The Agenda Review: Caitlin's top five from the archives
We’ve gained a lot of new subscribers since our launch in July and we know that our readers are busy people who probably haven’t had time to pour through the Tucson Agenda archives.
Taking a page from the Arizona Daily Star’s book, we’re each highlighting our top five favorite stories of the year (or the past five months) and giving you some behind-the-scenes details about why it made our list and what’s happened since it published.
Caitlin is sharing her favorite stories (in no particular order) today and you can read about Curt’s Friday.
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We launched the Tucson Agenda with an in-depth look at what’s contributed to sustained overcrowding at Pima Animal Care Center. PACC’s capacity has continued to remain at critical levels in the months since we ran the story and the situation has remain largely unchanged, with healthy dogs regularly at risk for euthanasia due to a lack of space.
PACC, its nonprofit arm, Friends of PACC, and a volunteer advisory board have been engaged in discussions about ways to help keep capacity down and get dogs out of the shelter faster, with some new efforts having launched since our story ran.
In September, local nonprofit Tucson Rescue Now opened the doors on its new, larger location, thanks to a partnership with Friends of PACC that will allow the group to expand its efforts. Tucson Rescue Now has showcased PACC dogs at an offsite location since 2018 with hundreds of successful adoptions in the years since. It’s anticipated that the new partnership will allow for the adoption of several hundred homeless dogs each year.
We have more than twice the number of subscribers today as we did in July (2,600 versus 1,200) and the shelter typically sees an influx of stray dogs in the days following New Year’s Eve, so if you missed our story the first time around, make sure you give it a read.
After years of driving past a “coming soon” sign on the former Golden Pin Lanes that the county purchased in 2019 to use as its Northwest Service Center, we couldn’t help but notice that not a whole lot had been done, save for tearing down the building with the exception of the front entry facade.
So Caitlin reached out to the county to find out about the timeline and when we could expect “soon” to arrive. In what came as no surprise, the pandemic led to planning and construction delays and the project’s eventual change in course.
But now, five years after its purchase, construction is finally underway on the project, which is expected to open next December. Caitlin’s driven by several time in recent weeks and saw workers and heavy machinery in action, with notable changes to the site since we wrote our story in August.
We love explainer stories and taking you behind-the-scenes for these type of situations. Stay tuned for more in 2024!
When we wrote about joint efforts by Pima County and the City of Tucson to expand the Emergency Eviction Legal Services Emergency Housing program, the former Knights Inn property wasn’t quite ready to hold residents, due to extensive repairs. A lot has happened since our story ran, and families began to move into the newly branded The Craycroft in late October.
As of Dec. 7, there have been 66 residents, including 33 kids under the age of 18. The property is fully staffed by four people with a combined 34 years of experience in shelter operations. Staff is on site seven days a week for 12 hours a day, including holidays, and the property also has overnight security, so there is a 24/7 on-site presence.
There are plans in the works to expand on-site services and the project is far from at full capacity. On Dec. 7, only 22 of 67 rooms were occupied, with a total of 59 residents. But Andy Flagg, the county’s community and workforce development deputy director, cautioned that those numbers will continue to rise as new intakes are accepted into the program.
The city and county are working to fund permanent fencing and gates for the property, but with the necessary changes to the front portico and entry drive, the cost is estimated at more than $500,000.
Construction and building trades have been a hot topic in the news in recent months, with statewide efforts to expand and invest in apprenticeship programs for these high-paying, union jobs that also come with good benefits.
We love it when Pima County is the first in the state to try something new and were excited to showcase the county’s Multi-Craft Core Curriculum program, a six-week training program through the Arizona Building and Construction Trades Council that gives graduates an edge in landing these types of trades jobs.
The free program hopes to contribute to the huge number of construction workers Arizona needs to meet demand, especially given the state’s housing crunch. The first class of graduates are already working in apprenticeships and the second class of eight students graduated last week. This cohort included four pipefitters, three electrical workers and one carpenters. The third class begins in January with 10 students already enrolled.
It was like history repeating itself when the news broke that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos could be facing a second investigation by an outside agency. In the months since our story ran, Attorney General Kris Mayes has launched a criminal investigation into Nanos’ handling of a sergeant’s alleged sexual assault of his female deputy.
Nanos is up for reelection in 2024 and filed his paperwork to seek another term in late October. But he won’t be running opposed, and in fact, it looks like it will be an interesting race, with four challengers having already announced their intent to run.
Republicans Bill Phillips, Terry Frederick and Heather Lappin have all filed paperwork with the county’s elections department expressing their intent to run. Nanos could also face a challenger in the primary in Democrat Sandy Rosenthal, who has also filed with the county.
With challengers in the primary and general election, Nanos has his work cut out for him. We’ll be closely following this race, so make sure you share the Tucson Agenda with your friends and family interested in public safety and criminal justice issues.
We have a little more than a week left in our tax-deductible fundraising campaign to hire a part-time digital storyteller, thanks to a partnership with the non-profit Local Media Foundation for their 2023 Local News Fund program, which allows independent and family-owned news organizations to solicit tax-deductible donations from their communities for journalism projects.
We want to take our reporting beyond the newsletter in 2024 and make news about politics, government and the election more accessible to more people through podcasts, videos and more.
We’re a little over 20% of the way to that goal, which is not bad, but we only have a few more weeks left in the campaign.
Whether it’s $5 or $5,000, please consider chipping in if you can.