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 Date: 05/09/2022
Topics in This Issue:
Humanizing the Homeless
Meet Marie. I caught up with her when I joined Ann Charles and her family serving an Easter meal at Sister Jose women's shelter. Marie is 75 years old and is sharp as a tack. And don’t even try to BS her – she has heard it already.
Marie is a Tucson native. She went to high school at Salpointe - she was one of the Lancer mascots back in the day - class of '65. She has a degree in Interior Design from the UA.
Marie tied her degree in design together with both the sale and remodeling of real estate. She's quick to point out how those dots connect; redesign and remodel a clunker and resell it. She had a crew of 18 workers working for her when she ran La Mariposa. The name means butterfly in Spanish and comes from one of her workers telling her they took a mess and turned it into a butterfly.
During the Reagan years when real estate taxes were altered, the bottom fell out of the market she was in. She and her partner kept their heads above water by running a bar and some apartments. When her partner died from cancer about 8 years ago, she lost both properties and became homeless, having been given 15 minutes to leave her apartment. She has the usual health challenges that come with being 75, but still wants to work and believes she has skills to help with remodeling homes like she used to do.
During her couch surfing days while looking for stable housing she had 5 cases of heat stroke. What makes her happy is playing golf, saying she still has her Ping clubs - but of course hasn't played in years. What makes her sad is being out of control of her situation. She says 'you've gotta keep your sense of humor - you can't just give up and die.' She's at Sister Jose now helping the younger women with some basic life skills. One fun fact about Marie is she was a professional horse trainer until 10 years ago. She trained English, Western and Harness horses. If you ever talk with her, she'll beam with pride when sharing that part of her with you.
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Ward Office Budget and Housing Affordability
When ward offices have money left at the end of the fiscal year, we have the option of allowing it to roll into the General Fund, or to use it for community needs. This year housing/homelessness is the main topic facing the region, so our team is using our left-over funds to touch those needs.
I’ve requested a June 7th agenda item for M&C to approve two buckets of funds, each headed to our Housing and Community Development Department. The money will go to emergency rental assistance for seniors, and to helping our homeless protocol team get new tenants in our shelters documents they’ll need in order to take next steps in pulling their lives together. This is the memo I submitted – it gives a more thorough description.
 In addition, we’ve allocated $10K to the Community Home Repair program. Scott Coverdale and his team do emergency home repair for low-income homeowners. I’ve asked that our money be focused on needs the CHRPA group finds within Ward 6. If you know low income homeowners who need help with things such as tuning up evaporative coolers, light plumbing or electrical work, or safety adaptations for people with disabilities, please reach out to the Community Home Repair folks by either calling 745.2055, or by using this link: www.chrpaz.org/Contact-Us.html
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Contact-Us
Contact Us at Community Home Repair. Community Home Repair is a non-profit agency dedicated to assisting low income homeowners in Tucson and Pima County. We provide emergency home repairs, as well as adaptive and safety modifications for people with disabilities
www.chrpaz.org
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And this is a link to a nice story Craig Smith from KGUN did last week on the issue of rising rents. Thanks to property owner Stephanie Zill for participating in the piece, and for the way she handles rentals for people on fixed incomes. https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/fighting-the-rent-squeeze
Refugees
A couple of weeks ago the Biden administration announced they’re opening a special visa program for Ukrainian refugees. The early result is more of those being approved than we’ve seen for Afghans since last August’s evacuation. Lisa Resnick from KJZZ ran a story on it last week. Here’s the copy from her short segment:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications for a special parole program for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war. It’s a similar program to the one rolled out for Afghans, with a few important differences. The program gives eligible Ukrainians fast-tracked entry to the U.S. through humanitarian parole.
It’s the same, temporary status given to some 78,000 Afghans evacuees last year. Tucson City Council member Steve Kozachik has been helping Afghans already here apply for the status for family members still stuck abroad. He says many are getting rejected.
"And that’s troubling to me, we have people who have got applications in, and you remember this is not for free, you still have to file a $575 filing fee, non-refundable," he said.
