Monsoon Impacts
I’m sure I join you in loving the rain and coolish weather. I start missing the rain 30 minutes after the sky clears. But with the rain comes transportation problems. Things like down tree limbs, growing potholes, missing street signs, and that sort of thing. Please realize that our transportation folks are working on those issues all over town. But they need your help in learning the locations and type of issue they need to address.
If you see impacts from the monsoon that need to be dealt with, please email the exact location to tdotconcerns@tucsonaz.gov. Or you can call and leave a message at 791.3154. This is for city-related stuff. If you’re seeing things one of the utilities should be taking care of, reach out to them directly.
Our crews are working hard all over the city. Let us know when you see things they should be aware of, and please be patient. They’re doing a great job during these unique times.
Vaccine Update
This map shows nationwide where masks are and are not mandated in schools. Note that in Arizona, the governor and the state legislature have banned mandates. But the ban has received some pushback. Several public school districts, including TUSD, have put public health ahead of politics and made use of a mask mandatory in classrooms. There is an active lawsuit against the governor challenging his ‘no mask’ edicts. Also, last week ASU and NAU issued mask mandates for everyone inside their buildings.
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 During his Monday briefing, Robbins (UA) was asked about mask mandates. At the time, he said he was coordinating with ASU and NAU, so they’d all do the same thing. He also said a mandate was precluded by Ducey’s actions. Later in the week, the UA came close to what the other 2 schools are doing by saying masks will now be mandated inside buildings ‘where social distancing isn’t possible.’ So much for coordinating within the tri-state university system. But it’s a step towards a responsible public health policy. With all the pushback from schools, it’ll be worth watching how the governor and the Attorney General respond. Good for those who showed the guts to take a stand on behalf of science and health.
One step the state has not preempted is a restriction on crowd size. Tulane just announced they’ll require proof of vaccination or a current negative COVID test from everyone entering a sporting event, concert, or other large on-campus gathering. San Francisco just instituted a similar ban on unvaccinated people from attending large events or indoor dining. That’s an option yet open to the UA. So far, all they’ve indicated is their intention to open to in-person classes and full attendance at events. That decision, even while COVID numbers are increasing daily.
Vaccination Mandate
Last Friday, the M&C adopted a first step towards mandating vaccinations as a condition of employment with the city. We took a step – and we’ll see how employees respond. The vast majority of city workers have jumped at the chance to get a vaccination. And then there’s this reaction to our vote:
Yes, I know who posted it and which department he works in. Everyone has a right to express their thoughts.
The city manager’s office conducted a survey of all city workers, asking whether or not they’d been vaccinated. They estimate that about 1,000 workers have not been. On Friday, M&C voted to give city workers until August 20th to get vaccinated. They’ll have until the 24th to demonstrate that to HR. If they do not, each will receive a 5-day suspension without pay. If, however, 750 of the remaining unvaccinated workers do get the vaccination, we’ll drop the suspension for the remainder. Either way, during our first meeting in September, the city manager will bring us a report on the response, and we can decide next steps.
Being a city employee comes with responsibilities to the public and to co-workers. Remaining unvaccinated violates those responsibilities. Right now, COVID-19 is the 8th most deadly pandemic in history. It is close to jumping up to #5. Three of the pandemics left ahead of it are reoccurrences of the Bubonic Plague. None of the other pandemics on the list had vaccines. We do. The reality is that unvaccinated people are driving transmission of COVID and placing the rest of us at risk. The city requires vaccinations for other communicable diseases, and the courts have found vaccine mandates to be constitutional. We’ll see how many employees step up and get the vaccine. And we’ll continue this item on September 9th.
I was clear in stating that being a city worker brings responsibilities. One is to your co-workers. Another is to the community. And as long as some of the anti-vaxers brought up the constitution, being a city worker is not a constitutional right. I’m hopeful we get full compliance. I’m not expecting that.
Long Haul COVID in Youth
Kids under 12 cannot yet receive a COVID vaccination. Last week I saw an interesting article on what’s called ‘long haul COVID.’ It’s having symptoms that last for a long time. The symptoms vary in duration, intensity, and in type. Some are relatively mild such as loss of smell. Others are significant neurological impacts. None are understood.
Between 10 and 30 percent of adults seem to display long-haul symptoms. The number they’re finding among children is from 10 to 15 percent. The impact on school performance is still unknown – most of COVID’s long-term impacts are still a mystery. We just encountered it last year for the first time. So the fact that kids are not yet eligible for the vaccine should be alarming to parents whose kids are going to school with unmasked classmates or are around school staff who are unmasked and may not be vaccinated.
