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Date: 10/17/2022
Topics in This Issue:
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Migrant Needs
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Interfaith Pack-a-Thon
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Plastic Blocks
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Halloween and Critters
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West University and Critters
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Envision Sustainable Tucson
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Neighborhood Recycle Centers
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Gun Violence Prevention
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Senior Affordable Housing
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PCOA - Café at The Katie
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Sun Van Chat
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Veggies and Cancer
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Garden District Porch Fest
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Blenman Elm Butterfly Garden Dedication
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Fee Increases / Environmental Services and Tucson Water
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City Building Permits
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Domestic Violence Awareness Month
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COVID
Migrant Needs
Thank you to all of you who have brought by supplies for these families. As an aside, I was on the phone with a local architect talking about an ongoing redevelopment project. It could have been a conversation about any number of different construction projects. The message is the same. Things are taking longer than expected and costs are higher than they might otherwise be. One large reason is a skilled trade worker shortage. If we had a functional immigration program it would certainly help. Instead, we’ve got what we have – and we continue to need the supplies you’ve been bringing by the office.
What are the conditions these people are leaving? This is Venezuela:
In Nicaragua, there was significant political unrest immediately pre-COVID. That continues to hamper the ability of people living in poverty to subsist, much less thrive. Those are the two countries we’re seeing the majority of arrivals from.
We continue to need the following:
New and unopened underwear (men’s and women’s and children’s,) new socks, and personal hygiene products. That’s shampoo, sunscreen, lotion, toothpaste, feminine products, soap – that sort of thing. New children’s toys.
NO CLOTHING PLEASE. Just the items listed. We’re located at 3202 E. 1st Street – across Speedway from the Loft. Our office is open until 1pm every weekday. We appreciate the responsiveness of the community.
Interfaith Pack-a-Thon
A big thank you to the Muslim Community Center of Tucson (MCCT) for hosting an interfaith pack-a-thon on Sunday. Nadia and her husband represented our office out at the event.
What you see in the photo are community members of all faith joined together packing food boxes that will be distributed to families in need. Imagine – people from different faith traditions standing together and working to serve the less fortunate. Keep this in mind when you watch the news tonight and see people busy killing each other because of religious or political differences.
And we’re grateful to the county health folks who came and helped make the event a success. Hundreds of families will be the beneficiary as a result.
Plastic Blocks
I’m opening this week’s plastic update with an invitation to join our annual Halloween costume contest. At my staff’s urging, I’ve set the standard for this year’s event. You’re still allowed to dress up in plastic, but I have to warn you that it’s a bit toasty inside. My bride broke her arm (again – a different one this time though) so I’m going to suggest she dress in bubble wrap if we head out on Halloween night. We would certainly make a strikingly noticeable couple.
So, get your kids and pets dressed up and send us a picture. Email them to ward6@tucsonaz.gov. My staff will be the unbiased judges. We’ll have free tickets to the Children’s Museum for prizes this year. There will be a separate prize for kids and for pets, so your sons and daughters are not competing against “Steve’s best friend.” The deadline for entering is Friday, October 28th.
Many of you come by and ask how the program is going. This is the view of the truck we sent to Gardena last week – only partially loaded at the time we took the picture, but I wanted you to see this part of the process. Of course, transportation costs of sending tons of baled plastic to the L.A. area is high. Getting the blocker machine housed in Tucson is the goal so we avoid having to do what you see. But the photo shows what you’ve been bringing to the ward office – baled out at Tank’s and trucked to ByFusion. We’ll have the full report on how many blocks it produced and the contamination rate soon.
We’ve got another new partner this week -
Pueblo Vida from downtown at 115 E. Broadway is bringing roughly 100 gallons of trash barrels filled with these plastic can holders over every week.
Until this program, all of these were headed to the landfill. Through our partnership with ByFusion and Tank’s we’re offering a sustainable option.
So, what does end up at the landfill? The city pays Republic Services over $300K per year for the contaminants that end up in the recycle bins. This plastic program will have an impact on that. It’ll be minimal, but it will help the city financially, and of course help the environment substantially. This chart shows in tons what ended up at the Material Recycle Facility.
I have highlighted the non-recyclables. If we only capture those in this program, it’s bumping 300 tons of material diverted from the waste stream. And that’s only the contamination going to the MRF from people inappropriately tossing this stuff into the blue barrels. The opt-in program we’re doing is capturing the plastics people would have more likely just tossed into the trash. And the commercial partners we’ve got add even more.
