Vital Signs

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eight business owners take downtown development to heart

by Mae Lee Sun

ehind the success of every great city there are great women. Tucson has been fortunate to have a history rich with the stories of women such as Cele Peterson, Suzana Davila, Margo Susco, Beth Jones, Regina Kelly, Betsy Rollings, Shana Oseran and Carlotta Flores—all of them pioneers of some of the best economic, social and cultural resources that the city has to offer. It doesn’t have to do so much with politics or privilege. It has everything to do with imagination, character and values that these individuals have learned from their family, friends and their community.

It’s often been said that what we can’t imagine can’t come into being. I was reminded of that when I spent a few hours on a Saturday afternoon with Cele Peterson at the clothing boutique that bears her name on Grant Road. Sitting comfortably behind a desk, pearls resting elegantly around her neck, Peterson, a living history book of more than 90 years, touched on just a few of the many changes she has witnessed in the downtown over the past 75 years she’s been in business.

“In 1931 when I started my shop on Stone Avenue, it was at a time when people thought women didn’t do such things as open businesses. Yet a lot of my best friends at the time were doing it too and owned trucking companies and advertising companies. It wasn’t common but the opportunities were there.”

After the end of WWII when the nation and Tucson experienced a cultural renaissance, life got easier, says Cele. Her shop had moved to Pennington Street. Famous women such as Lady Astor and Elizabeth Taylor were occasionally seen there. The Fox Theatre held a “Best Dressed Women” event and the The Magazine Tucson reported on the latest fashions from Peterson. She began investing in real estate downtown, including several properties on Pennington and the building that houses Old Town Artisans which she still owns.

In her success, Peterson did what she could to give back to the community and never thought of either her business or philanthropy as “work”. When referred to in that way, she will gladly tell you, “I never worked a day in my life because I enjoy what I do. When you’re helping people, you’re doing the thing that God gave you the privilege of doing. Everything, if you go at it right, is fun”.

Pretty impressive for a woman who pioneered such community assets as the Tucson Children’s Museum, the Tucson Association for the Blind, Casa de los Niños, Angel Charities, dozens of other groups and her own non-profit entity K.I.N. (Kids International Neighborhood), an organization to help children build intercultural communication skills. All of which, says longtime friend Sally Drachman, Peterson has accomplished by using her business to bring people together.

While it isn’t likely to be a business model taught in MBA programs, using one’s business as a launch pad for community-building is the only way energetic Café Poca Cosa restaurateur, Suzana Davila can see doing business. Every summer, Davila generously takes her restaurant staff with her to vacation in Mexico so they can learn for themselves the benefits of working hard to accomplish something good for others. Her big-hearted style extends to bringing women from Oaxaca to her restaurant in Tucson to learn skills they can apply in starting their own businesses. Business success, she says, needs to benefit everyone.

“Some of us are lucky; some of us have the drive. But if you have the heart and the will, anyone who wants to do something can. My way is to just jump in, work as hard as possible so I can help myself, my family and those who need it.”

Sandy Morse, a patron for the 17 years Poca Cosa has been open, says that the way Davila leads and manages is remarkable because she could have retired on her success a long time ago. When circumstances dictated a need to move the main restaurant, she chose to remain Downtown, despite being wooed by outside suitors. This fall she will be relocating to a new space at the corner of Pennington and Scott, in the new Pennington Street Garage.

Says Morse, “She is so committed to her family, her community in Guaymas, Mexico and her restaurant staff. She should be running the Rio Nuevo Project—she’s good at pulling people together and making things happen with a quality that is unsurpassed. We need more of that.”

The “more of that” no doubt means more business owners with staying power, and also the vision that downtown is something worthwhile investing in. Take Margo Susco, the owner of Hydra Leather & More clothing boutique on the northwest corner of Congress Street and 6th Avenue. A familiar voice in downtown circles, she’s literally been on the block and around the block with the city throughout the ups and downs, influx and out flux of businesses since 1994. Even though she was born in Tucson, graduated from the UA in 1988 and left to work in the fashion industry in Seattle and L.A., she kept her eye on Tucson, especially downtown.

“A lot of people had fled to the suburbs in the 70s but the music scene was bustling here in the 80s. I was familiar with timing and trends and knew there was an undercurrent and edge happening, especially in the downtown. So as a calculated risk taker, I moved back in the early 90s to cater to the audience I knew was here.” With the help and blessing of her family, she dove in and never looked back.

Sporting straight black hair and a denim mini-skirt, Susco has the self-confidence of a Fortune 500 CEO. Where other businesses would have folded, says Diana Rocher, director of Wild Things Animal Rehabilitation Center where Susco volunteers, she has persevered. “She’s one of the most astute businesswomen I know and she’s in it for the long haul. If anyone is going to make it, it’s her. You can count on that like clockwork.”

