A Message from Steve K...11/27/2023

• Corbett’s on Thursday 

• Plastics 

• Arizona Democracy Resilience Network Event

• Propositions 413 Election Recount

• Nightmare Before Christmas

• Point in Time Count 

• Lost Our Home Pet Fostering 

• Firearm Background Checks 

• Casita Model Competition 

• Village at Sam Hughes Rezoning Meeting 

• San Gabriel Neighborhood Clean Up

There’s a guy in Sam Hughes who hates it when I promote my music gigs – there’s another guy in Sam Hughes who appreciates it and comes to take part. So, in deference to the second guy, come on down to Corbett’s on Thursday between 6pm and 9pm to enjoy some music, pickleball, cornhole, drinks, food and just hanging out with others. 

It might be chilly but don’t worry – they've got heaters scattered throughout the area, and if you’re involved in some of their activities, you’ll stay warm. You can make pickleball court reservations ahead of time online through this link: https://corbettstucson.com/  

They’ve got 3 outdoor courts and 2 inside of the newly renovated historic building. At that link you can also see their menus and a calendar for upcoming events. 

I haven’t included a plastics section in the past couple of newsletters. I don’t want to be redundant, and the donation amounts continue to be in the 5 to 6 ton per week amount, so it’s clear nobody needs a weekly reminder to keep bringing your plastic.  But we’re still at it – design on the ByFusion building and machinery is ongoing and all of us in the ward 6 office are looking forward to the day they arrive in Tucson. 

This picture was shared by one person whose family of 3 filled the truck bed in just 4 months. The corollary is that their trash can isn’t being filled nearly as fast as before this program started. The total amount gathered so far is in the 200-ton range – all of that has been diverted from the landfill thanks to the regular particiation so many of you have been faithful with. Thanks to each of you.  

Lots of city workers have been involved in the restoration. We at the ward 6 office want to extend our thanks to each of the following: 

In addition these contractors were involved:

Aztec Flooring 

Wiese Painting 

Progressive Roofing 

Whiz Whiz Moving 

Velociti Custodial Services 

And a group of workers who don’t appear on this list but who were involved in boxing up and moving the office to and from our temporary location are my team Diana Amado, Dora Maldonado, and Nadia Ispiani. 

We’re already getting positive feedback on the new look. Each of the people listed above deserve credit. 

Last Monday evening, Diana, Nadia and Dora joined me and a couple hundred others at St. Phillips in the Hills Episcopal church for a night celebrating democracy. The event was hosted by the guy you see speaking – Father Robert Hendrickson – and the church staff. It was sponsored and organized by the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network. That’s a group that was formed last year through the Carter Center. There were 4 states included in the rollout – Arizona is one of them. Serving as the Arizona state leaders in the effort are Congressman Ron Barber and former newspaper publisher Don Henninger. It was they with whom I worked to help facilitate the St. Phillips gathering. Credit goes to Ron for spearheading the event. 

As you can see in the picture, we had a very diverse cross-section of speakers. Working from Fr. Robert’s right you see Maestro Francisco Munoz from the Pasqua Yaqui Nation, Rabbi Sam Cohon, Imam Hassan Ali, Reverand Damond Holt, Abbot AjahnSarayut Arnanta, and Bishop Gerald Kicanas. The other speaker is seated in front of the congregation, Bat Sir Kaur Khalsa of the Sikh community (you can see the top of her turquoise turbin facing the crowd.)  

With fair and trusted elections in mind, last Tuesday M&C voted to approve the results of the Prop 413 pay increase election, but with a caveat. The election was passed by 289 votes. That number falls within the limit that would normally automatically require a recount of the votes. In this case we had an opinion from the city attorney that said state law does not apply to the Proposition. It was a local special election not covered by state statute. Here’s his rationale. 

First, it’s important to point out that state law controls when a recount is mandated. The M&C do not have the authority to demand a recount. So even if the majority of us felt we should do one, we don’t have the power to order the attorney to begin that process.  

