Wear Orange Day
This is County Supervisor Rex Scott, along with Pam Simon and Pat Maisch in the background over my shoulder. Rex had just addressed Saturday’s Wear Orange event with a county proclamation related to gun control. I’m shown also presenting a similar statement from the city. Statements and proclamations are expressions of support. At this point though we simply need action from the federal and state governments – or as I said during the event – have them get out of the way and we’ll handle it on the local level.
When I got home Saturday night after the event, I found that the lead story on the local news was another shooting incident. In Phoenix 1 person was killed and 8 others wounded in a ‘party that went bad.’ Here’s a short list of places that now have a history of things ‘going bad.’
Congress has been gutless, and the leadership of the Arizona state legislature is bought and paid for by the gun lobby. Otherwise, we’d have seen actual changes in laws. And to the true believers who say changes in laws would do no good, simply put, that’s not true.
Banning the sale of assault style guns to citizens would have prevented hundreds of deaths. Simple. Military-style weapons should only be used in military operations. Sales to civilians should be banned.
Safe storage laws may have prevented murders in Irving, Texas (5), Sacramento (5), Red Lake, Minnesota (9), Omaha (8), Santa Monica (4), Newtown (27), Marysville, Washington (4), and Roseburg, Oregon (9). In each of those cases the gun used in the shooting was stolen.
Banning the sale of extended magazine sales would have prevented deaths in Tucson (6), Santa Monica (5), San Bernardino (14), Kalamazoo (6), Orlando (47), Aurora (12), Las Vegas (58), Sutherland Springs, Texas (25), and Killeen, Texas (13).
Requiring background checks on all sales – including private sales at gun shows – would have prevented deaths in Odessa, Texas (7), Carson City, Nevada (4), Meridian, Mississippi (6), and Atlanta (12).
Increasing the legal age limit for the purchase of all weapons to 21 would have saved lives in Parkland (17), Indianapolis (8), Buffalo (10), and Uvalde (21).
None of that impacts the ability of adults to legally purchase a weapon. And understand also that the deaths reflected in those incidents do not count the hundreds of people who were shot, injured but not killed. Many of them are living with diminished capacity physically, and all are living with the post-traumatic stress that will never go away.
Safe storage laws, age increases, background checks and banning extended magazines. Watch in the coming days to see if any of that is done, or if all we get from congress is a commitment to more thoughts and prayers WHEN the next mass shooting incident takes place and one of these simple measures can be cited as a causal factor.
There’s an election coming this November. Do your homework.
Humanizing Homelessness
Kenny was a part of a camp I visited where it was clear most of the people there would not thrive in a housing setting. One was too strung out to talk with me, another was passed out - and I found Ken with his pooch. We struck up a good conversation. No, he's not interested in our housing first option.
This is Kenny and his 27-week-old companion Baby. She's a border/chihuahua mix - and she's a sweetie. Ken is 61 years old and was 'born and raised' in Tucson. He did spend bits of time in Washington State where he was sent to spend time with his dad. That happened between ages 13 and 17. He was arrested for a variety of low-level juvenile offenses and spent time in the Washington juvenile detention center, saying that he 'escaped' each time, making his way back to Tucson. He has been on his own ever since.
Ken never finished high school but did take online classes at Everett College. He studied the U.S. Constitution and was fluent in who wrote the Federalist Papers, and what they were about. Ken believes our current policy makers have lost their way and are ignoring constitutional rights - principally related to homeless individuals.
Ken was married for 3 months many years ago. He married a Department of Corrections worker, they had a child, and the marriage ended. Their son died from Cerebral Palsy complications at the age of 27. Ken did carpentry and framing work, recently being a part of the Dream Pod manufacturing operation at a ranch outside of Bisbee. He has some pretty strong feelings about how the city moved those out of downtown, and some pretty strong feelings about some of the guys who were involved in the litigation, feeling they 'sold out' the homeless community.
