MIDTOWN NEWS JULY 1997
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT.
Even though our turn-out was a little smaller in June (about 40) we still had a lively meeting with a good program and some interesting discussions among those in attendance. I won’t be here for the July meeting, and very possibly also for the August
Meeting; however, Brad, David, and Margaret will keep things running smoothly.
We are really proud of the young people who are working this summer under our sponsorship. Ruby Hosseinmardoi and Chris Sutton are supervising the kids who are,
Among other things, acting as tutors (and role models) for the children in the Wright Summer School session. They are also doing some surveying for us, and we have received good comments from some of the neighbors about their conduct, etc. If you see
Them in the mornings, give them a thumbs up.
ANGEL OF THE MONTH…
Goes out from Connie Brannock and her Band of Angels down at the National Guard.
Connie and the Guard copied and labelled our June newsletter when Margaret and the rest of the newsletter volunteers were too wiped out to meet their deadline. Burnout Happens—but Midtown was sent these Angels to help us over the hump. Thanks Sweetie-Pies. Lynda Keenan and her son Jason North send out a big “thank you” to the
Neighborhood bike “fix-it” person. CONNIE (Yes, Ladies and Gentleman, Connie “Bike-Lady” Brannock is also a Bike Angel. Lynda says: Connie taught Jason how to repair his own flat tires on his bicycle along with making sure his bike was also safe to ride on the street Thank you Connie for taking time out of your busy day and your expertise at bike repair. We really appreciate your help. But the Bike Club would be lost
Without its Sustaining Bike Angel—Tommy Christian ( a man who lives up to his surname). Tommy volunteers almost every Sunday afternoon a the Bike Club,repairing
Bikes, and teaching kids these skills. Special Bike Spoke-Person Awards go the following people who have generously donated bicycles to the Midtown Bike Club: Catalina Market (Jackie, Kevin, and Samantha Oliver). Kevin & Ingrid Wellman, Paula,
Martha McClements of the Armory ParkN.A. and Kevin Cannata of the Palo Verde N.A.
Aren’t they awesome? Good Samaritan Angel goes to Tommy Christian for his act of kindness to a neighbor Tommy recently extended a helping hand to a gentleman who was staying with one of his neighbors. This gentleman has been struggling back from hard times. He had no car and walks everywhere with a cane. Tommy built a bicycle for this
Gentleman at the Midtown Bike Club. Now this man goes everywhere on his bicycle.
Tommy’s simple gesture of caring has changed everything for this neighbor of ours. He’s really happy because for the first time in a long time he’s mobile. The bicycle is helping him put his life back together. Carri Rondeau would like to acknowledge our own Artistic
Angel Tami Mortiz, Tami has painted the beautiful Southwestern Murals on the walls of
Her property at Alvernon and Justin. Thanks Tami, for sharing your love of beauty with all of us. Velma Hidden has this Anonymous Angel report: My Himalayan cat, Rose, is
Safe at home, healthy and well-groomed, thanks to some guardian angel. Rose was frightened away by dogs the first week of December. Her sister Iris and I were heartsick for six months. When a joyous reunion on June 8th when Rose was found less than a block from home. Another big thanks to that Secret Angel.”
BABYSITTING AT OUR MONTHLY MEETINGS IS NOW AVAILABLE.
Call Judy Ostermeyer at 326-1517 by noon on the day of the neighborhood meeting to
Let her know you plan to attend, and how many kids you’ll be bringing.
IF WE KEEP ON DOIN’ WHAT WE’RE DOIN’—WE’RE GONNA KEEP ON GETTING’ WHAT WE’RE GETTING.
