APRIL 2005
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Vital SignsGo To: Yikes! • Folk Festivals • Market ActivityYikes!Merchant reflects on what made her leave Downtown in the late 90’sby James Reel
Rugg, owner of Yikes Toy Store and Picante Designs, finally packed up her stock in 1999 and moved her operation from 306 E. Congress St. to 2930 E. Broadway. “It was either leave Downtown or go out of business,” she laments. “People just weren’t going Downtown to shop, and my business increased three or four times as soon as I left.” Rugg left reluctantly, and was one of the last retailers of Downtown’s early-’90s heyday to flee. “It was really sad,” she says. “I made a valiant effort. I put in more than 10 years Downtown. I had a great time, and I met a lot of wonderful people, and I loved that spirit of neighborhood that was created there; I loved being able to walk to the bank and the post office and know everybody I passed on the street. It was fun and exciting.”
Yet Rugg faced more problems than she had plastic bugs in her toy bins. And she says those problems will have to be solved before Downtown can rise again. One complaint: landlords unwilling to give tenants what they needed. “Rents went up for no reason other than Downtown got some press,” she says. “It’s not like the buildings were improved; landlords just think they should raise the rent on a regular basis whether business owners are doing well or not. Paying constantly higher rent is not going to help a small business grow, unless they’re getting air conditioning or better parking or better plumbing for their money.” Another: homeless people scaring off potential customers. “There was just not enough traffic Downtown because shoppers didn’t like hanging out with the street people that made up the most visible population of Downtown. In the case of Yikes, parents didn’t want their children exposed to prostitutes, pimps, drug addicts, alcoholics and mentally ill people, which I think is understandable. I have to say I don’t spend much time Downtown now, but the homeless issue was big then. “There were just too many negatives, aside from parking problems and confusing one-way streets. I think creating two-way streets is the least of the issues right now. I don’t mean to sound negative, but Downtown is just not a shopping mecca, and if you think people are going to drive down from the foothills, you’re fooling yourself. There need to be a lot of attractions to get people down there. There’s so much competition from shopping malls and other places, and Tucson is so spread out, that people are geared to shopping where it’s most convenient. They need something extra special to make the long trip Downtown. I don’t know what that would be. I love the idea of the planetarium and all that stuff coming in through Rio Nuevo, but I’ll probably be elderly by the time it gets done. “It’s the people who live closer who are more likely to come, if there’s something to come to. So the focus needs to be on getting more people to live there. Young people will live down there, because they’re more adventuresome. But people with children want a yard and aren’t so interested in the urban experience, maybe. I don’t think people move to Tucson for the urban experience. They move here for the weather and the landscape. “Right now it’s mostly bars and tattoo parlors downtown. It needs more diversity and more synergy. I see young people opening stores and trying to create that synergy, and Hydra is still there with a market that would go anywhere for that product, so there is some hope. “But it’s a hard area, and when you think about how difficult things are in general in Tucson for small retailers, and couple that with the bad public attitude about Downtown, you’ve got a long row to hoe. And frankly, we’ve destroyed too much of the historic part of Downtown. San Antonio has preserved its old buildings, and they have integrated housing and retail, but a lot of the older buildings in Tucson just aren’t there anymore, and we have no cohesive idea about what it should all look like. “I think getting Downtown going again can happen, but it’ll take a long time and a lot of private money. The city can’t do it all, and trying to get all the people who are involved to have a similar vision is a lot of work. And it can’t just be a job for people like Doug Biggers and Richard Oseran, who are trying so hard to make it happen. Look at the larger city: How many people in Tucson really care about having a viable Downtown?” Rugg cares, but don’t expect her to move her shops back to Congress Street. “Are you kidding me?” she asks. “Moving out was hard enough. I’m not as young as I used to be, and when will all that Rio Nuevo stuff get done? I think it’s great, but I’m not holding my breath.” 20 Years of Folk Festivals!by Jim Lipson
Folks like Kathleen Williamson, Stefan George and Ice 9—all of whom played that first year, continue to make inspired music. Others, like Shep Cooke (a part of Linda Ronstadt’s early bands) and Terry Pollock may no longer be a part of the scene, yet the legacy they leave behind, as local musicians who really made and carried that first festival, has allowed this festival to grow into one of the region’s premier events of it’s kind. Because of its growth, and the popularity of the festivals songwriter’s competition, the festival is now attracting more regional and even national talent, making it more difficult to get in but also raising the bar in terms of the level of musicianship. And Lord help you if you’re not ready when it comes time for your 25 minutes of fame. Throughout the weekend, close to 80 different acts will play out over four different stages. Most sets will be 25 minutes with an amazingly short turnaround time for one act getting off and the next one coming on. In addition to the two primary stages set up in downtown’s El Presidio Park, there is the Library Stage for new and up and coming bands, and for the third year, the Old Town Artisans Stage. This stage has become quite popular due to its ability to serve alcohol and for allowing longer sets for the different acts. Mostly it is a weekend orgy of great music of all kinds including country, blues, bluegrass, folk-rock, old timey, traditional folk, celtic, and singer/songwriter stuff that even we writers don’t know how to define. This festival is also a great community event; Tucson at its finest, running from noon until late on Saturday/Sunday April 30 and May 1. Headliners this year include Aztec Two-Step and Rory Block. As usual, 91.3 KXCI will be a centerpiece of the festival broadcasting the Plaza Stage from start to finish. Plan your weekend around this now! Tucson Folk Festival, Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, 12noon – 10pm. 90 local and regional acts on 4 stages located at El Presidio Park, Downtown Main Library, and Old Town Artisans. Market Activityby Mae Lee Sun
Russell Lowes, finance manager for the Food Conspiracy Co-op on 4th Avenue says that for the past twenty-one years, it has been the premier store for shoppers all over Tucson, not just downtowners, who are interested in fresh, organic produce and bulk food items like pastas, rice and granola. He views the one-stop shop as more of a myth than a reality although many Tucsonans use the ‘Co-op’ as just that. “Market research has indicated that even with mainstream grocery stores like Fry’s or Albertsons, consumers tend to shop at several stores to get the things they want. People do use us however as their one-stop store because of our participatory principles and membership, the benefits of special ordering, and orientation to service people rather selling ‘units’.” It’s that sort of philosophy that other market owners in the downtown area say is the reason why they too have been successful without the presence of a chain store.
