Volunteers sought

 

Earlier I supported the idea of people volunteering for Gabriela Saucedo. I did this in the light of publicly displaying people I like and what I like about them even from non partisan political view. Though I will for sure like one over the other I mostly want all sides competing to have value, because if they all have value the system is so much more stable and stronger. Also, every one in the community has a potential better life for themselves and to offer others. The way to get that out of a system is to promote it.

Now I am disappointed in Gabriela’s take on people from the Middle East. She blanket them as all bad, basically as all out to harm the united states. She originally seemed very down to earth but then she started talking about how we should not want any of them here legal or illegal and she is an immigrant herself. If you think about that for a minute one realizes how problematic that really is. She should know better and not be willing to say such a thing for a long list of reasons.

In some ways her other statements seemed not down to earth but far from reality. Paraphrased it was something like I don’t have the exact numbers but a whole lot of people from the Middle East are posing as Mexicans crossing the boarder. To the point they are the ones leaving most the trash so as to harm us. They are most of the Mexican boarder drug force as well. We should make them all go back to the Middle East even if they are legal because we don’t want them here they are all out to harm us.

There are people who would want to have the same thing happen to her legal or not. For a slightly different set of conspiracy’s such as a Mexico is really just launching an invasion on us one. She is protected by laws of fairness from such blanketing racist acts. That protection for her is eroding more than she might think and her line of thinking and saying would only serve to hasten the taking away of the very laws that protect her.

I am sorry Gabriela but I cannot ask some one to go volunteering for those kind of blanketing racist statements. It is just to wrong. below is my original post.

to see video clip for yourself visit the link below and scroll down to clip.

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2012/08/28/gabby-mercer-middle-easterners-only-goal-is-to-cause-harm-to-the-united-states#.UD1jPshk55s.email

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Beth and I had the opportunity to visit the church of a colleague of ours at Access Tucson.  There was a social event at which we sat at a table to eat and talk with political candidate Gabriela Saucedo Mercer and her husband.  Gabby, as she is known, is running for a representative position in Congress for Arizona District 7 on the Republican ticket.  I told her what I do through Exist Kind and showed her my work on the electric car project.  We talked about the current state of things in America and the shared desire, regardless of party lines, for someone to be elected to office who truly represents and listens to his or her constituents.  Since one of my favorite things to do under the Exist Kind name is to connect movers and shakers with each other and with resources, it seemed appropriate to let her know that I could do so for her.  Given what you may know about me and Exist Kind, it may surprise you that I reached out to help someone from a political party that I do not typically vote for.  However, I want to maintain some balance in my network and at least hear out what people of varying perspectives have to say, even if I cannot fully agree with them in the end.  Thus, I am turning to readers of this blog in order to find people who might be interested in serving as volunteers for Gabby's election campaign.

 

Take a look at Gabby's website at http://saucedomercer.com/ and see if she shares your values or those of someone you know.  If so, and you or someone else would like some experience with helping a local candidate be elected to represent others with these values, think about signing on with this campaign.  There is a link on the front page to volunteer opportunities (http://saucedomercer.com/volunteer/) and being a grassroots effort, I'm sure she can use plenty of assistance.  Thanks for your consideration!

 

Reminder to Council Member Romero

Since the dust settled on the last local election and the temperature rises on the next one, it is time to remind Tucson Ward 1 councilwoman Regina Romero that a record-breaking chunk of the vote did not go to her. The people thus told her that the issues Beryl Baker ran for are important to the people Romero represents. I feel she must respond to this. She represents the people who voted for her and her opponent. It is evident that most of the people who voted for Beryl Baker voted outside of their party, and they will vote again. Beryl said herself that if a lot of people were to vote for her, then the issues she wants to address are as important to them as they are to her. That is, she would effectively represent the population of Ward 1. Recall that she received 34.04% of the vote, which may be a loss by a large margin, but an unprecedented percentage for her party in Pima County. It would be logical to conclude that such a large percentage would have to come from more than just registered Green Party voters—members of the Republican and Democrat parties, other parties, and independents would have to have also cast votes for her. Indeed, I have spoken with people coming from various walks of life who all said that they voted for her.

