The Daily Solution: Keep calm and drive on

The city is trying out “traffic calming” … They’re now taking applications for mini grants … Trolls don’t thrive in Tucson politics.

It’s no secret that Tucson’s roadways aren’t entirely safe. 

Two people dying in crashes over the weekend bring the total to 81 people who’ve died this year on Tucson’s roads, about 10% higher than at this point last year. 

It’s a problem Tucson’s elected officials have wrestled with for years. But after voters approved new road safety funding via last year’s Prop 411, Tucson is looking to make changes to roadways that have worked wonders in other cities. 

Last summer, Hoboken, New Jersey made headlines after it was reported that the city hadn’t seen a traffic fatality since 2018. This is thanks to the aggressive citywide installation of traffic safety measures, including bike lanes, planters, curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalks, bike racks, raised intersections and more.

Jersey City also recorded zero traffic-related deaths in 2022, thanks to the addition of traffic circles and mini-roundabouts that forced drivers to slow down and be aware of their surroundings.

Tucson is trying something similar when it comes to “traffic calming,” which involves simplifying intersections and mid-block design to make streets easier to navigate and help pedestrians and cyclists feel safer in their own neighborhoods.

Traffic calming measures include speed humps and tables, median islands, traffic circles, diverter lanes and chicanes, which create a series of alternating curves which force a driver to steer back and forth in an “S” pattern, rather than driving straight ahead.

Last week, the city announced it would start accepting applications for its new Safe Streets Mini Grant Program, which will fund traffic calming projects in neighborhoods and on local roads. These projects will use physical features to reduce risk, change driver behavior and make roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Local and residential roads are often overlooked when it comes to traffic safety projects, but the mini grants will allow regular people to request funding and assistance for projects in their own neighborhoods.

The Safe Streets Mini Grant Program is a product of Prop 411, which voters approved last fall. Prop 411 will generate an estimated $740 million over the next 10 years to fund road safety upgrades and improvements to every residential street in Tucson. 

The city is looking to spend about $350,000 in the first year, with the maximum funding available for individual projects around $75,000. Once the recipients are announced, the project team will work directly with neighbors to design and build the projects.

Are you curious to see how the city will allocate these funds? So are we! Help us stick around and report on the outcome!

As of Friday, the city had received more than a dozen inquiries and four applications through the online portal. Employees with the city’s department of transportation and mobility will be at Cyclovia and other events, trying to get the word out and encourage people to apply.

“If speeding is an issue for them on their neighborhood streets and it sometimes prevents them from getting out and about or walking or letting their kids bike or play in the street, this is a really good resource, as it really comes down to liveability,” Liveability Project Manager Gabriela Barillas-Longoria told us.

Neighborhood associations, community-based groups and businesses are all eligible to apply. Applications are being accepted on an ongoing basis with the first deadline set for Feb. 29. And the first round of funding is set to be awarded in the spring.

Funding will be decided based on need, feasibility, neighborhood support and available funds. Priority will go to under-resourced areas with a history of disinvestment or limited private investment, as well as areas with a higher concentration of transportation-vulnerable populations, like pedestrians and bicyclists.

“The neighborhoods that can fund their own improvements tend to be those with more resources and concentrated in certain parts of town,” Barillas-Longoria said. “This is a really unique opportunity where the city has this funding for the first time ever, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to prioritize areas that are not able to fund their own projects.”

The city will do in-person outreach in areas where traffic calming measures are most likely needed, including the south and west sides and the Amphi Neighborhood.

Tucson officials are hoping community input will help the process work the way it’s meant to. Barillas-Longoria and others spent months researching projects that rely on community input, pointing towards successful programs in San Francisco, San Antonio and right here in town, with the city’s Tucson Clean and Beautiful’s Green Stormwater Infrastructure mini grant program.

“In my work, I try to figure out what are ways we can really organically involve the community so they feel that they have more buy-in and input on the decisions being made,” Barillas-Longoria said. “My hope is that this is an opportunity to build trust with the community, too, and have a transparent process.”

Don’t be a troll: GOP challengers need to be pragmatic if they want to win in Tucson, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. The recent spotlight on Seattle businessman Joey Rodolfo, who pulled a bait-and-switch about moving his company to Tucson and then blamed it on Tucson’s elected officials, is not the model for non-Democratic candidates who want to be mayor or sit on the city council, Steller writes.

“We need a competitive political opposition to question the group-think that can take over a council whose members largely agree with each other. To be competitive, though, the Republicans, independents, Greens and Libertarians need to be hyper pragmatic and focused on our obvious issues — crime, housing, addiction, good jobs,” Steller writes. “It’s important not to get sucked into MAGA rhetoric and logic that doesn’t sell in Tucson. But that’s what Rodolfo is offering.”

First-timers club: A slew of first-time candidates are challenging incumbents in Tucson’s mayoral and city council races, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. There are a lot of similarities among them, such as their focus on issues like crime and homelessness. They also all said they weren’t planning to run for office, but felt compelled to run when nobody else threw their hat in the ring. 

Water plan: We told you about the Tucson City Council’s new water plan in yesterday’s newsletter, but the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis really digs into the details, including treating wastewater for drinking, how the city plans to use smart meters, and why Councilman Kevin Dahl voted against the plan. 

Early bird gets the worm: The Arizona Game and Fish Department set up livestream cameras to watch the sandhill cranes in the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area north of Douglas, the Tucson Sentinel’s Natalie Robbins reports. You better get up early if you want the best chance to see them. But now that there’s a livestream, you can do it without getting out of bed.  

“They're a little goofy looking, because they're almost like B-52 bombers with their wings out and their legs down,” Game and Fish wildlife viewing program manager Jeff Meyers said. “But watching them come in by the thousands or take off by the thousands is just, in my opinion, the single best and most reliable and easily accessible wildlife viewing experience in the state of Arizona.”

Surviving and thriving: The Loft Cinema is planning a $3 million expansion, KGUN’s Ryan Fish reports. The popular movie theater has outgrown its current setup, with concession lines often going out the front door and along the side of the building, Executive Director Peggy Johnson said. 

“All new restrooms, all new concession stands. All new box office," Johnson explained. "Larger space. We’ll have an elevator upstairs. And then upstairs we’re having a rooftop bar which we think people will enjoy. The biggest change will be the existing lobby and restrooms will be demolished and that will be made into a really nice lounge.”

We met some of you at our Agenda Live! event at the Loft in August. We’ll be hosting future VIP events for paid subscribers, so make sure you’re on the list!

Waiting forever: Even crossing the border in SENTRI lanes, the fast-track option when driving across the border, is taking a long time now in Nogales. The city’s ports of entry were hit with a perfect storm of customs officers being reassigned, the strength of the Mexican peso drawing more shoppers to Arizona, and a boom in manufacturing activity, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports.

188 million: The number of times people drove or walked across the U.S.-Mexico border legally to shop, work, visit family and friends, and any number of legitimate reasons in fiscal 2023. More than 24 million of those legal crossings occurred at Arizona’s ports of entry, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics.