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About this Website

The central, but not sole, focus of Urban Issues is on events associated with evolution of a city or metropolitan area through growth and redevelopment, i.e., the cross-correlated dynamics of neigborhoods, government, the media, business, and developers.

Our intent is, broadly:

• to inform;
• to entertain;
• to foster a sense of community;
• to inspire action.

Specifically, we will provide:

• archives;
• news;
• essays and commentary;
• photos and maps;
• and selected links to websites that are amusing, interesting and useful.

A particular concern of Urban Issues is the siting of Big Box retail stores (i.e.. Wal*Mart, Home Depot, and other warehouse stores) within dense residential neighborhoods. In 1999, the owners of El Con Mal announced the intention of building one or more Big Box stores. Three of the neighborhoods surrounding El Con Mall are Historic (El Encanto, Colonia Solana, and El Montevideo). The outcry over the inappropriateness of the proposed Big Boxes triggered an amendment of the Land Use Code, with special criteria and procedures applying to a new category, Large Scale Retail. An attempt by Wal*Mart to void the Amendment failed in the courts. They continue to try. Both the Big Box Amendment and the redevelopment of El Con Mall remain high-profile issues in Tucson. Their history serves as a case study of the complex, correlated dynamics of growth and redevelopment.

Urban Issues is dominated by Tucson matters. We hope that the site has interest for those living elsewhere. We intend that as the website evolves its geographical focus will broaden.

Construction of this website was begun on May 7, 2002. It went online May 22.

If you have difficulty viewing or navigating, or have questions or comments, please let us know.

Documents

archives, commentary and essays, mostly on urban issues;

• The Big Box Ordinance and Big Boxes
• El Con Mall
• City, County, State Government [Arizona House and Senate bills HB2250 and SB1114 - change in assessment ratios, increasing homeowner property taxes]
• Essays
  • Ising-Model Analysis of the Developer-Neighbor (D-N) Problem
  • Traffic Physics and Traffic Analysis
  • Technology, Luddites, Privacy, Openness, and Manipulation of a Fearful Populace
• Miscellaneous [crime statistics - example: El Encanto, 1999 to date]

Current Events

active issues and news, ancillary documents, commentary:

• review of the Big Box ordinance by a subcommittee of the Planning Commission: minutes of meetings, reference materials, commentary
• traffic
• miscellaneous, amusing, .....

Resources

links:

• links that are either newly listed here or specially notable.
• a selection of websites that appeal, owing to their oddity, information, sophistication, or ...
• a topically distributed set of useful links to Tucson and Arizona government and non-government websites.
• useful telephone numbers and telephone directories.

Gallery

photos and maps:

• sets of digitized aerial photographs of Tucson and the neighborhood of El Con Mall, a selection from the PAG website:
  color (19 gif files); greyscale (25 gif files)
  • quick tour

Comment

Please Contact us.

Send us comments or contributions: news, photographs, anecdotes, essays, ...

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URL: http://urban-issues.com/Home/index.html
Last revised: December 3, 2002
John Rupley: rupley@u.arizona.edu