Back to Basics Returns with Less Funding, Different Focus

By James Reel

he Mayor’s allocation of Back to Basics funding will once again be used to support Downtown improvements, despite changes in the program’s scale and scope. Budget cuts for the new fiscal year will mean fewer improvements to Downtown’s look and infrastructure, and changes in the program’s funding sources will limit the nature of the improvements themselves.

Since it was piloted in 1998, Back to Basics, administered by the City’s Department of Neighborhood Resources, has helped revitalize and stabilize neighborhoods through a partnership among residents, city staff, City Council offices and local businesses. The program has identified “re-investment options” for older neighborhoods and improvements to infrastructure, housing and the urban environment. It’s been a particular boon to Downtown, funding everything from flower pots to the roof of the Fox Theatre.

During each of the first two years of Back to Basics, $200,000 was set aside especially for Downtown projects. Since then, the Mayor’s office has received its own share, and Mayor Walkup has elected to use his allocation Downtown, meaning $800,000 has been available annually to spruce up the city’s core, just as $800,000 has gone to each of the six City Council wards. In 2002, Council Member Fred Ronstadt, whose Ward Six encompasses most of Downtown, directed most of his Back to Basics money to Downtown as well.

But with a new, tight budget cycle about to begin, Ronstadt will refocus his Back to Basics grants on his ward’s Rosemont West neighborhood, leaving Downtown’s share of Back to Basics entirely to the Mayor’s office. And the Mayor’s allocation, like that in each of the wards, has been nearly halved: Only $425,000 will be available Downtown in the new fiscal year.

Many of the significant projects funded through the program the last few years were façade improvements, including a re-facing of Odd Fellows Hall (home of Barrio and Etherton Gallery) and a two-story building at 118-120 E. Congress. Such projects will likely not be funded this year, as the sources of the new year’s Back to Basics funding will narrow the sorts of projects eligible for grants. According to Rio Nuevo project manager John Updike, funds will come partly from the Highway User Revenue Fund, which can be applied only to street improvements, not building repairs and home-ownership incentives. “That means no more grants for work on façades,” Updike says, “unless they come from the other source of funding, the federal Community Development Block Grants, and it’s a cumbersome process for people to deal with the federal regulations involved with that.”

An informal survey of several Back to Basics recipients shows general satisfaction with the program to this point, although some business owners have found the process daunting enough, even without federal regulations.

“The word I’d use is ‘frustrating,’” says Steve Gibson, part owner of the Johnny Gibson Gym Equipment Company, 11 and 33 S. Sixth Ave. Gibson has been awarded $60,000 to restore 132 feet of frontage on Sixth and fix up the dilapidated wood front at 14 S. Arizona Ave., a Gibson-owned building occupied by Karen Ehart Art Glass. The project will include new windows, filigree, leaded glass, awning, landscaping and improved lighting.

Gibson’s major surprise was that his funding was a matching grant, something he hadn’t realized when he applied and hadn’t even anticipated, being a novice to grantsmanship (as are most business owners). But the frustration began setting in earlier, in just preparing his application.

“I can’t tell you how much work it was putting together the proposals,” he says. “It was an expensive endeavor, hiring an architect and everything else. We went through the review boards, went through the architectural process, got approval, went to competitive bid and selected a contractor, and then started playing the waiting game. We waited four and a half months before we received the contract, which was supposed to have come in just a few weeks. I got one call returned out of seven. I felt like we were being ignored. Then we finally got the contract, executed it and sent it back, and now the funds are supposed to arrive in two weeks, so it looks like the frustration is behind us.”

Although Gibson finds the slow process un-businesslike, he does value the Back to Basics program. “They need to do whatever they can to restore the pride in Downtown, especially in this eastern end, and the Back to Basics funds are essential to do that,” he says. “I’m excited to see the fruits of Back to Basics in this neighborhood, with us and the train depot and the Rialto Theatre and other private big property owners that have been funded. The last thing I’d want to do is discourage other people from doing this. Be relentless; don’t give up.”

“The contract negotiations take some time,” admits Updike. “The city requires a lot of boilerplate. This can involve lawyers and architects to help with plans, because we need a clear vision of the project so we know what the outcome will be. But each year has been better than the last in getting the word out to applicants in terms of what’s expected.”

Many Back to Basics recipients are fully satisfied with their experience. Dave Klein is the executive director of the Sonoran Art Foundation, the Tom Philabaum glass-art school that formally opened last month at 633 W. 18th St. Klein estimates that the foundation has received $108,000 in Back to Basics money in the past two years. “We haven’t had any problem at all,” he says. “Partially that’s because I’ve been a building contractor and I’m an electrical contractor, and since the money was for capital improvements to this building I think they perceived that it was a pretty safe bet that we would do what we said we were going to do. We’ve had zero problems with them. We’ve been through one city audit so far, and that didn’t take long and was completely fair.”

Alpha Engineering, at 117 N. Sixth Ave., got $7,700 to fix up its façade in 2002-2003. “The application was pretty easy compared to other things you do with the government,” says company president Dinkar Gangwal. “We were given the money within a month or two of signing the contract. We had some delay on our side in getting the work done because of scheduling, but they had no trouble with that.”

Eileen Bagnall, facilities manager at Arizona Theatre Company, which operates the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., also found the Back to Basics administration to be flexible when ATC was awarded $20,000 in 2001-02 to repair a fountain and do some landscaping. “We had a really positive experience, because we had some internal problems and we had to ask for an extension and they were very good about it,” she says. “We never could have done a full restoration of the fountain without that grant.”

The Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation has received three grants over the last three years, a total of $260,000 toward a roof and marquee and for the façade of the Star building around the corner. “Every time, we’ve gotten the funds pretty quickly and just with the usual delays in needing to provide certain documents,” says executive director Herb Stratford.

Stratford’s counterpart at the other end of Congress, Paul Bear of the Rialto Theatre, can’t help grumbling when he sees the Fox marquee light up on the weekends while his own sign, its $61,000 in Back to Basics funding approved long ago, has yet to be installed.

“I’ve been hearing ‘The check’s in the mail’ for two or three years now,” he says. “All I got was a big joke check, with a picture of the Mayor and myself shaking hands over it. I tried to cash it, but they wouldn’t take it.”

Bear says his hands, after shaking Bob Walkup’s, have been tied with red tape. He’s had to clarify issues with air rights and easements, getting City approval to extend the sidewalk so trucks won’t hit the marquee, which will extend 10 feet from the building. He has also struggled, he says, with “legal issues of funding a marquee to be used for advertising a business in the City right of way, even though that didn’t seem to be a problem for the Fox.”

Bear also questions the validity of some of the Back to Basics projects. “There are some really atrocious façades,” he complains, “and others, like Hotel Congress, where you look at the before and after pictures and can’t tell what they spent the money on. And Arizona Avenue—you go there and look at it, and it’s still just an alley. OK, there are a couple of imprints in the asphalt and it looks like fake brick, but what was the benefit of putting all that money into an alley? Some of the things that got funded are just an abomination of misappropriation of public funds; they have zero effect on creating visual impact for downtown. Meanwhile, a lot of worthwhile projects didn’t get funded.”

The City’s John Updike says that the Back to Basics selection panel—which includes representatives from the planning, transportation and historic preservation departments and the City Manager’s office—has nothing to apologize for. “What we were looking for, and will continue to look for, is capital improvements, long-lasting improvements, improvements with an immediate impact, and something that would increase the vitality of the streetscape, whether that means getting patrons walking through the door of a business or just a jazzier street. And for the private sector proposals, we’re looking for leverage. For every dollar from the City, how many private dollars go into the project? The higher that number, the better the proposal.”

Updike’s remark about creating a “jazzier street” applies to many of the Back to Basics projects of the non-profit Tucson Downtown Alliance, which publishes this paper. According to executive director Donovan Durband, “What we’ve tried to do in applying for Back to Basics grants is to ask for really basic streetscape-type infrastructure elements like new pedestrian trash cans, enclosures for dumpsters, better lighting for security, and also some visual enhancements such as lights for the trees in the Congress Street area, special event banners, and large flower planters for the Library Plaza and major corners.

“It is frustrating to see things take longer to come to fruition than we’d all like, but City staff has its hands full, and delays result from factors you don’t always foresee when you write a ‘wouldn’t this be neat’ grant application. For example, the delay in getting the street trees lit is because there is some work to be done first to get the trees themselves healthier and fix their irrigation systems, so that we can string lights on them without damaging or harming them.”

Perhaps street improvements like these are all that will be funded Downtown by Back to Basics in the coming fiscal year, given restrictions on the use of the Highway User Revenue Fund. For people unaccustomed to dealing with federal bureaucracy and requirements, applying for Community Development Block Grants may be too much trouble.

“We have a Community Development Block Grant,” says Dave Klein of the Sonoran Art Foundation. “It’s administered through the City’s Community Services department, but because it’s federal money everything has to be bid, and so it’s a real boon for the architects and engineers and the people who administer a lot of that, and there’s a hell of a lot of overhead because it’s federal. It’s pretty tough compared to Back to Basics, where there’s not all that red tape.”

Eileen Bagnall at Arizona Theatre Company, which leases the Temple of Music and Art from the City and is responsible for its maintenance, doesn’t expect to see any more Back to Basics money coming her way for a while. “We can’t qualify for federal grants because we’re a City building,” she says.

Many Downtown property owners are sorry to see Back to Basics funding reduced and restricted, even if they don’t expect to receive any more themselves. One such is Buck Baccus, a partner in Cummings-Baccus, the commercial real estate investment firm in Austin, Texas that owns the Pioneer Building (100 N. Stone Ave.) and many of the buildings on Congress surrounding the Fox Theatre. Baccus has received Back to Basics help with improvements on both properties.

“On Congress Street, we probably would’ve made the improvements with or without the Back to Basics grant, but at the Pioneer, we probably would not have made that expenditure,” he says. “There’s not a soul in Tucson that’s going to pay a dollar more in rent to be in the Pioneer because of improvements we’re going to make in the façade on the 11th floor. But when you look at things like Downtown revitalization and aesthetic value and a tie-in to history, it’s a very nice and important improvement that the Back to Basics program afforded us to do.”

