Imagine Greater Tucson
Phase I Data Gathering
| Communities Putting Prevention to Work – Table 1 | ||
| Sentinel Building - 320 N. Commerce Park Loop, Tucson | ||
| Date of Conversation: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 Time: 2:30 – 4:30 PM | ||
| Facilitator: Patrick Hartley Recorder: Joe Silins | ||
| Number of Tables: 1 Number of Participants: 8 | ||
| Theme 1. Regional Attitudes | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Small town feel | ||
| Feeling of inclusiveness as a newcomer | ||
| Friendly people | ||
| Small community | ||
| Potential for positive growth exhibited by many community groups | ||
| People who really care about the future of our city | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Separate government (there is a need for more regionalism) | ||
| Segregation of neighborhoods | ||
| Attitude of unwillingness to change and grow | ||
| Less conflict among groups with differing political viewpoints | ||
| Big city pretending to be a small city | ||
| Theme 2. Diversity and culture | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| History/Hispanic culture | ||
| Mexican heritage | ||
| Diversity | ||
| Diversity of people | ||
| Theme 3. Economic Development | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| More jobs that are better paying | ||
| Theme 4. Natural Environment | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Beauty of the region | ||
| Wildlife | ||
| Climate | ||
| Sun | ||
| Climate | ||
| Weather for growing food | ||
| Landscape | ||
| Beauty of the natural environment | ||
| Open space, trails, etc. | ||
| Climate and nature - except July through September | ||
| Mountain views (any direction) - because we're not built up | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Pollution | ||
| Theme 5. Cultural Resources | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| The arts - music, theater, dance, etc. | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Cultural resources | ||
| Theme 6. Food Systems | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Food access and production - too energy intensive | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| Need a zoning option for selling produce | ||
| Volatile energy prices relates to the ability to grow food, transport food, and sustain a family | ||
| We have no heritage/information/culture passed down on food | ||
| Fruit trees are underutilized - though there is some gleaning | ||
| Lack of information on what to do with fresh food. There is no time for cooking because we spend it all driving | ||
| Food choices are related to sprawl | ||
| Over-reliance on convenient fast food. Lack of awareness of local food availability | ||
| There is a lack of consumer information for the content of bad foods | ||
| We have economic barriers to access to healthy food | ||
| Food deserts and fast food gluts in the area, where the population has no access to healthy foods. Drachman has a map of food deserts | ||
| There are no tight-knit regional systems, food comes from far away | ||
| Capacity for local growing is not being used - there is no incentive and zoning/regulatory barriers | ||
| We have a year-round growing season, but we are not making food available to those who need it | ||
| Theme 7. Built Environment | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| More shade | ||
| Sprawl | ||
| Walkability (lack of sidewalks, etc.) | ||
| Little local sense of community | ||
| Focus on cars rather than people | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| Neighborhoods are not built to be connected; they are built apart. We no longer have neighborhood schools or playgrounds/play yards | ||
| The local streets are too wide, they encourage speeding in neighborhoods and people don't obey the traffic signs. | ||
| Tear down the walls (around neighborhoods) and bring people together | ||
| There are no sidewalks or streetlights. It is unsafe to walk after dark | ||
| Even if we did have the sidewalks, people don't walk (or let their children walk) because we are so afraid of everyone - in spite of what the statistics say | ||
| We need more acceptance of alternative building materials like straw bale, adobe (now the permitting is prohibitively expensive) | ||
| Community based housing projects | ||
| We have lost our sense of place, there is no connection to home. Profit first. | ||
| We lack community, it is difficult to get people together. "I know my neighbor's dog's name, but I don't know my neighbor's name." | ||
| Development is going where the people are | ||
| We are competing within the region and developers are always looking for the sweetest deal | ||
| There is a need for changes to local zoning that allows for higher-density, mixed-use developments with living spaces located about grocery stores and other shops | ||
| We have abandoned inner city areas and are moving everything to the outskirts | ||
| Everyone wants their personal views of the mountains, this results in sprawl | ||
| Speedway is the ugliest street in America | ||
| We need local enclaves where post offices, grocery stores, and other amenities are all in proximity to each other and to where we live | ||
