued into this week. This is a NY Times graph showing new daily cases in the U.S. You can see that the March 1st level of 67,470 average daily cases has flattened and is no longer decreasing. And it’s at the same level we were experiencing last summer when we thought that was a surge. It was. But now we know how much worse it can get.
Unless, of course you live in Texas. Or Mississippi, Iowa, or Montana. Their policymakers seem to think we’ve beaten COVID.
Crowded indoor spaces, where infected droplets linger in the air, continue to be the most dangerous spaces for transmission of COVID. In particular when people are not wearing a mask. Last week both Texas and Mississippi ended their mask mandates.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbot said, “all businesses of whatever type are allowed to open 100%.” That includes sporting events, concerts, and other large gatherings. No masks will be required. The same is true in Mississippi. This is now considered to be safe in those states:
Iowa and Montana have also opened all businesses to 100% capacity. Dr. Rochelle Walensky is the Director of the CDC. Her reaction was to say, “I know people are tired; they want to get back to life, to normal. But we’re not there yet.” I’ve quoted Dr. Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine before. He told the Houston Chronicle, “I would recommend holding off. Let’s wait another 2 weeks.”
We’re all tired of this. The concern is obviously jumping to the reopening too quickly and causing a rebound in cases. I’ll have more on the new variant strains below. But only 8% of the population in both Texas and in Mississippi have been fully vaccinated. Only a quarter of the entire population nationwide has had a single dose. I’m sure we’ll all be watching those two states closely to see how the virus responds. So far, science has proven pretty reliable, though.
Reid Park Zoo Master Plan
Last Thursday, the Star ran a short piece on the zoo Asia project. The opening sentence said the city had imposed a ‘pause’ on the project. That’s false. I know the reporter knows she blew it, but a follow-up story giving the facts didn’t appear. One person on the M&C cannot suspend contracts the city has signed. We’ll be considering that in tomorrow’s study session.
We’re going to have a study session tomorrow on the zoo expansion. I asked for it in order to review the public outreach and history of the M&C voting on the expansion over the course of the past 4 years, always in support of the plan. Now there’s talk of suspending the existing contracts and rethinking what’s already in the works. The less accurate word is to “pause” the project. You don’t “pause” binding contracts. You suspend them. And that comes with costs.
For me, the most costly part of this is the credibility we will lose if the M&C decides to stop the project in order to continue gathering public input. The real question they need to consider is, what’s the point of the suspension? The vague answer ‘to gather more public input’ isn’t sufficient. We know how the public feels. How much more input are we asking for? For how long? To what end?
If it’s to look into different locations for the Asia expansion, well, we did that prior to starting the project. Actually, prior to M&C approving the Master Plan back in 2018. I’ve been working with the city manager, parks staff, and zoological society leadership to design a forward-looking addition to the park that will use one of the options that were considered and rejected. That’s the space north of the large retention pond. This is a schematic of what’s being considered:
|
The Asia project cannot go into that spot for several reasons, each of which was made clear to M&C over 3 years ago. One obvious one is that the space is not contiguous with the existing zoo. It would require some fenced land bridge or separate entry points for the zoo and would take an even larger footprint of the park than the current, approved plan will. But it would also require to be designed with some special access in case of emergencies. It would completely cut off the Edith Ball adult rec center from the rest of Reid Park, bring redesign costs of north of $3M, and larger construction costs than what are now budgeted for the Asia work. And it would mean we’ve wasted over $2M in money already spent on what we approved.
Another option that was considered is to expand the zoo directly north, towards 22nd Street. That means taking out the cancer survivor memorial and the horseshoe pits. I’ll let someone else from the M&C field the phone calls from people upset that we’re moving their loved one’s memorial. Breaking our use agreement with the horseshoe people is evidently not a problem for M&C if they lean in this direction.
The Asia project has been approved by M&C for 3 consecutive fiscal years. The Master Plan that includes it was approved by M&C in 2018. If you suspend a contract after having given your ‘partner’ years of approval to move forward, it sends a very clear message that your word is no good. And if you end up right back where we are now, using the space I’ve already begun work on to provide the new park elements that reflect the space being taken by the Asia project, all you’ll have done is plant false expectations with people who are upset at the project.
The plans I’m already working on are headed in a good direction. M&C should have simply allowed them to move ahead. The financial costs of not doing so will pale in comparison to the loss of credibility that comes with switching course if that’s how this ends up.
More Parks News
Even during COVID, our department of Fun (as our former parks director used to love to call it) continues with their great work. And the rollout of our Prop 407 parks/connectivity bond money continues to be invested in the way you were promised.