Even as a driven, “Type A” person, Susco says she’s often not taken seriously. People mistakenly label her appearance to that of a “dominatrix” and the vibrantly painted red store filled with mannequins dressed in fetish wear, a “sex shop”. Yet despite others’ perceptions of her, she maintains her commitment to diversity on all levels.

“One of the greatest gifts I could have ever been given from my parents was the idea that it was okay for people to express themselves, to try something new and to face fear,” she says. Her store reflects this freedom of self-expression. While she hopes others will embrace this kind of freedom, she often wonders if City planners see her place and clientele in the larger vision of the development and diversity they speak of.

“I’d like to think the City has the foresight to be inclusive. Nothing really gets handed to you here and I am hoping that the Rio Nuevo Project and certain landlords jumping on the property value bandwagon won’t attempt to sterilize and white-wash the downtown by steamrolling small businesses like mine and places like the tattoo shops. This is where a lot of the history and color is.”

Enjoying a refreshing glass of iced-tea on a recent, 105-degree day, striking red hair held back from her slender face with brown metal sunglasses, Beth Jones, an energetic and savvy real estate agent who has successfully supported the downtown as a viable residential market, remembers a time when her clients refused to look at property here even during the day. In their words it was “unsafe”. Surprisingly, that was said just 2 years ago.

Jones seems slightly amused at the fact that for the first time in over a decade that she’s been selling property, Downtown Tucson is attracting attention from the mainstream.

“It’s fascinating that more and more people are looking for the simplification of life. They want an exciting place to live but also to be close to where they shop and entertain themselves. Being in urban environments is part of that versus the foothills or the east side, although I love those markets as well. The people who actually make the trip downtown to see what it is (tend to) like West University and Dunbar Spring, the neighborhoods south of 22nd Street, and the barrio, and see the color, history and community here. There’s a different quality about these people. And instead of being asked ‘Is it safe?’, I’m now hearing ‘How can I get my foot in the door?’”.

Jones grew up in Tucson, and as enthusiastic as she is about the real estate boom and finding housing for her clients, she’s a bit protective of downtown and keenly aware of the greed factor of those wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible without regard to the impact on the community and those wanting to establish lives here. She feels challenged at times to maintain perspective, although she hasn’t lost sight of what is truly important. Five percent of her income currently goes to the Lost Boys of Sudan, the 3rd St. Kids (which places special needs kids into the arts), and SAFE, an animal rescue organization.

In that respect, Jones appears well-suited to her pursuit of taking that notion global through her desire to establish a self-sustaining orphanage in Ethiopia, the home country of some extended family members. To her, children are where the future is and nurturing them is what sustains community in any culture.

Jones is not alone in sharing that view. We’ve heard it said in songs and on political platforms. We’ve heard the horror stories on the evening news and from social service agencies. In learning how best to nurture children, the future heirs of our communities, there’s been much debate on what factors are most significant in accomplishing this. The two most commonly heard are parenting and education. Luckily, many young people in the downtown have discovered something of both in their relationship with Regina Kelly, director of VOICES, a non-profit organization she founded in 1999.

The mother of two children with husband and artist, Steve Farley, Kelly carries an interesting blend of intellectualism, creativity and New England sensibility. She grew up Irish Catholic and was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts. Her parents were actors and writers, providing the inspiration for her former career as an advertising executive and freelance writer based in Berkeley, California.

On a visit to Tucson in 1990, with her first stop being the Hotel Congress, she saw evidence of something interesting happening in the architecture and in the creative community of artists and political activists she met. She knew instantly this was the place to be.

“I said to Steve, “My God, this is so cool, there’s some real promise” and returned to Berkeley to create a 5-year plan to get here. In 1995 they approached the Tucson Pima Arts Council to learn everything they could. TPAC was looking for a writer/photographer to run a summer project for ten teenagers from the West side barrios. The timing was right so they pitched themselves as a job share team and were accepted.

“We were willing to risk it all. The thought of going on a journey with teens to see them get in touch with their own creativity and critical thinking ability, to tell their own stories from their point of view is engaging them in an act of power. It wasn’t easy doing this on a shoestring budget but confidence in my and Steve’s ability and a deeper calling overrode financial concerns. So much so that in retrospect, I can’t look at it any other way than as my ‘creation story’.”

It’s not merely spiritual in nature however. Kelly says she grew up in a home where social justice, self-respect and community were valued equal to the arts. They are lessons and themes she says that have continued to run throughout her life and have become important in her work, especially as a mentor. One doesn’t need to look further than her students for confirmation.

Nineteen-year-old Adam Cooper, VOICES assistant editor for the past four years, refers to Kelly as the “Mother Warrior”. “Regina is a woman who not only inspires but her intentions are grounded in community. I was a typical angry teenager—anti-social and not connected to anything outside of my room. She has established an environment here like a big wacky family and now I choose to be here. She fought for the space and us, both figuratively and literally in a loving and compassionate way. I’ve never seen community happen like this anywhere else. She gives people my age without families or role models, hope.”

