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Crown of HeartsThe American Needlepoint Guild, Tucson Chapter, will meet at 1 p.m. today at First Evangelical Free Church, 4700 N. Swan Road. Participants will learn how to stitch Crown of Hearts, a Jean Hilton design, using a variety of fibers and decorative stitches. Guests are welcome. Call 529-6064 for additional information on planned activities and/or supplies for meetings. Anger Management The Family Counseling Agency will present a workshop on helping to understand anger and effective ways of handling anger from 7 to 9 tonight at the agency, 209 S. Tucson Blvd., Suite 1. Cost is $50. To register, call Matt Sanders at 323-3952. Get involved with Neighbors: Send news items two weeks before publication to Midtown Neighbors; e-mail questions to Crime Q crimeq@azstarnet.com or send postal mail. The address, e-mail, fax and phone for Midtown Neighbors are listed at the top of this page. Also, please include a contact phone for verification on all submissions. | |
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Sweat, grant combine for better homes and streetsBy Megan RutherfordARIZONA DAILY STAR Driving along three streets in the Midtown neighborhood should be
a more difficult task for speeders now that new speed tables,
bumpouts and traffic circles have been installed, thanks to $165,000
the city pumped into the area in the past two years. A pilot program called Green Retrofit, funded largely by the
city, was tested in the Midtown neighborhood on three streets with
about 10 homes each. The neighborhood is bordered by East Grant Road
to the north, East Speedway to the south, North Swan Road to the
east, North Alvernon Way to the west. The program was aimed at helping residents make public and
private improvements to their streets, homes, yards and alleyways to
achieve better energy and water efficiency as well as improve safety
along streets. Representatives from the Tucson Institute for Sustainable
Communities, TMM Family Services (formerly known as Tucson
Metropolitan Ministries) and the Midtown Neighborhood Association,
which helped oversee the pilot program, met with staffers from the
City Manager's Office Aug. 15 to talk about the lessons learned
during the program that could possibly be used toward other city
redevelopment projects. Anna Marie Patti, special projects coordinator for the
neighborhood, said the city manager's staff was impressed enough to
schedule another meeting in September. By improving the value of the homes with energy-efficient
upgrades and basic repairs, program sponsors said they hope Green
Retrofit will keep older neighborhoods from becoming low-income,
stressed neighborhoods, said Eileen Alduenda, program director at
the Tucson Institute for Sustainable Communities. Homeowners who volunteered to participate in the program came
from the following three street segments: the 1700 and 1800 blocks
of North Desmond Lane, the 3900 and 4000 blocks of East Justin Lane,
and the 4000 and 4100 blocks of East Bellevue Street. One of the requirements to participate was that at least 50
percent of the people living on the blocks had to agree to invest
time, money and energy to making improvements on their streets and
homes. By the time the project ended June 30, residents had spent
$255,000 of their own money on improvements, which included
water-efficient landscaping; low-flow toilets; wall, attic and roof
insulation; new heating or cooling systems; additional trees for
shading; and changing out windows, Patti said. "We far exceeded what we ever thought we would do," she said.
The city's grant went toward $80,000 in actual street
improvements and $85,000 in public and private improvements to
homes. Residents were asked to match government funds with time, work
and "sweat equity" of equal value, Patti said. Also, the grant went toward an incentive fund that reimbursed
residents up to $1,000 for energy- or water-efficient home
improvements. "Part of the problem was that people would use many of our
streets as a shortcut from Alvernon to Pima and vice versa," Patti
said. Residents have told Patti that people driving through the area
have seemed to slow down or not cut through as much with the new
bumpouts and speed tables in place. A bumpout is where a piece of asphalt on the side of the street
is removed and replaced with a tree or other landscaping. Alduenda said that although the program was a success, it is
unclear if Green Retrofit would have funding available in the future
for the incentive funds that were used to draw in residents. * Contact Megan Rutherford at 573-4176 or at meganr@azstarnet.com
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Maid of Cotton |
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UA senior earns A's, reins in dorm dwellers, and she doesn't cotton to unnatural fibers By C. Robert Stump
Maid of Cotton Jen Lutheran is resigned to being on the receiving
end of cornball jokes about her title and surname. In June, Lutheran won a $3,000 wardrobe allowance and a $2,500
scholarship from the Phoenix Cotton Women to represent the cotton
industry before state audiences. Now admirers serenade this University of Arizona senior with the
jingle: "Is cotton 'the fabric of your life'?" And a familiar greeting - familiar much as fingernails across
blackboards are familiar - reverberates in dorms, across streets,
and over hills and hollows: "Hey Cotton!" Understand that Lutheran, who is not Lutheran, is actually
cotton. "I am cotton," she declared to the cotton judges, as she
recounted cotton's passage through time before donning her tiara and
forever forswearing unnatural fibers. While there is no loyalty oath mandating that she wear cotton
exclusively, Lutheran says her wardrobe allowance must be spent on
clothes that contain no slivers of polyester - only pure,
unadulterated cotton. The pageant required answers not as smooth as silk, but as
natural as cotton. Indeed, Lutheran says sincerity and articulateness typically sway
the judges' decisions. Contestants are rated according to the
quality of their interviews and on speeches that sing the praises
of, yes, cotton. The last question the judges asked Lutheran was, "What is the
biggest problem facing youth today?" Her answer: "Families don't sit down and have dinner with their
children anymore." Lutheran believes many parents have abdicated their moral
authority and spend neither quality nor quantity time with their
children. "As a society, we've become so individualistic," she says. "We're
really the 'Me Society' now." Lutheran oversees her own society, of sorts, as the resident
assistant of a University of Arizona dormitory. Her job involves "making sure no one is passed out anywhere and
that there are no fires." She also is an expert in tracing
emissions, wafting through hall vents, of what the Arizona Wildcat
calls a "leafy green substance." A Tucson native, Lutheran models for Barbizon, maintains a 4.0
grade-point average and keeps a watchful eye on children as a
lifeguard for the UA. She is bent on carving out a career in broadcasting here. She has
interned at radio station KRQ and singles out radio personality -
and Lutheran mentor - Betsy Bruce for praise. "She is funny and fast on her feet," Lutheran says. "Betsy is a
celebrity but is humble about it. And she's always helping other
people and her community." Even if her clothing is a bouillabaisse of fabrics.
* C. Robert Stump is a free-lance writer.
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