USCIS is waiving that fee for Ukrainian applicants. Kozachik says Afghans have applied for fee waivers, too, mostly unsuccessfully.
"We have seen what the very, very troubling process for Afghan refugees has looked like, and yet we're setting up a separate line from San Ysidro [port of entry] and talking about exempting them from fees," he said. "A refugee is a refugee is a refugee, they're all coming from a traumatic situation, and they all deserve the same level of consideration regardless of ethnicity. ... I would much rather see this administration put an emphasis on fixing the refugee resettlement process generally, than to be doing carveouts for one group or another."
As NBC reports, more than 4,000 Ukrainians were given the status in February and March. Just 270 Afghans have been conditionally approved for parole since last July.
This is a graphic from an article sent to me by Peter Howell neighbor, Neil. It shows the stark drop off in visa approvals comparing before and since the August Kabul evacuation. What is demonstrates is how bogged down and broken our refugee settlement process is. It’s a point I’ve made numerous times to people in our congressional delegation, and others throughout the course of trying to reunify judge Ahmad and his family. And now congress is moving Ukrainians to the front of the line in big numbers.
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I’ve participated in rallies in support of Ukraine so my point here is not that we should be rejecting Ukrainian refugees at the same absurd rate that we’re rejecting Afghans. Just the opposite – as I said to Lisa Resnick, treat them all the same and don’t do carve outs. Nearly every week I provide real examples of the murderous situation that exists every day in Afghanistan – since we pulled out. We’ve approved 117 special immigrant visas since the August pullout. I’ve personally spoken to 3x that many Afghans whose loved ones are being tormented and who have little hope of getting out.
The Biden administration is now trying to establish a pathway to permanent U.S. residency for Afghan refugees. The problem is that it only affects Afghans who have already arrived here. Unless the program is expanded to those left behind, and we make a concerted effort to conduct expedited evacuations, the program will have sacrificed thousands of people who in many cases worked as interpreters and in other support capacities for us. The graphic shown above tells the story.
Currently Afghans must travel to a U.S. embassy in a 3rd country to complete portions of their visa application. They can’t move around in Kabul safely. We require they travel inter-nationally to comply with our procedural requirements. I was on the phone with Stuart, a local business owner last week. He has 7 Afghan refugees working for him and wanted to know how to better help that population. The short message is the USCIS process is broken, the IRC is bogged down in its own bureaucratic rules, and people are dying as a result.
Stuart will share our conversation with his associates, and we’ll stay in contact. The progress is small and slow. But these are people, and they deserve the dignity of our efforts. While many of them are transitioning into apartments, the need for household goods continues. And kids’ toys, hygiene items, sunscreen, and toiletries. We’re getting requests from some groups to resume using our community room for meetings so we might be nearing the end of being a donation center. For now, please continue to support the way you have since the Kabul August mess we all watched on television.
And in the same week we all saw the U.S. Supreme Court draft ruling saying a woman must carry to term the offspring of her rapist, Taliban announced all women in Afghanistan must wear full cover burka’s and limit their time outside the house for only essentials. That announcement came from their new Ministry of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
I just thought the juxtaposition of the pictures brings an important comparison.
Ukraine War Forum
Meanwhile over in Eastern Europe the destruction continues. And here in Arizona there are families watching and wondering how they can help. On Tuesday afternoon there’ll be a panel forum in which you’ll hear perspectives from several people who are involved with the Ukraine issue. Those will include a woman who is trying to navigate the process of sponsoring a family, a local immigration attorney, some from the Ukrainian American Society and I’ll share my experience with the whole broken refugee resettlement process.
This will be a zoom meeting so you can join from the comfort of your home. The issue is anything but comforting though. Please register prior to 4pm on May 10th at https://tinyurl.com/mpda4uvb . You may also submit questions to panelists at the time of your registration. This flyer has all of the event details.
ByFusion Plastic Blocks
We’re working on design documents with ByFusion for the seat wall we hope to install in a San Gabriel pocket park, and a ramada we’re hoping to see in Peter Howell. It takes a little time to get from the concept stage to having the stamped docs we can submit to the city and get to building, but that’s all moving forward.