Last year we shut down schools, and everyone did remote learning. The COVID numbers at the time were about half of what they are right now. Our response this year is for the governor to issue Executive Orders preventing requirements for mask-wearing in schools. So we’ll have rooms full of unvaccinated and unmasked children with a Delta variant that’s more contagious than COVID-19 was last year. I could be wrong, but if it’s just a science experiment we’re after, writing the opening hypothesis for this one should be pretty easy.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, just over 4 million young people in the U.S. have had COVID. At Boston Children’s Hospital, they have a program that draws in long-haul COVID patients from across the country. They report seeing symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, brain fog, memory and concentration issues, sleep interruptions, and others. In kids, even if they weren’t initially hospitalized, they’re seeing some with the long haul symptoms months after they were believed to have been healed.
Data and Risk Level
So with masks, vaccine mandates, long haul, and liberty on the table let’s look at trends and risk levels. This chart shows the continued upswing in COVID infections in the U.S. Remember May and June when things began to ‘open up’ again – because we were ‘over it.’ The virus had other ideas.
But pay particular attention to where we are now, compared to the COVID rates we had a year ago. We’re nearly double what we were experiencing in August 2020. That’s what reopening schools to all in-person, with no masks and half the population yet unvaccinated yields.
 This is the risk level map I had in last week’s newsletter. It was bad and worse than the prior week.
 This week, it’s worse and getting worse. Scroll back and forth to see the difference. Pay particular attention to Arizona. We’re now totally in either the ‘very high’ or ‘extremely high’ category.
 Taking a closer look at Arizona, here are the changes in Pima County from the last newsletter to now:
Pima county 2 weeks ago:
vs. last week:
Maricopa County is, of course, the state’s big population center. So what happens in Maricopa County does not necessarily stay in Maricopa County. Here’s where they were 2 weeks ago:
Compared to last week:
Pima County is at 54% of our residents who are fully vaccinated. Maricopa County has 43% vaccinated. Statewide, Arizona is ranked 34th nationally for vaccination rates. As I’ve written previously, there’s a correlation that the no-vax liberty crowd cannot dismiss.
And this comparison shows how fast the resurgence has happened. This is our national risk level change between the beginning of July and today.
 City workers now have a week to get vaccinated. Here are the mobile sites that are free and available:
 And I poached this standing list from the Pima County Health Department site:
 I mentioned above that we’re nearly double the COVID rates we experienced a year ago. In the first week of June this year we had 130 cases. That number has continually risen each week since then. Two weeks ago it had reached 1,301 new cases. Last week we had 1,570 new COVID cases in Pima County. It appears that people exercising their liberty to reject vaccinating is having a very predictable result. That spread is validated by the Rt (community spread rate) numbers in the table shown below.
The most recent UA infectivity rate update came on August 5th. You can see the rate in the zip code surrounding campus is now getting close to 2 again. That means every infected person is infecting nearly 2 other people. Students will return to town next week. The UA chose not to fight Ducey and did not implement a vaccination mandate. Over 700 colleges and universities nationwide have instituted a mandate. Last fall, when students returned – and did what students do – the numbers surged. This year COVID has a running start. I’ll keep an eye on these data and share them in coming newsletters.
More on COVID below. There’s no mistaking the fact that we’re headed back to where we were a year ago. Let’s join in giving thanks to our health care workers. Aside from the ‘liberty’ posts that came the day after our vote, so did some very nice texts and emails from people in the local health care system. My staff and I very much appreciate their work. They’re under the gun, yet again.
You can find the most current data at this site: https://covid19.arizona.edu/dashboard.
TEP Transmission Line Project
TEP announced last week that they’ve applied to the ‘line siting’ committee of the Corporation Commission for approval of their proposed new 138kV transmission line. At this time, their preferred alignment continues to be the Kino/Campbell route. I’ve shared graphics of that map in previous newsletters. The midtown piece runs down Campbell, past the UA, down to Banner, and then jogs into Jefferson Park neighborhood. It’s also the route that is in conflict with our Gateway Ordinance that requires all utilities to be undergrounded.
In advance of the upcoming presentation to the line siting committee, TEP has added an alternative route. They’re calling it to route 5A. This is a map showing the midtown segment of that route.