If this inspires you to contact Councilwoman Romero, I am providing you with her contact information:

Council Member Regina Romero

Ward 1—Westside/Southside/Downtown

940 W. Alameda St.

Tucson, AZ 85745

Phone: (520) 791-4040

Fax: (520) 791-5393

Email: ward1@tucsonaz.gov

Revisiting John Kromko's RTA initiative.

I was driving down Park Avenue in the midst of the U of A campus one day and hit a cluster of potholes that caused a rumbling, bouncing, and bucking that was reminiscent of Armageddon.  Indeed, it seems an omen for very bad things to come for Tucson if we don't fix our crumbling infrastructure.  In the city's current fiscal condition, one must realize that there soon won't be any money left to make repairs.

John Kromko has some ideas for using Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) funds that were allocated to projects we don't need, based on projections that simply did not come to pass and will not for a long time.  These projections were made back in 1987.  Instead of waiting for these outdated projects to launch and use up that money, John wants to use money that already exists to fix our streets.  He and Kent Solberg said that to fix them, it would cost $68 million and that money simply does not exist to try and meet even half our needs.  It is likely to require another round of raised taxes that will actually harm our tax base, which is were the money comes from in the first place.  Are you following the logic on that?  I'm not.

An example of an outdated RTA project is the widening of Broadway Boulevard.  The projected traffic estimates did not come to fruition and to proceed with the project would demolish 115 business and historic structures that are currently add to the tax base for the general fund.  This plan would also cost $79 million that the county and city do not have.  The bottom line is that there are some planned projects based on projections that, with the many changes in our economy, have completely changed.  RTA executive Garry Hays, however, disagrees with this idea.  He says there is no way that the RTA monies should be used in any other way than what was planned years ago.

Steve Kozachik has his own plan for the use of existing RTA monies.  He says that the RTA has become something that the voters did not choose: a shadow government.  He also said that the voters have a right to re-evaluate how tax dollars are spent as time changes.  It is not right for the RTA to feel that the taxpayers cannot have a discussion about changing how their tax dollars are spent.

Mr. Kozachik and Mr. Kromko have ideas on how to reallocate money from the RTA to fix our roads.  I am sure their plans differ in some ways, but these two very different people with highly different views have a strong common denominator: The RTA has unused money previously allocated to projects that ended up being unnecessary, so the money should be used for the very pressing need for road repair.

As a side note, the streetcar project might have been best delayed until another time because the city and county do not have the money for even simple things like road repair.  Also, the streetcar project is too small-scale to actually make any kind of difference in public transportation.  From what I gather, it was basically a special-interest deal in which things passed and were allowed to happen as the result of appeasing each special interest.  Since it is too late to stop the project with all the tearing up of roads going on, I guess we need to embrace the “Big Toy” and hope that in forty years it actually becomes something that serves the city rather than a mere conversation piece.  It would have been nice to have made the Sun Tran bus system into a very good one that serves the city well.  I have ridden the bus and can think of a list of things that need to change before it is a truly useful system. Additionally, it's likely that the streetcar construction will stomp out many businesses during these economic times when the broke city needs to maintain its tax base as much as possible.  On June 21st, the Arizona Daily Star reported that Sharks Nightclub had closed after being in business for twelve years on Congress Street.  It survived the finicky downtown economy, the always-depressed Tucson economy, and the failing national economy, but not the invasion of the streetcar construction.  It's probably just the first business to go under during this phase of development.

How will Tucson revive with crumbled roads?  How will we attract the vision of Tucson having high-paying jobs, such as high-tech green jobs?  Jobs that will enable the children of families living here to actually be able to stay in here after graduating from the U of A and have a living wage instead of the chronically financially-depressed culture we have always had?  ou might say, “Good! That will mean less people will live here.”  No, I say, if we allow this city's infrastructure to crumble it will mean that more poor people will live here, as has been the case in the past.  We will just grow into one big, hulking, impoverished, cheap city.  Depressed neighborhoods will become slums and we will get that big-city slum feel instead of the almost town-like friendly city we have somehow managed to hold onto.

