I want this site to be a place where involved citizens can find resources to help them solve city-related problems and connect with citizen activists who are advocating for a better city.

If you have a site or group or document you’d like to put on this page, or if you have a city-related problem you’d like help with, please email me at steve@friendsofarley.com

Resources on the City of Tucson

Tucson voters approved a very forward thinking document called the General Plan. Unfortunately, it has mostly been ignored by our City Government since its enactment. I believe we should be paying attention. Download the document in parts or in its entirety here.

Another excellent report from the City planning department, looking at five disturbing trends in Tucson’s future and suggesting some ways of improving things is Five Trends Tucson. Download this 3.6MB PDF here.

Tucson Water recently published a study talking about our water future and some of the issues we need to be looking at to keep our water supply safe & drinkable. Unfortunately, it does not even mention the possibility that we change our patterns of development to save water. Instead, it wants to force us to accept sewage directly delivered to our taps. Read what Tucson Water says here.

The City Transporation Department, thanks to the strong central-city voting in favor of the Citizens’ Transportation Initiative in November 2003, and thanks to a $75 million Federal earmark obtained by Congressman Grijalva, is now doing a federally required study to bring high-capacity rail transit to central Tucson. Learn about this terrific project at Transit on the Move .

We now have a Regional Transportation Authority that will be asking voters county-wide to approve a half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements next year. i am on the citizens’ committee helping to decide on the projects, and we will likely be offering a package that is very heavy on transit and alternate modes in the central city, with more intersection improvements than widenings. But we need your help to get the plan we want. Check out the RTA website, and please fill out the RTA feedback form to let the RTA know what type of transportation plan you would be willing to vote for.

I am also the vice-chair of the Pima Association of Governments Regional Transportation Plan (PAG-RTP) Task Force, a group of diverse citizens creating the overall transportation plan for the region. We oversaw an unprecedented public outreach effort that generated a surprising amount of consensus on our transportation vision and goals. This vision and these goals should be the guide for the RTA plan mentioned above. Read the full public outreach booklet with vision & goals (5.3MB PDF) or if you have low bandwidth, try the summary document (500K PDF)

And if you want to comment on any City issues, you can email the Mayor & Council Comment Email. Whether they actually listen to what you say is problematic. You’re probably better off emailing me.

Resources on Tucson-based Activist Groups

Terry Nordbrock is my neighbor, and when her 2-year-old son Linus was diagnosed with leukemia, she focused on his care, and when he went into remission, she focused on the care of the entire community of cancer victims and is fighting the presence of toxins in our environment wherever they are found. Help her efforts by checking out the group she founded, Families Against Cancer and Toxins (FACT).

I founded Citizens for a Sensible Transportation Solution in an effort to bring real choices into our transportation system, choices that can help create better jobs and access to jobs, increase independence for seniors, the disabled, and those who can’t drive, protect our environment, encourage more compact development patterns and reduce sprawl, reduce water use, and save families a ton of money.

Noise from Davis-Monthan overflights has been increasing substantially over most of the city, as increasing numbers of louder F-16s have taken to our skies. A process for protecting the base from closure last year did not include the neighborhoods most directly affected by the increasing noise, and Fred Ronstadt led the charge to cut off all input from the most-affected citizens. We want Davis Monthan to stay and help with our economy and our defense, but we want them to be good neighbors as well. We need to talk and examine options for noise mitigation. Many concerned citizens have turned to activism to bring D-M to the negotiating table. Visit the websites of Tucsonans for Quality of Life and Tucsonans for Sound Solutions to find out more.

A large group of citizens and mountain bikers called the Fantasy Island Conservation Alliance is trying to stop the State Land Department from selling a citizen-created park for mountain bikers and others on the Southeast side of Tucson. This park has become a major draw for bikers from all over the world, and provides a terrific low-cost recreation opportunity for everyone, in a plot of land that was originally used mainly for wildcat dumping. All the users pay a state land use permit, and help maintain the property. Now the parcel is slated for sale, grading, and residential subdivision development. Fred Ronstadt says that there’s nothing we can do. I disagree. Check out their website and get involved.

Fred Ronstadt has never won his own ward, and yet he’s a councilmember. There’s a very enthusiastic science teacher named Jim Sinex who is now circulating petitions to make our 75-year-old contorted city elections system more rational, and more accountable to constituents, by instituting ward-only primary and general elections. This way, the person each ward votes for is the person they get as a councilmember. They know where to turn for help on a City issue, and the councilmember is responsible for the interests of the ward. The power of money in campaigns would be dramatically reduced–a council candidate could walk door to door and meet literally each voter in the ward, something that cannot happen in a citywide election where expensive mass media like TV, radio, and direct mail have inordinate sway. It’s way past time that we had ward-only elections. While we can’t change the system for this campaign, you can help Jim collect the signatures to change things for the next time around. As a veteran of a successful city petition drive, I know that he will need all the help he can get. You can visit his website at www.FairElect.org or contact him at fairelect@cox.net.

Please email me to give me more links to Tucson-based activist websites so we can all bring our energies together to make this city a better place.