 Instead of accessing their proposed new substation from Campbell, this route runs up Euclid past Speedway and then jogs through Feldman’s, North University, and Jefferson Park. In the process, it passes West University neighborhood. Initially, TEP rejected this route due to impacts on surrounding neighborhoods, construction challenges, and cost. Since the Gateway Ordinance has become a part of the conversation, they’ve resurrected 5A.
The line sitting hearing is scheduled for Monday, September 13th. It’ll be held in person at the Doubletree Hotel, 445 S. Alvernon, at 1 pm. However, a public comment session will take place at 5:30 pm. That will be available either in person or online. You can get details about how to take part through the project website at https://www.tep.com/kino-to-demoss-petrie.
Ahead of that, though, TEP will host a virtual public meeting to give updates on the project. That will be held on Thursday, August 19th, from 6 pm until 7 pm. You will be able to access the link for the meeting about 15 minutes before its scheduled start time by going to the project webpage.
The line siting committee will make a recommendation to the full Arizona Corporation Commission on which route they support. The ACC will have the final vote on that. The M&C will have a final vote on whether or not to approve the Banner substation. So there are lots of moving parts, many of which will likely be sorted out by the end of this year. TEP would like to complete the work by 2024.
PFAS – Tucson on ABC Nightline
Last month, Jacqueline Yoo from ABC News in D.C. reached out to see if I’d speak on camera about the PFAS contamination issue we face in Tucson. She was also able to reach Mayor Romero, our Tucson Water Director, the chair of UCAB Yolanda Herrera, and some other people who are familiar with PFAS. Any publicity we can give to highlight the issue will help get some remediation money kicked free. I’ve mentioned before that Tucson Water has spent or committed over $50M towards PFAS contamination treatment and testing. None of that should ultimately be our ratepayer’s responsibility.
They’ll be running segments of this 13-minute newscast on Good Morning America and later this month on Nightline. When you go on camera, it’s always a dice roll – you have no control over the clips they’ll use. In this case, their producer and editor covered the story well. As I’ve said throughout the campaign year, this is the number 1 issue for me in terms of priority for the region.
Here’s a link to the piece Jacqueline provided to me. You get a sneak preview.
Video segment permalink:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/forever-chemicals-detected-water-systems-2800-us-cities-79391749
Meanwhile, the Arizona Republic reported on the PFAS funding that’ll be coming as a part of the recently agreed on a congressional infrastructure bill. Arizona is to receive around $72M annually for the next 5 years to address the treatment of drinking water and about $7M annually for the treatment of wastewater plants. Given that we’re already into this for north of $50M – just in Tucson – and they’ve got long-term problems up at Luke AFB in Glendale too, well, we’ve already got the $72 spent in Arizona. And add to that there’s some political gamesmanship going on with some saying since we’re not serving our groundwater at this moment, it’s not technically ‘drinking water’ - so the nod goes to Maricopa County in terms of allocating these federal dollars. We’re in touch with our congressional delegation to ensure they’re aware of the multiple flaws in that reasoning.
The 3M lawsuit becomes even more important as we work towards being made financially whole on this mess.
Speedway/Euclid Student Housing
A few years ago, out-of-state student housing developer Capstone came calling, asking if I’d support a rezoning at the SE corner of Speedway and Euclid. Their goal – to change the Main Gate overlay and allow greater height on that corner so they can build more student housing towers. My reply at the time was that I would not support the project. It still is.
When the Main Gate Overlay (MGO) was developed, the thinking was if we concentrated student housing towers immediately adjacent to campus and along the streetcar route, it would ease mini-dorm pressure on surrounding neighborhoods. When we came to vote on a second round of heights, the night of the vote, the 3 of us who had met with all the players and felt we had come to an agreement on heights acceptable to neighbors were surprised that a deal for increased heights had been cut – we lost the vote for reduced heights and density by 4-3. Joining me in that vote were both Karin, and then council member Romero. Keep that in mind as you read on.
Another part of the MGO was the corner of Speedway and Euclid that Capstone is interested in developing. It’s outlined in red in this picture. You can see shadowed in the rectangle 5 homes – each single story, and each listed as historic contributing structures to the West University District. Any development in that area must respect the height of adjacent historic structures. Capstone has other ideas.