Right now, we are only diverting approximately 5% of recyclable material from the landfill. That includes the blue bin recycling, scrap metal, our glass crushing program, food waste – largely through a partnership with the UA - and household hazardous waste. Based on studies done both in Tucson and in Phoenix it’s estimated that we could be diverting 10-20 percent of waste for recycling and up to 40% for composting. None of those data include the plastic reuse program we’re doing out of the Ward 6 office. Our intent is to add it to the list of diversion work the city is doing and keep this stuff out of the landfill.
Two years ago, we passed a Resolution declaring a climate emergency. Included in that was a goal of diverting 50% of our waste by 2030. A consultant we hired to provide a roadmap to that goal asked people if they’d support a curbside food waste diversion program. Here’s the result – 82% said they’re either very interested, interested or somewhat interested.
Nobody on that consultant team bothered to ask how you’d feel about a curbside plastic program. I believe our pilot program is showing they’d get a similar result if they bothered to ask.
We’re closing in on the 20-ton goal. If we included what we’ve gotten from some commercial partners we’d already have passed that mark. But I want to be sure when we pitch this back to city leadership that we’re selling it solely based on community participation. That’s you. And this is the update on what you’ve produced since August 1st.
Many of you have said to me how unaware you had been about how much of what we toss into the trash is plastic – until you started with this project. That’s true in my household too. The stuff is unavoidable.
Here’s the link to sign up for updates on the program. It will also help us keep the zip code information growing and up to date.
https://www.byfusion.com/pilot-program/
Keep your non-recyclable plastic coming. The driveway area by the roll-off turns into a steady stream of cars. We appreciate you taking the time to come by and do the drops. We’re still giving away clear bags – come grab some if you’d like. We’re open until 1pm every weekday. And when you come by, please take a moment and toss your stuff in the windows on the back side of the roll-off. It’s common for the thing to look jam-packed when in fact there’s room on the rear.
Halloween and Critters
Each year about this time we get an increased number of calls and emails from people wanting the city to get rid of the urban critters wandering through their residential neighborhoods. The common culprits are Coyotes and Javelinas. I bump into them on my walks home from time to time. If they catch you by surprise, it can be jarring. The short message is that removing those animals isn’t going to happen unless they’ve shown aggressive tendencies toward humans.
In the alternative, you should contact James Boles at 520.404.5046. James is the State Game and Fish Wildlife Services licensee. He can walk you through steps you can take to make your area less of an attractive nuisance. And if the situation is out of control, he has the authority to schedule a removal. But that is not going to be the pitch you’ll hear when the conversation starts.
If you don’t want Javelina and Coyotes on your front porch or in your front yard, then maybe take a pass on putting out a Jack-o-Lantern. And rake up the little pods that date palms drop. Those items are simply providing a food source for the critters, and they’ll habituate themselves to your area if the picken’s are good. The simple message is that they’re going to hang out where there is food, water, and habitat. Many of our residential areas offer all 3 of those, especially around this time of year when we willingly place food sources out for them to munch on.
West University and Critters
One fun way to enjoy the critters who are more family members than the urban javelina is to stop by the WUNA dog show at Anza Park. The pups are the attraction for the wider neighborhood party they’re sponsoring along with TPD. So in addition to the dogs they’ll also have food, activities for the kids and of course prizes.
Dress your pup up – and kids can come in costume as well. The event will be held on Wednesday, October 26th beginning at 5pm.
Envision Sustainable Tucson
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The city is about to start outreach for the update to our General Plan. It’s a long-range roadmap of what the community wants to see in terms of what, where, and how we develop over time. Our partners with Sustainable Tucson are also offering community members the opportunity to share thoughts on how the community can evolve – what will and/or should we look like in 2045.
To gather your input, they’re hosting two public workshops. One on Saturday, October 22nd from 2pm until 4pm at the Wilmot Library (530 N. Wilmot.) Then the Ward 6 office will host one on Saturday, November 12th from 10am until noon. You should register with them ahead of time so they can have enough materials on hand for the events. Email to tres@sustainabletucson.org and he’ll get you signed up.
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Neighborhood Recycle Centers
With all of that good environmental news, I’m sorry to have to toss in a negative. Right now, we have 6 neighborhood recycle centers scattered around the city. This map shows their location.
The recycle center I have circled in red is the one located at 22nd and Alvernon at the Hardesty TPD substation in Reid Park. Sadly, this recycle center is going to be removed at the end of this month. This had to be done with stations out on the east side and in Himmel Park a while back. The reason is people are misusing the center.
