I hope this latest edition of the Ward 6 newsletter finds you in good spirits on this blustery October afternoon. Today is Day 2 of the Week Without Driving, and I just want to add a gentle reminder that the week isn’t about perfection—it's about eliminating or reducing your car trips. So, even changing one of your trips during the week counts as participation! The Transit app is an excellent resource for planning your trips and deciding which transportation mode will make the most sense. Here are some instructional videos: 

Download Transit  

How to Use the NEW Sun Tran App 

Today was also a fitting day to host an informal lunch and conversation about transit safety and Tucson’s developing Transit Ambassador program that we dubbed “Subs and Buses.” 

It was an excellent discussion, and we were thrilled that Albuquerque transit ambassador Althea Atherton, ABQ RIDE bus driver Robert Chavez, and ABQ RIDE Operations Manager Mark Warren joined remotely to share their perspectives and answer questions. I’ll share more about the session in next week’s newsletter. 

Flash back to last Saturday morning, when I stopped by CWA Local 7000’s annual meeting - they're the union that represents white collar workers at the City of Tucson. It was great to connect with members, share updates, and hear about their experiences.  

The first half of Tuesday was devoted to our quarterly team check-in to review the past quarter and make plans and goals for the next three months. These meetings are also a great opportunity to talk through the things we’re doing that are working and where we can improve or shift our workload to meet the needs of our constituents. Our next quarterly check-in will officially mark one year in office! 

Wednesday seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, with meetings every hour of the day. One highlight was sitting down with some members of local Jewish group Oy Gevalt. They're an informal collection of Jewish people who hold a wide variety of beliefs and are opposed to the act of silencing others. Their humanitarian approach focuses on healing the earth and holding space for plurality and freedom of expression. W6 Council Aide Becca and I really enjoyed our conversation and plan to keep in touch. 

Our Thursday schedule was packed, and it was also Day 1 of the Week Without Driving, which made it extra interesting. Bright and early that morning, I attempted to take the bus to the Hungry Fox Restaurant for a breakfast meetup with Ward 2, bike in tow for some trips later in the day. It gave me the opportunity to meet the guy that I see at the bus stop near my house on a regular basis, which was lovely (his name is Kirk). We had a pleasant chat, and I periodically checked the Transit app to see where my bus was in real time. Unfortunately, I realized too late that I was on the wrong side of the street to catch the bus I needed. Kirk gave me some advice about which buses to catch instead, but I decided to just bike the 5 ½ miles there to avoid being too late.  

After squeezing in a few more meetings and an appointment on the west side, I had racked up around 20 miles of biking—so making it to roller derby practice that evening definitely took some extra effort! As with past years of trying to participate in a Week Without Driving, I found myself relying on my bicycle because of time constraints with the bus. It only underscores the importance of securing a dedicated transit funding source and increasing service frequency.  

As we wrap up the newsletter on this tranquil Friday afternoon, we’re taking the opportunity to uplift tonight’s celebration of the grand re-opening of Santa Rita Park.  

There will be a big celebration tonight that will include speeches and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30pm in addition to food trucks and all kinds of fun activities and games. I’m particularly looking forward to returning to the skate park and will be texting my friends to see about getting a group together. I relied heavily on the Santa Rita skate park during the early years of the pandemic and fell in love with its unique bowl features and getting to meet fellow skaters.  

Whatever you get up to over the weekend, I hope you get a chance to get outside to enjoy the cooler temperatures and find time to relax. 

In community,

The next Mayor & Council meetings are set for Tuesday, October 6th – Study Session will begin at 1:00pm and the Regular Meeting at 5:30pm. A reminder that Study Sessions happen first and are longer meetings intended for Mayor and Council to hear reports, dig into details, and request more information. Regular Meetings include call to the audience, proclamations, consent agenda items, and public hearings. You can watch both meetings online via the livestream link or attend in-person at City Hall.         

Here are few items of note on Tuesday's agendas: 

Mayor and Council will receive an update on the Reid Park Zoo Master Plan and the upcoming opening of the Pathway to Asia expansion. The discussion also includes a proposed update to the Zoo’s property boundary under its existing agreement with the City. The updated boundary is intended to reflect the redesigned Pathway to Asia project, which was moved in 2021 following extensive community input. 

Over the past few months, Mayor & Council have received updates and requests to move two proposed downtown Ward 6 developments through economic development incentive processes. On Tuesday, agreements for both projects are up for consideration and approval. The Site-Specific Sales Tax Development Agreement for the Tucson Inn development at 75 E Broadway (currently a vacant lot) would offer a reimbursement incentive estimated at $2 million over five years, while an independent economic analysis estimates that the project will generate $5.9m for the City and $10m for other taxing districts during that same time frame. This project is set to be a five-story, 125 room hotel with ground floor retail, meeting rooms, and restaurant/bar, along with additional retail and public space along the alley from Scott Ave to 6th Ave. 