That was the basic gist of Molly McKasson’s recent forum at Catalina High School on
Sustainable Tucson—Sustainable future. Over 500 people from Ward 6 were there, all of them very worried about the future of Tucson, the future we are building for our kids. People expressed concern about air pollution, traffic congestion, drinkable water, low paying jobs, decaying infrastructure, destruction of the surrounding desert, the quality of
Education for our kids, escalating crime and lack of vision, the lack of hope so often found in our city and among our youth Mayor and Council are trying to bring Tucsonans together to talk about community solutions to these daunting problems. Their
Basic message is optimistic: If we can all agree on the same goals—we canm begin to turn things around. They are following a model for community interaction pioneered in other parts of the country that harnesses grassroots vision and grassroots energy to make
Positive changes happen. Example: In Portland Oregon, the child poverty rates dropped 5% within a few months…and considering that Tucson has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, that just might be a good place to start, The Mayor and City Council
Invites you to join this process to create a livable legacy for our children and heirs. The Livable Tucson Vision Program is an inclusive planning process which will identify common values, priorities, and goals that will be used to shape the future of our community, For additional information on the Livable Tucson Vision Program, call 791-
4675.
Sustainability Forums are happening all over Tucson through September. Mayor and
Council want your voice to be heard—to attend the next one call 791-4601 or 323-5049 to find out when the next Sustainability Forum will take place. P.S.—The Tucson Citizen
Featured an article on the last Sustainability Forum that included a picture of seven Midtown residents-all sitting in the front row. Way to go, ladies and gents—you’re so
Photogenic.
HEY KIDS. GO CAMPING AT LAKE PATAGONIA THIS SUMMER, courtesy of Tucson Parks and Rec, Upcoming trips planned are July 16-27, July 23-24, and July 31.
Call Rob Young @791-4522 for more info.
SUMMER SOCCER TEAM SLUMP:
Neal Hepperman, our head coach, needs help. He needs more parent/adult volunteers to help with soccer team practice. People to bring refreshments are needed, as well as parent assistant coaches. Neal will train you on how to coach. We also need corporate sponsors to buy T-shirts for the kids. Summer soccer is meeting Tuesday and Thursday
Evenings from6:00 to 7:00, and also on Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 11:00 thrrough
The end of the summer. We need committed volunteers to help make this happen otherwise we may have to cancel the program. Here’s your chance to keep the Summer Soccer program going—call Neal to find out how you can help at 795-3680.
WE’RE LOSING COUNCIL PERSON MOLLY McKASSON.
Yes, it’s sad but true that Molly McKasson will not seek re-election in November 1996 Ward VI City Council Race. For those of you who don’t know, Molly McKassson and her dedicated office staff were instrumental in helping Midtown residents form a neighborhood association and in helping us pursue our vision for a better life for Midtown residents. They have promptly answered our questions, represented our wishes
To Mayor and Council followed through on promises—in short, they have done what we elected them to do. Many would agree with Molly McKasson is one-of-a-kind—a politician who strives to empower the grassroots—who believes heart and soul in democracy. Indeed Molly’s neighborhood outreach programs are some of the finest and
Most effective that the City of Tucson has ever known. When we lose her we will be losing a powerful ally in City Council. Now is the time to rally as a neighborhood association that Molly’s neighborhood legacy is continued. To that end, Midtown will be hosting a candidate form at our August 15 meeting. Come one, come all, here’s your chance to put a politician on the hot seat—to quiz them about City and neighborhood issues near and dear to your heart. Currently, it looks like the election is going to be a real
Fish fry—so far, seven candidates are jockeying for the $18,000/year “part time” job.
Midtown, Blenman Elm, and Palo Verde Neighborhood Associations have special concerns: Will we continue to get the kind of support from our new council person on the
Issue of Pima Street that we have gotten from Molly McKasson? And what about the neighborhood library/learning center? Molly puts in 60-80 hour work weeks on this “part-time” job –just how much time and energy do each of these candidates propose to give us? We hope to get some answers to these and many more questions in August. See you there.
“YOU MEAN WE GET PAID TO DO THIN?