The state legislature adopted SB1244 in 2004. It outlined what kinds of elections are covered by the state recount rules. It specifically lists candidates for elected office, but it conspicuously does not include local special elections referred to the ballot such as Prop 413. Election laws are just that – laws, and not suggestions. Where 1244 lists who’s included it also limits what is subject to recounts.  

Tickets are now on sale at the Loft for the December 17th Nightmare Before Christmas costume party. It’s also an awareness builder for the condition called Aphasia. Aphasia affects your ability to speak and understand the spoken word. It took my brother’s life –  what’s the connection with the movie? He was nominated for an Oscar as Director of Photography and Special Effects work on the show. 

The show will begin at 2pm on Sunday the 17th. Please come and share in the fun. This is the Loft link you can use for tickets:

https://loftcinema.org/film/the-nightmare-before-christmas-movie-party/ 

Point in Time Count 

On Tuesday’s consent agenda is our renewal of an intergovernmental agreement with the UA for them to coordinate this year’s point in time count – the annual attempt to get a handle on how many sheltered and unsheltered people are experiencing homelessness out in the community. The count will take place during the last 10 days in January.  

The count is grant funded and is a HUD requirement. It’s a good way to track trends, but it will be an undercount. Safety is one condition built into the count process and there are some locations that simply will not be checked. 

It’s not uncommon for residents from all areas of the city to report camps that have been erected inside water conveyance culverts. Those are the tunnels that run under our roadways. There’s a labyrinth of them that run throughout the city. Please do not let your kids go exploring inside of them.  

Our M&C have resisted the notion of the city identifying locations for controlled camping. One reason is a concern over the camp getting too large and out of control. The answer to that is ‘don’t let it.’ Another concern is sanctioning camping lacks dignity for the people who are temporarily housed in the camp. Instead, we’re focused on a Housing First model through which the city buys hotels and contracts out for continuum of care services. For the relative few it helps it’s great. But the point in time count will once again validate that there remain hundreds, if not thousands of unsheltered people who don’t have access to that program. Sanctioned camps could be an added tier in our approach. 

Here’s what lacks dignity. And we’re allowing it.  

We won’t allow a fenced, sanctioned camp with a water source, porta-john, daily visits from the police and social service agencies, with a limited number of campers allowed because that lacks dignity. But we’re allowing this to take place in the tunnel network throughout the city. 

The impact on surrounding neighbors and businesses has been significant. Police resources and code enforcement resources are stretched trying to manage the impacts. Last week I suggested to the city manager, code enforcement, transportation and TPD that we explore removable grates such as what are shown in these pictures: 

Each monsoon season we deploy transportation workers to go out and put up barricades by our arroyos. They can just as easily add to their to-do list going and opening these grates so water can flow and debris doesn’t create a dam – like what’s already happening with the homeless blockage of the culvert in the picture shown above. To continue the out-of-sight/out-of-mind approach to our unhoused residents does nobody any good. I’ll share the responses I get to the approach. The point in time count is coming. Culverts snaking their way under the city are not going to be areas explored by the people doing the count. As you can see, that’s a wise decision, and it will yield an undercount. 

Over Thanksgiving weekend, The Tucson Sentinel ran an opinion piece written by Paul Schofield of Bates College. Thank you Don for making sure I didn’t miss it – I didn’t. In the article Schofield refers to work done by legal theorist Jeremy Waldron. Waldron’s thesis is that being homeless is essentially a loss of freedom – freedom from the ability to do the basics of living without being under someone else’s control. Here’s a short excerpt from the piece that makes the point: 

Given the way society protects private property and regulates public spaces, it seems that people who are homeless are left with no space at all in which they are free to do the things they need to do in order to live. This is about as severe an infringement on freedom as you can imagine, and Waldron’s point is that a society that loves freedom simply cannot tolerate it. 

One part of being homeless that too often gets overlooked is what happens to peoples’ pets while they’re transitioning into housing. Many unhoused people refuse shelter space because too many shelters will not let you bring in a pet. Realize that it’s not uncommon for a homeless person to have a dog as a companion – perhaps the only creature they have as ‘family.’  