On Monday, March 15th, the Bond Oversight Commission will hold their next meeting to review progress on the projects. The meeting will begin at 5:30 pm. It’s, of course, open to the public via Zoom. You can use this Link to Join
Next, please remember that Wednesday, March 17th is the last day to register for our outdoor parks classes. They’re geared to all age groups, all of the classes will be outdoors, and all will follow safe CDC distancing/masking policies. Use this link EZEEreg.com to see all of the classes that are available and to get yourself and your family members registered.
Our Parks and Rec Commission is also continuing to meet – virtually. They review parks-related policies and make recommendations to M&C. Their next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 24th at 3:30 pm. You can use this Link to Join.
And finally, what would this time of year be without the annual EGGstravaganza. Use that link to see the details. There will be over 600 eggs ‘hidden’ in 40 parks around town. Your job is to find them and send in the number you’ve found as an entry for a gift Easter basket drawing. The hunt runs from March 19th through the 25th. You’ll see all the parks locations on the EGGstravaganza link. And there will be a drive-thru event for the kids from 10 am until 2 pm on the 27th at the Donna Liggins Center. All that information is also on that link.
NCAA Investigation into UA Basketball
Last week ESPN was successful in having the charges that have been filed against the UA athletics department made public. They always should have been public documents but trying to hide them is totally consistent with the way Athletics Director Dave Heeke (HEE-KEE) has run that department. I was only mildly surprised to see UA president Robbins complicit all along in the lack of transparency.
The charges are for things related to payments to players, changing academic transcripts, paying money to players to coax them towards signing with a particular agent, and running unallowed workouts. But the charges they won’t be able to deflect are the charges involving lack of institutional controls to prevent the abuses. There are multiple coaches being implicated, the department tried to keep the charges under wraps, and there was an overt failure to cooperate with the investigations. Those are aggravating factors the NCAA committee looking into this will not take lightly.
The UA self-imposed a one-year ban on the post-season play for its men’s basketball program this year. Hoping that’d show the NCAA they took the charges seriously, they naively think the infractions committee will be convinced and that they’ll skirt more penalties because they took that action. The committee isn’t made up of people who don’t understand the reality of what was behind that self-imposition. The program was replacing its entire starting line-up, so there was little hope anyway that they’d advance far into the postseason. And with all the uncertainties of COVID, when the ban was self-imposed, there wasn’t even an assurance there would be post-season. It was during last year’s Pac 12 tournament that everything was canceled. So look for more penalties.
What really caught my eye in the report was where it mentioned AD Heeke had been working internally with the athletics department compliance office to “draft(ed) talking points that demonstrated from the outset a lack of commitment to cooperation and the acceptance of responsibility.” The charge resonated deeply based on my experience with him.
This is the same guy who sent his #2 person in the department once to advise me he felt I had a “conflict of loyalty” between the department and the community. On its face, it’s an interesting concept. One would think the interests of the UA and the community are aligned and not a question of divided ‘loyalty’. He was going to draft a document that would outline the things I was to be allowed to speak about publicly and those I would not. When he was later asked about that meeting by a UA attorney, he didn’t deny the ‘conflict of loyalty’ comment. Instead, he said his concern was that when I went on camera with a UA shirt, people might mistake my positions for those of the school. That was a lie, and I’ve let the university ‘leadership’ know how I feel about it. If during the ‘loyalty’ conversation my shirts had ever come up, the answer would have been simple; I’ll put on a sweater to cover the UA logo. Done. No need for a ‘speech document.’ It shows a serious lack of integrity at the top of the department.
And further with regard to talking points, evidently Heeke needs them. He once asked another staffer to compose the text of a thank you email that was going out to a student-athlete advisory group. And instead of writing his own heartfelt thoughts about the death of a former tennis coach (a friend of mine in the department for years), Heeke re-posted somebody else’s comments. If you can’t write your own thank you card or condolence note, it’s no surprise someone had to fabricate talking points on the multiple NCAA infractions for the guy, so he didn’t go off-script. Having issues with free speech and not being able to compose your own thoughts is evidently something he lives with. The NCAA just learned of it, and I guess we’ll see where that shoe lands. UA President Robbins has been involved with the athletics department defense of this all along. It’s all coming to a crescendo.
These things usually end up with current student-athletes suffering for the wrongs committed years before they arrived on campus. We’ll soon see if the same guys who are giving multi-million dollar buyouts to failed coaches and trying to control free speech end up going down that same path, to the detriment of the current players. Or maybe they become a part of the ‘solution’ proposed by the NCAA.
Small Cell Poles
Once again, here’s the troublesome text from state bill HB2365. It’s why we continue working for a solution to the 5G cell poles you’re seeing pop up in your neighborhoods.
