Downtown Tucsonan - July/August 2008 - (Page 5) F r o m T h e Edito r his month our organization begins its eleventh year of existence, and that is significant because it means we are beginning our third five-year term of operating the downtown Business Improvement district. the tucson city council recently approved a five-year extension of our contract with the city to continue to provide enhanced service in the areas of maintenance, security, marketing, special events, advocacy, and now, economic development as well. we are funded by a special assessment on commercial property that is paid by the commercial property owners and in many cases, passed on to the tenants. while our BId funding source means we have an obligation to serve and represent the property owners and businesses, the financial support we receive from the city of tucson for its downtown properties implies an obligation to represent the broader community, and our board of directors composition reflects our commitment to do just that. downtown merchants sit beside neighborhood residents, property owners, arts and culture stakeholders, office businesses, and an advocate for historic preservation, among others. we’ll be here, with the purple shirts, with the Downtown Tucsonan, with downtowntucson.com, and various special events, for another five years. and we’ll be helping to stimulate new development to get downtown over the hump, to get more people living, working and visiting downtown. T the downtown Links citizens advisory committee approved a recommendation on an alignment for the new 4-lane downtown Links roadway on June 23. the plan contains a significant change from an alignment the committee approved in december 2006, that would have used the existing 6th street west of stone avenue and “threaded the needle” between the citizens and steinfeld warehouses. subsequent engineering work and input from the railroad forced the city transportation dept. to reconsider that section of the alignment that the committee had previously endorsed. alignment “3d” or the “curved 6th street” option was designed in response to the engineering challenges and to the committee’s own desire to see those two buildings saved. as noted in Lowdown, 3d was and is extremely unpopular with the dunbar spring neighborhood, as our committee heard over the last few months. their concerns about the impacts of the roadway must be thoughtfully addressed in the upcoming design process. I was among the 11 committee members who voted to approve 3d, and I did so because it was apparent to me that we had exhausted all conceivable geometric options, and that this plan offered the best ratio of benefits to costs for downtown and the community. My reasoning was, the sooner we approve the inevitable, the sooner we can get started making it as functional and attractive as possible. the 3d plan creates significant opportunities for improving bicycle and pedestrian access to downtown from the warehouse district and neighborhoods to the north. the cac will certainly demand that the cost savings from 3d compared to the previous plan be reinvested in enhancements— a beautiful and accessible deck over the railroad underpass, landscaping, public art, etc. the elimination of the current alignment of 6th street west of 7th avenue creates some new real estate that can be used to enhance the area, consistent with the goals of the warehouse arts district Master Plan, whether through new residential development or more passive uses. affordable artist housing, studio space, performance space, an arts park, or a combination of those, can be the future of that land that is now roadway. BIcas, which will be on the south side of the new 6th street, can be the focal point of this area. 3d also has the advantage of not forcing the city to close 6th street and the stone avenue underpass for two years for the construction, as our earlier plan would have. this disadvantage to the earlier plan wasn’t as evident to me at the time, but the struggles of downtown and 4th avenue businesses during the current construction of the 4th avenue underpass has underscored the importance of keeping 6th and stone open during the Links construction. the selection of the alignment allows design to proceed, and I expect that the neighborhoods, area businesses, artists, and other stakeholders will be very active in this process. we have every right to demand, as citizens, residents, tax-payers, and businesses, that this be an aesthetically-pleasing road corridor that is highlyfunctional for multiple modes of travel, and not just another slab of concrete. the selection of the alignment by the city council will also trigger a series of events which will lead to the disposition of the state-owned properties in the warehouse district. waMo is working to build a partnership with a developer with existing interests in the area to acquire and develop these properties in accordance with the vision for the warehouse arts district. something can finally happen in the warehouse district, after two decades of uncertainty. this issue of Downtown Tucsonan covers both July and august, which is to say there won’t be a new issue out in august. this way our staff can take a break and take extra time to prepare our september issue, which will be enhanced and distributed to a larger tucson audience. see you in september. donovan durband Executive Director, Downtown Tucson Partnership july/august.08. downtown tucsonan 5 http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org
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