What is interesting about using the plastic blocks is the amount of plastic that’s being diverted from a landfill. ByFusion has run an estimate for me, and the numbers should be impressive enough to be a catalyst to the city to move the El Pueblo Community Center trash receptacle along. Last I heard 3 weeks ago was they’re still waiting for pricing.
The very rough and very early plan is for the ramada to be 10’x20’. They’ve run some calcs on the number of blocks that will require – for the columns – and the estimate is we’ll be diverting just under 5 tons of plastic from the landfill. The bench is smaller of course – about 18”h x 16” d x 6’ long. The early idea is to make the bench into the shape of a V, so there may be two 6’ sections. Here’s an early concept sketch:
The estimate is nearly 800 pounds of plastic being diverted from the landfill if that’s the design we end up with. I shared this last week – a rendering of what one leg of the bench could look like.
In the graphic you can see some of the block peeking through. That’s by design – to show the recycled product so people understand the environmental upside. The San Gabriel folks had a concrete slab for the bench seat in mind, so I reached out to my friend Anita from Bottle Rocket and asked her to get involved. Bottle Rocket is the local company she runs that uses the crushed glass for things such as benches. When we pull all of these elements together, we’ll be using the heated and formed plastic for the blocks, and the recycled and crushed glass for the bench seat.
Strawbale Construction – Sustainable Tucson
On a very similar note, this month’s Sustainable Tucson meeting will feature a primer on building with bales of straw. The meeting title is “Strawbale Construction: Then, Now, whenever.” They’re meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, May 10th – and the meeting begins at 6pm.
There will be 3 presenters at the meeting: Matts Myhrman, David Eisenberg and Joe Silins. Each have experience in building with bales. They’ll talk about how the effort has evolved over time and will offer insights into how it meshes with building codes. Sign into the meeting using this link:
www.sustainabletucson.org
Sustainable Tucson is also starting up their summer Ambassadors of Sustainability program. It’s a 3-month program that will meet every Saturday morning. The topics they’ll cover include water security, alternative transportation modes, green infrastructure, sustainable housing (see strawbales above,) and a bunch more. It’ll run from June 4th through August 27th.
There’ll be an information session held on Monday, May 16th from 7pm until 7:30pm. If you’ve got more questions on the program, or just want to sign up for the info session, reach out to Stuart at Stuart@sustainabletucson.org.
Rosemont Hudbay and the Santa Ritas
If you look at the river wash in the middle of this picture and follow it to where it bends to the left (west) what you’re seeing is the wash headed to the Santa Cruz River. That matters because since the wash becomes a feeder for a waterway during the monsoons, any construction that impacts its flow is governed by the U.S. Clean Water Act.
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With the Clean Water Act impacts in mind, take another look at the photo and you’ll see in the foreground two large dump trucks working the soil. The one on the right is dumping its load onto the wash. The one on the left has a full truck bed of soil waiting its turn to continue blocking the stream. The work is being done on the west side of the Santa Ritas by Hudbay – the company that wants to build the Rosemont copper mine. The permit they’re working with is being challenged in court but despite that the work goes on pretty much daily. The court has not yet issued an injunction to stop it pending a full court decision.
The washes are called ‘ephemeral’ washes because they carry water only during monsoons. But they have in the past been covered by the Clean Water Act having been shown to be important to the overall health of the larger watercourse they feed. The Santa Cruz in this case. The overall project will have significant impact on both the eastern and western ridges of the Santa Rita mountain range. This map shows where the proposed mine(s) will be located if approved. The red dots show where drone photos were taken.
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The large black blob on the lower right hand side of the picture is the proposed Rosemont copper mine. On its immediate left edge is the ridgeline for the Santa Ritas – and the four smaller black blobs are where they want to dig mine operations on the western edge of the mountain. That’s where the current work is taking place – and is what you see in the photos.
The work is tearing up not only the stream system, but it’s already scarring the surrounding desert landscape. This drone photo shows clearly the impacts of even this very early work. If left alone to continue the work, the damage will not only be to the waterways, but to wildlife habitat as well.