Ken has been sober from alcohol for over 20 years, but is diagnosed with serious mental illness and does take street drugs. He won't enter a shelter because he will not give up Baby. What makes him happy is 'people.' What makes him sad is 'stupid people.' That is an outlook that's tough to argue with.
Refugees
The roller coaster ride that the judge’s family reunification process has been continued in the past week. There was some potentially excellent news when we received notice that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has tentatively approved entry for both his wife and their little girl. This is a part of the notice:
Travel to the United States and Entry
Provided that USCIS discovers no information that would impact eligibility for parole, a travel document will be issued for the parole beneficiary named above. The parole beneficiary must travel to the United States within thirty (30) days of the date the travel document is issued.
The notice goes onto give directions for securing the needed vaccinations – the usual, including MMR, TB, polio, COVID...All of that would be expected standard operations, but for the fact that one of their restrictions cannot be met.
Last week I shared some of our exchange with the embassy personnel in Turkey. One of the conditions for his wife to get the medical exam is that she presents her passport. She doesn’t have it – the Turkish government took and retained it. Some of the State embassy personnel have been working to secure its release. Then the case was handed off to another person in State and he sent the requirement that she show the passport to the panel physician who’ll give the medical exam. I sent this new State worker a lengthy email explaining and asking that he coordinate his efforts with the guy we had previously been working with. Ahmad was copied into that email, so the new guy knew I was working with his approval. The next day Ahmad received this note:
Subject: [EXTERNAL]
As noted below, the next step is to get the physical review by the U.S. Embassy Ankara "panel physician." I was contacted separately by a Mr. Steve Kozachik stating that one or both of the travelers does not have a passport. Is that accurate?Regarding my earlier message about timeline, we are happy to provide travel documents as soon as the process is complete, whether it is tomorrow or a month from now.
Note that Ahmad had been copied into the email in which I had laid out the history of the program. Next, I received this note from the guy:
Privacy restrictions don't allow me to talk about third party applications, but rest assured that the Embassy was aware of these complications before we received the parole authorization from Washington, and the Embassy is working on it. No, there are no panel physicians in Istanbul.
If the Embassy ‘was aware’ of the complications, one would think the instructions for getting a medical exam would not have included the passport requirement. And if the Embassy was connected to travel in Turkey they’d have known getting from Istanbul to Ankara where their panel physician is located is nearly impossible. It’s roughly 500 miles. She cannot board a bus or a plane without travel documents. And she would not have the passport they’re requiring when she finally arrived.
I’d like to say that we’re working through these details. There are more people seeing emails from me and from Ahmad than I can list. What I’ve requested is a phone call, so we don’t have this constant email exchange. You’ve likely tried using email to work out detailed issues – it doesn’t work. And add in a 10-hour time difference and we’re never either on the same page, or even on the same day. For example, when I sent my last email to the State group on Friday at 11am Tucson time, it was already 9pm over there and they were all in weekend mode.
This is our system. Tens of thousands of people who are scattered around the world are trying to work through it, navigating language and cultural barriers. It’s why the rejection rate for these parole applications is well over 90%. The last line in Friday’s last email was “We’re so close – let's work together to get these young ladies ‘home’ and reunited.” Put yourself in the shoes of this family – or any of the many others who are only seeing the official State Department documents coming in either rejecting applications or adding conditions that can’t be met. We might need to change the inscription on this young lady’s ‘welcome’ message.
Tucson Greyhound Park Closing
Back in its prime, Tucson Greyhound Park was lit up and full of spectators. TGP opened right as WWII was ending. During the past 7+ decades, untold numbers of dogs have died, or been killed as a result of the operation of that facility.
Thankfully, this is now what the place looks like:
By the end of June, the park will be sold and shuttered. Their Florida-based owners posted this dreary farewell last week:
“It is with a heavy heart that Tucson Greyhound Park will cease operations between June 20 and 30 forever.”