The second Ward 6 project agreement up for approval is a Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) Lease Agreement for the proposed Marriott-branded Moxy Hotel at 45 N 5th Ave, currently a vacant lot. An independent economic analysis was reviewed by Mayor & Council in June, at which point they directed staff to  prepare a lease agreement. Staff have confirmed that the project is expected to generate revenues to our taxing district that exceed the value of the waived property taxes during the contract term, signifying a benefit to the City. They also confirmed that the developer has been negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement with residents of the nearby MLK Apartments in good faith.  

As always, we welcome feedback to our office about the topics at hand. You can view the meeting on the City of Tucson’s Livestream Youtube channel and find materials + meeting summaries (including legal action reports) from past and future meetings on the City’s M&C meeting agenda webpage.    

On a related note, many Mayor & Council offices, including ours, received a number of emails last week from residents expressing feedback and concerns over a possible shelter at a former Albertsons’ grocery store near Broadway/Harrison. PDSD staff have been responding to the emails with this update:  

Thank you for contacting the City about the possible shelter at this location. At this time, the City has not received any development proposals for this property, including one for emergency housing. We can't speak to the origin of the information you may have seen, but we want to make sure you have access to the official record.  Property Research Online (PRO) is a website that automatically updates with all development proposals and permitting activity in Tucson. Anyone can search an address to see permits and other public records for properties in Tucson.  Entering the address for the vacant storefront shows that the most recent permits were in 2024-2025. 

If you're interested in planning and development projects, you’re welcome to bookmark Property Research Online for future use. If a proposal is ever submitted for this location, whether for emergency housing or any other use, it would show here as part of the public record. 

We aren’t sure where the confusion originated, but based on research done by our office, it may have stemmed from this May 13th article from the AZ Daily Star, in which interviewed developers who noted that they could, in theory, pursue that type of development, but no City officials were interviewed for the story.  

In the Health Department’s opening presentation, staff shared data showing that Pima County participation in these safety net programs is already down significantly compared to the same time last year. In particular, SNAP participation has fallen 45% (from 144,000 participants in August 2025 to 79,000 in August 2026), AHCCCS enrollment is down 8.9% (283,000 to 258,000), and Marketplace participation is down 21.8% - all suggesting that administrative barriers and confusion are already reducing utlization. They also flagged certain populations – including adults aged 55-64, parents/caregivers with children 14+, refugees/asylees, and survivors of human trafficking – as likely to experience changes to their SNAP eligibility.  

Later, staff from the Community Food Bank of Southern AZ, El Rio, International Rescue Committee, and United Way shared impacts they are already seeing. Healthcare partners mentioned that AHCCCS participants are receiving 11-12 page notices that leave them confused about their enrollment status or next steps – particularly for people who are not native English speakers. They are also seeing many wrongful denials of coverage that necessitate appeals. Other partners are seeing shifts in how people meet their grocery needs (starting at the food bank instead of using it as a supplement) or health needs (skipping routine, primary, and specialized care and planning to utilize emergency rooms instead). To assist with a community response, United Way staff shared that they are developing a toolkit and portal to support community organizations in offering volunteer opportunities that can help people meet the new work, volunteer, and education requirements – more to come in the next few months. 

Council Aide Raye attended the Characterizing PFAs in Arizona conference last week - read on for their reflections!

Removing water contaminants and pollution from our drinking supplies is an incredibly important part of any city’s services to its residents, and while Tucson is doing a lot to address the chemicals in our water, we also know there is much more to do. The University of Arizona and the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy hosted the two-day Characterizing PFAS in Arizona: A Science-Policy-Community Workshop last week. The workshop brought together community, Tribal, health, policy, legal, and youth perspectives on PFAS, often called “forever chemicals.” 

I mostly associated PFAS with firefighting foam, Teflon, and industrial contamination before the workshop. I hadn’t realized how common they are in everyday products, including water-resistant clothing, cosmetics, carpet, and even dental floss! Unfortunately, neither the U.S. federal government nor the State of Arizona requires PFAS labeling on consumer products. The Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center’s PFAS information sheet is a helpful resource for understanding where we encounter PFAS in our daily lives. 

Arizona has taken some steps toward prevention, including passing HB 2641, which will prohibit the use of firefighting foam “containing intentionally added PFAS” at airports beginning in 2030 and for firefighting in 2029. SB 1720, passed in 2023, provided $5 million for PFAS mitigation. While Arizona law limits municipalities from setting drinking water standards more stringent than federal EPA standards, Tucson Water can and does set standards that exceed federal requirements. Tucson has also partnered with federal and state agencies to close contaminated wells, improve laboratory testing, and build additional treatment facilities that could serve as a model for other cities in reducing PFAS contamination. 

