Elections have Consequences!!! City Residents, please vote in August 1, 2023 Primary; PHASE 1, Transition Center in the News!
The City of Tucson is in Crisis. If you want things to change you need to vote for candidates who believe in enforcing our laws and bringing personal safety back to our City.
We can decide in Tucson and Pima County how we want to live.
CLICK HERE: See How Candidates Answered the TCFC Survey
As we close in on the primary elections, please pay close attention to these important dates:
July 05: Primary Ballots mailed
July 21: Last day to request a ballot by mail
July 26: Last day to mail back your ballot
Aug 1: Primary Election
If you want change, voting is where change begins. However, simply voting is not enough. Talk to your friends, family and neighbors to make sure that they are engaged, informed and sending in their ballots on time. Voting is the “least” we can do, so get others off the sidelines and vote!
Tier Two (2) Encampments is a fancy way for Mayor Romero and Council to say “sanctioned encampments.”
Let’s be clear, fentanyl encampments should not exist, ask yourself, is it humane to allow individuals to live like this? (PICS from this week)
(Umbrella is to hide Fentanyl use and keep vapors in)
(Umbrella for using Fentanyl, keeping vapors in)
Mayor Romero and the Current City Council support continually enabling encampments to exist when Fentanyl is in-use. (see below attached email from Ward 3 Council Member Kevin Dahl). Pass the buck...Take no responsibility...
At a minimum 80% of individuals living on the street suffer from substance abuse and 60% suffer from mental illness. Many of our non profits that provide shelter, detox and support are operating at less than 50% occupancy. (Source TPCH).
From: ward3 <ward3@tucsonaz.gov>
Subject: Navajo Wash, Graffiti, Bus Stop Issues
To: <TCFC Member>
Cc: Katie Bolger <Katie.Bolger@tucsonaz.gov>, HomelessProtocol <HomelessProtocol@tucsonaz.gov>, CJ Boyd <CJ.Boyd@tucsonaz.gov>, Marlene Avelino <Marlene.Avelino@tucsonaz.gov>
Hello <TCFC Member>,
The homeless encampment at Navajo Wash has been evaluated as a Tier 2 encampment and will be left in place. If Homeless Protocol re-evaluates the encampment as a Tier 3 encampment, it will be removed. The camp is being monitored, and if you'd like to submit your concerns about the encampment to Homeless Protocol, you can do so here:
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/10b590ae4b7e423ca9c02912996620a8.
As a reminder, please report issues about the bus stop near your business to Sun Tran Customer Service:
-- call 520-792-9222
-- or email suntraninfo@tucsonaz.gov
I reported the graffiti at the bus stop in front of your business to Sun Tran earlier this week. In the future, you can report it yourself.
As a reminder, please report graffiti to the Graffiti Removal Program:
In general, you'll receive assistance more promptly if you reach out directly to the Department that can address your concerns.
If you have feedback on City policies, I'll be happy to relay that information to Council Member Dahl. And since you asked, our office is open to the public from 9 am - 1 pm, Monday through Friday.
Best,
WARD 3 OFFICE
Thank you for including Navajo Wash in your newsletter. I want your readers to know the Hedrick Acres Neighborhood Association has gradually ramped up their responses to the problems presented by homeless living in Navajo Wash. Below are some of the problems documented and responses taken to date. (Apologies for the length, but the issues date back years).
Damages to the Wash/Environment
• Fires set by homeless have burned out of control at least two time in the past year that required TFD to put them out. One partially burned one of two park benches in the wash. The other scorched ¼ acres of grass and mesquite and left burnt out shopping carts, tents, and debris behind, which neighborhood volunteers cleaned up. The carbon scars on landscaping rocks that HANA and the City purchased will remain for hundreds of years.
• Human waste, drug paraphernalia, and other trash dumped by vagrants in the wash leeches into the soil and into the ground water with each rainstorm. Such environmental degradation violates public nuisance laws (A.R.S. § 36-601(A)(5) and was a significant point in the recent Brown v City of Phoenix preliminary ruling against Phoenix’s homeless policy of allowing camps to exist in public spaces.
• Camping debris in Navajo Wash, in a designated FEMA flood zone and Tucson Department of Transportation Right of Way, has blocked storm drains at Mountain & Hedrick and resulted in flooding throughout the neighborhood in at least two instances in the past decade. Mattresses, tents, cardboard sheets, and ground clothes are the main culprits. In the most recent storm, a tent from Navajo Wash landed in the backyard of HANA’s president. His yard was also flooded as water backed up in the Wash.
Damages to the Neighborhood
• People living in Navajo Wash have been observed violating public decency, intoxication, and nuisance laws (e.g., sex acts and inebriation in pubic; blocking, defecating and littering public property not only in Navajo Wash Park, but also surrounding streets and alleys.
• Increased criminal activity such as mail theft, smash & grab thefts on cars, homes, and businesses in the neighborhood.
o At least three stolen vehicles have been dumped in the UA Park & Ride lot which borders the wash on the West. Homeless individuals in the wash broke into two of these; one was arrested by UA police.
o Several UA students have had their cars broken into during daylight hours while attending classes.
o Dozens of HANA neighbors have reported mail and package thefts, petty thefts of items in their yards, breaking and entering of homes and personal vehicles, and many more minor crimes that rise or fall with the number of homeless camping in Navajo Wash.