Tucson Greyhound Park was known in the industry as a kill track. It was the last stop for dogs who had run and won at other tracks. Their lives were spent in crates barely large enough for them to stand and turn around in. They were often fed anabolic steroids to mask injuries. We documented multiple deaths due to electrocution, broken bones and inner diseases caused by the steroids. Finally, the owners got tired of the negative press and turned the facility into a betting parlor.
For roughly the first 7 years I was in office there were dozens of local advocates who worked together to get that place shut down. In 2016, even Ducey and the state legislature banned live dog racing in Arizona. The Off-Track Betting (OTB) continued though, so the track remained open for people to visit and to bet on events taking place in other parts of the country. Back in the day betting on dog racing brought in north of $3B in wagers. Today that has thankfully dwindled to a few hundred million – still far too much, but the severe reduction in ‘handle’ shows that people understand what a terrible excuse it is for ‘sport.’ Today there are less than 5 greyhound tracks still operating in North America. I join all of the animal welfare advocates in celebrating this final nail in the TGP coffin.
Paul Ingram from the Tucson Sentinel did the first story on the closure. Here’s his piece. The Sentinel generally beats the rest of local media on breaking stories.
https://6park.news/arkansas/6-years-after-live-racing-ends-tucson-greyhound-park-closes-after-off-track-bets-fail-to-pay.html
PFAS Update
Speaking of billions of dollars, that’s the price tag the federal government – and hopefully the manufacturers like 3M – are looking at for remediating the contaminated water systems that now exist all over the country. They’re contaminated because of the irresponsible way defense department operations disposed of the toxic PFAS chemicals. In Tucson we’ve now had to shut down over 20 production wells due to the levels of PFAS. Thankfully we’ve still got the Colorado River as our primary water supply so the loss of that well capacity isn’t an immediate issue. But it will be – and so PFAS must be removed from the system.
Please mark your calendar for Thursday, July 14th for another update on how the various players in this local issue are working to clean the mess. The meeting will be by Zoom and will start at 6pm, we’ll have representatives from Tucson Water, the Air Force, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and our City Attorney’s office all present to share thoughts, and to take questions. We’ve done these before, and we’ll continue hosting them as long as it takes to see action remediating the problem.
The DOD continues to say they need another 3 years just to study the problem in Tucson. Those who follow water news know that the Colorado River has a capacity issue today. As our ability to rely on the Colorado diminishes, our need for a clean groundwater supply increase. Studying PFAS for another 3 years places us in a vulnerable position. The DOD is already serving bottled water to some local homes that are on private wells. That’s not a solution for those homes, nor is it for the wider community. Here’s a link for the Zoom we’ll host on the 14th at 6pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84137080185?pwd=K05UK3VJT1kzV1Fmb0FyS0owVzQzQT09
Meeting ID: 841 3708 0185
Passcode: 11111
City Worker Clinic
Several months ago, the city began plans for turning a residential home we own in a midtown neighborhood into a drop-in facility dedicated to city workers who are seeking mental health counseling. The facility would not be a ‘business’ as the services it’ll offer are solely for city workers. There will be 5 employees – one receptionist, two case workers who will not see clients on site, and 2 counselors. Counselors will see a maximum of 5 city employees per day for individual counseling sessions.
If that was going to be a clinic in which we gave say flu shots to 3-5 city employees per day, it likely would never have become an issue. Sadly, though the fact that the clinic is going to provide mental health counseling to city workers caused it to be a hot topic during a recent midtown neighborhood meeting.
To be fair, some of the neighbors felt this would be a ‘business in a residential neighborhood’ and that it caused these issues:
Specifically, our issues are:
- Why does the clinic need to be in a residential neighborhood as opposed to a commercial one?
- Why should our families have to deal with this, when we are protected by zoning laws, and when the City could easily locate the clinic in a place that is properly zoned for this?
- With this facility, the City has essentially a blank check to do whatever it wants, without our permission, in the middle of our quiet, residential neighborhood. That’s not ok.
Ironically, we received this comment from another resident:
Personally, I suffer from depression and anxiety and am all for resources and to help treat those effected. The issue is not only the fact that it is a mental health facility but a business of any kind in a residential neighborhood is not appropriate.
