A Message from Steve K...10/02/2023

• Mountain Lions 

• Ahmad’s Asylum 

• Donations for the Homeless 

• Children’s Museum and Climate 

• We Stand With Ukraine 

• Yellow Brick Coffee

• Microgrids 

• Climate Newsletter 

• TEP Board of Adjustment Hearing 

• Street Racing  

• Landscape Design and Maintenance Program 

• Pima County – Vamos a Mexico, Animal Care and Opioid Settlement 

• Trap/Neuter/Release Kitten Event 

• Opioid Settlement 

It took over a year, lots of advocacy by a local attorney and multiple inquiries by this office and the family. Last week the Afghan judge we helped reunify with his wife and 2-year-old daughter was finally awarded asylum status. It took a Herculean effort to get his approval despite his compelling story; shot by Taliban, car bombed by Taliban, house hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, had to move his wife to Turkey for safe-keeping – one would think that story would be a rubber stamp of asylee status approval. One would be wrong, but finally the system cranked out the approval. 

One might also think that if a person is approved for asylum that they’re now in the U.S. with the ability to work, get loans and generally maneuver daily life as citizens do. One would be wrong about that too. I pulled this from a notice Ahmad got with his approval, basically letting him know that his next steps are to begin an all new application process for the list of “temporary benefits” listed in the letter. The letter was an invitation/recommendation that he attend an informational briefing on ‘next steps.’ And note the last line – if you’re here as a refugee granted asylum, if you don’t speak English then the informational briefing isn’t going to do you much good.  

It’s great that this one family’s credible threat of danger was finally recognized by the government that conducted the Afghan evacuation we all witnessed in disbelief. There are thousands of others still trying to figure out the system. My team and I are grateful to the attorney Ahmad had in his corner for assisting throughout this process. 

Meanwhile I continue getting emails from inside Afghanistan regularly. Here’s the most recent, from Sunday: 

We have worked with the USA in Afghanistan becouse of that Taliban are killing us wildly. US govt have left and forgoten us and donot care us.They left us for the sack of Taliban. I have completed our SIV all necessary documents one year ago but still waiting. Even SIV is not answering us I donot know that why are they killing us by Taliban? I hope US govt to process our cases soon. 

She’s right – they served with and for us, and we’ve abandoned them to the whims of a terrorist group. Both R’s and D’s in D.C. should be ashamed. 

Within Ward 6 there are several businesses and non-profits who have agreed to be collection sites. The Tucson Audubon Society (300 E. University Blvd.) Wooden Tooth Records (426 E. 7th) and The Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway) will all be taking these donations through the month of October. Our homeless protocol team will collect what has been donated and get the items to the people who need them. I’m confident that we’ll be back in operation receiving donations ahead of the end of the month, but I know many of you are watching the news and wondering how you can step towards the needs. This program is an immediate way you can do that. 

I mention this in the aftermath of the ‘heroic’ effort some neighbors engaged in by cutting down roughly 75 trees in the Mountain/Ft. Lowell area. The intent was to clear cut a site where some homeless people had set up some tents. The act of frustration continues to point to the need for the city to offer options that go beyond our Housing First model. I continue to believe that we can offer safe camp areas that will make the community safer generally. They’d be one approach to addressing the homeless problem that’s right now not in the city’s menu of alternatives. More on that to come – but chopping down trees is not an appropriate way to take things into your own hands. 

I’ve offered to the Ward 3 staff to help fund replanting the trees. Tucson Clean & Beautiful is also stepping up to help. 

Up above I shared the good news about Ahmad and his asylum status. I also mentioned that there are thousands more in line. We’re getting refugees from all across the globe. They arrive here hoping for a new beginning after having suffered deprivation in their homeland. Coming on Saturday, October 28th the Children’s Museum is hosting a Tucson Block Party – at the museum – to celebrate our local refugee community. The main attraction will be the Amal Walks exhibit. 

