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 …

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

A Small Example of How, on the 10th Anniversary of Occupy Tucson, Homeless People Are Still Screwed

Picture of Armory Park, showing absence of picnic tables

The Occupied Tucson Citizen working group, the last active portion of Occupy Tucson, recently held its first in-person meeting since pre-COVID days. More to the point, it held the meeting on the tenth anniversary (plus one day) of the founding of Occupy Tucson and on the site of Occupy’s first encampment, Armory Park in downtown …

Read moreA Small Example of How, on the 10th Anniversary of Occupy Tucson, Homeless People Are Still Screwed

Politically Non-Political: The 10th Anniversary of Occupy Tucson (Some Reflections)

Photo from an Occupy Tucson backed march from January of 2012

It was, I think, Barack Obama’s decision to rescue the banks and largely ignore the people that helped to create the political backdrop for Occupy. It was as though Obama’s campaign slogan of 2008, “Yes, we can,” had degenerated into “No, we can’t – at least not for you.” The political backlash this generated from …

Read morePolitically Non-Political: The 10th Anniversary of Occupy Tucson (Some Reflections)

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 …

Read moreAt the Library with Borges

Another Arizona Doctor Sounds Hospital Alarm (and Is Ignored by Tucson Media)

Picture of Dr. Cleavon Gilman in medical gear

We now have our second case of an Arizona doctor sounding the alarm about the overburdened hospitals in the state, receiving much attention in the national media for it, but barely getting a mention in our own, local media. The previous case, which we reported on, involved the Tucson media’s silence at University of Arizona …

Read moreAnother Arizona Doctor Sounds Hospital Alarm (and Is Ignored by Tucson Media)