It’s time for PRO Neighborhood’s annual Community Organizing Course, starting September 7. The course fee has been lowered to $25.

This course is geared toward neighborhood residents, non-profit staff responsible for community involvement, social services or social work students, and others interested in mobilizing neighborhood residents around their passions and skills.

Successful completion of the course requirements will result in three credits through Pima Community College and/or a Community Organizer Certificate from PRO Neighborhoods

The course consists of fifteen classes starting September 7 and ending November 30. Classes are held on Wednesday evenings and some Saturdays. Location of classes to be announced.

For more information and to register, call (520) 882-5885 or send an email to info@proneighborhoods.org.

Lisa Torres
Community Organizer
PRO Neighborhoods, www.proneighborhoods.org

738 N. 5th Ave, Suite 101
Tucson, AZ 85705

(520) 882-5885 work
(520) 207-8654 fax

For more info on Pro Neighborhoods (and the great work they do with small neighborhood grants, click here for a recent KUAT Channel 6 show highlighting a community mural project in Barrio Centro.) I’m a volunteer grant reviewer for Pro Neighborhoods and have helped select worthy and creative neighborhood projects over the years.

PRO Neighborhoods was created in 1994 by a collaboration of four entities. Current collaborative partners include City of Tucson, Pima County, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona.

Press release from Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ office:

TUCSON – The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today to name park facilities for an aide to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a 9-year-old girl, both of whom were killed in a Jan. 8 attack in which the congresswoman was seriously wounded.

The board voted to rename the Davidson Canyon trailhead for Gabe Zimmerman and to rename the Cañada del Oro linear river park for Christina-Taylor Green. Other victims of the shooting will be honored with markers at the Davidson Canyon trailhead, the board decided.

Gabe’s father, Ross Zimmerman, welcomed the board’s decision as a fitting honor for someone who grew up enjoying Arizona’s open spaces.

“Gabe was immersed in the natural world of the Desert Southwest from birth,” he said. “Before he could crawl, Gabe was carried in sling packs up the sides of mountains. Vacations tended to revolve around visits to National Parks, both inside and outside the United States. Emily Nottingham, his mother, became president of the Arizona Trail Association and Gabe helped her explore the passages of the Arizona Trail, including this one.”

Ross, a biologist and trail runner, noted that Gabe and his brother Ben were his favorite partners on numerous outdoor adventures.

“The spot chosen to memorialize our son is a fascinating confluence of Sonoran Desert edge and sheer canyon walls with beautiful vegetation,” he said. “Gabe visited the area with Emily on several occasions and we are touched that the trailhead there will bear his name.”

Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll agreed, noting that the renaming of the trail for Gabe had bipartisan support and was the result of many agencies working together.

“This is an appropriate tribute for fine public servant who greatly enjoyed Arizona’s outdoors,” said Carroll, who represents the district in which the trail is located. “Those who didn’t know Gabe will know him through this trail.”

The 30-year-old Zimmerman was community outreach director for Giffords when he was killed at a “Congress on Your Corner” event hosted by Giffords. Zimmerman organized the event at a shopping center on Tucson’s Northwest side.

Zimmerman was a natural athlete who enjoyed hiking and running in the Sonoran Desert. The Arizona Trail Association asked the county to rename the Davidson Canyon trailhead the Davidson Canyon-Gabe Zimmerman Memorial Trailhead.

Zimmerman was a member of the association and, while working for Congresswoman Giffords, helped get the Arizona Trail designated as a National Scenic Trail. The Davidson Canyon trail links to the Cienega Creek Natural Preserve and the Arizona Trail.

The Tucson National Estates Improvement Association asked the county to rename the Cañada del Oro River Park to the Cañada del Oro Christina-Taylor Green Memorial River Park in honor of the 9-year-old girl who was killed in the shooting.

The park runs along the Cañada del Oro wash from North La Cholla Boulevard to North Thornydale Road.

CONTACT
C.J. Karamargin
Communications Director
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Arizona’s 8th Congressional District
(520) 881-3588 or (520) 909-8482

Roy Place office then

Roy Place office now

Recognize these photos? It was the location of the former Walgreen’s downtown which closed sometime after 2001, but the facade has now been restored, and the building rented to the University of Arizona as a center for “urban design, planning and policy classes” for graduate students. The College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture will be the new tenant, and Pima County is the lessor/owner. Read more in Arizona Daily star article:

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/college/article_623b03b1-baae-51db-85ba-8043e142cbfd.html.

Or in UA News (click here).

It was the office of local architect Roy Place, who also built the Pioneer Hotel, Roskruge Elementary and Mansfeld Middle Schools, the St. Benedictine Monastery.

The dedication for this building will be on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. with UA President Robert Shelton and Fred DuVal, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents. The dedication ceremony will be on the NW corner of N. Stone and E. Pennington Street at Jacome Plaza, although this Roy Place building is at that same intersection on the SE corner, 44 N. Stone Avenue.

I used to shop in there at Walgreen’s when I worked downtown on Pennington Street at the Domestic Violence Commission (now defunct). But it’s wonderful to see the original facade restored, especially as it was Roy Place’s architect office, which looked out upon the lovely Pima County Courthouse, which he built in 1929. It is perhaps his most famous building in Tucson.

For website of Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts/Courthouse, click here.

Incidentally I have held court (Small Claims) in that historic courthouse building for the Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts, although our courtroom is now in the La Placita Village down south on Church Avenue.