Well I did go to the presentation on Monday about the city center planning and future. It wasn't bad - at least it was at Beowulf Alley Theatre and I bumped into a few people I know and like. I found Glenn Lyons, the CEO of the Downtown Partnership, to be a guy with good intentions, some sound, basic knowledge and great experience in urban planning and development with realistic intentions. Too bad that as of yet he just does not "get" living in a desert city. He is Canadian. Nor did the proposal and ideas put forth have any inkling, zero mentioning, of things like ecologly or nature in general.
So I did put in my two cents about a few things and it seemed some light bulbs went off. Get really urban - build high and close to create shade, consider the Tucson Mountain Park being so close a strength rather than a weakness, same with the Santa Cruz River (think inexpensive or less expensive water run off from Downtown area with that fact or water harvesting obviously), think urban farms, things like that. Simple stuff. And, please for once think of wanting everyone in the city to come there - not just those few thousand in "the foothills." Never once was a southside transportation corridor mentioned!
And lordy, they don't want those fifteen people or so who tend to congregate at the Rondstat Bus Center there. I am perplexed and disturbed over this. Why? Somebody said they are scary? They are poor? Someone wants the real estate? (They are talking of getting rid of the bus center for this reason, that those people are there.) I am not saying the bus terminal is the greatest thing in the universe or in the city but of the few crumbs that the majority of people get for their tax dollars this is an ok one. I've used the bus terminal. Hell I even took the bus downtown that very day for that very meeting from Prescott College! Its convienient and simple. All the buses gather there. Its a terminal. I wouldn't not visit New York or Atlanta or Chicago or Paris or London because they have transportation terminals with a few people around. I guess we shouldn't mix art (districts) and reality. And somehow I am gonna suspect they won't go over and ask those people, whom they say tend to congregate downtown, to attend any of these downtown planning sessions - although they say they want "everyones" input.
I want a clean and healthy and attractive environment as much as the next person but Downtown can never be as La Encantada-esque as some envision.
So I did put in my two cents about a few things and it seemed some light bulbs went off. Get really urban - build high and close to create shade, consider the Tucson Mountain Park being so close a strength rather than a weakness, same with the Santa Cruz River (think inexpensive or less expensive water run off from Downtown area with that fact or water harvesting obviously), think urban farms, things like that. Simple stuff. And, please for once think of wanting everyone in the city to come there - not just those few thousand in "the foothills." Never once was a southside transportation corridor mentioned!
And lordy, they don't want those fifteen people or so who tend to congregate at the Rondstat Bus Center there. I am perplexed and disturbed over this. Why? Somebody said they are scary? They are poor? Someone wants the real estate? (They are talking of getting rid of the bus center for this reason, that those people are there.) I am not saying the bus terminal is the greatest thing in the universe or in the city but of the few crumbs that the majority of people get for their tax dollars this is an ok one. I've used the bus terminal. Hell I even took the bus downtown that very day for that very meeting from Prescott College! Its convienient and simple. All the buses gather there. Its a terminal. I wouldn't not visit New York or Atlanta or Chicago or Paris or London because they have transportation terminals with a few people around. I guess we shouldn't mix art (districts) and reality. And somehow I am gonna suspect they won't go over and ask those people, whom they say tend to congregate downtown, to attend any of these downtown planning sessions - although they say they want "everyones" input.
I want a clean and healthy and attractive environment as much as the next person but Downtown can never be as La Encantada-esque as some envision.
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