From The Editor

n our November “Survey Issue” we published a two-page survey, in which we asked for your feedback on a variety of downtown topics—including events, shopping, the best uses for the corner of 6th Avenue and Congress, Rio Nuevo, social services, marketing, the Warehouse District, public safety, and the effectiveness of this publication. For those of you who responded, thank you very much for taking the time to fill it out and return it. I admit that the survey was long and challenging; we asked you to prioritize, rank, and choose from a variety of options, and it required you to be really engaged. The level of response indicated not only interest in qualifying for several prizes, but a real interest in Downtown’s future.

We are busy compiling the survey responses and promise to publish the results in a future issue. Your feedback will be a real factor as we develop advocacy positions, expand the marketing of Downtown, and consider new projects.

We’ve moved our office from a storefront at Pennington and Scott that we had occupied for three years to a larger space at 52 W. Congress that we share with the City’s Rio Nuevo Office and the UA College of Architecture Downtown Design Studio. Our administrative and marketing staff are upstairs, along with the Rio Nuevo folks and some wonderful meeting space, while our uniformed security and maintenance people share the downstairs with UA architecture students and their work space. If you come looking for us, come through the lobby, just east of Caffe Milano, and take the elevator up to the second floor. TDA’s offices are down the hallway to the right.

Now that we are mostly settled, we’ll turn our attention to the downstairs storefront area, which has wonderful potential as a Downtown welcome center. In the coming months we will put together some informative and interesting exhibits about Downtown—past, present and future—as well as provide a look at arts and events happenings Downtown. There will be some great Downtown visuals and information about major redevelopment projects, Rio Nuevo, and Downtown businesses. Over time, we will develop an inventory of Downtown merchandise—items that promote Downtown, its landmarks and attractions—that will be offered for sale. Photos, greeting cards, books, posters, and the like. The Downtown welcome center will also be a great place to begin tours of Downtown. The facility will not compete with the Tucson Visitor Center that is run by the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau just a block or so away at La Placita. The MTCVB visitor center has a much larger scope, as it promotes the entire Tucson area and southern Arizona. The Downtown center will focus scrupulously on promoting Downtown Tucson, its businesses and present attractions, and its future.

We must think of Downtown revitalization as a two-tracked process; long-range planning is vital, as we transform the conditions that will develop long-term success, but so is minding the store on a daily basis, thinking every day about what can be done to improve Downtown today and next week. While we promote the UA Science Center and various public improvements that may not be completed for a few years, we must not be tempted to think that Rio Nuevo or other long-term projects will solve all of Downtown’s problems. In fact, some businesses and enterprises can’t wait for what Rio Nuevo will bring. We must practice “urban husbandry” and celebrate incremental progress. The short-term, incremental improvements are as vital to the sustained success of Downtown Tucson as are the major anchors and attractions that are to come in the next ten years.

Happy Holidays.

Donovan Durband
Executive Director, Tucson Downtown Alliance, Inc.
President, It’s Happening Downtown, Inc.

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