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Join the LSA Team as our Safe Routes Coordinator -- accepting applications now!
We're continuing our search for a passionate, creative, collaborative, and thoughtful individual to join our team as the Safe Routes Coordinator. He/she/they will administer Safe Routes to School events and programming throughout Tucson. You can find out more by visiting our Jobs & Internships page or clicking on the link below. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on an ongoing basis until the position is filled, so apply now!
Learn more >>
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Guide Complete Streets in Tucson; apply for the Complete Streets Coordinating Council
Are you interested in being a part of conversations and decisions that will help shape Tucson's transportation future? Do you envision our streets as safe, accessible, and welcoming public spaces for every Tucsonan? Are you passionate about creating a transportation system that connects people to places and opportunities to help them thrive? Do you advocate for equitable allocation of our transportation dollars to support communities with the greatest needs? Are you motivated by creating more inclusive and impactful community engagement practices that elevate the voices and wishes of Tucsonans, especially those who have historically been left out of planning and decision-making processes? If the answer is yes, we invite you to apply for a seat on the Complete Streets Coordinating Council (CSCC).
This committee was formed to implement Tucson's Complete Streets Policy and has been instrumental in crafting a long-range transportation plan, including the prioritization of transportation projects currently being considered for future funding initiatives. CSCC has three seats open and the online application form is here.
If you have any questions or would like more info, just send us an email and we'd be happy to connect with you!
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City of Tucson working to streamline process for transforming parking spaces
The COVID-19 Temporary Expansion of Restaurant Seating initiative has allowed businesses to use City-owned property to operate their businesses as part of an emergency response to the pandemic. If you've been in the downtown area over the past year, you've seen this in action at destinations like Penca, Empire Pizza, and Batch, where on street parking spaces have been transformed to provide additional seating/dining area, or provide space for movement of people around expanded dining on the sidewalk.
As the pandemic evolves, and the emergency provisions ease, the City of Tucson is considering how to make this shared use of public space an ongoing program. Even better, they're exploring uses outside of just dining; they're looking to formally create a process for establishing parklets as well as pop-up (short-term) transformations of public street space. (As you might recall, we started a movement for Tucson's First Parklet many years ago, so we're excited to see this gaining traction!)
To get started, the City is hoping to hear from you—the community—and there are two opportunities coming up to learn more and weigh in. Click on the link below for more information about the project and to join an info session on Wednesday, May 26th. We also invite you to join us at a pop-up parklet event happening May 28th and 29th. (Scroll down to our Events section for details and location.)
Learn more>>
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Pop-up Parklet
Friday, May 28th & Saturday, May 29th
Daily from 7:00am-Noon
Presta Coffee | 501 E 9th Street
The City of Tucson is working to make it easier for businesses and community groups to transform parking spaces into streateries (places to wine and dine), parklets (mini-park-like spaces), and other flexible uses. You’re invited to visit us in person at a “pop-up" parklet to see what it can look and feel like, learn more, and weigh in on the proposed Shared Spaces program, which would encompass all of these fun and new ways of utilizing public space. Come on down! You can also explore and weigh in on potential enhancements to the 9th Street Bicycle Boulevard, which will be installed next year.
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Ice Cream Social in the Park
Thursday, May 20th | 5:30-8:00pm
James Thomas Park | 3200 S Forgeus Ave
The City of Tucson is considering three different route alternatives for a one-mile segment of El Paso & Southwestern Greenway near 36th Street and Campbell Avenue. We're partnering with them to host a fun and family-friendly community engagement event with free ice cream and bike repair at a neighborhood park. If you live, walk, or bike in this area, join us, get your bike fixed, enjoy a free ice cream treat, and let the city staff what you think about the project! Visit the project website for more info.
