Meet Me Downtown

With the polls closing less than 48 hours from now, here are seventeen suggestions—in no particular order—I have for the Tucson City Council, with respect to Downtown Tucson:

1. Do an audit of Rio Nuevo.  Don’t wait for the State to do it.  Get all the skeletons out of the closet. 

2. Stop tolerating the insider favoritism that’s run rampant.

3. Put more funding into the Façade Program.  A relatively small investment in fixing up old buildings makes a big difference in downtown’s image and in facilitating vibrant downtown activity.  Façade improvements provide a big bang for the buck.  Allocate some TIF funding to the Façade Program.  The lawyers have said it’s okay, I know they have!

4. Support the existing businesses that have toughed it out through the hard times.  A well-known community leader said to me, when the Downtown Tucson Partnership was forming in 2007, that he didn’t want anyone involved in Downtown up until that time, including businesses, to be part of the new regime.  That is so wrong-headed on so many levels.  Existing businesses should not be displaced to make room for new businesses if at all possible (especially not seven of them at a time!).

5. Get out of the entertainment business.  Stop messing with the Rialto Theatre and running the Fox Theatre.  The Rialto is doing just fine, and stop pretending that everything is headed in the right direction at the Fox.  Renegotiate the Fox’s loan and insist the Fox Theatre Foundation board add some new members dedicated to fundraising, and encourage the board to operate independently.  Let the Foundation hire its own director and other staff.

6. Discourage the further demolition of historically significant buildings and older buildings with character.  Encourage new construction on empty lots and surface parking.

7. Focus energy and resources on saving the Gem Shows.  Suck up to the Gem organizations as much as needed, although the time for sucking up without action has passed. Which leads right into . . .

8. Build a more affordable, more realistically-scaled convention hotel that won’t put the City’s finances at risk. 

9. Hit the reset button on a master plan.  What can still be done with the remaining 15 years of TIF? What projects do Tucson citizens consider important? What projects from the original master plan are critical and must be given top priority, and which ones should only be done if there is an unexpected windfall?  Communicate this plan to the public.  Don’t spend additional money on the planning process, just engage the public, use the available information, and show leadership.  Tell us why you’ve decided to establish the priorities you have.

10. Support the development of some student housing—especially along Broadway (on empty lots!).  This will create demand for downtown businesses.  Perhaps the UA will elect to locate some academic programs downtown as well, once the Streetcar is operational.  Everyone says they are in favor of more downtown housing, and this is the most ready source of demand for residential space—college students.  This would also take pressure off the neighborhoods experiencing mini-dorm development.

11. Keep pushing forward on the Modern Streetcar.

12. Wash the sidewalks.  The BID maintenance crews are doing a good job of picking up litter and sweeping, but the sidewalks need to be power-washed too—badly. An entertainment district needs good security and attentive maintenance.

13. Stop blaming the Legislature for problems that we’ve created for ourselves here.

14. Stop acting out of desperation.

15. Get out of the real estate business, but have a fair and open process for disposing of city-owned property.  This is where there is great risk of approving insider deals.  Don’t give land away.  Downtown development requires that the banks see some comps.

16. Take positive action to implement prior commitments.  The Warehouse Arts District is one of those commitments.

17. Think and act “Urban”!  Be guided by urban principles, not suburban principles.

Tuesday’s council discussion about the fate of privately-owned spaces the Rialto Theatre needs to operate was strange, to say the least.  It involved an executive session, two failed motions, anecdotes about threats and intimidation, and two failed requests by Council Member Rodney Glassman to learn if the negotiations at the table were acceptable to the other two parties involved–the Rialto Foundation and the Downtown Tucson Development Company (DTDC), both of which had attorneys present.

The council–minus Mayor Bob Walkup, and with Vice Mayor Regina Romero chairing the meeting in Walkup’s absence–finally voted 5-1 (Glassman against) in favor of a three-month lease for the theatre to use the buildings on Broadway for a greeen room and storage, and two bays on Congress next to its entrance.  The motion also supported an appraisal of the properties, to be paid for by the Foundation, that may be used later for a purchase offer or condemnation.  Glassman and Council Member Trasoff both expressed concern that such a short lease would not prevent the potential eviction of the theatre.

An earlier motion had failed partly due to Council Member Shirley Scott’s opposition to the provision that the city share the cost of the rent with the foundation and bear the full $7,500 cost of the appraisal.

Council Member Karin Uhlich and others expressed a desire to see the city’s action “de-escalate” rather than escalate the growing tensions between the foundation and developers Don Martin and Scott Stiteler.   The Foundation has asked the city to condemn the properties, while the developers have threatened the Foundation with eviction as soon as next Monday.

The discussion began with a motion from Council Member Steve Leal asking staff to pursue condemnation actions and the council going into Executive Session to hear legal advice on its condemnation options.

Glassman had asked if the council could ask the attorneys for the Foundation and DTDC if the deal points being discussed were amenable to them, but Romero and city attorney Mike Rankin indicated their position that it was inappropriate.

After the final motion’s approval, Council Member Trasoff stated that she had been threatened that if she didn’t vote a certain way on this issue, there would be an independent campaign mounted against her to fight her re-election bid.   Trasoff said she would not be intimidated.