 If Capstone can relocate those 5 structures to another site that’s within the WUNA historic zone, they retain their contributing status, they’re out of the way for the purpose of increased height, and Capstone can move forward with a request for rezoning on that corner unbridled by the historic height issue. But the rezoning comes to M&C. I mentioned the 4-3 vote above as a reminder that there’s some scar tissue related to redevelopment of this area. The corner Capstone is trying to free up was discussed extensively during MGO meetings as being a buffer for WUNA. Those of us who were there remember and will work to honor those commitments.
Word is that Capstone seems to have identified a couple of parcels within WUNA to relocate the homes. Here’s what they want to build – the numbers you see refer to the number of stories for each building they’re proposing.
 That’s not the buffer we agreed to, and I’ll be joining many of my friends from WUNA and other surrounding neighborhoods reminding Capstone of that as these discussions continue. I’m meeting with staff next week to also remind them, so we’re all clear that someone behind the scenes helping to facilitate the relocation of the existing structures will not result in any material change in the discussion of heights when Capstone sees a clear site. We’ve lived the ‘behind the scenes’ with the MGO in the past. Lots of people remember.
Hunger Walk 2021
 This year’s Hunger Walk is coming on Saturday, September 11th. There are 3 ways you can take part; virtually, where you walk when and where it works for you; in a meet-up event where you join a small group to take part; or you can simply make a donation online to support others. No matter how you take part, all of the funds go to support our local Community Food Bank (CFB.)
Your registration fee and any other money you raise through the Walk will be donated to CFB. You choose your course, and you choose your pace. The goal is to get you and your friends outside to enjoy parts of the community. Choose the Loop, Tumamoc Hill, your own neighborhood – wherever you want, knowing that you’re out helping others through this tough financial time. To register, click here
This is one of the major fundraisers the Community Food Bank holds every year. It’d be great to see lots of Walk T-shirts when I’m out running the morning of the 22nd.
TMC Meet Me Downtown 5K
And as a training opportunity for your CFB Hunger Walk, there’s the TMC Meet Me Downtown 5K.
Another partnership that’s bringing good news this month is between Randy Accetta and his Run Tucson team and run sponsor TMC. Coming Sunday morning, August 22nd, they’ll be back to an in-person Meet Me Downtown event. It’s running, jogging, walking – just getting outside and enjoying being around people in our downtown area.
The event – and Tucson – got billing in the July/August edition of the Road Race Management Newsletter. That means some national pub for our local event. It’s a flat course that winds through and around Armory Park. Expect about 800 other participants when you arrive. They will use the current public health protocols, including hand sanitizer and distancing. Randy and the management team are about staging a fun and safe event. I’m happy to give them this nod and hope you can take some time on the 22nd to join in this event. Remember, for 99% of the people who take part, it’s for fun and isn’t a ‘race.’ Except maybe against yourself.
Use this link to register: www.azroadrunners.org.
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Property Tax Protection Program
If you’re age 65 or over, and you’ve owned and lived in your current home for at least 2 years, you might qualify to have your property tax frozen. The property must be your primary residence – not a rental or a duplex. But if you’re eligible, your entire property tax may be based on the limited value of the home.
In order to qualify, the household income from all sources cannot exceed $38,112 for single people and $47,640 for couples. And the applicant’s name must appear on the title for the property. When you get your 2022 property tax valuation postcard, look at it and see if the 2022 Limited Value is higher than your 2021 Limited Value. If it is, you might benefit from the program.
In order for your application to be considered for the current tax season, get your application in before September 1st. If you miss that date, you’ll be considered for the next tax season. Use this link to file your application: Senior Property Valuation Protection Option
If you’d like more information on this tax program, call the Assessor at 724.8630, or you can email them at AsrValRelief@pima.gov.
EScooters are Back
The escooter program that has been a pilot has now transitioned to a permanent city program. Several months ago, we gave direction to staff to re-issue a Request for Proposals to scooter companies to gauge interest. Two companies were awarded contracts to take part in a 12-month scooter permit program. They’re Spin (a new group to Tucson) and Razor.
When this came back to us for a final vote, it was clear the rest of the M&C were going to support it. That, despite the challenges Ward 6 residents have had with the scooters. Having them scattered in lawns, rights of way, laying on sidewalks, and sidewalk riding posed some real challenges in terms of my ability to support awarding for a 12 month period. One piece of the program that I was able to get instituted is a feature that alerts the rider is he/she is on a sidewalk. It would have been better if concrete riding simply shut down the scooter’s motor. What we got is a system that alerts the rider if the scooter is being improperly ridden on a sidewalk. We’ll see how it works out.