Baccus says that his company isn’t likely to make any improvements in its Downtown parking lots until the district’s economy improves, but that is the sort of thing that could be done sooner with incentives like Back to Basics. And that’s exactly the point of the program, according to Updike.

“It’s been the bridge between the promise of Rio Nuevo and the reality of Downtown,” he says. “This gave us a chance to invest in a whole number of Downtown properties and projects right away, to kind of kick-start things until Rio Nuevo started its much larger-scale effort.

“Right now, the budget reduction is a fact of life. We have to make do with less resources. We could do more with more, but we’ll make this situation work.”
Adds TDA’s Durband, “We’re just grateful that the mayor has chosen to focus his funding on Downtown, for the fourth year in a row, rather than spreading it around the city. The program has funded some wonderful projects and has made a real visual impact on many historic properties.”

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From Advocacy to Avocados: This Summer, Primavera Cooks!

By Mae Lee Sun

t doesn’t take a genius to recognize that there is a growing number of people around the country who have been adversely affected by the downturn in the economy. Coupled with years of increases in Federal, State and local cutbacks in social service programs, a shortage of educational funding, a depleted healthcare system and corporate reliance on foreign labor, it’s surprising we all aren’t finding ourselves sleeping on the benches outside the Tucson Convention Center, or seeking shelter under the mesquite trees at Estevan Park.

Yet, for over twenty years, despite diminished resources, Downtown Tucson’s ‘Primavera Foundation’, a non-profit, multi-service social justice and homeless advocacy organization, has been effectively supporting at-risk individuals in regaining a sense of wholeness and self-sufficiency by encouraging the more fortunate to focus on those whose needs are greater than their own.

As a result, retired school teacher and Primavera Board member, Holly Lachowicz, is now in her second season as Event Coordinator for a unique, annual fundraising event throughout the city called ‘Primavera Cooks!’.

On select dates from May to September, Lachowicz has managed to organize enthusiastic volunteers to work as ‘apprentices’ alongside more experienced chefs at locally owned restaurants in town known as “The Tucson Originals”. Included in the event are the chefs of Janos, Bistro Zin, Kingfisher, Elle, Fuego, Jonathan’s Tucson Cork and Pastiche. And, at a cost of $100-175, anyone who is interested in donating their time can participate as an apprentice in planning and preparing fabulous gourmet meals or one can simply patronize the event as a dinner guest. After each restaurant takes out costs, the remaining profit goes to support the education, outreach and direct services offered through Primavera.

“This event is a great collaboration between Primavera and the ‘Tucson Originals’- both are grassroots and it’s open to any citizen. Last year we had seven restaurants who participated and this year we have twelve. We also had a variety of people volunteer and attend ranging from teachers at Pima Community College to other restaurant owners, and just men and women who like to cook. The ninety people who participated last year, want to do it again. This year, we have Mayor Walkup and Senator Gabrielle Giffords working together at Café Terracotta on June 11th. They’re billing it as ‘Who’s going to get out the heat of the kitchen first’, says Lachowicz.

“It’s a cool way to raise money for Primavera, and have some fun” says native Tucsonan Mike Chihak, editor and publisher of the Tucson Citizen. Chihak has chosen the restaurant at Hacienda del Sol on September 17th for his volunteer chef apprenticeship, fulfilling his culinary fantasies while remaining actively in touch with what’s happening in the larger community.

“You’d have to be blind to not realize the plight of people in Tucson, or anywhere for that matter, who need shelter. Primavera is one of the more prominent organizations dealing with this issue and I’m happy to be a small part of what they’re doing”.

Lachowicz hopes it’s not only the bru-ha-ha of local celebrity participation like politicians and business leaders that will draw people to the event, and that the larger communities interest and financial support will remain ongoing throughout the year. She feels an exciting way to remain aware of the issues, is not only through volunteering but also through the purchase of a Primavera Cooks! illustrated cookbook and dining guide. Published by the University of Arizona Press, the cookbook features recipes from the event restaurants and is available at both the Borders and Barnes and Noble Bookstores in Tucson and Phoenix. In the last year and a half, over three thousand cookbooks were sold, and the event raised over 10,000 dollars supporting many successful programs.

After all, who wouldn’t want the satisfaction of knowing that their time and resources supports things like job training and transitional housing in the community while getting the inside scoop on how to make roasted duck salad with fresh blackberries over arugula greens, wild boar sausage served with whole grain honey mustard or apple dessert crepes with melted brie? Created by a volunteer and finalized by chef Don Kishensky and Pat Connors, owner of Campbell Avenue restaurant ‘Pastiche Modern Eatery’, these recipes are sure to inspire community involvement if not promote the fact that no matter what your pocketbook holds, we can all spare a little social change.

For a complete listing of Primavera Cooks! times and restaurants call the Primavera Foundation at 520-623-5111. Primavera is located at 702 S. 6th Avenue.