And to be fair, the city neglected to send out the notice about the start of construction. We’re building a wall in the front yard to allow some privacy both for clients, and other neighbors.
The city allows home base businesses in residential neighborhoods. They come with certain restrictions that preserve the quality of life for the neighbors. The number of customers is limited to no more than 5 per day, and not more than one at a time. No obtrusive signage. And a home occupation shall not create any nuisance, hazard or ‘other offensive condition.’ Evidently offering a 45-minute counseling session for city workers was a bridge too far for some of the folks on the call.
Earlier in the week I had been in meetings with the leadership of the National Association on Mental Illness. May was somewhat ironically National Mental Health Awareness month. The NAMI folks are serving the community in ways that help to prevent suicides, domestic violence and other conditions that can be outcomes from untreated mental health concerns. Also, earlier in the same day of the meeting about the city facility, my staff and I had met with members of the Pima County Interfaith Council representing St. Philips in the Hills, St. Pius and Job Path. We had a lively discussion about the needs COVID has placed on mental health resources. And of course, last week continued our trend of mass shootings – Buffalo, Uvalde, Tulsa. Every such incident has a troubling mental health component associated – either from the shooter, or certainly among the family members of victims in the aftermath.
Eric Fink from KVOA ran a nice piece on the midtown ‘controversy.’ One of the neighbors had ‘tipped him off’ that there were going to be fireworks, so they ran with it. It bled, so it led the 10pm newscast. Here’s his well-done coverage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rApl8IW55M
Note the concerns were ‘traffic, noise, congestion and strangers.’ With 2 counselors seeing a maximum of 5 patients per day, that’s a total of 50 people per week visiting the site. Yup, they’d be ‘strangers’ to the immediate area. Strangers going into a home to get counseling to treat an issue they’re wrestling with such as the loss of a loved one, or the impacts of pandemic-caused social isolation.
So, who exactly are those ‘strangers?’ City employees such as code enforcement officers, police, paramedics, parks staff, real estate staff, transportation and street maintenance workers, environmental services workers, general services staff. You know – the one’s I’ve been asking to go into the neighborhood to do things such as check code violations, clean a homeless camp, work on expanding a park, picking up the trash weekly, installing fencing to address camping concerns, verifying property lines, fixing potholes...those ‘strangers.’ I had no idea that by my sending all those people into the neighborhood that I was causing the trauma that was expressed during the call. I’ve made a mental note to show more discretion before responding to requests that might involve all those extra cars and strange people wandering around the neighborhood.
The neighborhood leadership voted unanimously to ask me to pause the project so they can challenge it at the Board of Adjustment. That is a quasi-judicial hearing held in council chambers. The members of the Board are made up of architects and planners. They will now hear what the city is planning for the facility, hear the concerns about stranger danger and traffic, and they’ll rule on whether or not to allow this use in that location. If they allow it, the neighborhood has Superior Court as their only appeal option.
I’m grateful for the good work being done by NAMI, PCIC, and for the empathy shown by leadership at the faith-based organizations with whom we’ve been meeting recently. The next Board of Adjustment hearing is on June 29th. I’m hopeful this item gets on their agenda, so we’ll have some direction in how to move forward with the counseling facility.
Pima Council on Aging (PCOA)
Another agency that’s serving important needs in the community is PCOA. Coming this week, they’ll be hosting a job fair to recruit caregivers. It’s an immensely important occupation that is woefully understaffed. That's true not only in Tucson, but throughout the senior-service community of agencies.
PimaCare at Home is a subsidiary company of the Pima Council on Aging. PimaCare will be running the fair. These will be in-person events held at the Katie Dusenberry Healthy Aging Center at 600 S. Country Club. On June 9th the fair will run from 8am until 1pm. Then on the 10th they’ll run it all day, from 8am until 4pm. You should register in advance using this link:
https://pcoa.org/calendar/caregiving-hiring-fair/
ByFusion Blocks
Last week we met with city staff and Rebecca from Tucson Clean & Beautiful out at the about-to-be site of the ByBlock and Rocket Bottle bench. As you can see, we laid out the dimensions for the city to come in and pour a concrete foundation for the bench. It’ll be below grade so the bench itself will appear to be sitting on the ground. That'll make a more pleasing visual, and it’s the right height for sitting.