• Increased violent crime, as documented by the Tucson Police Department’s police event and incident listing. Of these, HANA has direct knowledge of at least two assaults, including one on this writer, that were perpetrated by homeless in Navajo Wash.
• Loss of access to Hedrick Acres only park. We are the largest neighborhood association in Ward 3, and Councilman Kevin Dahl ran on an environmental platform promising increased access and use of public spaces such as Navajo Wash. His indifference to the concerns of the housed residents and businesses in the area (see Responses below) is particularly galling given his promises before and after election.
HANA takes this issue seriously, and has gradually ramped up responses to meet the needs of the moment. This includes:
• HANA representatives have met with all City officials with jurisdiction over Navajo Wash, including former and current Ward 3 Councilmen and their staff; TPD homeless Outreach officers and their supervisors; Mari Vasquez, the City of Tucson’s new Multi-Agency Resource Coordinator for homeless outreach services; Tucson Department of Transportation (which is responsible for clearing washes of debris to prevent flooding); Tucson Clean & Beautiful; and TFD and EMT personnel responding to fires and overdoses in the wash.
• HANA residents and board members have written dozens of letters to these same officials, outlining concerns and asking for assistance and relief from the problems the homeless create for the neighborhood. The responses usually dismiss the neighborhood’s concerns with euphemisms such as “warming fires” for arson, “unhoused neighbors” for vagrants and criminals, “self-regulating” for anarchy, and “constant monitoring” for occasional drive-by checks by trash collectors and homeless outreach agencies.
• HANA and Tucson Clean and Beautiful volunteers have cleaned the wash monthly (usually the second Saturday of the month) for over a decade. TCB lends tools and trash bags to support the effort, and Environmental Services picks up the trash and debris soon after each cleanup.
• HANA representatives have contacted several media outlets and journalists to encourage reports of neighborhood concerns and impacts rather than just statements by City officials and homeless individuals.
• As a last resort, HANA has contacted some of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the Brown v City of Phoenix lawsuit to consider similar lawsuits in Tucson. We are gathering and sharing information now, awaiting the judge’s final ruling in the case, which is expected in August.
We at HANA greatly appreciate the mention on the Navajo wash situation. It is a laughable response from Councilman Kevin Dahl given I was told by him personally that this area would be treated as a priority given it’s potential flood hazard and dangers along with the protection of our neighborhood pocket park that the neighborhood maintains by volunteers and donations. This park is no longer an enjoyable or safe location as a result of the continued negligence by the COT and the Ward. Thank you for your assistance.
hello, yes the city bus system is for a scary place now. the people that really need the bus service to get to work or school don’t want to use it because the bus stops are alway full of drug users and mentally ill homeless. the bus stops are dirty there is trash, griffiti sometime even poop and pee on or around them. the bus drivers need to be reporting this. the theives steal and rob local buisnesses and then get a free get away ride it is all just so wrong. they need to require homeless to either get help get housing or live and sleep in a designated refugee camp like place and the police must inforce it, they need to assign a free bus for rides to the homless camps. No more sleeing or caming on bus stops, priviate property or even around city streets or parks ect. if they don’t make rules that deter the homless and stop all the public use of drugs it will only keep getting worse. Like Kari Lake said get help, go to jail or get going but we don’t won’t you destroying our city.
Once again let me remind you if Larimer County Wyoming can address their situation and remove their attorneys for failure to prosecute over 400 crimes on the dockets the citizens of Tucson Arizona can address their situations and change what is going on. The attorney in Larimer County Wyoming also lost their law license for failure to do the job and uphold the laws that they were elected to do. Tucson Arizona citizens can Implement change. Research, get informed, get involved, support the candidates that you believe will help change and re-establish implementing and enforcing laws and making our community safer. Go vote! Talk to your neighbors, talk to your family, get together at a barbecue somehow whatever works work together get busy do it now. You can be the change you want to see if you get involved, if you get informed, if you vote, if you work together for the change you want to see. I’m saying prayers vote go vote. Get involved now is the time!
Buses in Tucson are terrorizing to regular people. Not just the schoolkids or nanas & tatas with their grandkids either. It’s open season on everybody.
All bureaucrats, elected or not should be required to take a free ride on a common bus route.
They should dress however they want, take it at different times and on different days and do it without announcing who they are or use it as propoganda.
Or the brave reporter that wants a story. Or a college student who has to do a research paper.
Take a bus from Udall or Laos. Or dodge the fights, curse filled insults and the scary people downtown at the Ronstadt center and try to board without a police officer’s assistance.
Or take the easy way out. Just wait in the sun, dodge the fentanyl smoke, frozen-in-time high people and ignore the shock-value insults from angry freeloaders and just hop on anywhere along Alvernon or 6th Ave or Oracle.
Then count all the guns, butcher knives and machetes they see, if they can.
One adventure like that would spur action from anybody with a conscience.
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