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  #1081  
Old Posted Aug 26, 2009, 9:04 PM
kaneui kaneui is offline
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After its numerous remodels/additions, there apparently wasn't enough of the original hotel remaining to put the Santa Rita on the National Register of Historic Places, or convince the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission to demand its preservation:



A demolition crew brings down the historic Santa Rita Hotel. A new headquarters
for UniSource, the parent company of Tucson Electric Power, will replace it.
(photo: James Gregg)


Farewell to Santa Rita Hotel
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
08.26.2009

Final demolition of the Santa Rita Hotel downtown started this week. Humberto Lopez, who owned the hotel since 1979, sold it this summer. The hotel had been closed since late 2005 for a planned $40 million renovation into condos, retail, restaurant space and parking. Those plans fell through in 2007, and Lopez said then that he hoped to turn it back into a boutique hotel.

UniSource Energy Corp purchased the hotel this summer for $6.55 million. Unisource, the parent company of Tucson Electric Power, said it plans to turn the site at 88 E. Broadway into TEP's headquarters. A new one should be finished by the summer of 2012.


Did You Know...
The 100-room Santa Rita Hotel was built in 1904 on land donated by the city. Fifty rooms were added in 1917.

In 1903, the year before the Santa Rita even officially opened, the Arizona Daily Star called it "the most beautiful hotel in the Arizona Territory." The hotel was demolished and rebuilt in 1972.

The Santa Rita was host to several well-known community organizations. The Mountain Oyster Club was founded at the hotel in 1948. The hotel was also the headquarters of the Tucson Press Club from 1956 to 1962.
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  #1082  
Old Posted Aug 26, 2009, 10:29 PM
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Originally Posted by azliam View Post
But, I can. We were originally talking about the downtowns of both cities, not the entire metro areas. Again, although Tucson doesn't really have the outlying cities like Phoenix does, it also has different pockets (although to a lesser degree) where people like to eat/go out (La Encantada, Tanque Verde)...but the place to gather would primarily be downtown Tucson (Congress, Fourth Ave over to University).

Continuous areas of nightlife in Phoenix:

1. Downtown (Core): Places to go - Amsterdam (and surrounding clubs), Seamus McCaffrey's, Hanny's, PHX, Sky Lounge, Bar Smith, Majerle's, Hard Rock, Cooperstown, Stoudemire's, The District, etc...

2. Roosevelt St. Area (just north of downtown and a 10-20 minute walk from any of the aforementioned places): Places to go - Modified, Carly's, Fair Trade, Turf, The Lost Leaf, Fate (whatever it's called now), more than a dozen art galleries.

3. Grand Ave. Arts Area: Places to go - Trunkspace, Tilt, Phix, The Paisley Violin, Bikini Lounge, Fatcats, bunch mo' galleries.

4. Mid-Town 7th Ave. (Just north of Indian School): Chez Nous Cocktail lounge, Fry Bread House (awesome), Copper Star Coffee (also awesome), Z Girl Bar, E Lounge, Bunkhouse Lounge, Char's Has the Blues, and others.

5. Phoenix Biltmore - usually more money than I'm willing to spend...

That's just off the top of my head. There are plenty of places you can plant yourself and walk around - it's a big city.
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  #1083  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 12:06 AM
azliam azliam is offline
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Originally Posted by Jsmscaleros View Post
Continuous areas of nightlife in Phoenix:

1. Downtown (Core): Places to go - Amsterdam (and surrounding clubs), Seamus McCaffrey's, Hanny's, PHX, Sky Lounge, Bar Smith, Majerle's, Hard Rock, Cooperstown, Stoudemire's, The District, etc...

2. Roosevelt St. Area (just north of downtown and a 10-20 minute walk from any of the aforementioned places): Places to go - Modified, Carly's, Fair Trade, Turf, The Lost Leaf, Fate (whatever it's called now), more than a dozen art galleries.

3. Grand Ave. Arts Area: Places to go - Trunkspace, Tilt, Phix, The Paisley Violin, Bikini Lounge, Fatcats, bunch mo' galleries.

4. Mid-Town 7th Ave. (Just north of Indian School): Chez Nous Cocktail lounge, Fry Bread House (awesome), Copper Star Coffee (also awesome), Z Girl Bar, E Lounge, Bunkhouse Lounge, Char's Has the Blues, and others.

