Karin's Note: Friday, March 19, 2021

Karin’s Ward 3 News and Updates

 Friday, March 19, 2021

  News and Updates

  Pet of the Week                   

  Ward 3 Neighborhood Association/Coalition Meetings

  Ward 3 Events

  City Wide Events

  Did You Know?

Hello Ward 3 and Tucson,

In addition to the wealth of information staff have included in our newsletter, I want to outline for you some of the items Mayor and Council will be addressing at our meeting Tuesday, March 23.

Study Session:

• An Update on the COVID Relief Funds including the M&C Strategic Plan guiding the first round of investments and what to expect from the American Rescue Plan just passed
• Further budget discussions with more detailed presentations from Business Services and other departments
• Discussion of expanding the West University Neighborhood Historic Preservation Zone
• Several items addressing city transportation and mobility

Regular Session

• A proposed liquor license for Taqueria Juanitos (708 W Grant)
• Joint continuation of COVID testing with Pima County

You can view the agendas and materials at this link and watch the meeting live, starting at 1 pm Tuesday, at this link.

In addition to the items above, I’ve been meeting with city staff to advance work on the broadly envisioned Community Safety Pilot Program. As Police Chief Magnus and the Tucson Police Department have alerted us to their inability to respond to the full spectrum of calls directed their way, we’re discussing how to be sure residents continue to get responses now and over the longer term. Some calls may be handled by colleague city departments (perhaps Tucson Fire Department for welfare checks and Code Inspectors for calls related to city code violations). Other calls may be best handled through key partnerships with organizations offering specially trained personnel (for example to help move homeless people from the streets to safe shelter, or to respond to behavioral health crises with teams working with folks suffering from serious mental illness).

Obviously TPD will remain a vital, central part of the broader Community Safety Pilot Program, and we want to be sure our officers—who are trained to respond to calls involving violence and immediate threats to personal safety—have the support and resources needed to sustain their critical role keeping our community safe. We will be seeking broad public input as a plan is developed and I’m pleased that the City Manager has brought in Liana Perez to lead the effort. We will keep you posted as this process continues. Liana previously served as the Independent Police Auditor for the City of Tucson and currently serves as the Deputy City Manager for Public Safety.

Staff are also consulting with Mayor and Council as they map the process with the Zoo’s leadership and community members to explore options for the Zoo expansion, taking into consideration impacts on Reid Park. You’ll find opportunities for public input below. I look forward to hearing the pros and cons of various options under consideration.

Thanks for your ongoing interest and investment in our beautiful community.

Sincerely,

Karin

Eggstravaganza

 Eggstravaganza, the city-wide family affair, will return to the Donna R. Liggins Center at Mansfield Park next week. And here in the Ward 3 office, we thought we’d take a short look back at its history. But for those of you who don’t know what Eggstravaganza is all about here is the shorthand version: It is a kid-friendly, kid-oriented, kid-focused funarama.

The event, this year, is already underway. Staff from the City’s Parks and Recreation Department have placed 600 “eggs” in a number of parks across the city. Children are encouraged to look for the eggs (which are really cardboard cutouts in the shape of Easter eggs), scan the QR barcode on the back and enter their names and, if they want, send a photo. By doing this their names will be entered for prizes that will be given away on Saturday, March 27. The main event, which will be a COVID-safe drive-thru, will take place at the Donna Liggins Center at Mansfield Park on North 6^th Avenue. Kids can find as many eggs as they want but they are asked to leave the eggs where they are located so that other kids can do the same. The last day is Thursday.

Along with many other parks around the city, Ward 3 residents can find eggs at Conner, Jacobs, La Madera and Mitchell parks.

Back to the history of Eggstravaganza. In this case, the family event at Mansfield Park has two histories with slightly different story lines that converge at the park.

In our first part of the story the Sugar Hill neighborhood held an Easter egg hunt some years ago when neighbors and their extended family and friends from other parts of Tucson would gather at the park for their annual spring celebration. Some of the Black community organizations, principally the Disabled American Veterans, whose club building was located at North First Avenue and East Lester Street, the Beau Brummel Club which was located on the northeast corner of Main Avenue and Speedway and the Veterans of Foreign Wars on South Park Avenue.