When it’s done, you’ll be able to see the ByBlocks through plex-openings – shown in light grey in this concept plan. So, this reuse project is moving ahead. We hope to meet the ByFusion team in late June for the install. The foundation is being poured this week – we at the Ward 6 office are grateful to our General Services team for their part in this.
Oh, and the ByBlock ramada I’ve written about. It was planned for that same neighborhood who is protesting the mental health counseling house. They decided having a ramada in their park might ‘attract homeless’ so they don’t want it as a new park amenity. The next morning, I was advised that we had easily found a new home for the ramada. It’ll be a nice shade structure for people to sit under at one of the Prop 407 dog parks we’re building. I’m grateful to Greg Jackson from our parks administration for coming up with that suggestion. We’re off and running with some designs.
Ben’s Bells in Blenman Elm
In 2002, Jeanette Mare’s little boy Ben died shortly before his 3rd birthday. He would have celebrated his 23rd birthday this year. Shortly after his death, Jeanette founded Ben’s Bells – find them at https://bensbells.org/. You’ll love the story.
One of the things they do at Ben’s is leave secret Bells scattered in sites around town. Jeanette saw me out running one morning and had me place one out on the Loop. The bells bring a message of kindness – the one I left was gone the next day, picked up by someone who I’m sure smiled when they found it.
In recent newsletters I’ve shared the progress of the new Blenman Elm neighborhood mural. It’s done now, and last week Jeanette – who is a neighbor – stopped by to hang a bell. Here’s a shot of it (photo credit to another neighbor Alan Myklebust). Within a day some lucky soul had wandered past and grabbed it.
With all of the stories we read about people hating on strangers, seeing the work Jeanette’s team is doing to counter that throughout not only our community, but nationwide restores some faith in who we can be.
Parks and Recreation Events
I’ll finish the newsletter with a COVID update – the number of cases, and their severity continues to escalate. So, with that in the back (or front) of your mind, here are some summer events our parks staff is hosting. Please participate safely, realizing others around you might be in COVID-vulnerable categories. If you’re sick, stay home.
Beginning this week and extending through July there’s going to be a series of road races for joggers as well as track and field events. The activities will take place every Tuesday and Thursday during June and July with track and field happening on Tuesdays and road races on Thursdays. You can get the exact schedules at this webpage, or by calling parks at 520.791.4870. Use that link to find out where registration will take place.
The track and field events will include dashes ranging from 100 meters up to 3,200 meters. There’ll be relays, long and high jump, shot put, javelin and some other field events. The road races will range from 1 mile up to 3.1 (5K) miles. All of the events will take place in the evening. Track and field happen at the Drachman Stadium, 501 S. Plumer. The road races will be scattered around the city at these sites.
Dates and Locations:
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June 9 - Reid Park (SW Corner of Country Club & 22nd Street)
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June 16 - Freedom Park (5000 E. 29th Street - South end)
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June 23 - Lakeside Park (8201 E. Stella Road - Ramada #1)
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June 30 - Kennedy Park (La Cholla & Ajo Road - west side of La Cholla)
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July 7 - Lincoln Park (4325 S. Pantano Road - by swimming pool)
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July 14 - Reid Park (SW Corner of Country Club Road & 22nd Street)
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July 21 - Freedom Park, 5000 E. 29th Street (south end)
Parks staff will also host swimming lessons for kids 6 months up to 17 years of age. These lessons will be 3, two-week sessions running from June 20th through July 28th. They’ll also have separate classes available for parent/child lessons. Registration will open on June 7th on this site: EZEEreg.com. You can also sign up for aquatic fitness classes at that site. And remember, we’re still looking to hire nearly 200 more lifeguards so we can expand the number of city pools that can be opened this summer. The city offers lifeguard certification classes for free, so don’t let that stop you from getting involved.