5. Phoenix Biltmore - usually more money than I'm willing to spend...

That's just off the top of my head. There are plenty of places you can plant yourself and walk around - it's a big city.
Honestly, do you really see people walking from downtown through all of these areas and to the Biltmore area? Amsterdam to Chez Nous is over 3 miles. Sure you can plant yourself (after driving) and then walk 'within' these areas, but I don't see people walking from downtown to some of these areas. It's just not as cohesive as downtown Tucson and I'm not sure if I'd call your route continuous.
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  #1084  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 12:26 AM
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Originally Posted by PHX31 View Post
I've already agreed that a continuous strip of nightlife is great and Tucson is better for that (Prescott even better). However, there's more options and greater nightlife throughout Phoenix proper than there is in Tucson (obviously this is where we are agreeing to disagree).
While this may be true as the vast population difference certainly would allow for more and varied establishments in the Phoenix metro, Tucson is not some backwater city (as some may conclude). There are some pretty nice newer establishments to visit (if you haven't been to Tucson in awhile). In addition, I'd have to say I'd prefer a much more vibrant energy in a downtown atmosphere than hopping in a car and going from point A pocket of nightlife to point B pocket of nightlife. I like Phoenix and Scottsdale - don't get me wrong - and I'm exciting about all of the construction over the past few years downtown. If this Jackson Street Entertainment District ever lifts off of the ground, I think I'd certainly want to spend more time in downtown Phoenix, but at the same time, Tucson is going through its own renaissance of sorts downtown and it's already ahead of the ball when it comes to nightlife.
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  #1085  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 1:35 AM
kaneui kaneui is offline
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As expected, Tucson is moving towards giving a big chunk of city planning to the Downtown Tucson Partnership and its CEO Glenn Lyons. However, the plan is not without its detractors, and how the DTP will mesh with the new Rio Nuevo board to be appointed by the governor and state legislators is anyone's guess:



Will Glenn Lyons save downtown and Rio Nuevo?
(photo: Joe Pangburn)


Passing the Buck
Tucson's city manager works to hand off downtown planning responsibilities

by Carli Brosseau
Tucson Weekly
August 27, 2009

Ex-City Manager Mike Hein had a reputation among political insiders for deals "written on the back of a napkin." As a result, he was fired. As he exited, a call for transparency was trumpeted, and a new way forward on downtown development was proclaimed. But neither Hein's dismissal nor the pledges of accountability have erased the leftover promises, real and perceived, many of which centered on Tucson's beleaguered and decades-long efforts to revitalize downtown.

The keeper and occasional scribe of Hein's metaphorical napkins—the deals that were supposed to jumpstart downtown and defy expectations of development malaise—was left behind when Hein packed up in April after three years on the job. Assistant to the City Manager Jaret Barr, Hein's longtime right-hand man and his point man on downtown, still holds his title, though his boss has changed, and it's unclear what his current duties are. The mention of Barr's name now has the potency to kill a deal. An agreement that would have formalized a consulting relationship between the city and the nonprofit Downtown Tucson Partnership was quietly withdrawn earlier in August after Barr was revealed as the would-be public-finance specialist and right-hand man to the proposed new downtown planner, partnership CEO Glenn Lyons. In interviews, City Council members cited a variety of reasons for revising the contract with the downtown booster group, including the need for clearer boundaries between the city and the partnership, a more explicit description of the services to be provided, and spelled-out procurement practices.

By all accounts, Barr, who makes an annual salary of about $106,000, will not be part of the revision. He's not part of City Manager Mike Letcher's new downtown team, and no one on the council or in the City Manager's Office is willing to talk about what he is, in fact, doing. Barr himself demurred, saying that the negotiations over the contract were between the City Manager's Office and the Downtown Tucson Partnership, and did not involve him. As a political appointee, he works at the will of the city manager, without the security of civil service protection. He would not say what he anticipated doing next. City Council members promised after firing Hein that there would be no purge of municipal employees close to him—and no one was closer than Barr. Fran LaSala, who oversaw the Scott Avenue streetscape project as an assistant to the city manager, was also included in the earliest iteration of the agreement with the partnership, but he has since been assigned to a position in the city's Environmental Services Department. He has civil-service status.