Hard to believe that, with all the talk about downtown development and the need to bring in more residents before things will really start swingin’, places like the Co-op, 17th St and the Toole Avenue Markets have weathered and survived the economic flux in the city core over many years already. Toole Avenue Market, soon to be known as ‘Shop Natural’, a natural foods retailer and wholesaler, has reported brisk growth and is planning for expansion. Like the other markets, they don’t attribute their success from having merely catered to the neighborhoods in which they are situated and rather believe their competitive advantage comes out of offering great quality in product and service.
But neighborhood is what many of these business owners are clearly about—including Peter Wilke and partners who are interested in converting the old Jerry Lee Ho market (currently on hold due to financial considerations) in Barrio Viejo into a market/deli/café similar to Time Market on University, which is one of Wilkes’ other ventures. “I think there is a lack of neighborhood markets in downtown in general. They are a necessary part of community and help to bring people together on a daily basis. One of the most glaring of modern ironies is that people trek across a huge asphalt parking lot to enter into a giant fluorescent lit soul-less warehouse to purchase their nourishment. I personally like my food shopping experiences to be a bit more intimate.” Yet as diverse, successful and user-friendly as many of these markets appear, many residents and business owners still hanker for more and feel the downtown cannot be successful without a full-scale grocery store. The City of Tucson is one of those contributing voices. Through funding from the federal government, several projects, under the HOPE VI federal grant program, are underway to rebuild public housing areas to include enhancement of quality of life through the provision of new businesses and services. Included within that is a grocery store. The site selected in the downtown area is near highway I-10 and 22nd Street, near the Barrio Santa Rosa neighborhood. In 2000, Bourn Partners and JL Investments were chosen from a trio of developers who responded to a City of Tucson request for proposals to identify a grocery tenant to fill the need. If all lights turn green, Paul Schloss, a Bourn partner, says they hope to have identified a tenant, obtained permits, and completed the grocery store project by late 2006.
Food Conspiracy Co-op 17th Street Farmers Market Toole Avenue Market Time Market Simply Convenient Mid-Town Liquors & Deli |
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all her shell-shocked, but Hazel Rugg has no desire to return to the downtown redevelopment battleground from which she and other retailers were routed in the mid 1990s by a poor economy and insufficient support.
here is so much to love about the Tucson Folk Festival it’s hard to know where to begin. You could always start with the headliners, which in past years have included everyone from folk icons Ritchie Havens and Odetta to new grass/country stars John Cowan and Rosie Flores to singer/songwriter story tellers Eliza Gilkyson and Tish Hinajosa to someone like Laura Love, whose sizzling performance several years ago completely overshadowed the fact she might easily have been voted “least likely to ever headline a folk festival.”
To focus on the stars however would be only a part of the story. In 1984, at the inaugural Tucson Folk Festival, there was no headliner. Mostly this was because there was no money to bring one in. But this festival, sponsored by the then fledgling Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association (TKMA), was also inspired by the idea that Tucson (even back then) was so rich with talent, we didn’t need no stinkin’ headliners to fill two days and two stages with music that was significant and inspired. 
nless you live, work or frequent Downtown Tucson, you may have the impression that it is seriously lacking in quality grocery shopping experiences. Even if you do live or work downtown, you may have that impression anyway along with the attitude that until further development and revitalization takes place (aka Rio Nuevo), nothing great, like a Trader Joe’s, AJ’s or simply a full-scale, get-everything-in-one-place supermarket is ever going to appear. If this is the case, a question must be asked: what have you been thinking? But, don’t answer that. Just look closer because choices abound in retail food shopping venues which run the gamut of the everyday to the exotic. 
The retail grocery division of the 17th Street Farmers’ Market, situated a few blocks south of Broadway and west of Park, is testament to the diversity that exists in the downtown community and Tucson in both the products offered and the clientele who shop here. General manager Howard Milwich refers to shopping here as an international grocery shopping adventure, attributing the market’s thirteen years of success to the quality and uniqueness of the food, gift and seafood products they carry in addition to the focus on keeping things fresh and introducing the new. “We do little advertising yet we’re known for our extensive produce section and the fact that our seafood department now processes over twenty-thousand pounds each week. I think it’s pretty amazing that 10 years ago the retail store was in a three-thousand square foot area and now it covers over ten-thousand. If all goes well, we’re looking ahead to expanding it to twenty.”
“We’re the best told secret in Tucson, although there are many people who are unaware of our presence. Our proximity is certainly handy for those who work in the downtown and makes shopping before or after work relatively easy. The downside is that our location is not easy for those unfamiliar with the downtown to locate.” says Sonal Rana, individual and group sales manager for Toole, adding that the Armory Park del Sol housing development and Rio Nuevo will no doubt make them a mainstay in the neighborhood.
So for those who are on the edge of their seats waiting, grab a cushion. If you’re at all familiar with city processes, feasibility studies and the challenge of making profit and goodwill come together, it may be awhile. Until then, you can head to the following stores for your coffee, milk, cigarettes, organic produce, fresh seafood, lightbulbs, micro-brewed beer, Belgian chocolates and more: