ErinJ

Sorry to be so negative, but I honestly think Rio Nuevo is dead. Over half a billion dollars, and Tucson will get a small cultural historic park, which was what was originally approved. The actual downtown will get a new underpass and that is about it. I am SURE that the legislature in Maricopa is never going to do anything like this for Tucson again. I cannot emphasize enough how much I REGRET voting for Rio Nuevo. I would love to see Tucson develop a great downtown, but Tucson has really burned themselves in the long run when it comes to downtown revitilization.

Does anyone know if the 5th street lots have started construction? Just curious.

Complaints about a midrise building IN downtown, now THAT'S the Tucson I remember I hope he comes through though. I would love to see a brewpub there too, even if it is not nimbus. But please not a chain! Any progress on those other projects?: Post Presidio Terrace 5th Street Lofts

Are there plans for that property?? Is Coconuts in a old warehouse just north of downtown on Stone? I think that used to be called "the outback". I recall that the Presidio Terrace wouldn't start until 2007, but I don't remember why.

Honestly, I think NIMBYISM cuts both ways. More development is not necessarily better, and neighborhoods do act as a feedback process for developers to improve their developments. I would claim Phoenix's ( and Tucson's to a lesser extent ) mediocrity has as much to do with having nothing but office towers and strip malls. More and more of that kind of development will not lead to a better city, merely a bigger city. Having said that, NIMBYISM can they definately can impede good developments, because developers just avoid NIMBY fights buy building in "Nobody's" back yard. As to light rail, I bet it will be successful also, but it won't kill buses, buses have the flexibility to go anywhere. It could potentially reduce the need for Inter-city bus routes.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/22979.php You know, I think the bridge is cool. I would love to see an iconic structure in Tucson. Seems like no one else does, at least no one else who writes letters to newspapers. It does seem to be the type of thing Tucsonans would oppose, as it is big and modern. Oh well, the fact is the city won't pay for it and the University will have to get like $250 million in donations to build it, and I doubt that will happen. I've seen some people here object to it, just curious, is it the design, the scale, or the price?? Something else? It is of course easy for me to support it when I don't live there. So I wonder, if Tucson saves the $150M+ of rio nuevo funds by not building the bridge, how would people like to see it spent? In my mind the thing about downtown is its size, there is limited area to work in. People need to be living downtown for a vibrant downtown, but that is for the private sector, Tucson can only use rio nuevo money infrastructure. All I have really seen proposed from the city side is a new underpass, parking, a few small historical parks, and maybe an arena. What is that, $100M? $150M? Tucson has $600+ million rio nuevo funds to spend, which they have to match with another $600 million, $1.2 billion!. Where are they going to put all that money? They can't underwrite infrastructure for dozens of "mercado at menlo park" neighborhoods, there is nowhere to put them. Downtown is like 6 blocks total, and it would be hard to expand its borders. I am not trying to claim they should blow the wad on that bridge though, no matter how cool I think it is. What I think we need to see is some creative proposals, and the bridge is the only one I've seen.

Here is a page I ran across, shows "then and now" shots of the Barrio in Tucson. http://www.shawn.halversen.com/thennow/

Wow, I remember Sahara was a sort of gateway to probably the worst neighborhood in Tucson. I wouldn't want to live there with the balboa (?) neighborhood to the north and the crack dealer park to the south. I just went to their website,$580 for a studio ?!?!?!?! The capistrano apts. I lived at was the same price ( Large 1 Bedroom), utilities Free, and in a great, quiet neighbourhood with easy access to the University on the 3rd street bike route! Glad to hear about the infill, I know they were developing University Blvd. before I left, but that is old news now, nevertheless I am looking forward to see how it turned out. They were claiming to develope it into a little "Mill avenue", which I have mixed feelings about. Mill avenue is really nice, but kind of souless. It would be cool to sort of have one long (zig-zag) drag, starting from the university and ending on Congress. At the university it would start out with a Tempe corporate feel and as you made your way down it gave way to the funkiness of fourth, and finally ending a Congress. Well, that is probably not possible because the west university neighborhood sits between.

Just curious about 1 project, I doubt it is part of rio nuevo but it used to be mentioned in conjunction with it. There was a project called "One West" http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/sports/88586.php . The developer was running into opposition in that the neighbors wanted 33% of the units to be WAY below market rate. It sounded like it would go forward eventually ( obviously not with that requirement ), but then it just seemed to disappear off the radar. Do you know anything about the status of that project? It would be nice to have density near the university, but I know the neigborhoods strongly oppose this as temporary out of state, 20-year-old, non-stakeholding residents don't make the best neighbors . I hope some of these projects go through, because if the city could change its super-low density development pattern and get some nice infill, Tucson would rock!

I seem to remember reading that Academy Lofts ( Just south of Armory Park ??? ) would be renting, but I don't know about the price. I lived in Tucson back in the early-late 90's when I attended UA, then worked at Raytheon. I lived in Sam Hughes ( Capistrano Apts. ), I loved that neighborhood! You could take the bike route to school, walk to himmel park. In fact it was one of the few walkable neighborhoods in Tucson, quiet, shaded, fairly interesting architecture. After rummaging through this thread, It seems that Rio Nuevo is just starting to show results. They approved that financing before I left ( 2000 )! I thought they would be FINISHED by now. Man, I love Tucson but things sure do happen at their own in pace in that town.