Amal is a 12’ tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian girl. Amal has travelled through 15 countries around the world and is making this one-day stop in Tucson at the Children’s Museum. Amal symbolizes human rights, in particular for refugees. The event on the 28th will be an opportunity for you to join in supporting our refugee community.  We expect a very full house throughout the day on the 28th. You can watch a short video and read about The Walk with Amal at this link:

https://www.walkwithamal.org/ 

We at the Ward 6 office are grateful to Hilary and her staff at the Children’s Museum for hosting this event, and for reaching out and giving us a chance to help in sponsoring it. The museum is free throughout the day. Please think about carpooling or taking some of our free public transit when visiting the event. 

There’s a local branch of an international aid for Ukraine group who calls themselves We Stand With Ukraine. Some of the members of the Facebook group are also aid workers in Ukraine. They’ll be hosting a couple of fundraising events here in Ward 6, the proceeds from which will go directly to those in harm's way in Ukraine. The war gets maybe 30 seconds per night on the evening news. People are dying daily due to the Russian invasion. 

We at the Ward 6 office have worked closely with the Our Saviors Lutheran Church on several events over the years. We were pleased to put the Ukraine support group in touch with the OSLC folks – that's where these fund raisers will take place. They’re located 1 block north of Speedway on Campbell. 

The fundraiser will include the sale of 40 paintings by an artist they work with in Kyiv. You can find Ann Vindorskaya’s work on Instagram. They’ll also be selling postcards from Ukraine, jewelry and other items. And of course, there’ll be the food truck serving authentic Ukrainian food. They’ve landed on 3 dates over at Our Saviors – October 14th (the only date the food truck will be unavailable,) and then November 4th and December 2nd. Each event will run from 10am until 3pm. Please consider supporting their work, and by extension the people of Ukraine. 

On Tuesday we’ll have our study session in response to the microgrid proposal Kevin and I submitted for review. In brief it’s the idea of putting in place a series of solar panels above pedestrian walkways and bike lanes. The route we proposed was the 15 mile long High Capacity Transit (HCT) corridor we’re calling Norte-Sur. The reason for that is there are multiple homes and businesses along the route as well as several city-owned facilities that could benefit from the power. In my world the microgrid would be decoupled from the larger TEP grid. Microgrids can be done that way, or they can be set up so that decoupling can be achieved intermittently. 

Both city staff and our citizen’s climate commission have reviewed the proposal. And both have identified some logical ways we can step towards the idea, of microgrids without trying to tackle the full HCT corridor. When I met with both groups to talk about the idea, I told them both that the proposal was really just tossing all the chips onto the table and letting them cherry-pick ideas from it. That’s what they’ve done. 

One offshoot of the microgrid idea that I would like to see us explore is called a Virtual Power Plant (VPP.) It’s sort of a hybrid microgrid concept. In very layman’s terms you have multiple power sources all feeding into the larger grid. Ideally those sources would be renewables. This picture gives the idea: 

On a related note, TEP is petitioning the Board of Adjustment asking that it overturn a ruling made by the city zoning administrator that upholds the city’s requirement for undergrounding new utilities that run along our gateway and scenic corridors. The hearing is open to the public. It will be held by Zoom at 1:30pm on Wednesday, October 25th.  

If you’ve followed this newsletter for long, then you know what this is about. TEP needs to upgrade their midtown transmission capacity. To do that they’re proposing a series of new and larger transmission poles, some of which are programmed to run down Campbell by the UA and terminating by Banner hospital. That segment of roadway is designated as a gateway corridor and so by ordinance any new transmission lines must by placed underground. TEP is asking for an exception to that requirement. 

Here’s the informational postcard that has been reissued now that the date of the original hearing has been changed. Other than comments entered into the record during the hearing, the deadline for offering your input is the end of the workday on Tuesday, October 24th.  