Despite the wrangling, the deal between the city and the Downtown Tucson Partnership will likely live on. "We'll be contracting directly with Glenn," said City Manager Mike Letcher. "Otherwise, I'd have to hire someone. We just don't have that expertise." Letcher has designed a downtown team without the usual suspects, and they've been meeting weekly since April. The team is envisioned in three overlapping parts: finance, led by the finance director; operations, led by the director of the General Services Department; and planning, led by Lyons, even though the city is not paying him. (He continues to draw an annual salary of about $130,000 from the partnership.) Under Letcher's plan, Lyons' list of tasks is long. It runs from downtown master planning to customer service and quality assurance to negotiating development agreements and designing a standard agreement form.

Critics of the plan say it would contract out decisions to the Downtown Tucson Partnership that should be made inside the city bureaucracy, to ensure transparency and minimize unfair influence. Bill Risner, president of the Community Development and Design Center and a longtime activist on downtown issues, has been one of the most vocal opponents. He thinks the contract would increase the influence of developers and political insiders. Among the suggestions Lyons made in a draft downtown master plan is that the city and county review their land holdings and sell off the surplus downtown land for development, in an effort to guide downtown revitalization over the next 15 years or so. "It's simply a mechanism to loot the city," he said. "This is how you do it if you're trying to rip the public off." Risner said the draft version of Lyons' vision for downtown shows that his goals aren't consistent with the city's, and that they favor developers over the taxpayers. Risner said by advising the city to sell the land now, while the real estate market is struggling, is analogous to looting. "It just doesn't make sense," he said. Risner is also concerned that the deal would result in more trouble for the public to obtain records. The contract specifies that all records requests must go through the city.

Members of the City Council argue that hiring Lyons would actually have the opposite effect to what Risner suggests. "It would provide a set of checks and balances that up until now, we've not had," Council-woman Karin Uhlich said. "Glenn would report to the city manager as a consultant," Councilwoman Regina Romero said. "It's not just the Downtown Partnership making the decisions." The contract will specify that the city is hiring Lyons himself, Letcher said. In that scenario, the partnership's board, which includes several power brokers who have been involved in Tucson's downtown for decades, would have a say only in approving the contract, not in Lyons' specific duties.

Lyons is keenly attuned to the controversy. "I understand conflict of interest," he said. "I understand that you work for your client." Letcher is betting on Lyons to rescue a project beset by a public perception of failure and inside dealing; an attempt by the state Legislature to sever the sales-tax stream that funds Rio Nuevo; and a recession that has all but eliminated the funds that were expected. Before becoming city manager, Letcher knew little about these Rio Nuevo issues, despite being deputy city manager under Hein. Minutes after Hein was fired, Letcher received a stack of papers—an introduction, if you will. But that was only part of the picture. The other bit was on napkins. "Having both a planning and finance background is what makes Glenn unique," Letcher said. "He has experience, and I've had a chance to kick the tires and see whether it works. ... This is a forward-looking contract." The council is scheduled to review the revised agreement in September.

Last edited by kaneui; Aug 27, 2009 at 3:32 AM.
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  #1086  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 3:42 AM
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Honestly, do you really see people walking from downtown through all of these areas and to the Biltmore area? Amsterdam to Chez Nous is over 3 miles. Sure you can plant yourself (after driving) and then walk 'within' these areas, but I don't see people walking from downtown to some of these areas. It's just not as cohesive as downtown Tucson and I'm not sure if I'd call your route continuous.