| We have too many strip malls, many of which are now abandoned. We need more infill | ||
| The built environment creates the culture we live in. The current approach to planning (Euclidean zoning regulations) leads to transportation problems (car dependency), which in turn results in laziness | ||
| Theme 8. Outdoor Recreation | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Outdoor activities | ||
| Abundance of opportunities for activity (i.e. great weather) | ||
| Outdoor recreation opportunities | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Better signage to recreational areas and opportunities (biking/walking paths, etc.) | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| Biking needs to be accessible to everyone- even to the little old ladies | ||
| There are health benefits. The availability of recreation helps to combat obesity. Outreach and centralized information is needed to make the public more aware of that availability | ||
| Biking on the outskirts of the city is dangerous. There are no bike lanes | ||
| Major intersections are dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians - would like to see more underpasses like near the University under Speedway | ||
| Recreation is coordinated for tourism. Our draw for economic development is the climate and the environment | ||
| Connectivity is needed between the urban loop and "spokes" within the city | ||
| Bike lanes are frightening- need to be improved and made safer | ||
| Need more local parks | ||
| Good regionalism in development and planning for outdoor recreation. The Urban Loop, the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, City/County collaboration | ||
| Need signage - parking and street names on river path - River Park no good signage | ||
| Theme 9. Education and Awareness | ||
| What do you like the most about our community/region? | ||
| Plentiful resources (natural, food, soil, etc.) | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Improved education | ||
| Education system | ||
| Education important in all aspects - academic, physical fitness, etc. | ||
| Awareness of resource/energy limitations | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| People are resistant to learning to do the right thing. They have the perception that being restricted in any way is "Big Brother." People hate being told what to do | ||
| We use technology in place of social interaction - person-to-person interaction | ||
| Everything is done these days via text - there are no complete sentences, young people are losing the ability to talk | ||
| Education now equals teaching to the test when we need to develop connecting ideas and critical thinking skills in our students | ||
| Community needs to know how its resources are used | ||
| Need to re-align priorities. Our youth will one day be running things, and they need a good education to do it well | ||
| Need to improve our children's civic awareness | ||
| Education is an economic development issue. Employers can't recruit employees because there is a lack of an educated workforce | ||
| Flowing Wells, Sunnyside, and Vail are all doing well - because they are small districts | ||
| Took a wrong turn about 20 years ago when we began to eliminate small, local schools | ||
| This was partially a result of desegregation - anyone could go anywhere | ||
| No importance is placed on it, no one is holding the state accountable | ||
| Funding is not well-used. TUSD is too big, not well-run; it is a laughing stock | ||
| Problem is at the state level | ||
| Lack of funding as a state - we are 50th in funding (sometimes 49th) | ||
| Theme 10. Transportation | ||
| What do you most want to change or improve about our community/region? | ||
| Traffic | ||
| Traffic and resources for active transportation | ||
| Public transportation | ||
| Better transportation (a street car doesn't count) | ||
| Traffic | ||
| City infrastructure (roads, an east/west corridor) | ||
| Transportation - no connectivity, not enough choices, and too energy intensive | ||
| Why is this important? How does this affect you? | ||
| Sprawl related to transportation. Sprawl causes transportation problems. It is car related development | ||
| Cheap energy required for sprawl. It creates isolation | ||
| It's expensive to drive so much. I drive 45 minutes each way to work | ||
| Need a better energy/fuel mix. Assumptions about future energy availability is connected to our attitudes about mass transit | ||
| Tucson isn't so bad compared to the East Coast and LA, but here we spend more time in our cars and travel less miles | ||
| We lack public transportation | ||
| Better mass transit - less traffic and more use of public transit | ||
| Driving is frustrating and a waste of time - there are connections to health and stress levels | ||
| Economic development is dependent on transportation. Transportation often determines the location of that development | ||
| Transportation also determines public health. Lack of access to a car limits access to healthy foods. A grocery bag limit on buses makes shopping difficult. Limitations on mobility, limit what you eat and your activities | ||
Tuesday, January 18, 2011