136 replies to this topic

[MJLO]

Is Tucson similar to Phoenix in the sense that it has a weak city center, with influential and wealthy surroundings.  IE malls and higher end box retailers thriving?

[convulso]

the short answer is yes. the longer answer would require some elaboration on the phrasing of your question. colin can do that better than i...but tucson's city center is very small given the population, it's not the heart of the city that it could be, and when growth happens, it seems to happen at a faster pace outside of downtown and to be of the variety that would never happen in the middle of any town anyway (chains, big boxes, etc.) you know about rio nuevo and how that is supposed to ideally affect tucson's downtown, but that has its own problems and in the best case scenario cannot and will not transform the downtown area fully.

[colin]

Tucson's Downtown is definitely weak and small. One issue is that we're pretty much boxed in by the railroad, and any expansion past that railroad is difficult because it creates a huge barrier. Even Fourth Avenue isn't really considered to be part of Downtown. The only way to go is west, and that's what they're trying to do with some of this Rio Nuevo stuff. The TCC is technically part of Downtown, but it's so lifeless that Downtown sort of ends at Chruch Avenue.
But, no, Tucson does not have wealthy surroundings. The neighborhoods surrounding Downtown are historic, usually more liberal/artsy, and are in the mid-level of income, despite having some fantastic old homes (especially in El Presidio).
The rich areas are in the next ring: Sam Hughes and El Encanto, but then it's back to middle class until you get into the suburbs. Kinda strange, really.

[colin]

The whole blading issue was brought up in another thread regarding what can and can't a developer do when they want to build on a piece of property. Well, here's the answer, at least here in Tucson:
West Side lot bladed without OK

How cool is it that, here in Tucson, people react to seeing the blading of saguaros the same way others would react to seeing someone getting mugged??

[MJLO]

The city must be pretty tight about that kind of thing.  Tucson seems way more responsible about it's environment and stuff.  It's definately a hippy city.

[MJLO]

can anyone tell me how much passenger traffic has passed thru TUC last year?  I'm trying to figure out where it ranks in terms of midsized city airports.

[colin]

TUS
C'mon, Matt, let's show some research initiative:
http://en.wikipedia....ational_Airport

[MJLO]

damn you.   you're right, but it's more fun to put up questions and then have you all do the work heheheheheh

[colin]

Good call. Opens the discussion. I was just messing with you, but Wikipedia is usually a good fact checker (not a resource!).
I don't know what these new direct flights will do for Tucson's passenger counts. I mean, it will increase, of course, but I'm not sure how much because they're talking about small jets like those they use to fly many of the Phoenix and Vegas routes out of here now. Those flights usually aren't full.
But at least we'll have some more directs. That'll just encourage my avoidance of Sky Harbor.

[MJLO]

well Tucsons airport is decently busy as cities of it size go, I think it helps alot that they have airlines like Southwest, and USAirways so close, it give it more options, where as Grand Rapids, which is a metro area of like size has an airport that's half as busy, with the biggers airports further away.  I think having Southwest makes a big difference, If GR did the fares would probabally be more competitive.

[MJLO]

You know, I read the AZ Star everyday online, and everyday there doesn't seem much to talk about.  Colin will you go cause some drama down there so I have something to post about for Tucson!!!   I love Tucson, and I want to have more traffic for it, but the Star never gives me anything and I feel like I don't pay enough attention to it.

[convulso]

the star has one of the thinnest opinion sections of any paper its size i've ever seen - they don't even run that much syndicated opinion...there's more editorial content in the local newsweekly.

[convulso]

finally - the local tv news can stop repeating itself and start a new cycle they can get a lot of mileage from:

http://news.yahoo.co...mmigrants_slain

the star will start trying to win some awards using this as a springboard as well.

[colin]

This is kind of scary stuff, because it appears that there is a group of vigilantes roaming northwest of Tucson in a van with assault rifles looking for illegal immigrants. A very similar incident occured in Eloy a week ago: 1 dead, boy hurt in attack on illegals
Where they got that they were "human-smugglers" from the description of the assailants, I don't know. I mean, how many human smugglers wear camos, berets and speak broken Spanish?

You had to kind of assume that it would come to this. The Minutemen have been effectively ostricized from the border, but there's a still a good portion of hard-line anti-immigrant people out there, many of whom are here in Tucson. Maybe I'm being too presumptuous, but, to me, this really sounds like a group of armed men systematically hunting down illegal immigrants. They'll be caught pretty quickly, but this will probably just lead to more attacks.

[MJLO]

that does sound scary,  I understand people not wanting the waves of illegals, but killing people for being here is disgusting.  All these people want are better lives.  Most of them truly are innocent.

[colin]

Yeah, Tucson has been very quiet for the past few weeks. No development news, but is there ever any here?
But there also hasn't been much in the way of hostage situations, drug busts, high-speed chases and the other stuff that the news here goes crazy over. This lack of scandal, drama and intrigue has led the desperate, soap-operatic, local TV news teams to some sort of random report on homosexual encounters in public parks that's got them in trouble with PFLAG and GLAAD among others ("Bathroom or Bathhouse", February 8).

Nintzel came out in this week's Weekly and nodded toward the Grijalva appointment I had mentioned above (I knew he'd come through for me):
The Skinny (3rd Item)

Another item laughs at the tax breaks Oro Valley gave to what was supposed to originally be a very nice retail center, but has turned to just another big box + sea of asphalt eyesore for the suburbs. As if Oracle Road didn't have enough of that already.

[convulso]

here's a homosexual retort i found a few days ago to the gay bathroom scarysex story - it pissed a lot of gay people off (or pissed off a few vocal gay people). i agree that it's a ploy to get viewers, especially since kgun is in third place. it seemed needy, if you watched the piece - as in, 'please - we need viewers!'

...and damn - no more destry jetton!

http://www.boxturtle.../2007/02/02/206

Edited by convulso, 09 February 2007 - 04:21 PM.

[colin]

39-month ordeal beginning on I-10

After delays due to pipe dream tunnels and golf tournaments, the dreaded I-10 construction will start this summer.

[MJLO]

They need to revamp the entire infrastructure in this state.  We are all going to feel a pinch for a while.  I'm going to have to avoid I-17 all together when they start the widening to make it a normal freeway from two lanes to four up here.

What's going on in the Tucson Metro.  Surely there has to be construction somewhere?  A mall, A box store, A drug store?  No news as to what's goin on there development wise at all.  GRRRR.

[colin]

A developer frustrated with the speed of progress in Tucson? Never heard of that before. But these guys obviously are somewhat over-anxious.
Developer offers $2M in South Side deal

If you remember, this is the same deal that included the unnamed big box and would thus require an exception to the big box ordinance.