I think he was saying there are 4 or 5 separate areas with a bunch of options within walking distance. I don't think he's saying you can walk between all 5 easily. Although downtown and the Roosevelt are definitely withing walking distance (or if you're lazy light rail)... I've done that multiple times. Then you can now take light rail home after 2am on the weekend. There were many places jsmscaleros didn't even mention downtown or in Roosevelt area (the two are merging). The old Jefferson St. bar, the bars at the Hyatt and the Wyndham, Moira Sushi (and Sake bar), Rose & Crown, Bar Bianco, Portlands, Sens.... etc. I think you (and definitely poconoboy) are greatly underestimating downtown Phoenix's nightlife now-a-days, and I could go on, depending on your style, but I doubt you'll ever go to the Ruby Room. And I'm probably underestimating Tucson's.
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  #1087  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 4:49 AM
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I was indeed referring to separate areas - and the Ruby Room does also kick ass.
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  #1088  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 5:03 AM
azliam azliam is offline
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I think he was saying there are 4 or 5 separate areas with a bunch of options within walking distance. I don't think he's saying you can walk between all 5 easily. Although downtown and the Roosevelt are definitely withing walking distance (or if you're lazy light rail)... I've done that multiple times. Then you can now take light rail home after 2am on the weekend. There were many places jsmscaleros didn't even mention downtown or in Roosevelt area (the two are merging). The old Jefferson St. bar, the bars at the Hyatt and the Wyndham, Moira Sushi (and Sake bar), Rose & Crown, Bar Bianco, Portlands, Sens.... etc. I think you (and definitely poconoboy) are greatly underestimating downtown Phoenix's nightlife now-a-days, and I could go on, depending on your style, but I doubt you'll ever go to the Ruby Room. And I'm probably underestimating Tucson's.
I am not underestimating it, in fact, I've seen it grow. I still go to Phoenix occasionally just to club, eat, concerts, I did the pool parties at Hotel San Carlos, etc. It's only 1.5 hours away - that's a plus for both cities. Phoenix is just the victim of not much older infrastructure left downtown to build upon like Tucson. Every city tears down buildings here and there, but I've seen those older photos of Phoenix and it makes me cringe now. But alas, the downtown is definitely improving. I've still not rode the LRT; it's definitely on my to-do-list.
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  #1089  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 5:22 AM
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Phoenix is just the victim of not much older infrastructure left downtown to build upon like Tucson. Every city tears down buildings here and there, but I've seen those older photos of Phoenix and it makes me cringe now.
Very true... it's horrible how much was torn down up here. If the areas torn down weren't over-zoned, downtown could be built into a sea of modern 3-5 story mixed used buildings with some of the left over historic building stock sprinkled in, which would be awesome. One thing I was thinking of for which Phoenix is pretty lucky is the amount of historic "skycrapers" the downtown area has. Westward Ho, Hotel Monroe, Orpheum Lofts, Old City Hall, Luhrs tower, Luhrs building, Security Building/Hotel San Carlos are all nice assets. The first two could really become something special. The Hotel Monroe was planned to have several cool bars and clubs, if you remember the plans. Hopefully it will someday finish renovations.
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  #1090  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 5:26 AM
azliam azliam is offline
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Very true... it's horrible how much was torn down up here. If the areas torn down weren't over-zoned, downtown could be built into a sea of modern 3-5 story mixed used buildings with some of the left over historic building stock sprinkled in, which would be awesome. One thing I was thinking of for which Phoenix is pretty lucky is the amount of historic "skycrapers" the downtown area has. Westward Ho, Hotel Monroe, Orpheum Lofts, Old City Hall, Luhrs tower, Luhrs building, Security Building/Hotel San Carlos are all nice assets. The first two could really become something special. The Hotel Monroe was planned to have several cool bars and clubs, if you remember the plans. Hopefully it will someday finish renovations.
I'd love to see the Hotel Monroe in that fashion. BTW, has anyone heard what the height may be for the proposed hotel at the Luhrs City Center?
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  #1091  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 4:06 PM
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I believe they received FAA approval for the 514' limit... but who knows when, if ever, that comes to fruition. I could be wrong though, I'd have to dig up the Luhrs City Center thread.
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  #1092  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 4:41 PM
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As someone who has only been to Phoenix a few times (both times I ended up at the park with the glowing vagina), I haven't really explored it's night life. With that said, I think Tucson has one of the best club scenes of ANY city. All of which are located primarily on the trolley line (University Ave, 4th Ave, and Congress). It's also interesting how each area caters towards a unique demographic. University is more for the dumb frat boy crowd, 4th Ave is more along the lines of the hippies and granola eaters, and Congress is for the unique hipster crowd. Especially with Zen Rock opening as well as Centro which is as close to an LA club as you're going to get.
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  #1093  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2009, 4:10 AM
kaneui kaneui is offline
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To accommodate pedestrians and the new streetcar, Rio Nuevo kicked in several million dollars to more than double the width of the new $15M Cushing St. underpass at I-10, which partially opened today. Although it now goes just to the frontage road west of I-10, Cushing will eventually extend over the Santa Cruz River and connect with Avenida del Convento for the streetcar line, scheduled to debut in November, 2011:



(photos: lasertrimman)


Future in sights at Cushing underpass opening
August 27, 2009
by Teya Vitu
http://www.downtowntucson.org/

The new Cushing Street underpass partially opened Aug. 27 with mayoral pomp and a look ahead to the role it will play for in connecting Downtown to the West Side. Cushing Street is not a main drag by any means, but more than 100 people showed up for the opening ceremony at the Riverpark Inn at the west end of the underpass. “It has never been a big deal until this very moment,” Mayor Bob Walkup said about the Interstate 10 underpass. “All of a sudden, it becomes the Gateway to the West Side.” The underpass will be open from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. for the next few weeks as crews finish painting and pigeon mitigation – the installation of netting to keep pigeons from roosting in various nooks and crannies, Arizona Department of Transportation spokeswoman Teresa Welborn said.