Our environmental services folks have had to go to the Hardesty center and clean up contaminants, totally inappropriate materials being left in the area and TFD has had to go out and extinguish fires lit in the recycle bin. The Hardesty center is a police substation, it’s where the public can go to pay water bills, and it’s immediately adjacent to the Reid Park walking path, the golf course and of course two major arterials. Aside from costing the city money to maintain and clean up after peoples’ messes, it’s just a bad look for the area.
Once we get the first batch of plastics assessed by ByFusion we’ll know how the opt-in system with the plastic bin we’re hosting is doing – from a contaminant perspective. What we know though is that the recycle bins we leave out in the community have a sketchy history. It’s too bad this one will have to be removed.
Gun Violence Prevention
You’ve likely heard of the killing that took place on the UA campus a bit over a week ago. I’ve crossed paths with the victim and can affirm what the media reports have said about him – Tom was a giant asset to the community, committed to his work in water security, and mostly committed to the inter-personal relationships he had with those around him. The cliché ‘he will be missed’ cannot be more true.
Bud Foster from KOLD ran a story on how this sort of thing might be avoided. Here’s the link to his piece.
https://www.kold.com/2022/10/11/tucson-says-it-will-enforce-federal-red-flag-laws-promote-gun-safety/
When the state legislature passed their bill vowing to ignore federal gun laws, I brought a Resolution to the mayor and city council saying that in the city of Tucson we would in fact recognize the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution. We will enforce federal gun laws within the city. One of those is red flag laws. In the case of the UA shooting there were multiple ‘red flags’ that could and should have been acted on. There was an Order of Protection, threats, the UA moving classes to avoid the guy, and other staff saying they were concerned for their lives. This set of facts is what the city could take to a federal judge in an attempt to have the killers guns removed until he had his mental situation resolved. It’s what the state wants to ignore. So did the UA.
If you are aware of people in crisis or under threat, call 911. And contact your city council office so we can run it to the right legal people. We did not pass that Resolution just for theater. We intend to act on it, and as I said in the KOLD piece – to save peoples’ lives.
Senior Affordable Housing
We regularly get calls from people – most often recently from seniors – who are being priced out of their homes by landlords jacking up rents. This housing market makes that possible, and the state legislature prevents us from addressing it with any local rent controls.
A partnership between AARP, the United Way, the Tucson Housing Foundation and Elder Alliance has formed to study the dynamics of housing instability and seniors in our region. This link will take you to their full report. It’s in the form of a booklet that you can flip through. It contains lots of graphs and graphics so if you’re not into reading a bunch of dry text, try this out.
https://online.flippingbook.com/view/442925402/
One section in the booklet speaks to some of the priorities seniors have when searching for a place to live. The city absolutely has a role in pieces of this – zoning, adaptive reuse, and our work on complete streets and transit hubs, for example. But in the graphic I’ve got below I circled the most important component that is displacing seniors (and others) and that we do not have a tool to address. Why? Because the state legislature removed any ability for us to cap rents.
We adopted a ‘Source of Income’ ordinance last month that prevents landlords from discriminating against people solely based on the source of their income. That could be our Housing Choice vouchers (formerly Section 8,) or it could be people living on Social Security or Veteran’s benefits. There are landlords who want people with more ‘upside’ and so have previously refused to rent to tenants whose income is fixed or limited. That’s now illegal in the city of Tucson.
There’s an election happening right now. A part of that is the state legislature, and a part is governor. Please do your homework and learn which candidates will work to restore our ability to cap rent increases. Some will and some won’t. Without that tool, the part of the graphic I’ve circled will always be a challenge for seniors’ ability to remain housed.
PCOA - Café at The Katie
Our friends over at Pima Council on Aging are hosting a monthly social event for people who are experiencing some memory issues. It’s for their families and caregivers as well. The event is called Café at The Katie and takes place on the 4th Wednesday of each month at the PCOA Katie Dusenberry Center – 600 S. Country Club. The events are free and run from 10am until 11am. These are relaxed and totally non-judgemental opportunities for people with memory challenges to co-mingle and enjoy being a part of a social setting.
Please use this link to register for your Café experience:
https://cafeatthekatie.eventbrite.com/
Sun Van Chat
Speaking of affordability issues, Sun Van is our transit option for people who have some sort of disability. The paratransit service operators are hosting a community conversation, the goal of which is to hear from the public thoughts on where the system is doing well, and where it can stand some improvement. The meeting will begin at 5:30pm on Wednesday, October 19th.
