Photo Essays: March of the Mini-Dorms
April 28th, 2011About 10 years ago, a new kind of student housing started popping up in neighborhoods around the University of Arizona.
Developers were buying old houses, doing interior and exterior renovations, and adding a second story on the back. Then they rented them to groups of five or more students. These structures became known as mini-dorms.
The history of mini-dorms in university area neighborhoods has not been a happy one. Neighbors report that the mini-dorms have been the scene of numerous loud parties with attendant traffic, litter, public drunkeness, vandalism, and more. Many long-time homeowners have sold out and moved away.
UA area resident Joan Hall, shown here in her back yard in the Jefferson Park Neighborhood, has been active in the effort to stop the spread of mini-dorms...
For Joan, the battle turned personal when she learned of plans to raze the historic home next door. The venerable old house was bulldozed this past winter, and mini-dorm construction is now underway.
Most of the homes in Jefferson Park are single story. The presence of a mini-dorm next door means that people like Joan will lose any semblance of privacy in their back yards. Joan uses her back yard for food production, clothes washing and drying, and water harvesting. There's a cistern near the tree that's behind her left shoulder.
Unfortunately, the march of the mini-dorms continues in Jefferson Park. A few blocks away from Joan Hall's place, another historic home was just razed to make way for another mini-dorm...
It's unlikely that the native vegetation shown above and below will be preserved...
Mini-dorm developers usually rip out the native plants and replace them with crushed rock and large cement driveways. The landscaping that is planted is but an afterthought -- and not native to this region.
As for that sign in the above photo, it says "Save Jefferson Park." The section that's missing says "No Mini-Dorms." I have one in my front window, even though I don't live in Jefferson Park.
The reason is simple: In addition to supporting my nearby neighbors in their fight against predatory development, I lost my view of the Santa Rita Mountains when a mini-dorm was built in the next block to the south. That was more than six years ago, and I still miss those mountains.
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Photo Essays: From liquor store to school
April 21st, 2011For many years, the northeast corner of First Avenue and Lester Street was home to a convenience store that sold little more than liquor. Place was a magnet for drug buyers, sellers, and other nefarious types.
We neighbors weren't too pleased with the goings-on, and most of us steered clear of the store. There wasn't anything that it sold that couldn't be purchased at the supermarket on Grant Road at First Avenue.
One day, I was bicycling toward First and Lester and found it blocked off by police crime scene tape. The cops told me to take a different route, as they were still investigating a shooting at the store.
Wasn't too long afterward that the store closed, and the property sat empty for a while.
Then, good news! The International School of Tucson is moving in! And it's taking over a good part of Lester Street east of First Avenue.
IST is an independent school that offers bilingual instruction in Chinese/English, French/English, German/English and Spanish/English. The motto is "Open the World to Your Child."
IST gutted the interior of the old convenience store, then converted it into classroom space. The back of the building, where drug deals used to go down, is now walled in and serves as one of the IST playgrounds.
These days, it's a delight to go by and hear kids laughing and playing instead of having to be on the lookout for hoodlums who used to skulk around behind the store. This curb, at the southeast corner of First and Lester, pretty well sums things up...
Just south of IST's friendly curbstone message is another walled playground. But, since it's an International School wall, it's a bright, cheerful wall. Like this...
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Bicycle Photography: Swapping and Racing
April 18th, 2011Yesterday was one of those "can't miss" days for bicycling in Tucson. Not just for the warm, sunny weather, but for two wonderful events.
The morning started with a Tucson classic, the Bike Swap Meet, which has been around since the 1980s. Matter of fact, I can remember attending the spring 1988 edition, which was held during a monthly bicycle club meeting in the Biological Sciences West auditorium on the University of Arizona campus.
Let's just put it this way -- this event has gotten wa-a-a-ay too big for an auditorium...
If you were looking to buy or sell anything bicycle-related, well, you were in good company. Plenty of it...
One of my favorite things about the Bike Swap Meet is, well, the artsy-ness of it all. It's not just the beauty of the vintage bikes like these classic Schwinn Stingrays...
...there's the elegance and simplicity of the bicycle wheel...
Okay, enough artsy-ness. Let's go to the races!
Downtown Tucson was the place to be if you like a good, fast criterium bike race. Yesterday's Old Pueblo Gran Prix was the first-ever, but I believe it's destined to be a classic...
The Old Pueblo Gran Prix course was only six-tenths of a mile long, which meant that you didn't have long to wait before the racers went speeding by...