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Pop-up Café in the Park
Saturday, May 22nd | 7:30-10:00am
Pueblo Gardens Park | 2505 E 36th St
The City of Tucson is considering three different route alternatives for a one-mile segment of El Paso & Southwestern Greenway near 36th Street and Campbell Avenue. We're partnering with them to host a fun and family-friendly community engagement event with free coffee & pastries and bike repair at a neighborhood park. If you live, walk, or bike in this area, join us, get your bike fixed, enjoy free treats, and let the city staff what you think about the project! Visit the project website for more info.
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Bike-in Movie & Ice Cream Social
Saturday, May 22nd | 6:00-9:00pm
(Open house ends and movie screening begins at 7:45pm)
La Madera Park | 2700 E La Madera Dr
Blacklidge Bicycle Boulevard project is moving along! Preliminary designs have been developed, informed by the initial round of community engagement activities, and the City of Tucson is looking for feedback. We're partnering with them to host a fun and family-friendly community engagement event, a bike-in movie & ice cream social with free bike repair, at a neighborhood park. If you live, walk, or bike in this area, join us, get your bike fixed, and let the city staff what you think about the project! Bring a picnic, and blanket and enjoy the outdoor screening of Inside Out after dark. Visit the project website for more info.
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Save the Date: Bike-in Movie & Ice Cream Social
Saturday, June 5th | 6:00-9:00pm
Balboa Park | 2526 N Castro Ave
Details to come, but mark your calendar now!
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Call to Action: Stop Asian Hate
Living Streets Alliance unequivocally stands against the hateful and xenophobic attacks that have been committed against the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities.
As we make our way through Asian Pacific Heritage month we must take a hard look at the violence that this community has had to face over the past year. From March 2020 through March 2021, there were over 6,000 hate incidents reported to AAPI. These attacks took many forms, with Asian and Pacific Islanders being spat and coughed on, beaten, kicked out of businesses, and harassed. This doesn’t include the many instances of people being murdered across the country. This is not only an issue of white supremacy, the crimes against the Asian and Pacific Islander community have been committed by people of every race, religion, and gender. The responsibility lies with all of us, as we are all part of the communities that are responsible for causing harm.
This is racism, bigotry, and xenophobia at work. We have to name it and call it what it is. As a society, we have a responsibility to this community to educate ourselves and those around us. Shying away from difficult conversations because they make us uncomfortable is a privilege that some of us cannot afford. A society where we stand idly by while an entire community of people cannot walk through a park, board a bus, or shop for groceries without fear of being the victim of a vicious attack is not a civil society. While we all survive this pandemic as best we can, the Asian and Pacific Islander community is doing the same while also being the punching bag for racists and bigots to take their frustration out on. We should all be outraged and we should all want to take action in ending it.
We at Living Streets Alliance encourage you to support local Asian and Pacific Islander-owned businesses in your community and visit stopaapihate.org for resources and how you can be a better ally.
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Fixing Transit is More Than Just Infrastructure
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While advances in technology mean we can track our pizza delivery from the moment it leaves the oven, for millions of people reliant on public transit, waiting outside for a bus with no way to know when it will arrive is an all-too-common experience. Today only a small fraction of public transportation budgets are allocated to innovation and technology, lagging significantly behind other sectors. This doesn’t have to be the case.
{Image: Justin Merriman/Bloomberg}
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New Bill Would Help Measure Transportation Access for Non-Drivers
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A new bill would give U.S. communities money to analyze how easy — or difficult — it is for residents to access the destinations they need most, and how their mode of transportation, race, income, age, disability, and other factors that affect their basic mobility.
{Image: Duke Makangila via Creative Commons}
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How Parking Destroys Cities
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Lewis Mumford was suspicious of parking. “The right to access every building in a city by private motorcar,” he wrote in The City in History, “in an age when everyone owns such a vehicle, is actually the right to destroy the city.” Jane Jacobs, who disagreed with Mumford on many counts, agreed here. Parking lots, she said in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, were “border vacuums”: inactive spaces that deadened everything around them.
{Image: Cameron Spencer / Getty}
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The mission of Living Streets Alliance is to advocate for a thriving Tucson by creating great streets for all of us.
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