The permanent launch happened last Thursday. Bird removed all of their scooters, Razor just continued with their program, and Spin will be hiring their local crew and deploying soon. Later this month, I’ll be test riding one of the scooters, with a particular interest in the ‘no sidewalk riding’ feature. We can be hopeful until proven otherwise. Also new with the program going permanent is a series of parking corrals. That will be similar to the existing Tugo bike docking stations, but with the scooters, there’s no actual docking requirement. We’ll make several of the corrals available and will keep an eye on how freely people use them.
If you’d like to get more information on the program, visit https://bit.ly/TucsonScooters. And if you see them improperly parked or witness other activities you feel the companies should be aware of, use these contacts:
Spin Scooters: Sara Dodrill, sara.dodrill@spin.pmRazor Share: Brandon Cheung, bcheung@razorusa.com
Pima County Youth Development
We’re all concerned with workforce development. And we all want to give our youth opportunities to learn a trade and find employment within our community. Coming this week, the Pima County Department of Youth Development is hosting a workshop during which their programs aimed at both of those goals will be on display.
This is a cooperative effort between Pima County, Las Artes, and the Pima Vocational High School. If you’re a parent whose kids are interested in a trade, a young person wanting to learn a trade, or an employer who wants to establish a pipeline to locally trained workers, you should carve out some time to attend.
The event will take place this Wednesday, from 1 pm until 3 pm, at the Youth Employment Center, 320 N. Commerce Loop. This flyer has all the information. Trade education is an area where the job market will simply not be going away. I hope you can take part in this important event.
Welcome to Ward 5 – Pack Dash
Our partners in Sun Corridor were the prime moving party in attracting a new company to Tucson. Pack Dash is a new e-commerce fulfillment center that will be operational this month out at 820 E. 16th Street. Over the next 10 years, their anticipated economic impact to the region will be north of $84M.
When you order from groups such as Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and Google, your order might be fulfilled by Pack Dash. Their Tucson operation will bring 50 new jobs to the area with an average salary of over $47K. And because they don’t charge postage mark-ups or other hidden fees, many of our local small businesses will be able to use them for shipping online orders. Thanks to Sun Corridor for their work, and welcome to Tucson to Pack Dash.
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Harvard Global Health Institute
Since the pandemic began, I’ve tracked several different COVID data sources. My intent is to look into varying sites, so the information you read here is from a variety of perspectives. Collecting the COVID data is a challenge, so seeing different data sets will give a more accurate picture than just relying on a ‘single source of truth.’ In fact, aggregating data from multiple sources is how SSOT is defined.
Here’s a comparison between the past two weeks’ Harvard Global Health risk level maps. From last week’s newsletter.
 And this is our current condition:
 The areas in green in the middle of the map are Nebraska. If you scroll back up to the NYTimes maps I showed earlier; you’ll see they’re grey in those maps. All that means is that they were not reporting data. Like I said in my opening, COVID data collection is a challenge. If you’ve got friends or family living in Nebraska, don’t assume they’re living in Eden while the rest of us are experiencing high levels of infection spread.
Last week, Harvard had the Pima County cases per 100,000 at 14.2, with a daily 7 day average of 148 new cases. Here’s this week’s comparison. Increases in both categories. And remember, at the end of June, we had 3.9 daily new cases per 100,000 people. It has gone up by a factor of 4 in a little over a month. If anyone is enjoying ‘liberty,’ it’s the Delta variant.
Statewide, Arizona is up to 35 new daily cases per 100,000 people, with a 7 day moving average of over 260. As I said earlier, what happens in Maricopa County doesn’t stay in Maricopa County. People travel. Viruses travel with people.
Vaccinations are free and widely available. If you get one today, you’re not covered for a couple of weeks. And you’re not fully covered until you get the 2nd dose (unless you get a J&J vaccination.) Public school started last week, and this week UA students begin to return to town. We saw this all play out last year. Thankfully about ½ of us have some vaccination protection now.
If you are an unvaccinated city employee, please strongly consider getting covered. When my office partnered with some Sam Hughes groups to do a memorial at Himmel Park last fall, we were doing it in remembrance of 622 lost loved ones. Today in Pima County, COVID has killed more than 2,400 people. Do your homework on the efficacy and safety of the vaccines.
You can check what’s going on in your home county by hovering your cursor over it on the Harvard map. Use this link to access it:
https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/
Here’s our statewide map. These are cumulative numbers. As noted above, they’re increasing once again.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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