The Luis Gutierrez Bridge Spans the Santa Cruz River; It Also Links Both Parts of a Divided Community and Makes Connections to the Past

by Alice Whittenburg At 8:45 on October 14, if a thin veil of high clouds hadn’t occluded the morning sun, a work of solar art commemorating the Tucson Pressed Brick Company would have appeared on the Luis Gutierrez Bridge on Tucson’s West Side. Because of those clouds, seven people, including myself, who had gathered on …

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On the Ten-Year Occuversary, It’s Time to Occupy the Archive

Occupy Tucson logo from tee shirt

Ten years ago on October 15, 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement arrived in Tucson. Energized people filled Armory Park and set up tents, then began to hold General Assemblies and working group meetings to organize the community that soon became Occupy Tucson. But where is it now? What is left of that once-cohesive group …

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At the Library with Borges

I have many fortifying memories of the Joel Valdez Library and the plaza that fronts it, which is named for the enterprising Jácome family and contains a striking red metal sculpture, but on April 5, 2021, as I sat in a black car across the street from that library and noted how its white façade …

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No (Green) Justice, No (Green) Peace: An Illustrated Look at the Old New Deal, the Green New Deal, and the Need for Just Solutions

Despite occasional rumors to the contrary, we are still in the midst of a pandemic, and here in the United States tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. Because businesses, especially small businesses, were forced to shut down for an extended period and their fates are still uncertain, it’s hard to say when …

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Five Quotes to Remember When Defending Food Not Bombs’ Right to Feed Unhoused People in De Anza Park

Dr. Goli Baheri reading letter from PDI

The quote that inspired the latest debate about whether or not unhoused people in Tucson deserve to be treated with respect and dignity was embedded in a tweet from the Tucson Police on their Park Safety account on February 7. TPD posted an announcement about Tucson City Code 21-4, asserting that it’s a crime to …

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