Rose Taulton remembers that the Saturday before Easter, Sugar Hill’s Black neighbors and their friends, would hunt for eggs at the park. Rose grew up near Tucson High School but was closely connected to Sugar Hill because some of her family’s friends lived there and she went to Tucson High with kids from Sugar Hill. Years later when the Mansfield Center was built, after residents pushed and pushed and struggled, the center began to sponsor an egg hunt.

Donna Liggins, a long-time Sugar Hill resident and who was the Center’s director for nearly 20 years and whose name adorns the Center today, said that Sugar Hill resident Melvin Hill approached her about having the center sponsor the egg hunt. She recalled that other City recreation centers held eggs hunts.

But Reid Park was also hosting an egg hunt for families, too, said Robin McArdle, who worked for many years at Tucson Parks and Recreation and was director at the Northwest Center for several years before Donna. She said the name of the Reid Park egg hunt was Eggstravaganza.

Parks and Recreation have been organizing egg hunts since the 1980s. And over the years, various community groups, neighborhood churches and associations, and UA students, have assisted in holding the events. Then about 2006, or there about, the City’s Park and Recreation Department decided to combine the various egg hunts into one and move it to Mansfield Park, Donna and Robin said.

Placing Eggstravaganza at Mansfield reinforced the history of Sugar Hill’s Black residents’ role and history, said Armando Vargas Jr., a Sugar Hill resident.

“This belongs to the community, especially the Black community,” he said. “It’s part of the identity.”

Rocks Gems Minerals Fossils

 Fans of rocks, minerals, fossils and gems will return to Tucson next month to admire, fawn over, trade and buy their treasures. While the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show has been cancelled this year because of the pandemic, a good number of vendors will display their wares across the city.

Last year the annual show was held in February as the pandemic was looming over Tucson and the rest of the country. This year the celebration of natural beauty comes as the rate of the COVID-19 infection and pessimism are slowly dropping, and as vaccinations and optimism are climbing.

Some of the vendors, wholesale and public, will be present in Ward 3, principally in the North Oracle and West Lester Street area, and North Main Avenue and West Drachman Street. At Mineral City on Lester in Barrio Blue Moon, where an increasing number of vendors have created nearly year-round shops, there is a surge in good vibes over the forthcoming gem show days.

“We are talking about some innovative ideas on how we can get the show more involved with the community,” said Ian Wan, an engineer who along with his step-father, Gus Gonzalez, have lead the way in developing an enclave of dealers. “The Thrive in the 05 initiative has been great in helping my parents understand the City's investment in the area and gives them much pride helping the community grow.”

Many of the vendors will have rules and stipulations for their respective sites. It is advisable to check with the individual vendors on their days and hours of operation, and what virus protocols they will be observing. Some of the Ward 3 shows include: The 1820 Oracle Wholesale which will be open April 7-25. Likewise the 1801 Oracle Mineral Village Show will be open the same days. And the Madagascar Minerals Gem Show will be open from April 5-30. Also, some vendors hire Tucsonans to work during the days they are open.

Sun Gemstone will be open April 7-27 during the Oracle Mineral Village Show

The annual gem and mineral show began in 1954. In 1955 the Tucson Gem & Mineral Society moved its small gathering to the Rodeo grounds on South Sixth Avenue. In the early 70s the expanded gem and mineral show moved to the recently built Tucson Convention Center. In the ensuing years the extravaganza has become one of the largest shows of its kind. Visitors and dealers come from around the globe to participate, generating millions of dollars for the city and residents who work for businesses that support the gem dealers.

A study by FMR Associates for Visit Tucson indicated that indirect and induced effects, spending with local companies, the gem shows’ total economic impact topped $200 million for the first time in 2019.

Adding to Tucson’s place as a gem and mineral center, a new attraction has been built. The Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum at the historic Pima County Courthouse downtown is near completion. Visitors will be allowed to view the collection when the pandemic eases its grip. The 12,000-square-foot museum, which is operated by the University of Arizona, will contain more than 2,000 items from the UA’s collection and its partners.

The center piece Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, which is housed at the Tucson Convention Center, will return Feb. 10-13, 2022.

Neighborhood Webinar Series: Neighborhood Traffic Calming & Green Storm Water Infrastructure

We had a great session on Green Storm Water Infrastructure Thursday night.

We are hoping this session and our next one will address some popular topics that we often hear about from our neighborhoods: greening the neighborhood and decreasing traffic dangers. Sometimes we can do both. Below is a quick visual guide to what we covered last. We should have the recording online shortly.

