Dear Neighbor,
It has been a long year, but I wanted to get a New Year update to you regarding our neighborhood accomplishments in 2020. In spite of the crazy, chaotic, and challenging year, I hope all of you have been well, stayed safe, and have enjoyed the holiday season. This was certainly a year to close out. There was the Big Horn Fire, the hottest and driest summer ever, and the coronavirus (COVID-19). Many claim 2020 to be a disaster, and in many respects it was. But, here in our neighborhood, we have many things to celebrate and be thankful for.
In March, we celebrated the dedication of a three-year-long RillitoBend Neighborhood Mural project by our very own Sue Ann Breems. We were so fortunate to be able to gather before any lockdowns and limitations from the COVID-19 virus began. It was truly one of the great celebrations of our neighborhood’s history. We all should be proud of our neighborhood gateway mural at Cactus Boulevard and Prince Road. No other neighborhood can boast about having a public art gateway like ours! It is such a joy to watch visitors stop and marvel at our amazing mural. Thank you, Sue Ann, David, and all the neighbors and friends who made it happen!
We have continued to work with the City of Tucson’s Ward 3 Council Office and the City’s Transportation Department to discuss neighborhood streets and rights-of-way improvements. One of the City’s transportation projects, the “Treat Avenue Bicycle Boulevard” project, extends a six-mile bicycle corridor from the Rillito River south to the Aviation Bikeway. Cactus Blvd is part of that route. Through Zoom and other social distancing meetings, we have worked to ensure that the project respects our new mural at the Cactus Blvd/Prince Road intersection. Though the City has not yet engineered resolutions to some of the drainage, grading, and landscaping deficiencies at the NE corner, they did relocate the traffic-crossing signal cabinets away from the mural. The City is planning a “Pre-Construction Meeting” in early 2021 with actual construction currently scheduled for Spring 2021. For more information, go to the project’s new web page, https://tucsondelivers.tucsonaz.gov/pages/3rdtreat.
The City has new leadership in Transportation with the appointment of director, Diana Alarcon. Her appointment has brought significant community energy and support for safe “Complete Streets” which addresses many of the obvious deficiencies in safe pedestrian access, stormwater drainage, and landscaping. Many of us have been communicating with the various transportation planners to ensure that large transportation plans don’t further damage the livability of our streets. Under Prince Road resident Larry Bird’s leadership, we continue to lobby with other Prince Road neighborhoods for “Complete Streets” consideration for the stretch of Prince Road between Country Club and Campbell Avenue—a section of road woefully lacking in safe pedestrian access among other things. Though active funding is scarce, our presence and dialogue has kept us in the loop.
In August, we applied to the City for Cactus Blvd and Allen Road to be part of “Slow Streets,” a pilot program by the City to encourage slower driving and outdoor physical activities. Though we were not chosen (only 15 were of the nearly 150 applicants), we had over 60 neighbor signatures, a testament to our neighborhood’s support of the idea.
The interior streets and rights-of-way of the neighborhood have benefited from our volunteer landscaping projects. A new linear garden led by Board member Catlow Shipek in concert with Paula Dasko of Meadowview was installed in late October along Allen Road. Many thanks to Catlow, Paula, and all the volunteers for pulling that project together. What an improvement! Our linear garden along Cactus at the wall of Winterhaven Townhomes, continues to thrive under Estelle Stern-Eilers’ stewardship, and Murray and Sue DeArmond keep watch over the plants at the circle at Cactus and Allen. It was such a hot dry summer!
For our Rio Vista Natural Resource Park planning, our direct collaboration with the Ward 3 office and the Tucson Parks & Recreation Department has led to several critical decisions and positive initiatives: Tucson Parks & Recreation is now committed to projects that support only the park’s natural resource theme and that have the approval of the neighborhood. A previously committed proposal to erect a red metal sculpture of a stallion in the park was redirected to a better location closer to the nearby horse stables and outside the natural area, thanks to the neighborhood’s feedback. The Ward 3 office has reported that the City will retain a planning consultant in the 2nd quarter of 2021 to update the Park’s plan to more directly support the natural resource theme of the Park. This is terrific news and a direct result of our increased collaboration with the City departments who plan and maintain the park. A neighborhood planning team is pulling together materials to help articulate our natural resource vision and to guide the City in their planning process. As part of our new collaboration with the City, we are working with the employees of “Mattress Firm” who had “adopted” the Rio Vista Park as part of Tucson Clean and Beautiful’s Adopt-A-Park program. Under Estelle’s leadership we will work together with “Mattress Firm” employees on Park clean-up projects. We have also worked with HawkWatch International to install American Kestrel nestboxes in the park. The Parks and Recreation connected us with Mike Shaw of HawkWatch to facilitate the placement of two nestboxes in the eucalyptus “tall trees” section of the Park and additional nestboxes in the neighborhood. For more information on this project, go to Hawkwatch.org.
Lastly, we are very fortunate to have on our Board one of Tucson’s “40 under 40,” Dr. Cassandra Peel. Dr. Peel is currently the Program Director/Administrative Faculty for the online MSW Program in the School of Cultural and Family Psychology at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena. Like so many others, Cassie is working remotely from her residence on Cactus Boulevard with her husband Mike Peel (who was in 2015’s “40 under 40” class) and their dog, “Jesse July Peel”. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Cassandra Peel – one of our celebrated RillitoBend neighbors!
I’m sure there is other news to celebrate in our neighborhood, so if you have anything to add, please let me know. We truly have a remarkable neighborhood with many remarkable residents. While it is a challenge to stay in touch, we will continue to post news and other information on our RBNA website. If there is anything you wish to add, please send an email to our website at rbna@rillitobendna.org
In the meantime, I hope you have had a happy holiday season and that you will continue to keep connected with the RBNA Board so that we can update each other about our neighborhood accomplishments and plans.
Thank you for all you have done, and please stay safe.
Best,
Stephen Brigham
Board President