I'd like to offer a special shout-out to the men and women in blue who protected the riders from those who wished to walk, bike, or drive across the course...
To some, the cops came across as real hardnoses, but I speak from personal experience when I say that you don't want anyone but racers on a criterium course. Back when I was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I was a volunteer course marshal for a criterium that went around the University of Michigan campus.
Things were going just great until some out of state visitors drove right onto the course. It took a lot of screaming and pleading to get them to move out of the way of the riders. Fortunately, they drove off without incident.
Want to see more bike-tography? Pedal your browser over to my Bicycle Stock Images site, now including photos from Tucson Bike Swap Meet the and the Old Pueblo Gran Prix.
Tip: You can view more event photography in my portfolio and on this blog. I am also available for event photography assignments in Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. I specialize in concerts, festivals, parades, political rallies, and sporting events. To check availability and to request a proposal, please e-mail me or call 520-690-1888.
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Photo Essay: Empty Houses, Tucson, Arizona
April 15th, 2011The nationwide real estate meltdown has hit Arizona hard. Our state has one of highest foreclosure rates in the country. And you don't have to look very far to find evidence in central Tucson...
If it's not the signs announcing foreclosure, it's the empty houses. Not all have been taken back by banks. Some may have been occupied by owners who are now deceased, and the family's still sorting out the estate. Or there's been a divorce where the property settlement is ongoing.
But they're empty nonetheless. A few have been boarded up for quite some time...
...and others are see-through houses. No one's home, and no one's going to be home anytime soon...
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Nature Photography: Green at Last
April 8th, 2011Back in early February, a hard freeze hit Tucson and southern Arizona. Daytime highs just made it into the forties, and the nighttime lows were in the teens.
The extreme cold was quite rough on the local plant life. Frozen prickly pear cactus dropped their pads or fell over. And our hardy mesquites made like the trees up north and dropped their leaves.
So, we Tucsonans looked forward to spring with more than the usual amount of anticipation. And we weren't disappointed.
I've been delighted to see my front yard mesquite donning a new coat of finery in just a few days...
The prickly pears? Let's say that even the damaged plants are making a very nice recovery and sprouting new growth...
Tip: You can view more nature photography in my portfolio.
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Photo Essay: Shoefiti, Tucson, Arizona
April 5th, 2011Shoefiti is one of those things that isn’t unique to Tucson.
It’s the practice of tying a pair of shoes together, then tossing them at overhead wires. The goal is to get them hanging up there for all to see.
This example of accurate tossing can be seen along North Fourth Avenue…
Which begs the question of why one would toss a perfectly good pair of shoes to a place where they can’t easily be retrieved. The answer is: No one knows.
Among the nefarious, but popular, explanations are:
- Illicit drugs are used and sold at this location.
- A bully has stolen a pair of shoes and tossed them up high to taunt the theft victim.
- This is gang turf. Rivals, beware.
Other, more benign, explanations? Well, there are a lot of them too. Here’s a sample:
- These shoes don’t fit. So, out of my life they go…
- I’m moving up and out of this neighborhood. ‘Bye, everybody!
- Hmmm, let’s see if I can get these shoes up over that wire…
The Fratricide Angle
Near where the above shoes are dangling, a murder took place. That was back in the fall of 2005.
Two brothers got into an argument, one shot the other, and left him to die on the street. I’m told that when the police call went out, an officer said, "Two down."
This past fall was the fifth anniversary of the young man’s death. A small shrine — with a cross and flowers — was placed along Fourth Avenue near the current location of the dangling shoes. The shrine stayed up for a few weeks, then vanished.
Are the murder and the dangling shoes related? The answer is: No one knows.
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Event Photography: Cyclovia Sidelines
April 1st, 2011My previous Cyclovia Tucson post focused on notion that streets aren't just for cars. People traveling under their own power also have a place.
This post will cover one of the greatest benefits of self-powered travel: An enhanced ability to see and hear what surrounds you. With this thought in mind, let's look at the Cyclovia sidelines.
An abandoned gas station on South 4th Avenue near 22nd Street is still home to a barrel-ful of Santa Rita prickly pear cactus...
Further south, the Cyclovia riders met up with a musical extravaganza, starting with Mariachi Aztlan de Pueblo High School...
Near the southernmost point of the Cyclovia course, riders got a thumping-loud salsa serenade...
Tip: You can view more event photography in my portfolio and on this blog. I am also available for event photography assignments in Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. I specialize in concerts, festivals, parades, political rallies, and sporting events. To check availability and to request a proposal, please e-mail me or call 520-690-1888.
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