The meeting will be held virtually. The online event will include an ASL interpreter, both an English and a Spanish speaking interpreter and a live transcription option. For the closed caption option go to the “...” three dots in the upper right hand of the screen and click on the ‘turn on live caption’ option.
We get calls from time to time about how Sun Van operates. Any public transportation system can make improvements. This community conversation is intended to explore options. The meeting will be held by Teams. If you don’t have it, use this link to sign up:
Download Teams
Once you’ve got Teams downloaded you can sign into the meeting with this link:
Join the Meeting
For more information on this meeting please contact SunTranInfo@tucsonaz.gov or give them a call at 520.792.9222.
Veggies and Cancer
It’s actually both fruits and veggies and their impact on cancer. Dr. Janet Funk is a professor of medicine at the UA. She has done research on the impact that diets heavy with fruits and vegetables have on breast cancer. She’s a part of the Rosa Café Series that happens over at the Agustin Kitchen in the Mercado San Agustin – on the west side at the west end of the streetcar line. It’s easy to get to, and the presentation is a free breakfast with Janet. It’ll be held on Saturday, October 22nd from 10am until 11:30am.
The topic is critically important – the seating is limited. So please reserve your space by registering through this link: https://bit.ly/ROSACafe2022.
Garden District Porch Fest
The bands are busy practicing for the upcoming Garden District porch fest. My neighborhood has one porch going at a time. Garden gives you 7 different porches with music and a kid’s porch, all going at the same time so you can wander and enjoy a variety of styles. Speaking for the musicians I can say that we’re all looking forward to sharing and being with you in a laid-back setting. The flyer has the times and who’s playing at each location.
The first sets begin at 2:30pm, followed by the next group at 4. I’ll be playing in the first set at 1826 N. Desmond. They’ll have the usual opportunities for food trucks and the streets will be friendly to those who want to walk or bike through the neighborhood and just share some time outdoors with friends and neighbors.
Porch fests are not a time for a bunch of political expressions. It’s about the music and about being with others. I hope you can carve out sometime to join us on the 30th.
Blenman Elm Butterfly Garden Dedication
Another W6 event that’ll give you a chance to be out and about with neighbors, food, and music is the upcoming dedication of the Blenman Elm neighborhood butterfly garden. It’s located at the NE corner of Treat and Waverly.
The garden has really blossomed with the recent rains. It’s an example of neighborhood scale green stormwater infrastructure on a city owned parcel adjacent to one of our water wells. The neighbors also commissioned a new mural – very cool – I hope you can join. There’ll be some opening music at about 11am. I’ll play some at about 12:30. The full details are included in this flyer.
Fee Increases / Environmental Services and Tucson Water
This week we’ll be asked to begin the process of considering rate increases for several city departments. Those include Planning and Development Services, Parks, Park Tucson, transit, Tucson Water and Environmental Services. The last 2 of those are considered to be ‘enterprise funds,’ meaning they’re called on to be self-sufficient. The costs involved with running the department are generated by the fees they charge.
Tucson Water bases their rates on costs associated with their whole operation. When you pay a water bill this chart shows how the payment is divided up:
Water sales generate over 80% of the department’s funding. From the chart shown above you can count on a couple of pieces continuing to escalate in expense. One of course is capital improvement. The costs of labor and materials are going up and have been for the past several years. Tucson Water has not raised rates to capture those increases since July, 2019. Without increases the result will simply be our debt service will become a larger part of the operation. Think in terms of your home budgeting – taking on debt to fund operations isn’t a responsible long-term way of managing the organization.
The other part of the chart that’s going to increase in expense is the amount we’re paying for CAP water. That’s our 144,000 acre feet we get from the Colorado River. Think ‘supply/demand’ - basic economics. The supply is decreasing. The demand has still not been addressed. We’re draining the river. That means the cost of the water will continue to go up.
Tucson Water is proposing an increase in our CAP charge of 30 cents per hundred cubic feet (Ccf) of water you use. That’s basically to keep us current with the cost increases already announced by the CAP board. They’re also proposing an increase of 5.5% for residential water use for each of the next 4 years, starting on July 1st, 2023. Those dollars will largely go to continuing to replace aging capital infrastructure. For example, the burst water main down on S. Park that has been a thorn in peoples’ side for a month. Having a reliable water delivery system isn’t free. On Tuesday we’ll talk about setting a date for a public hearing to give you time for input.