The effort to stop the work is being led by three native American tribes and several environmental groups. Representative Grijalva chairs the House Natural Resources committee. They’ll also be taking a close look at what can be done to quickly stop the work. As these legal processes work their way through the system, Hudbay continues their work while opponents attempt to get a Temporary Restraining Order to halt the work. This is happening real time since once the damage is done, repairing the scar becomes problematic.
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PFAS Public Comment
Sticking with the environmental direction, if you follow this newsletter, you know I’m passionate about holding the DOD responsible for cleaning up the PFAS mess they’ve created in our groundwater. It’s all over the valley, but most importantly for now right outside of DM, and by Tucson International Airport where the Air Guard trains.
Right now, we serve Colorado River water to over 90% of our customers. We’re banking about a 6-month supply of our CAP allocation each year. That luxury is going to end and sooner than we’d like we’ll be relying more heavily on groundwater. Last week we received word from the Department of Interior that reductions to Lake Powell and Lake Mead are imminent. This is one paragraph from their letter:
So having clean groundwater is an essential. One of my concerns is the slow pace with which the military and congress are moving on cleaning up the mess they’ve made using contaminants called PFAS. There are finally multiple bills moving through congress that have remediation money attached, but so far only the State Department of Environmental Quality has tossed any cash at helping to fix the mess. And it’s not their direct responsibility.
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This public notice appeared in the Star last week. It’s the DOD advising the public of a public comment period that has begun relative to the contamination they caused by the Air Guard operation. The acronyms are “EE” - Engineering Evaluation” and “CA”- Cost Analysis. The notice simply says they’re looking into the mess they created by using a firefighting foam that released PFAS into the groundwater.
Two pieces of the notice stand out for me. One is they call the effort “non-time critical.” I’ve said before that the plume is moving faster than the process. That comment in the public notice clearly shows the feds’ attitude about the problem. The other piece that stands out is they consider giving out bottled water a solution. In fact, they’re so good with that resolution, they even bolded it in the second paragraph.
More to come on this, but when there’s clear evidence showing how poorly the DOD is responding, it deserves some public notoriety.
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Reid Park Master Plan
The master planning process for Reid Park is beginning. There will be significant community outreach to gather perspectives on how the public would like to see the park be transformed. The beginning of the outreach process is asking you to take 10 minutes and complete this online survey. It’ll ask you to list priorities for the park, how you use it and what you’d like to see in the future. The survey will close on Tuesday, May 31st at midnight.
You can access the survey in either English or Spanish at these links:
English (bit.ly/reidparkreimagined) or Spanish (bit.ly/reidparkreimaginedSP)
Proposition 411
Just over a week to go on the roads-related Proposition 411 city election. This is the half-cent sales tax extension that’ll fund $600M in road repair and another $150M in road safety elements. The election pamphlet can be seen at this link:
And if you’ve got questions about the Proposition, or voting generally, you can browse the city clerk’s website at https://www.tucsonaz.gov/clerks/elections or call them at 791.4213. And please note: The last day to drop your ballot in the mail and to ensure it is received by the City Clerk’s Office by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day is Wednesday, May 11, 2022.
Sam Hughes Newsletter
Head’s up to Sam Hughes neighborhood residents – and others who’d like to sign up for their monthly newsletter. In the past they used a hard copy format that would go out in the spring. Now they’re transitioning to an electronic newsletter format that’ll be sent out monthly. The flyer shown below has the information on how to sign up. If you’ve got questions or items to submit, contact the SHNA president Jayne Toman at jayne.toman@gmail.com.
Social Equity Marijuana Dispensary Licenses
In 2020 the voters approved adult use of recreational pot in Arizona. Included in that vote was a requirement that the state issue what will be called social equity licenses. They’re intended to be awarded to people who may have been the victim of earlier pot laws, and who therefore may not otherwise have the financial ability to compete for a license. The pot business is nearly entirely cash-driven since it’s still a federally controlled substance. That fact alone means you’ve got to have access to a boatload of cash in order to be a player.