The Cushing Street underpass links the two freeway frontage roads and provides direct access from the Tucson Convention Center to the Riverpark Inn. It will especially come into play in February as gem show visitors park in the TCC lots to go shopping on motel row along the west frontage road. Even more critical, gem show dealers on both sides of the freeway do loads of business with each other, said Maurice Destouet, general manager of the Pueblo Gem and Mineral Show at the Riverpark Inn. “The last two years have been extremely difficult for our exhibitors,” Destouet said. “Our exhibitors do an immense amount of business with (gem shows on the TCC side of the freeway). Ultimately, the underpass is envisioned as the gateway to the now indefinitely delayed Tucson Origins museum complex and the Mercado District of Menlo Park housing development. The proposed streetcar linking the University of Arizona to Downtown and the West Side is aligned to travel through the underpass with a anticipated first ride on Nov. 11, 2011 – 11/11/11, said Jim Glock, Tucson’s transportation department director.

Sooner than that, work on a Cushing Street bridge will start to link the underpass to the West Side. Construction could start within one year, Glock said. “We have the bridge funded,” Glock said. The Cushing Street bridge has gone through several major design overhauls as well as drastic changes in proposed funding. Two years ago, Rio Nuevo funds were earmarked for the bridge. The combined collapse of Rio Nuevo and emergence of President Obama’s stimulus package has refined where the money will come from for the estimated $10 million bridge. Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will pay for citywide pavement improvement projects, freeing up that money from the transportation department’s capital improvement budget for the Cushing Street Bridge, Glock said. The Cushing Street bridge will be an homage to the former 1930s Congress Street bridge, which had a balustrade railing. The bridge will also have shade structures with cutouts of iconic images. Twelve times a year, the shadow of an image will line up with the same image embedded in the sidewalk. For example, crosses will project onto the sidewalk on June 24, marking Dia de San Juan and the start of the monsoon season in Tucson.

Meanwhile, the $15 million freeway underpass has changed names and personality since closing for freeway widening work in summer 2007. The Clark Street name was changed to Cushing so that the same street name continues from the TCC through the underpass, onto the proposed bridge over the Santa Cruz River and into the Origins complex. The Cushing Street underpass is 225 feet wide, with 20-foot-wide sidewalks on each side and plenty of daylight streaming in. Narrow piers divide the underpass into two 70-foot wide pedestrian sections and an 85-foot wide middle section for vehicle traffic and the streetcar. “It does not have a tunnel feel anymore,” Ritter said.

The original ADOT design only included the 85-foot-wide middle section. The city supplied $9 million in Rio Nuevo money to widen the underpass to 225 feet and also enhance the Congress Street and 18th Street underpasses. The old underpass had two 40-foot-wide spans separated by thick pillars with sidewalks barely three or four feet wide. “The old one used to have a feel of a tunnel,” Ritter said. “The piers were solid, obstructed the view, and it felt narrow. Now the way the piers are there is a feeling of openness.”

Last edited by kaneui; Aug 28, 2009 at 5:26 AM.
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  #1094  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2009, 8:56 AM
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John Wesley Miller has held several talks with
chef Janos Wilder about opening a restaurant on
the corner of Scott Avenue and Congress Street.
(photo: Inside Tucson Business)


Undaunted, Janos looks at new location for downtown restaurant
By Joe Pangburn
Inside Tucson Business
August 14, 2009

Although his initial plans to return downtown have been stymied, Chef Janos Wilder hasn’t abandoned those thoughts. Instead of being a part of a project that was being proposed for the east end of downtown, he’s now looking a couple of blocks west. The noted chef has had four meetings so far with John Wesley Miller about the possibility of being a part of the renovation of the McLellan Building, 63 E. Congress St.

“Nothing is finalized yet, but we are drawing up some plans,” Miller said. “We’re talking to him about the space on the corner.” Miller said he has had increased interest in the building lately. On A Roll Sushi opened in September last year but after that, not much new happened. But recently, he said, he has signed a deal to open an outlet for Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches, which is due to open in October, and he’s talking with someone else he wouldn’t identify to take over the remaining space he has available in the building.

