ErinJ
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Posts posted by ErinJ
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Does walmart really employ more people than any other company in the country? I guess I had no idea
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This article was written in april of '06
But did any of you know that WALMART is Arizona's largest employer? That was a wow for me.
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everything that's been typed since your last post and this one right here, matt, is the reply.
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They were established in 1962 and now the city of Tucson is kicking them off the property for the Rio Nuevo Project, even though they promised to relocate Flint Oil or give them a moving allowance.
By shutting down the business, it is going to put half the family on the unemployment line.
What are they supposed to do now?
This is not fair, but as we all know, the government doesn't have to act fairly to the small business, only the ones with deep pockets as they have proven time and time again.
http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2007/02/02/front/news01.txt
http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?s=6102860
http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2007/03/02/news/news02.txt
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Downtown Tucson isn't all that dead, Just the current policies, and residents are very devout in keeping things local. I would think big money that could come in and invest there doesn't want the hassle or the price is to high, or both.
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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.
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After my visit, I saw a ton of potential. The downtown area is not on par with a city of 500,000. But I would say that it IS on par for a metro area of it's size.
I think that's just an Arizona conundrum. Downtown Phoenix nowhere near represents a city of 1.5million, or a metropolitan area of 4million. It doesn't seem likely that anytime soon it will grow into itself either. The residents up here aren't exactly development friendly.
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Has it been a big hole for a while? They have been experiencing delays? Perhaps in the form of nimby's?
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Does anyone know if the 5th street lots have started construction?
Just curious.
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Ok Tucson question, does anyone know what the urban population of Tucson is? I'm looking but I can't find anything concrete on it. Acording to a news article I just read, Pima county has passed the 1million people mark. Tucsons MSA is all of Pima county. Which in terms of land area is the size of a small state. When you're in Tucson, does it feel like your in a Metropolitan area of 1million people? I'd imagine that once you're outside of Tucson that the Pima County population is pretty sparse, but i've still never been there myself to know. I use my home town of Grand Rapids, It has a metro area of 1.3million people but thats including metro areas that are a good 30miles or more away. The urban size of Grand Rapids is more like 700,000.
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I just wanted to update this because I spoke with a Dunbar Spring resident yesterday, and this project is effectively dead. According to him (somewhat of an anti-development hippy type), the developer paid canvassers to try and get people out to the meeting in support of it (packing it), so the project was initially approved, but that vote was overturned last week and the developer has become frustrated and no one is talking anymore.
Also, the City apparently owns the main lot, but the developer owns some of the lots around it.
It sucks, but maybe another one will pick it up soon. It's a good lot in an emerging neighborhood.
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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
Back to the Franklin/Stone mixed-use/condo proposal:At last night's meeting, something very different from the previous proposal was introduced:
- The brewpub was effectively gone and there was a large retail space (insinuated to be a restaurant) at the center of the property adjacent to the main condo building. Raul Reyes insisted though that Jim Counts (Nimbus owner) is not out of the picture and that they are "still talking to him".
- The "public space" with the amphitheater has been made actually public, opening it up to Franklin Street.
- Franklin Street was shown dramatically different with more pedestrian crossings, an end to the Franklin/Church intersection o' weirdness, a median and angled street parking.
- The parking garage now faces the railroad.
- The terraced building now goes 4-6-12-10 stories from west to east. People at the meeting, as expected, complained about the height.
- The $600,000+ which must be paid back to the state for use of the land will be paid by TownWest, but basically reimbursed by the City's/Rio Nuevo's funding of the infrastructure and public areas on the project site.
Also, the new County courts building was brought up a few times, which is caddy-corner to this site. The County seems to have been fairly secretive thus far about its design and the specifics for plans to the site, because no one seemed to know anything about it.
We'll just have to see how it plays out, but I hope that this isn't the last EPNA sees of Raul Reyes.
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A couple of news items:
- The Coconuts demolition has actually progressed quite well. A lot faster than I would have imagined.
- No further work on Presidio Terrace yet. Kind of disappointing.
This was in the Daily Star this morning. Pretty embarrassing to the City considering that this has been going back and forth for years. But it sort of exemplifies the confusion associated with land title ownership:
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.
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You'll have to get alot of these anti-Development NIMBY's that keep Phoenix as mediocre as possible on board. The way the LRT is set up now it should work pretty good. I already know alot of people who ride it. I think it's going to kill the buses. Mesa, Tempe are the first cities on board with Phoenix what other cities are gonna be in that mix?
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.
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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.
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Here is a page I ran across, shows "then and now" shots of the Barrio in Tucson.
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as in Sahara? that place is a joke! the prices are nuts and they try to appease worried parents by giving the kids something to do without leaving the apartments - thereby making you pay separately for the amenities you would normally find included in an on-campus dorm.
oh - this thread is about rio nuevo...
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.
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Cool!!
BTW, a couple of things to mention regarding projects that I should have pictures for but don't:
- Lofts at Fifth Avenue (Sixth Street and Fifth Avenue, loft project)
There is now an enormous hole in the ground for the foundation, the old Muse sign is down, the debris from the old building is completely cleared, and they are actually working on it (at least they were when I rode my bike behind it this morning at 7).
- Presidio Terrace (Paseo Redondo and Granada Avenue, mixed-use condo project)
Last week, a sign was put up on the corner in front of the site saying something to the effect of "Look! Rio Nuevo is actually happening!"
The funny thing is, I could have sworn hearing people from the City several months ago insisting that Presidio Terrace was not part of Rio Nuevo. Actually, I know for a fact that this project is not receiving any funding from them. Maybe this is just a way for the City to attach itself to something successful and adopt it as a poster project without actually getting involved with it.
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! -
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On a completely unrelated note, my apartment building is probably going to be purchased by Californians (I only know where they're from because I stumbled upon their secret meeting on Friday before heading to the mountains). Word around the laundry room is that it may be turned into condos. If that's the case, then it would almost certainly be gutted and I would be kicked out. "Why now?" is really the question in my mind, since condo prices are collapsing in town, and Presidio Terrace (a brand new building) will be offering probably a better product right across the street.
If I do have to leave, I'll probably either move to Armory Park or Sam Hughes (I'd love to be close to Rincon Market). Lofts here are still selling at $300k (although they've gotten a lot more desperate) and I haven't seen any of them up for rent.
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.
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