City News

Even during the summer (or should I say, a normal summer), Tucson derives a lot of its revenue from tourism. Needless to say, the tourism industry is struggling. Visit Tucson reports that hotel revenues were down 35% in the six months from January to July. While that’s not as bad as the cities we compete with for tourist dollars (Seattle, for example, was down 64%), it’s still a big hit to our local economy.

On Monday, September 21, 2020, Borderland Construction Co., under contract with The City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility (DTM) will begin the Houghton Road – Valencia Road to Mary Ann Cleveland Way Improvement Project. Crews will work Monday through Friday, from about 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. with occasional night and weekend work. This project is expected to be complete by January 2022.  

Downtown Links Constructors (DLC), under contract with the City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility have begun work on the Downtown Links project.

Motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians should anticipate the following upcoming work:

The September 21, Seventh Street closure between Sixth Avenue and the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks has been postponed until further notice.

While our offices are not currently open to the public, we have been using this time to create a new center for development permits in Tucson. Renovations on the first floor of the Public Works building are nearly complete.

The City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility (DTM) and the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) invite you to attend a virtual pre-construction public meeting for the Houghton Road Improvement Project from Valencia Road to Mary Ann Cleveland Way.

Judging by the emails to my office over the last week, the issues on Wednesday’s council agenda that generated the most heat in our community were the extension of GPLET incentives and our declaration of a climate emergency. I’d like to talk a little about another item we discussed that ties into climate change and that touches on the very survival of Tucson as a city in the coming decades: a plan for what to do in a severe drought.