“We’ve come a long way from just a couple years ago,” Miller said. “I think more and more people are becoming excited about being downtown. With the Fourth Avenue Underpass opening up and the (modern streetcar) tracks eventually coming by our building we’re told it could double the value of the adjoining properties so people are looking to get in now and secure their space before that happens.” Jimmy Johns franchisee Nick Schaffer said he sees a lot of potential downtown and wanted to get down there. “We’re seeing they want to make things happen down here,” he said. “We’re excited to open up and serve downtown.”
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  #1095  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2009, 5:54 PM
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I really like how Tucson is preparing itself for the modern streetcar. I can imagine what the city will be like in 4 years with all sorts of retail and entertainment along it's route.
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  #1096  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2009, 8:21 AM
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Chez Nous moved to Grand Ave about 2 years ago, fyi.
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  #1097  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2009, 3:31 PM
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I really like how Tucson is preparing itself for the modern streetcar. I can imagine what the city will be like in 4 years with all sorts of retail and entertainment along it's route.
Yeah just imagine all of the urban in-fill, TOD that could occur after the modern street car opens to the public. Tucson should create a network of modern streetcar transit to improve transportation needs instead of focusing on roads/frwys like Phoenix did for decades.
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  #1098  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2009, 8:27 AM
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Yeah just imagine all of the urban in-fill, TOD that could occur after the modern street car opens to the public. Tucson should create a network of modern streetcar transit to improve transportation needs instead of focusing on roads/frwys like Phoenix did for decades.
Honestly, Tucson needs to focus on both. It's foolish to believe that Tucson will ever develop a light rail so extensive that it will eliminate the need for Tucsonans to be auto dependent. It's also foolish to think that not developing freeways will force people to ride public transit. No. The only thing not building a crosstown freeway will do is force every major arterial in Tucson to undergo widening projects every 15 years. Projections from PAG (Pima Association of Governments) show that the population of Tucson proper could reach 1 million by 2040, with more than 2 million people in the metro area. Tucson having no crosstown freeway with 1 million people in city limits would be an absolute nightmare.

If I live at the intersection of Sunrise and Sabino Canyon and need to go downtown, automobile is the form of transportation I'll use. Tucson developed around the automobile and it is impossible for public transportation, especially light rail, to be effective throughout the entire metro area of Tucson. Downtown should focus on its redevelopment, including the streetcar, but there should be more realistic transit options for areas outside of downtown.
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  #1099  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2009, 5:17 PM
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Honestly, Tucson needs to focus on both. It's foolish to believe that Tucson will ever develop a light rail so extensive that it will eliminate the need for Tucsonans to be auto dependent. It's also foolish to think that not developing freeways will force people to ride public transit. No. The only thing not building a crosstown freeway will do is force every major arterial in Tucson to undergo widening projects every 15 years. Projections from PAG (Pima Association of Governments) show that the population of Tucson proper could reach 1 million by 2040, with more than 2 million people in the metro area. Tucson having no crosstown freeway with 1 million people in city limits would be an absolute nightmare.

If I live at the intersection of Sunrise and Sabino Canyon and need to go downtown, automobile is the form of transportation I'll use. Tucson developed around the automobile and it is impossible for public transportation, especially light rail, to be effective throughout the entire metro area of Tucson. Downtown should focus on its redevelopment, including the streetcar, but there should be more realistic transit options for areas outside of downtown.
Tucson had a solution to a crosstown freeway that voters voted down well over a decade ago: Grade seperated intersections. And now they are paying the price with heavy congested traffic through midtown.

The plan was to grade-seperate the intersections off Grant/Cambpell, Grant/Swan, Grant/Craycroft and Kolb/Tanqerverde. This would have created a crosstown parkway if you will, without having to put up a concrete monster that cut the city in two and displace hundreds of homes and bsinesses, like what has happened in Phoenix. You could also do this at key intersections on Broadway, like Swan and Wilmont roads. Also doing the same on Golflinks Road at Swan, Craycroft, and Kolb roads. I think that tucson will be forced to look at these options again in the near future as traffic becomes more of a nightmare and as the population grows.

I still think this is a great alternative to just building freeways. This solution along with a more extensive light rail system could do wonders for people getting around the inner city areas and across town.
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  #1100  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2009, 3:25 PM
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somethingfast somethingfast is offline
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yeah, those freeways really messed up Phoenix...grade-separated intersections are a solution? please! kino and aviation parkways are not the answer...more red lights are exactly what Tucson doesn't need.
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