We get calls from time to time about drag racing on city streets. We’ve fielded them about racing happening on Speedway, downtown and we get them about the organized racing that’s happening both out in the NW and on the east side. The current hot spot is out east. In response Nikki has invited our chief of police, city manager and our transportation director to join in an in-person town hall to hear from residents and to talk about approaches to stop the activity before someone’s killed or seriously injured. 

What we’re seeing isn’t just a couple of guys trying to impress their girlfriends by beating someone across the intersection when the light turns green. (Ladies, I hope you’re not impressed even by that.)  These are large and well-organized gatherings where dozens of people show up with the intention of doing donuts in intersections, drag racing at excessive speeds and generally putting lives at risk. We currently have the ability to impound the car of any participant we catch. The hope is to simply shut them down ahead of time. 

The meeting will take place out at the TPD east division meeting room – 9670 E. Golf Links on October 5th. It’s scheduled to run from 6:30pm until 7:30pm. Good for Nikki for being willing to take this on and get the right people in the room. If you have information on planned racing events, I know our police chief would appreciate knowing about it. 

The Pima County Cooperative Extension is located out at 4210 N. Campbell – think of it as across the street from the UA campus farms.  A series of landscape classes is about to begin out the extension. It’s aimed at both landscape professionals, and at any Pima County resident who’d like to get some professional tips on greening up your yard. 

This will be a series of classes each presented by UA landscape experts, representatives from Tucson Water and from the landscape industry. There will be classes offered in both English and in Spanish. 

The Spanish series begins on October 17th. It’ll run until November 21st. Then they’ll take a break for the holidays and the English session will start on January 4th. It’ll run through February 6th of next year. Each of the classes in both sessions will run from 3:30pm until 6:30pm. Registration will close at 3pm the day before each of the series’ begins. 

If you’ve got questions you can reach out to Nelva Valenzuela at the UA – 520.621.0839, or by email at nelvavalenzuela@arizona.edu. Registering starts now – use this link to sign up: 

https://smartscape.org/smartscape-courses/  

Before Felipe Garcia was running the show over at Visit Tucson, he was one of the significant ambassadors responsible for bringing the Mexican Baseball Fiesta to the region. It is now in its 12th season out at the County-run Kino Sports Complex and continues to be a major entertainment, economic and cultural attraction to the region. It gets the all-hands-on-deck attention from the county and Visit Tucson that it deserves. 

The baseball games attract fans from both the Pima County region and from south of the border. The Mexican Winter League is extremely popular in Mexico. Come and take part – you'll see dancing in the stands, you’ll enjoy authentic Mexican Food, and you’ll see fans exhibiting a true loyalty to their favorite teams. All of the games will take place at the county-run Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. Here’s the schedule for the coming week:

This event is geared to cats living outdoors. The Humane Society of the U.S. calls the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program the most humane and effective way to control the number of cats living outdoors – and to prevent future generations of kittens from being born in circumstances where their likelihood of survival is minimal. During this 3 day event any member of the public can bring in an outdoor cat in a secure cat carrier or trap. If it’s a kitten it needs to weigh a couple of pounds. If you need a trap or carrier you can get one on loan by getting ahold of PACC’s Community Cat Program at communitycats@pima.gov.  

During the event all cats will receive the following services: 

During last February’s event PACC spayed and/or neutered 482 community cats. They’re hoping to top 600 this time around. You may sign up for the October event by using this link:  app.waitwhile.com/book/snipntip. When you sign up through that link you’ll also be notified when the cats you bring in have been treated and are ready to be returned to where you found them. 

The county anticipates receiving just under $50M as their part in the settlement of the lawsuit against opioid manufacturers. The Pima County Board of Health has formed a subcommittee (the Substance Misuse Advisory Committee) one function of which is to identify and prioritize how that money can be most effectively used. The settlement is expected to be paid out over the next 18 years, so the list will likely be fluid as needs will change. The funds could be used for E.R. training, mobile treatment units, prevention and recovery programs – lots of possibilities. You can use this link to get the full background on the program: newly released survey. 