Last week I reached out to Verizon again – the only telecom company who’s so far willing to even engage – and asked for a meeting to consider yet another option. This picture on the right is of some ‘cactus’ that are fabricated in a way that a cell company can install their pole inside, hiding the plain metal pole. I’m not at all happy when the birds chew holes in my saguaro, but in this case, the holes are intentional, so the cell pole can function from the inside.
The reason I know Verizon won’t be caught by surprise when they open my email is this photo:
|
|
Three guesses where that cell pole/saguaro is located...up in Scottsdale. Why is it that we get the ugly, 35’ tall steel poles, but they feel Scottsdale deserves this sort of consideration? And I’m not suggesting we have a line of 35’ tall saguaro fake cactus in all of our Rights of Way. How about an annual lease agreement with private property owners to have a pole located somewhere in their existing landscaping? Like this photo of Scottsdale. And how about having the newly planted poles that you’re already seeing have something like this put into place retroactively to hide some of the ugly?
Last week Verizon agreed to a collocation on an existing Stop sign in a Palo Verde neighborhood location. Two other possible Stop signs didn’t work out due to underground utilities preventing them from digging the foundation for the new pole. This sort of incremental ‘progress’ is going to end up with our city being filled with utility poles, while the conversation up in Scottsdale seems to be more appreciative of the aesthetic value of their community.
It’s yet another layer of the onion I’ve peeled back. I’ll let you know how the conversation goes.
Moms and Emerge
Moms Demand Action is one of the gun control groups I’ve worked with for the decade of my service on this city council. Of all groups, Moms is painfully aware of the connection between firearms and fatal results of domestic abuse situations. Every single month in this country, an average of 53 women are shot and killed by a partner in an act of domestic violence. If you read many of these newsletters, you know about Genna Ayup. And if you do, you know why I’m passionate about this issue.
Moms has teamed up with Ed and his crew over at the Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse. They’re holding a book drive. All books donated during the drive will be given to families being served by Emerge.
The drive runs from now until June 4th. Moms is asking people to shop at a local bookstore – one that is following CDC COVID guidelines – and then get the books to local Moms chapter president Rene Friedkin. That can be done either by being shipped to or dropped off at 4220 E. Cooper, Tucson, 85711.
If you choose to shop Amazon online, please consider using AmazonSmile at smile.amazon.com. If you do, 0.5% of each sale will be donated to Everytown for Gun Sense in America.
COVID has placed larger numbers of moms in harm's way through live-in relationships. Thanks to Moms for working with Emerge on this book drive. Books should be chosen with the 2-18-year-old age range in mind.
|
Asylum Seekers
Last week there was a flurry of activity related to the anticipated new surge of migrants into the community. The numbers arriving at the Alitas Welcome Center began to increase, and in terms of numbers, we have no clear picture of what to expect in the days and weeks ahead.
What has changed since 3 years ago when we were hosting Central American guests in the Benedictine? Well, we no longer have the monastery. Most of our volunteers have taken a break due to COVID. Our partner churches/synagogues have taken a COVID-related break. And COVID is a daily reality.
When we opened the Alitas center, the capacity was around 250 people. Now, because of COVID, it’s closer to 60. Every guest is given a rapid COVID test upon arrival. There are cost and supply issues related to that. The county continues working with the state to try to resolve those. Beyond that, the needs of the migrants are the same as when many of you were working over at the monastery. Food, clothing, hygiene products, shampoo/toothpaste in travel sizes, travel games for the kids, bottled water, energy drinks – what you’d pack if you were getting on a bus for a 2-3 day journey with a couple of little kids.
If you bring donations to us at W6 (3202 E. 1st), we’ll get them to Alitas. I hired on a ½ time basis one of the guys who is also working for Catholic Community Services out at the center, so our pipeline is direct. Many of you will see Diego on neighborhood or committee Zoom calls – Alitas is the other half of his life. More so now.
When the donations arrive out at Alitas, this is the ‘tienda’ - store – where the asylum guests ‘shop.’ Of course, that ‘shopping’ is free access to what they need. All of the operations out there are still being managed by volunteers.
Without the county center being available, these guests would have been dropped in the community or placed onto public transportation to co-mingle, despite having come from immigration detention centers where COVID exposure is high. California is freeing up nearly $30M to help immigrants who are arriving through Mexico, and being released until their court dates arrive. Their funding is expected to last through June. The state government in Arizona has offered zero. And we’re still waiting on federal congressional partners and FEMA to kick lose some cash to help. That’s why your donations are so key right now.
Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Bronson joined with county representatives from Yuma, Cochise, and Santa Cruz counties in writing our congressional delegation urging a quick release of FEMA funds. The gist of their message was that we’ve got the ability to manage this through local efforts, but we cannot fund the work.