Neighborhood kids never had it so good. Our summer Youth Development Jobs program is keeping the kids busy busy busy. Here is a sampling of some of the activities
They are involved in: Eleven kids are surveying the neighborhood looking for people who need services that kids and neighbors can provide.The kids have done a great job so far. Survey results have turned up lots of folks needing help with yard work. One person needed help “keeping an eye on my kid as I try to get my work done” and one response indicated a need for “entertainment for elderly lady like playing games, bingo, card games….” As it turns out, we have a number of small adult care homes in the neighborhood. David Kha has the survey result. Anyone interested in serving neighbor to neighbor should contact David at 323-8278. Here is an opportunity to give as much or as
Little time as you have free to make a big difference in a neighbor’s life.
Lisa reported that the Youth Development kids are doing a great job in the youth-to-youth mentoring program at Wright Summer School. Eleven teachers and 170 elementary school kids are participating in an environmental-study unit on schoolyard
Ecology this summer. And the Catalina High School kids mentoring the younger children
Are just as excited about the project as the Wright School children.
And there’ more. Our summer jobs program also includes the Midtown Bike Club Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The kids will be taught to do minor bike repair aand they can then continue to do this kind of work throughout the neighborhood
And they will also help out with the small community garden now being formed on
North Street. And David Kha will be providing workshops for the kids on “how to build your own ccomputer.”
Thanks to the wonderful volunteers who put together this program, these kids are learning lots of new skills this summer—and getting paid to do it.
NO NEEDS SURVEY IS COMPLETE WITHOUT A CAPACITY INVENTORY…
And neighbors Christina Rosetti and Ruth Bagley Hve volunteered their time to help us create one. Christina reported on the exciting concept of “asset mapping” at our June
Meeting. As well we know, the current model of fixing broken communities runs like this
“Show us your scars.” It focuses on people needs without looking at their gifts. But people aren’t happy just being the recipient of services—the real question to ask is “how can people rebuild their own communities, the glass is half-full, not half empty. Instead of “whats wrong” they are asking “what can you give?” Think of a carpenter who has lost one leg in an accident years ago. Clearly, he has a deficiency. However, he also has a skill. If we know he has a missing leg, we cannot build our community with that information. If we know he has a capacity as a good wood worker, that information can
literally build our community. Christina and Ruth will be designing a Capacity Inventory for Midtown. To do that they need to hear from us: what are the goals and projects we as
a community would like to complete—or begin? To brainstorm, or to find out more, call
Christina at 318-6907.
CARRI RONDEAU REPORTED ON THE JUNE 1 STAND FOR CHILDREN at our June meeting. June 1 is the National “Stand for Children” day—which is a day when we as a nation take a look at our commitment tot children—the next generation. This year, we had a carnival at Wright School playground on June 1. Carri reported that at one time there were about 100 people present. The news cameras were rolling. Kids could cool off
With hoses. There were popcorn, snocones, watermelons, a DJ, a jumping castle, and bowling games. Carri brought pictures of Lisa Langord doing the Macarena with the kids. Carri emphasized that everything at the carnival was donated. Businesses gave generously of their time and resources, even though most of them were only notified the
Thursday before the event. The DJ (E-MEDia) was great. They played all the songs the kids wanted and they gave away free whistles on key chains (mercifully) at the end of the
Event. At Nash Elementary where Carri works,they had a food drive for the Wright School Food Bank, and collected 6 playpen-sized boxes filled with food. Carri brought in
One box containing 50 pairs of tennis shoes for Wright School Kids. (Did you know that one-in-four of Tucson’s kids—mostly children of parents in minimum wage jobs—live below the poverty line? Believe it or not, in the richest country in the world, these kids aoften can’t participate in sports and physical education classes because they don’t have
Adequate shoes). One volunteer was so inspired by our June 1 celebration, that she handed Carri an $80 check to go buy tennis shoes for kids. Carri extended her heartfelt
Thanks to all those volunteers who made our Stand for Children a meaningful one at
Midtown. If ou would like to help out at next year’s Stand for Children, call Carri at 795-1478.