That link will take you to a survey. Through that survey you can give the SMAC subcommittee your input as to uses for the funding. The deadline for completing the survey is the end of the workday on October 4th. Getting your thoughts to the subcommittee is an important piece of their decision-making process so please carve out 10 minutes and do the survey. They’ll also be getting input from health care professionals and will be making recommendations to the Pima County Board of Health and Pima County Health Director. The final funding decisions will be made by the Board of Supervisors. 

Jenn Deyoe is one of the account managers over at Assured Imaging Women’s Wellness Center. Last week she shared with me about a partnership the Center has struck up with the Walmart neighborhood market over at the NE corner of Grant and Alvernon. I’m sharing it with you. 

Assured Imaging provides mobile mammography services throughout Arizona. They’re offering the service for free at scattered sites throughout the Tucson area. Walmart is one of those sites. In fact, it’s the first site in the city where you’ll be able to get this free screening. The procedure can be life-saving. Please check the dates and times – and the eligibility criteria - on the flyer shown below and make a point to stop by. 

Another important activity related to the Grant/Alvernon area is the upcoming AGI Coffee with a Cop event. In addition to the police presence, they’ll have light snacks being offered for free. The meeting coming on October 10th will have some special treats – the K9 unit will be on site along with the bomb squad, representatives of our motorcycle unit and the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team will be at the event. All of this will happen at the usual AGI meeting location – Emmanuel Church located on Alvernon a block north of Pima. 

There will be a raffle at this event where the proceeds are dedicated to supporting new equipment for the K9 unit. Purchase your raffle tickets ahead of time by following the instructions shown below. The event on the 10th will begin at 5:30pm.  

Each year emergency rooms see over 3 million seniors who have fallen and injured themselves. According to the National Council on Aging, falling is NOT a natural part of the aging process. We’re entering fall awareness prevention month and the NCOA invites you to take part in a fall prevention resource fair coming on Friday, September 29th over at the PCOA center / 600 S. Country Club. 

About 37 million seniors fall each year. The theme of the NCOA event this year is ‘From awareness to action” - there are easy ways you can build preventative measures into your lifestyle, your home environment and place of work. The upcoming resource fair will have information related to each. Space is limited at The Katie (PCOA) so please register ahead of time by using this link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-fall-prevention-resource-fair-tickets-723694087497 

The event will run from 9:30am until 12:30 noon. Falling and breaking a hip can ruin your day. This event could be an important way to avoid that. 

Throughout October each of the 3 state universities will be hosting a panel discussion on the topic of ‘just safety.’ That’s not ‘merely’ safety. It’s ‘just,’ as in justice – an wholistic look at what community safety can and should consist of. 

The UA will host its panel at the James Rogers law school – 1201 E. Speedway – on October 10th from 5:30pm until 7:30pm. It’ll be held in room 164. The event is free and open to the public. The discussion will look at the idea of safe communities by addressing the unique challenges members of vulnerable communities experience, mental and behavioral health and wellness, ideas on bolstering economic security and how small, neighborhood-scale efforts can play important roles. Here’s a list of the panelists: 

John Bauters, Arizona State Director for the Alliance for Safety and Justice, on Trauma Recovery Centers. 

Danny Howe, founder of Earnest House and The Howe Project, on innovative approaches to transitional housing. 

Jacob Robles, a founding member of Flowers & Bullets, on art, culture, and sustainability work in community. 

TC Tolbert, Co-Founder of Building Out Safer Spaces (BOSS), on creating opportunity and community spaces for BIPOC and Women, Queer, Trans, and Femme of Center people 

Safety includes far more than simply responding to crime. It is hoped this dialogue will encourage community members to become more directly engaged in building an inclusive, cohesive and caring local environment. Within each neighborhood the resources exist to at least begin building in that direction.