The mayor also sent a letter that laid out the costs for FEMA and Homeland Security. For food, based on estimates of 160 asylum seekers, at a $12 cost per day, that’s going to run over $14K weekly for the city. For housing, that figure jumps to $90K weekly. And remember, when we were using the monastery, we saw double that number of people daily.
Those are very conservative cost assumptions, based on the maximum we understand is allowed to be reimbursed through FEMA. Everyone knows the real costs are more than what they’ll pay, but we’ve asked for what they’ll provide unless our congressional people can help.
If you want to help with food, please don’t bring food. Instead, gift cards from Walmart or Costco are what we need. We’ll get them to the Alitas folks, who will take them to buy specifically what they need at the time.
I’m forever grateful to all of you who have and who continue to help in this work. Email me here at the office at steve.kozachik@tucsonaz.gov, and we’ll arrange to meet at the door for you to drop off whatever it is you can help with.
|
Sustainable Tucson
Tuesday, March 9th, is the next date for the monthly Sustainable Tucson meeting. Yes, still virtual. And yes, still open to you for free.
The presenters this month will be local architect Bob Vint and sustainable building advocate David Eisenberg. They’ll be sharing building design and material-use techniques that will have a very practical impact on the energy efficiency of our built infrastructure. As many of you know, M&C adopted a Resolution last September declaring a climate emergency. So much of our ability to respond to climate issues in our own lives revolve around our homes. Bob and David will give some important information on your potential role.
The meeting runs from 6 pm until 8 pm. Use this link www.sustainabletucson.org to get to their website. The Zoom link for the meeting is front and center.
|
Rent and Utility Assistance
Right now, we have about 3,000 people on our rent/utility assistance waitlist. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the city and county, in cooperation with the Community Investment Corporation (CIC), just received $16M in funding to expand the program. We expect that money will be able to support up to 7,000 households. The case processing will start mid-March, so please pass the word to friends who may benefit from the assistance.
This is Department of Treasury money. The eligibility criteria include having total renter household income at/or below 80% of the area median income, having the renter be eligible for unemployment insurance, or experiencing financial hardship due to COVID, and demonstrating a risk of homelessness or other unsafe conditions without the assistance.
Please use this link to see the entire program and to get yourself or others onto the waitlist. I’m extremely pleased that we have this opportunity to continue helping the many households in the community that are having a difficult time navigating COVID and normal household expenses.
New COVID Variant Strains
The week I first began sharing with you about the new variant strains, there were 437 that had been identified in the U.S. Last weekend that number had grown to over 2,700. While COVID-19 is holding steady at what is still an alarmingly high level, the new strains are increasing in numbers. And in the past week, the Arizona number has grown from 14 to 19 new cases of the variant strains.
Here’s this week’s map. Both Colorado and Texas have moved from the “1-100” category into the “101-200” group. That’s not good – Colorado is our neighbor, and Texas just ‘opened for business,’ ignoring the continued spread of the new strains.
I appreciate all of the supportive comments you’re sharing when I see you while out gathering signatures to get back on the ballot for this fall’s election. So many people continue to take the pandemic seriously. I’ll keep providing these updates, looking very much forward to the day when we can to what Texas is doing, but do it safely.
COVID Risk in Pima County
The Pima County numbers are still going in a slow but decent downward direction. Here’s how those have evolved over the past month. Take the Saturday number with a grain of salt. Due to reporting lags, it’s the weekly trends that are more meaningful.
Five weeks ago, when I first shared the weekly count, we were seeing days with over 1,000 new cases in Pima County. It’s much lower now, which is, of course, a good thing. But for perspective, this was the first week in June last year – right before the start of the surge. The numbers bear too much of a resemblance to where we have stalled.
The Harvard Global Health Institute maps continue to improve.
Last week:
This week:
That’s Iowa all in green over in the Midwest. They’re doing something right over there. And let’s keep an eye on Texas and Montana – states that recently opened everything back up.
The data also points for reopening schools improved by one spot this week. The ‘Percent Positivity’ moved from the ‘not met’ category over to ‘progress.’ All of them are supposed to be in the yellow or in the green for 2 straight weeks before schools are to reopen. Despite that, Ducey issued another dictate last week, calling on schools to open. At least he left the option for parents to opt for virtual if they don’t feel safe at this stage of the pandemic.
For reopening, they’re looking for 2 consecutive weeks of all 9 standards being in either yellow or green.
Here’s our statewide map. I’ve been sharing these weekly for nearly a year now. Time flies...
The infectivity rate for the UA area, Pima County, and the state are all pretty much consistent now. Being below 1.0 is a good thing. It means community spread is diminishing.
Responsible health care officials are saying this is now a footrace between continuing the slow declines we’re seeing in COVID-19, the spread of the new variant strains, and getting vaccines out widely. Please continue the CDC-recommended 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
|