Citizen Staff Writer
CARLI BROSSEAU
brosseau@tucsoncitizen.com
Four public hearings are scheduled for Tuesday’s City Council meeting, two related to the proposed realignment of East 22nd Street through midtown.
The council will take comments on the Transportation Department’s recommendations for the road’s path, which would shift it slightly north.
The section in question runs from Kino Parkway to Tucson Boulevard and includes an overpass at the Kino-22nd Street intersection.
The council also will hold a hearing on allowing a self-storage facility at the southeast corner of South Campbell Avenue and East Drexel Road, on 5.9 acres zoned for residential and commercial purposes.
The subject of the fourth hearing is the addition of more off-track betting at the Midtown Bar & Grill, 4915 E. Speedway Blvd.
During its study session, the council will examine University of Arizona professor John Schwarz’s suggestions of how to calculate a more realistic assessment of poverty.
Federal measures of poverty are used by the city to determine who is eligible for certain housing, transit and legal services, as well as utility bill assistance and reduced Parks & Recreation Department fees.
Those figures are based on a calculation performed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture based on food expenditures in 1955 that have been adjusted for inflation since, Schwarz told members of the council during a recent subcommittee meeting.
A decision to revise the poverty measurement could have implications for the city’s budget, which had a projected shortfall of about $51 million as of Oct. 21.