Tucson Water does continue to offer low-income assistance – that doesn’t go away with any rate increases. This chart shows the sliding scale of assistance options. “FPL” stands for federal poverty level.
Our Environmental Services (ES) department has been operating without any residential fee increases since 2010. I argue about the RTA not recognizing inflation impacts on costs. Over the past decade + ES has been absorbing cost increases for equipment, and for operations. We’re slowly draining their reserve account. Remember, they’re an enterprise. They’re charged with funding their operations.
ES does far more than just haul off your trash every week. They’re doing residential trash and recycle collection, managing and maintaining the landfill, monitoring groundwater quality around closed landfills, doing code enforcement work, cleaning closed homeless camps, managing the very popular Brush and Bulky program, hauling trash and recyclables from commercial establishments, and hauling the bottles from 21 locations around the city while maintaining the other recycle facilities we’ve got scattered around the area. All of that takes reliable heavy equipment, heavy equipment operators, and people to manage the logistics and scheduling of all the activities.
ES is proposing an increase in residential rates of $3.25 per month this year and $3.00 per month next year. There’s also a 10% across the board increase for commercial services being proposed. All of those proposed fee increases continue to put us at a level far below the commercial providers, and well below most of the peer cities in the region. And the low-income assistance opportunities Tucson Water offers also apply to ES. We’ll be considering setting a date for ES fee increases during Tuesday’s evening meeting. Oh, and ES is also partnering in the plastic reuse program – a cost item that is right now only being partially offset by my use of some ward office budget and some financial participation in the pilot by ByFusion and Tank’s Green Stuff.
City Building Permits
Our Planning folks are also considering some fee increases. One of the bases on which the increases are being proposed is us upping our game when it comes to plan and permit review. With that in mind, the city is launching our new permitting system on October 31st.
The new system is all online. It will fully replace the current system – the one that has been in place since 1999. It’s time. The permitting system will be a partnership involving Planning, Tucson Fire, Tucson Water, Transportation and Code Enforcement. All 5 departments will be using the same online integrated system making the whole process more streamlined, quicker, and easier on the user groups.
With the new system you’ll be able to track your permit application through the process – from the day you submit it until the day it’s issued. You’ll be able to make real-time payments, schedule inspections and create a template if you’re a frequent flyer who’ll want to use the same tracking process over and over.
During the change-over from the current system the permitting system will be down – with the exception of emergency needs such as electrical work. The transition will run from October 21st through the end of the month. You will still be able to schedule inspections by calling 520.791.3111. If you’d like more information on how the new system will work, please go to www.tucsonaz.gov/pdsd. Or you can email tdc-online@tucsonaz.gov. Everything will be back up and running at 7am on Halloween morning.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
As a part of the educational component of Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) they’re hosting an art contest. It’s for any Tucson resident who’s between the ages of 10 and 24 years old. The total prize money is $2,500 and it’ll be divided up between 15 winning entries.
The contest is being promoted by the Healthy Intergenerational Masculinity Initiative. The entries need to address how they’re speaking back against gender roles and violence. The entries can be poetry, music, art, photography – no specific medium, but something that captures things such as what a world would look like without DV, what it’d be like without gender stereotypes, or how we’d go about creating a world where violence isn’t considered the norm. Try watching the news sometime and just fast forward past the violent stories. You’ll end up just watching the weather.
The deadline for entering is Sunday, October 30th. Use this link to get involved:
Click here to learn more or submit your work
And please remember the 24-hour hotline for domestic abuse – either if you’re a victim or want to consult about a situation you’re aware of – 520.795.4266.
COVID
We saw a big drop in both statewide and Pima County COVID numbers last week. Even groups such as PCOA where the majority of the people in the building are in a ‘vulnerable’ category have made mask wearing optional. Vaccines and boosters are of course still recommended by the CDC.
Here’s the chart of cases I’ve been keeping. The direction is good.
Sadly, there were still 52 COVID fatalities in Arizona last week. It’s still a danger to vulnerable people who are unprotected by a vaccine. Please consider your vaccination status.
The flu is beginning to pop up in areas in the southeast – not surprising as the weather cools and people are gathered indoors together more frequently. This is the flu infection map for the nation. Arizona is still in the low-risk category. Major pharmacies have flu and COVID vaccines available. Now is the time to get yourself and your family protected.
Here’s the statewide COVID count map by county.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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