Where Kelly is able to demonstrate the value of youth in the larger whole through the correlation of giving them avenues for healthy expression via storytelling, Betsy Rollings, proprietor of Cushing Street Bar in Barrio Viejo, is a mature manifestation of what is possible with the love of one’s personal history, family and neighborhood.

Rollings’ grandparents came to Tucson in the 1920s. Her grandfather owned a Hudson dealership on 6th Street where Benjamin Supply is now. As one grandmother shopped at Cele Peterson’s in the 1930s, when it moved to Pennington, another was fighting for public housing. It wasn’t terribly trendy to be associated with ‘barrio’ anything in the 1940’s when her father Kelley and her mother Sally met at Tucson High and went on to become noted for their historic restoration work.

With several generations preceding her, Rollings felt drawn to preserve the original adobe structures and the Cushing Street restaurant in the 70s and 80s in what is now fashionably called “Barrio Viejo”, situated between Meyer and Simpson streets and says downtown is one of the most interesting communities there is.

“In the past Mexicans, Anglos, African-American, French, German and Asians lived right here in my neighborhood. It’s so important in our reconstruction of this area that we remain sensitive and knowledgeable of the human history and cultures that have gone before us. Most of the buildings here were built by hand. For the new people moving in, I hope they become involved in projects with vision and important endeavors because this neighborhood is a magnet for people from all over the world.”

In a socially, economically and politically sensitive time, Rollings feels Mayor Walkup is one of the first politicians in decades to show an interest in public improvements that benefit the entire community. She’s been working with the City to ensure the infrastructure is attended to so people can walk safely down the streets and have access to the art and culture that many feel are quintessentially Tucson.

Maintaining the uniqueness of a city is something Shana Oseran, co-owner of community landmark, Hotel Congress, with husband Richard, is very familiar with. Even with a passport stamped full of excursions to Tahiti, the British Isles, and Morocco, she’s drawn to the beauty of the Sonoran Desert, the refreshing smell of creosote after it rains and the distinct flavors of southwestern cuisine. “You couldn’t buy that” she says and likens what her business and Tucson have to offer to that of the some of the coolest small cities in the United States—Austin, Portland, Louisville, and Santa Cruz.

“When you live in a downtown and walk to get your groceries, a bottle of wine or some flowers, you get to know the local businesses and your neighbors. It’s the people aspect of it that makes it. Even the staff that work here have been significant in our business’s evolution and character. People all over the world remember places like this because they fell in love here, they graduated here or they loved the food and the architecture. We have so much to offer the community by keeping this in integrity with the development that is taking place in the city.”

Gary Patch concurs. Now a designer, Patch was an employee of the Oserans in the 80s and conceptualized the Club Congress nightclub and the Cup Café in the hotel. He is inspired by Oseran’s particular vision, which he feels offers a reality check in an environment that may be threatened by the generic and the expedient.

“She constantly champions small business, the arts, music and the odd man out over corporate interests. Without that vision, our downtown would turn into a gentrified, mall-like environment.” To ensure the city works hard to keep downtown independent businesses in the loop, both she and her neighbor to the west, Carlotta Flores, proprietor of world-renowned restaurant El Charro, are determined to stay involved.

Flores has worked out of the eighty-five-year-old restaurant, now on Court Avenue, ever since her family lived in it as a residence. Like Peterson and Rollings, she remembers how as children she and her siblings walked to the downtown to go shopping, to take dance lessons at Alice Mills or go to the Santa Rita Ballroom or the Pioneer. Coming from having celebrated both American and Mexican traditions, she is adamant about teaching visitors and her staff, the collage of culture and flavors that are Downtown Tucson.

“I will not allow the downtown to die or let its significance be overshadowed by Rio Nuevo. Why say we need good restaurants and the arts when there are places like El Charro, Café Poca Cosa, El Minuto, the Barrio Grill, the Cup, Old Town Artisans, the Tucson Museum or Art and more right here? If people don’t know where to get something like a gift I take them on a walking tour downtown to show them where it is. Every city has a 4th Avenue, but the pulse starts here.”

Downtown’s anchors, many of whom have been led by women, play a role similar to anchors of any redevelopment, be it a mall, shopping area, or urban center. According to Dr. Elise Collins Shields, president of Common Well Institute International, a nonprofitleadership training and advocacy organization based in Tucson, anchors ground the effort and attract other investment. Shields says she thinks of women not only as anchors of business but ultimately of community.

“Women throughout the world are the grounding and glue that draw forth creative energy to make for a solid community and a better world. For these women, it’s clear: the bottom line includes not only monetary prosperity but cultural abundance as well.”

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