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.