The lost child, Crying, crying, but stll Catching the fire-flies. –Ryusui
AN ANCIENT CEREMONY takes place in the heart of Midtown every year. How many of you know about San Juan’s Day? June 24? The Botanical Gardens on Alvernon and Grant hosts this annual celebration. This year’s crowd filled the TBG parking lot and overflowed into the Fry’s parking lot. The sunrise ceremony began with a blessing given by David Galaz who called upon the gifts of the four directions and thanked the abundance of summer rains coming our way. Afterwards, the crowd was invited to participate in traditional Native American dances and the (optional) water fight. It was truly a blessed event, and we are honored to live in such close proximity to this ancient, and renewing ceremony.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE, as opposed to incarceration , is an exciting new program now
Available to Midtown for first time juvenile offenders. Jim Kitt from the Pima County Juvenile Court Center gave a presentation at our June meeting on the new Restorative Justice program, which arises from the new Juvenile Law. It is a “diversionary” program for non-felony youth offenders. Most people don’t know that 60-75% of kids going through our court system are one-time offenders. Restorative Justice provides an avenue
For these kids to pay back the community—to be “restored” to society—to make whole and, hopefully, be made whole as a result. Here is how it works: A child is arrested by a
TPD field interview, he is referred home (if it is a safe environment) or sent to Juvenile Court for “intake” processing. During intake the decision is made whether or not to detain him. Paperwork from all arrests is sent to a probation officer for follow-up. (Midtown will have a probation officer assigned to our area who will know us and the kids). If the child admits to the offense, he then has the option of going through a “diversionary” program., such as Restorative Justice. If the child continues to deny the offense, then the Pima County Attorney has the option to pursue prosecution, the finding
Of guilt, and then placing the child on probation. The probation officer has many things to consider when looking at Restorative Justice. There may be an issue of restitution to the victim or to society at large if the crime is victimless. If a neighborhood has a Restorative Justice program in place, that becomes the diversionary program of choice and the child is obligated to use it or face prosecution. Parent and child then sign a contract and the child has to complete his payback within a set period of time, usually 60-90 days. If the child fails, or refuses to complete the program, then the Pima County
Attorney resume prosecution.
How a Restorative Justice Program would work in Midtown. The child and parent(s) must then go before a Neighborhood Restorative Justice Board made up of volunteers.
Often the arresting officer will be present at the meeting, along with any neihghborhood
Volunteers involved in the program. The child tells his version of the story, the parents tell theirs. Then the Board decides which Restorative Justice programs the child will participate in and how many hours of time will be required from the child. As one woman
Commented at the meeting “we’ll certainly find plenty for them to do” . The children are
Supervised by neighborhood volunteers. An interview process, background check, and
fingerprinting of volunteers are provided by Pima County—thereby eliminating any potential liability for the neighborhood. Jim says that to be a volunteer, people need to be
willing to be involved, and be able to provide consistency. “Most of these kids are okay. Why throw them away?” Jim went on to describe the tremendous success of the Midvale Park Restorative Justice program, where kids end up taking great pride in the work they do for the community. “What about the boredom factor? Most of these kids just want something to do.” In fact, in Midvale, very often the child on probation will bring along friends to his work assignments and they all work together. Why? Because they all want to do.
Call Margaret at 323-5049 to talk about organizing a Restorative Justice program and board here in Midtown. Margaret also has informational material and volunteer applications. Call Jim Kitt at 740-2063 if you have more questions about the program. Jim can also arrange for tours of the Juvenile Court Center, for those interested.