Session 2: Neighborhood Traffic Calming will feature members from the Department of Transportation and Mobility and others to present information on possible options on Neighborhood Traffic Calming. This meeting will take place Thursday, April 1 at 5:30 pm.

You may register now at the link below:

Traffic Calming

Reid Park Zoo Update

Tucson’s City Manager is working with an independent team of facilitators to guide a transparent, accessible, equitable, and structured process for obtaining broad community input on the Gene C. Reid Park/Reid Park Zoo plan. A stakeholder group is being developed that will include adjacent neighborhoods, the Zoological Society, Save the Heart of Reid Park, Parks and Recreation staff, among others.

Stakeholder conversations will focus on educating and discussing potential options, impacts, and trade-offs, and provide a report on community recommendations to the Tucson Mayor and Council within 45 days. Ward 3 staff will observe these discussions.

The City will be providing a number of avenues for the community to comment, including this public comment portal in English and Spanish (links below). You will also be able to sign up to be contacted when there is an opportunity for further public input over the coming weeks, including feedback on the report that will go before Mayor and Council.

Submit comments in English

Envíe sus comentarios en Español

Pet of the Week

Dusty

Dusty is a handsome dude who is ready to bring you lots of love. He heard that there’s a chance that you are going to adopt him and he has been on his very best behavior. He would like to let you know that he deserves 1 million kisses on the forehead every day. If that’s asking too much then he might settle for 999,987. He’s also very good at helping out around the house. Especially doing dishes. He will lick them and get them ready for the dishwasher. It’s a hard job but somebody has to do it.

Dusty is currently in foster care and waiting to meet you! If you are interested in adopting him, please email PACC.AdoptAFoster@pima.gov.

Ward 3 Neighborhood Association/Coalition Meetings

Keeling

Monday

March 22

7-8 pm

Zoom

Ward 3 Events

"Meet Me at the Park” and Get Some Exercise

Tucson Parks and Recreation is piloting free, outdoor classes at parks throughout Tucson. This new program, called "Meet Me at the Park," is available to the first 10 participants to show up at the class and is designed to help the community get active and explore our parks.

Classes will be offered one day a week over six weeks through April 26. At Mansfield Park it will be on

Wednesday afternoons from 2:30-3:30

See a list of classes, locations, and times at the website linked below or on Tucson Parks and Recreation's Facebook page.

"Meet Me at the Park" website

Tucson Parks and Recreation Facebook page

City Wide Events

Climate Action and Adaptation Town Hall  Saturday, March 20 at 10:30 a.m. Register: http://bit.ly/3bHDZCk

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and City Manager Michael Ortega invite the public to a series of town halls that the City of Tucson will be hosting to provide a platform for community members to voice their priorities for the next fiscal year budget, which begins on July 1.

The series is organized into four unique town halls. The town hall this weekend is about Climate Action & Adaptation.

This new and innovative approach to receiving community input for the City's annual budget includes moderated discussions on each of the four topics to enable community members to provide direct feedback to City leadership. Stay tuned and visit the website link below for more information. Budget town halls information and schedule

Did You Know?

City Council Meeting

 Tuesday, March 23 

Click here and go to "Mayor & Council Meeting Live" to watch

(To watch past meetings, visit the City of Tucson YouTube page. This is also where future meetings will be live streamed).

Seeking Artist for Public Art Project by Pima County Fairground

Pima County is currently in the design phase of the reconstruction and widening of South Houghton Road. The reconstruction site begins at the intersection of Interstate 10 and continues for 3 miles south past the Pima County Fairgrounds, ending at the Andrada Polytechnic and Pantano High Schools.

Construction is scheduled to begin approximately Summer/Fall 2021.

The project lends itself to a variety of art forms, including but not limited to, singular or repeating elements, sculptural and 2-dimensional works, as well as kinetic artworks (optical or sound-creating art forms that depend on movement for its effect). There are many location opportunities for artwork placement, including the multi-use path, the land areas adjacent to the path and roadway, the entrances to the Pima County Fairgrounds, as well as the entrances to Andrada Polytechnic and Pantano High Schools. Here is more information.

Eviction Prevention and Utility Assistance

 This program provides support for residents struggling to pay rent or utilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit tucsonpimaep.com or call (831) 292-4302 today.