The best of Armory Park

Again, the title of the post may not be completely accurate - though let's see how this goes...there's been much excitement and to-do in the 'hood lately. One topic concerns our neighborhood association board, which seems to be working on becoming a more efficient machine. At the same time, there are definitely people on the board who are so wedded to "the way it's always been done" that it's hard to make much progress. It is such an interesting sociological phenomenon to observe - that is, in the moments when I am not so frustrated at certain incompetencies that remain a consistent problem. But lest you think all I do is sit and complain, I'll say that I am optimistic that good changes are afoot.

With respect to neighborhood projects, things may be about to get exciting around here, though as I write that, I think back to every time in the past few years that similar promises have been made. Here's a list of exciting things that are "supposed" to start in the next few months:

- construction of the new 4th Avenue underpass
- construction of several downtown housing projects, including The Post, an exciting project on Congress St
- renovation of the former Santa Rita hotel
- widening of the I-10 freeway

There are certainly others as well, but I don't want to prematurely raise anyone's expectations. If any of these things happen, I will be so happy, and at this point, many of us in the neighborhood are willing to settle for less, if it means progress of some form. Downtown Tucson is such an incredibly cool place, independent of any of these good things, so if they happen, they can only help, but there seems to be in place a critical mass of coolness to begin with, and this keeps me satisfied.

So, there's reason to expect this to be a busy summer in the downtown development department - let's hope it happens!