And parks are also offering a series of free pool parties at a variety of sites around the city. The popular Ready, Set, Rec vans will be at each event, along with food, music, inflatables and of course pool fun. Here’s the full list of dates/times/locations for these events.
June 8, 5-7 p.m. Clements Pool, 8155 E. Poinciana Drive
June 11, 4-7 p.m. (ARC Aqua Carnival) Edith Ball Adaptive Recreation Center, 3455 E. Zoo Court
June 15, 5-7 p.m. Quincie Douglas Pool, 1563 E. 36th Street
June 22, 5-7 p.m. Fort Lowell Pool, 2900 N. Craycroft Road
June 29, 5-7 p.m. Sunnyside Pool, 1725 E. Bilby Road
July 2, 4-7 p.m. (Red, White, Blue Splash Bash) Edith Ball Adaptive Recreation Center, 3455 E. Zoo Court
July 6, 5-7 p.m. Purple Heart Pool, 10050 E. Rita Road
July 13, 5-7 p.m. Archer Pool, 1665 S. La Cholla Blvd.
July 20, 5-7 p.m. Udall Pool, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road
July 27, 5-7 p.m. Mansfield Pool, 2275 N. 4th Ave.
COVID
COVID case counts in Arizona jumped to over 13,000 last week. That’s a 2,000+ case increase from the prior week. Pima County also continued seeing the increase. I know several city departments that are being affected. Yes, M&C will continue to meet in person this week unless someone decides to give that a pause. We only have one meeting in June. I’d support pausing.
Here’s the table I’ve been running for that past month. It shows the consistent increase in case counts.
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Week Of
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Pima County
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Arizona
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April 24th
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260 new cases
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2,350 new cases
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May 1st
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510 new cases
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3,911 new cases
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May 8th
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776 new cases
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5,404 new cases
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May 15th
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1,090 new cases
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7,204 new cases
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May 22nd
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1,692 new cases
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11,498 new cases
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May 29th
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1,985 new cases
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13,042 new cases
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Another 33 people lost their lives due to COVID in Arizona last week. The positivity rate from just those who tested at centers gathering data was between 20% and 25%. You can see from this graph that our current percent positivity rate is among the highest since this whole thing began back in 2020. And it’s headed up.
The virus is alive and well among us.
Here is this week’s Arizona county-by-county case map.
While the national case counts and hospitalization rates on a 14-day average trended down just a bit, that’s not at all the case for Arizona. And as you see, Pima County is increasing just like the rest of the state is.
   Last week the 8 new in-home COVID test kits the government is offering arrived at my house. You can still order through this website: covidtests.gov. The federal government is making 8 per household available.
The Harvard Global Health Care risk level map continues to show the national summer surge gaining ground. I keep sharing this information, and it is clear from all the activities we’re once again engaging in that we’ve evidently turned a corner and are now comfortable risking catching some form of COVID. At the Ward 6 office we continue to ask that if you have any symptoms, or if you’ve been around people who do, please reschedule any meeting you have with us.
The Harvard Global Health Care risk level map is getting redder.
Pima County numbers increased again. The 7-day new case count last week was 241, and the daily average p/100,000 people was just under 23. This is what they are now. The trend has placed us back into the Red, high risk for transmission category. It’s the first time we’ve been at this level in months.
Flu is still under control in Arizona. Nevada and New Mexico, both right on our border are having a tough flu season. Here’s the current flu infection map for the nation. Florida is getting whacked with both the flu and the COVID virus.
Here are the Pima County health department COVID testing centers for this week. It’s important to note that if you do a self-test and it comes up positive, please report that to Pima County health. When all of this began the county health folks were able to track infections because they were doing all the testing. Now that it’s spread out, the infection rate is more difficult to track and it’s very likely our numbers reflect an undercount.
And here are the Pima County health vaccination centers. No appointment is needed.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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