At the city level we’re considering how to address the location in the community of these new dispensaries. The question of who gets the social equity licenses is addressed at the state level. We have authority over where the dispensaries go.
Our planning folks are beginning a public outreach process to share our early thoughts on how to address the licenses. We’re looking at using our Special Exception process to identify locations for the licensed shops. That process includes neighborhood meetings, a zoning examiner hearing and finally M&C action.
If you’re interested in offering your thoughts on the process, you can take part in the zoom meeting by registering at this link:
Please register in advance for this meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvce-srz0pE9QPetFA7CCRueVdUFYmx6me
The meeting will be from 11am until noon on Wednesday, May 25th. Once you register, you’ll get a confirming email that contains more information about how to join the meeting. And if you’d like more background on the action we took, as well as other pot-related codes that are on the books, check out this link: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/pdsd/social-equity-and-marijuana-licenses.
Electric Vehicle and Parking Code Changes
Another public outreach that the planning department is conducting relates to changes we’re considering in 4 different areas, each related to parking electric vehicles. The only nexus between them is the EV piece. The impacts of code changes vary widely between them.
One change being considered is requiring new apartment complexes to have a prescribed number of parking slots either with EV charging plugs, or to be ‘stubbed out’ with conduit so adding the plugs later will be cheap and easy.
We’re also considering allowing parking requirement reductions for newly built multi-family residential that contain affordable housing units. Right now, there is no parking carve-out for affordable housing.
And topics 3 and 4 are to offer bars and restaurants the ability to apply for parking reductions when they apply for outdoor seating – either expanding their business footprint into the street (taking up existing parking spaces,) or expanding into their own existing parking area. Right now, we give no option for reduced parking for bars and restaurants. What’s being considered is allowing them to apply for what’s called an Individual Parking Plan where they show how they’d park the business, even with the reductions that come with expanding seating.
There are two outreach meetings planned. One is in person on Friday, May 20th from 8:30am until 10am. It’ll be held at the 1st floor conference room at city hall (225 W. Alameda.) The second outreach meeting will be held virtually on Monday, May 23rd at 6pm. You can register for that meeting.
Via Zoom - Register here
And if you’d like to browse over all of what’s being proposed, use the project webpage.
COVID
These trend graphs from the CDC show that we’re perilously close to being in yet another COVID surge. The argument that ‘it’s just a cold’ so not to worry is inconsistent with the increase in hospitalizations that has once again begun. If you have symptoms, get one of the free self-test kits and be sure you’re not out spreading COVID. Allergies are horrible right now, but don’t assume that’s the cause of your congestion.
It’s also important to be sure you’re not spreading a flu virus. So far Arizona is doing very well this flu season. This map shows that some of our neighbors are not, so be cautious if you travel out of state soon.
Pima County health is offering free COVID self-test kits. There will be several locations for those kits this week. None require an appointment. Here’s where you can go to get your free self-test kits:
This week there are no mobile test clinics set up, but you can still make an appointment and use one of these free testing centers:
And of course, there continue to be options for you to get vaccinated for either COVID or the flu or boosted for COVID. Here’s this week’s Pima County health vaccination site listing – no appointments are needed:
For the past two weeks running our statewide COVID case reports were right around 2,350. This past week the AzDHS reported 3,911 new cases – and 238 COVID deaths. That’s consistent with the CDC trend lines I shared above. In Pima County our case counts went from 260 to 510. We had 28 COVID deaths last week in Pima County.
Here’s the current state map showing county by county COVID case counts dating back to the start of this in 2020.
This week’s Harvard Global risk map shows the virus is again making its rounds nationally – particularly in the northeast. Also this week Florida and Alaska are showing signs of a renewal of cases. So it’s spreading once again.
Vaccinations and boosters are still somewhat mitigating the severity of the illness when people are infected. So don’t ignore those self-help measures you can take, for free.
Last week the state had reported Zero new Pima County COVID cases. That was wrong – and this week they’ve corrected the report. Here’s where we are. It’s still reasonably good, but is headed in the wrong direction.
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