The Housechick Blog

Some of you will remember back in 2006 when voters approved a sales tax that formed the Regional Transportation Authority.  One of their first projects is the widening of Grant Road.

I found a website that will help us understand the schedule, potential impact area, as well as keep track of current status, at www.GrantRoad.info. 

The project in a nutshell:

There’s a five mile section of Grant Road, between Oracle Road and Swan Avenue, in Central Tucson.  The road is currently 2 lanes in either direction, and will be widened to a road that is 3 lanes in either direction.  After talking to a guy on the citizen task force for the project, I’m told there will be wide bike lanes and sidewalks as well.

The thing is, there’s a lot of businesses and homes along Grant Road, and no one is sure yet how the road will be aligned - who will be loosing some property through eminent domain.  That’s one of the big controversies of the project.  The RTA is anticipating having an alignment plan in late 2008 or early 2009.

They’re also considering some different traffic flow patterns, where at the major intersections, vehicles turning left will have to go past the intersection, pull a u-turn, head back, and make a right turn.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2013, so there’s a while yet until the project will start to impact motorists.  The impact area for this project technically stretches a quarter mile North and South of Grant Road, so if you live in or around the area, you might want to keep an eye on the project.

You can join the mailing list from the RTA Grant Road improvement plan website to stay current on the widening plans.

My folks were in town last week.  Mom has been getting into foreign films recently, so we went to the Loft Cinema one night to go see The Band’s Visit.

The Loft Cinema is a non-profit, community-supported theater that specializes in art films: independent, foreign, alternative, documentary, and other movies that don’t make it into mainstream cinemas.

It’s a pretty cool place, really.  Where else can you get pizza and wine in the movie theater?

At the Loft Cinema website, you can see the schedules of upcoming movies and events.  There’s plenty of local stuff happening at the Loft and if you like what you see there, you can become a memeber, get discounts on tickets, invitations to special screenings, and other generally fun stuff.

All in all, an entertaining evening.  Go check it out for yourself - let me know if you see anything that we should all go see.

I just finished up a couple of days devoted to a relocating couple wanting to buy a home here in Tucson. Relocating people ask a lot of questions, naturally, so I spend most of the day answering and explaining various items.

What I wasn’t expecting was the little whoop of delight when they finally asked a question I couldn’t answer. They had finally stumped the Housechick. The question:

If a saguaro cactus is dead or mangled, can I take it down? Do the saguaro protection laws extend to those saguaros that aren’t healthy or have died?

So, my new relocating friends, here is what I found:

Land owners have the right to destroy or remove plants growing on their land, but 20-60 days prior to the destruction of any protectived native plant, land owners are required to notify the department of Agriculture. The Land owner also may sell or give away any plant on the land, but they may not be legally posessed, taken, or transported away from the growing site without a permit from the Arizona department of Agriculture.

On my first reading, I don’t see anything about dead plants yet, but will keep looking.

More Info from the Arizona Department of Agriculture on Native Plants.

Yesterday, there were a pair of hawks in my eucalyptus tree - I’m thinking they are Cooper’s Hawks, but I’m not expert at identifying birds.

Turns out, they eat other birds.  Pretty though.

Which reminds me.   I’m not a cat-owner, but a quick reminder to people with cats moving to Tucson: we have owls and other birds of prey that will eat your small cat if you leave it outside at night, especially if you live in one of the lower density areas of the city.  Keep Kitty inside at night.

Recently, the local newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, ran an online survey asking 76 questions about Tucson and its growth.  Not an incredibly scientific study, but interesting, nonetheless.  You can read the articles here.

Some answers from the survey:

• What do you think is the most important issue facing Southern Arizona?  27% say water supply, next closest was illegal immigration at 19%.

And the expected conflict over our two big issues: water and transportation.

• If you believe Southern Arizona has a water supply problem, how should it be fixed?  41% say limit home construction, followed by more efficient building codes at 13%.
• Do you believe wastewater can be made safe for drinking? 51% say yes, 30% say no.
• Would you be willing to drink treated wastewater? 39% say yes, 41% say no.
• Should limits be placed on building permits in Southern Arizona to preserve water? 71% say yes, 23% say no.