SPEAKING OF KIDS HAVING NOTHING TO DO…at our June meeting, Dick Basyeof Broadmoor Neighborhood Association gave an inspiring talk on saving the Old YMCA at the corner of 6th street and 5th Avenue. For those of you who don’t know the
Story, this historic building was promised, by Mayor and Council, to the youth of Tucson as the future “Tucson Youth Center,” a year-round recreation center for the kids providing swimming, indoor basketball courts, and adult supervision—a safe alternative to the streets. People were so enthused that supplies and services were offered by Sundt
Corporation and others to refurbish the building at or below cost. But the promise has been forgotten. Currently, a private developer is about to buy the building for private gain. Only $500,000 is needed to make the building useable –the Council voted to sspend
$700,000 to save the Janos restaurant—but where is the money for our kids? Mr basye told of a recent “Touched by an Angel” episode where a small-town sheriff was pushing for money to turn an old abandoned building into a juvenile jail. Then the angels got to work and word got out the abandoned building in question was the town’s old youth center that people had let fall into disrepair, and then abandoned. Upstanding leaders in
the community were reminded that this was the place where they had learned to participate in community, where they had first found a sense of belonging. Once the people realized that “you get what you pay for”—thev voted unanimously to restore the
youth center to kits former glory, Mr, Basye has been our angel in this instance—reminding us of this tremendous need among our young people-let’s all join the Angel Choir and Raise our voices to City Hall. Call 791-4700 (Mayor and Council’s 24-hour hotline) and let them know you do not want the old YMCA sold for private development,
instead restored to the Youth Center that was promised years ago. For more information on how you can help in this drive to save the old “Y”, call Mr. Basye at 795- 1780.
MARTHA COOPER REPORTS:
In July there are big goings-on relating to our mini-library/learning center, because in the early part of August we will be submitting our first proposed budget for how to spend the $150,000 CDBG grant we were awarded. We are particularly interested in input from anyone as to how you visualize this project unfolding. For example, shall there be equal emphasis on the library portion as well as the learning center portion? Just what do we want our learning center to include? Examples might be: adult continuing education, job skill training to help people escape low-wage jobs. Crafts classes and clubs, home repair workshops, life skills workshops such as parenting skills, conflict
Resolutions skills, negotiating problems with landlords, etc. Should we have cooking and
Nutrition classes, small-business start-up programs? Really, it an be anything you want.
We also need to decide whether we will look at purchasing an existing property and
Hiring an architect to draw up remodeling plans, or perhaps a brand-new building, or do we initially do planning only i.e. surveying people for what kind of services theywant and will use
Help us be creative. Call and leave a message with your ideas for Martha at 327-4733 or Anna Marie at 881-0244.
COME OUT TO THE JULY MEETING TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CITY OF TUCSON’S COMMUNITY GARDEN PROGRAM…Judy Ostermeyer will report on the ongoing subcommittee meetings on Community Gardens in Tucson. Right now
There are over 70 community gardens throughout Tucson, and the demand for more is
Overwhelming volunteer organizations. The City is therefore looking at starting a city-wide community gardens program, perhaps spearheaded through Tucson Clean and
Beautiful. Call on Judy at 326-1517 for more information.
MOSQUITO ALERT.
Call Randy Baird at Pima Co. Health Department for flyers and more info 740-2760
On mosquito reduction strategies.
MIDTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
Shared Responsibility Sign-Up Sheet
The shortest answer to any question or problem is doing. To that end, there are many areas where your help is needed. Listed below are some of these areas. Please read through this list and indicate where you volunteer to be of some assistance. Check that which is of interest to you—we’re asking for moral support as much as anything—and want to hear your ideas:
___Stand for Children ___Asset Mapping/Neighborhood Survey
___Chess Club ___Sustainable Community
___Soccer Club ___Library/Learning Center
___Computer Clsses ___Juvenile Restorative Justice Prograam
___Bicycle Repair ___Wright School Park
___Newsletter ___Tree Planting
___Monthly Meeting ___Block Party/Halloween Party
___Traffic Control and Safety ___Christmas Celebration
___Zoning ___Cinco de Mayo
___Pima Street Widening ___4th of July
___Lobbying Mayor and Council ___Community Garden
___OtherActivities? ___One-on-one shopping, errand assistance, etc.
___Other Activities?
Name________________________ Phone #_______________________
Address__________________________________________________________
Comments: (Best time to reach you, how you might like to contribute , you best talent to
Share, etc,)__________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
RETURN TO: David Kha at 4136 East North Street, Tucson, AZ 85712 or bring to the