Lost Our Home Pet Rescue is stepping into the fostering space that’s needed when a person takes shelter, is working towards housing and needs someone to temporarily take care of their furry family member.  

Lost Our Home began their work in the Phoenix area but have now expanded statewide. Their program is specifically for fostering dogs and cats whose parents are in a temporary crisis situation such as homelessness or domestic violence. Through their program people take in the foster critter for 90 to 120 days while the owner gets his or her situation resolved and back on their feet. Not only are you giving the animal a loving temporary home setting, but the person who needs the temporary help has the peace of mind knowing their furry loved one is in a safe and caring environment. 

If you would like to get involved with this program please email to Fostering@LostOurHome.org, or give them a call at 520.333.5051. 

And please also remember that both Pima Animal Care Center (520.724.5900) and the Humane Society (520.327.6088) have fostering needs as well. The needs at those two agencies are the result of too many people ignoring the importance of spay/neuter. Each of them can help you with that service as well. 

Last month I had an item in the newsletter about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms considering implementing a new rule that will require background checks be done on the sale of all firearms. That will include private sales conducted by non-licensed dealers. Right now, at every gun show held out at the Fairgrounds there are sales made by non-licensed dealers. The buyers are not subject to any form of check into their criminal or psychological background. The BATF rule would fix that.  

Last year the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion that significantly limited what we can do with respect to gun control. Some states – not Arizona for sure – responded by passing controls. Oregon passed a ballot initiative that banned high-capacity ammunition magazines. Last week a state judge in Oregon ruled that ballot measure violates the Oregon state constitution. In Maryland they had a 10-year-old law that related to handgun licensing requirements. Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals said it’s unconstitutional. Getting the BATF rule into place is more important in the wake of the Supreme Court decision than it ever has been. 

ATF 2022R-17. https://www.regulations.gov/commento...2023-0002-0001 

Thanks to the Board of Supervisors for having already acted on this. With the new Supreme Court, we need to take reasonable measures such as this at the local level to counter the gun culture and the havoc it’s bringing to communities throughout the country. 

Through the award the city will pre-approve designs for certain tiny homes. There’s nothing inherently less costly about designing and building a small living quarter as compared to a larger one. What this competition does is eliminate design fees and certain permit costs from these pre-approved model homes. Each winner was awarded $1,000 and their design information will appear on the city Casitas in Tucson website.  You’ll see they range in size from around 350 sq/ft up to about 950 sq/ft. 

Here are the 10 winners – congratulations to each of them. Few people think this’ll open a floodgate of new casita building, but if it even helps a little it’s worth the effort. Our planning department staff deserve credit for navigating the process to get us this far. 

Directly related to providing safe and stable housing, we at the ward 6 office are happy to join others in congratulating Primavera Foundation for their recent $5M grant award. In 2018 the Bezos Day One Fund made a $2B commitment to help existing non-profits expand their missions related to services to low-income communities. Included was work related to helping people regain access to housing. You can read more about the Bezos fund here:  

www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund. 

Last week Primavera announced they had received the $5M award. It’s the largest in the history of that non-profit.  They were one of 38 non-profits nationwide to receive awards. Those non-profits are scattered among 23 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Primavera award was the highest one given. In total the Bezos Foundation included over $117M in this round of awards.  

Primavera does great work in the community through their Primavera Works program, shelter work, meals and helping to connect people with services of all sorts. It’s great to see that work recognized and supported by the Bezos Foundation. 

The meeting will be on Wednesday, November 29th. It will start at 5:45pm in our newly remodeled community room. The Planning Center will be here to walk through what’s being proposed. In brief, there’s a small building north of Flora’s that will serve as a tasting room with a small production capability on site. Across 5th Street (building #2 in the graphic) will be the larger production facility. Building #3 in the graphic is included simply to bring some existing uses into conformance with the zoning rules that regulate their operation as a restaurant. 

The meeting will be in-person only. Please feel free to use the Century Link parking lot where our recycle bins are temporarily located for overflow parking.