Reading through the survey, it seems like respondents would rather find ways to conserve existing water, and reduce current usage rather than make use of treated wastewater, although they do believe it can be made safe for drinking.

• Which of the following types of transportation projects should have top priority for taxpayer funding: 32% say public transport systems, 31% say local streets and roads.
• Would you use toll roads in your community?  37% say yes, 44% say no.
• Would you pay higher taxes for local buses if they were more convenient to your schedule? 38% say yes, 49% say no.
• Would you pay higher gasoline taxes to widen and improve streets? 43% say yes, 49% say no.
• How do you commute to work? 50% say they drive alone.
• Do you take the bus once a week or more?  95% say no.

So - top priority should be given to public transport that nearly none of the respondents use, and it shouldn’t be financed with taxes.  Road improvements?  Not to be paid with gas tax either.  Something’s gotta give there, folks.

Photo via Flickr courtesy of lars hammar.

Lately, I’ve had several inquires about downtown Tucson and the real estate there.

In researching the area, I came across the Downtown Tucson website, which is a great resource. 

There’s all kinds of information there, all gathered into one place: schedules for the Rialto Theatre, the Fox Theatre, Club Congress, construction and traffic updates, daily events calendar, as well as the latest news.

Projects to watch on the Downtown Tucson Real Estate Front:

• Hopefully coming soon, The Post Lofts, a Bourn Partners project, is 52 residences in a 6 story building, with ground floor shops and restaurants, located on Congress and Scott. 
• Also hopefully coming soon, 44 Broadway, the former federal district court building.  This should be 30 residences, on floors 2-4, with a rooftop garden area on the top floor and retail space on the ground floor.
• Currently for sale, Dos Pedros Lofts, in historic Barrio Viejo.  These are 2 bed, 2 bath freestanding lofts with private courtyards and garages, in the mid $400ks.

See that mountain in the background on the left hand side?

See those specs of white on that?

Snow.  In Tucson (ish).

The mountains in the background are the Santa Ritas, by the way, one of 5 mountain ranges that surround Tucson.  Santa Ritas are in the Southeast, the Catalinas are North, the Tortolitas are Northwest, the Tucsons are West, and the Rincons are to the East.

The white building in the foreground is the San Xavier del Bac Mission, also called the White Dove of the Desert.  Jesuit missionary Father Kino founded the original mission in 1700, and this structure was built in 1783. 

Someday I’ll head down there and take pictures - it is reputed to be one of the finest examples of mission architecture in the United States, blending Moorish, Byzantine, and late Mexican Renaissance architecture.

In the meantime, you can look through some other folk’s fabulous images of the mission on Flickr, here.

There is an incredible moon out tonight.  It’s a late winter night and there is such a crisp clean cold in the air, you want to inhale deeply and let it touch your face and lungs.  The moon was huge and low and was just peeking through a hole in the black clouds, saying his first hello before heading across the night sky.

Well, it’s winter in Tucson.  You can tell by all the styrofoam cups on the cactus tips.

What, you don’t have cups on your cactus?

The sytrofoam cups protect the delicate growing ends of the cactus, so that they don’t freeze during some of our colder Tucson winter nights.

My closest Fry’s Foods grocery store just finished remodeling, and they have a spectacular produce section now.  As I walked into that section, they had a whole row of fresh chiles, with the vibrant greens and yellows and reds, made my eyes water a bit from the bite in the air the chiles were producing.

Around the corner I spotted nopales:

Nopales are pads of the Prickly Pear cactus.  Note the grocery store provides tongs so you don’t have to pick them up with your bare hands!

I’ve never made nopales, but I’ve eaten it several times.  You’ll find it mixed in with eggs, in soups, or otherwise as part of a filling.  The flavor has been described as a “lemony cross between asparagus and green beans” and “somewhat tart green bean flavor.”

If you don’t prepare it properly, it can be, well, a bit slimy.  That, and they come with cactus spines attached, so removing those can be a bit of a chore, or so I’m told.  You can buy them sliced and canned in the local grocery stores, but you loose a lot of the flavor.

But aren’t they beautiful?  Those are sitting beside chayotes, by the way, a kind of squash.