PFAS contamination is more than just a scientific problem, as PFAS can have incredibly harmful impacts on all Tucsonans, especially our most vulnerable. Linda Shosie Robles, founder of the Environmental Justice Task Force, shared her tragic story, the kind no parent should ever have to experience. After losing her 19-year-old daughter Tianna to kidney cancer and lupus in 2007, Linda watched several more of her children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors develop serious illnesses, including lupus, kidney failure, and heart problems. Suspecting contaminated drinking water was contributing to the illnesses in her community, Linda went door to door speaking with neighbors and found that many were experiencing similarly rare health conditions. 

Here are some of our cooling center closing numbers:  

• Total visits: 2,250 (We had a goal of 2,200 and we exceeded it!)  

• Total unique visitors: 300 (We are incredibly proud of how many “regulars” appreciated and trusted our space enough to return frequently.) 

• Total showers provided: 874 (This number represents what was far and away our most popular service. People were so grateful for the opportunity to get clean, cool off and experience more dignity in a real bathroom.) 

• Highest temperature recorded: 110 (On Wednesday, August 26th) 

• Highest number of visitors in one day: 49 on Thursday, August 27th (The last full week of August, one of the hottest of the summer, had us averaging more than 40 visitors every day.) 
  

See ya in November! 

-Chill Space staff 

Education Bonds 

Props 427 and 430 involve funding for public education districts through selling what is called a “general obligation bond.” These bonds allow the district to borrow money for projects or capital improvements that cannot fit inside the regular operating budget. These bonds are repaid over time using secondary property taxes, meaning the specific tax impact will vary based on your home's assessed valuation. 

Prop 427 would focus on expansion for existing programs including welding, construction, engineering, and robotics, as well as adding early childhood education, cybersecurity, EMT and microchip programs. To do this it would purchase or lease additional facilities, renovate buildings and update equipment.  According to reporting from AZ Luminaria, if the bond would increase taxes by $41 a year on a home assessed at $250,000. 

Prop 430 would also aid in facilities, building renovations and equipment at Pima Community College campus’ to allow for increased programming for First responders, teacher education, IT programs, modernizing STEM programs, and updating arts programming.  According to FAQs from Pima Community College, the bond would increase taxes by $31 a year on a home assessed at $250,000.

Permanent Base Limit  

Prop 425 is extremely unique and has never been on the ballot in Pima County before. This is because it involves the Permanent Base Limit. Outlined in Article 9,  Section 20, of the Arizona State Constitution, local governments operate under a state-imposed expenditure base limit established in 1980.  While Pima County has never previously asked voters to adjust this formula, population growth, inflation, and structural shifts over the past 46 years have brought the county near its current legal limit. Other counties that have put a base limit increase include Maricopa County in 1998, Coconino and Yavapai Counties in 2024, and Yuma is also asking this fall. The current proposition does not include a tax increase, it simply adjusts the spending ceiling to accommodate revenue the county already collects.  You can learn more and review FAQs on the County’s website 

Feldmans, YOU'RE UP NEXT! 

DTM will be in the Feldmans neighborhood (Tucson Heights & Highland Park Addition) to begin prep work for a mill and pave project.    

This project is part of the Prop 411: Tucson Delivers Better Streets Program. Please see the attached postcard mailed out to residents this week and project area map.

Here is the link for the Tucson Heights & Highland Park Addition project website: https://arcg.is/0Oz9j1 

If changes are made to the project schedule, we will immediately update the above link.    

Ward 6 is happy to share information about upcoming Neighborhood Association and community coalition meetings in our newsletter. If we are missing a meeting that you are used to seeing here, please reach out ward6@tucsonaz.gov to help us keep our list updated!  

If you are familiar with the Transit App, you may notice that the Pro features that are typically an extra cost are now included for FREE in the City of Tucson and surrounding Sun Tran service areas. 

If you are not familiar with the Transit App, you can watch Sun Tran’s explainer videos: 

Download Transit 

How to Use the NEW Sun Tran App 

Note: if you press *GO* for your route, you will be asked to complete a user survey, where you can give valuable feedback directly to Sun Tran about your ride.  

• Website: Allows you to see all your options for Request Category in one easy-to-navigate place. You can also choose the location of your request on an interactive map: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Residents/311-Service-Request-Portal 
• App: Gives you the ability to input your request category, intersection, and email address to receive an immediate email confirmation that your request was submitted. Under the "Requests" tab at the bottom of the app, you can also see a map of all existing map of all the existing 311 contacts your neighbors and fellow Tucsonans have submitted across the city, request status, and submission date.
  
• Call: And of course, as always - you can dial 311!