Residents from neighborhoods in Pima County have launched a petition demanding that the county fix the dangerous potholes in the roads, but the county says it does not have the money to do so because the city has spent the money from the general fund on other things.  This is Tucson's neverending problem.  Once money gets into the general fund, it can be spent on anything.

Back to John Kromko and Steve Kozachik's separate but similar ideas on redirecting the existing RTA monies to meet the needs of fixing the potholes.  This might make it possible for the city to allow the county to have some of its money back.  The problem is that it seems Steve Kozachik is not getting traction on this and is not likely to succeed.  I think it is time to contact our elected officials and let them know that we want them to use RTA monies that already exist, rather than hiking our taxes which is unlikely to solve the problem, but rather prolong it with a quick and dirty fix that will not last.  It would be good to also tell them that if they can't do it, we the people just might do it with an initiative that, in all honesty, might be better than going with Kozachik's plan because of all of the deals that politicians have to make with everyone to get anything done.  This way might cost us a white elephant.

I ask you to consider contacting John Kromko at jkromko@dakotacom.net and let him know that you would like to help him get an initiative off the ground.

If you think about: 1) the full weight of plans that are no longer needed costing us money we don't have, 2) hurting our tax base when we have no money, and 3) the long-range cost of having the most crumbled streets in any major US city—It makes sense to take this very seriously and take action. Our future depends on it.  It is more important than a politician holding onto his or her job for a few more years.

Below is the link to a video of John Kromko explaining his initiative during a segment of my show back on March 10th:

Big new project in the works!

Here it comes!

I've been awfully quiet for a long time now because I'm well underway with Exist Kind's most exciting project yet and I wanted to keep it under wraps until it got well underway.  Video production is a very large part of my work, but it's not always the centerpiece.  Projects such as this sometimes take center stage for a while.  If you want to cut to the chase, scroll through and watch the rough-draft video clips I've inserted throughout this long blog post.

It goes without saying that the cost of gasoline is starting to break the bank for a lot of people and it's all too common to see people trying, perhaps in vain, to sell their large vehicles that get decidedly poor gas mileage.  People are increasingly seeking out smaller cars, hybrid cars, two-wheeled modes of transportation, and still other alternatives.  I've been thinking that I might be able to put my engineering skills to use for the greater good and build small electric vehicles for people as a non-profit service to the public.  I've experimented with this kind of project in the past using scooters, but some research revealed that people are choosing golf carts for their electric-vehicle experiments.  Some of the techniques they've used are very similar to what I tried with the scooters, while others are very different and, truthfully, less innovative.  My scooters also featured "turbo" switches to provide quick bursts of extra speed (in addition to the high speeds I built into them).  These were made possible by the special cooling system I developed.  After one too many trips to the grocery store in my pickup truck, I decided that it was time to revisit the old scooter idea on the slight bigger golf cart scale.  A complete golf cart will be enclosed, climate-controlled for use in all weather, completely street-legal, move at regular street speeds, and have a cooling system to enable it to travel across a large city without the various batteries overheating.  I've read up on what defines a street-legal golf cart and will incorporate the parameters into every cart I build.  Because of the ease of charging and building one of these, it will be able to be much more economical to many people than a full-sized electric car.  People can still maintain their regular cars for long trips or work purposes while driving one of these carts on small errands.  Later, I want to be able to convert gas-powered vehicles for people, again at a much lower cost than they would have to pay for a factory-built or converted car.

Now, to tell you the actual story of what I've been able to accomplish so far along these lines.  Back on Cinco de Mayo, Beth and I made a small road trip up to Waddell, which is an unexpectedly agricultural area between Goodyear and Surprise.  Why the random trip to a random part of the West Valley on a day when everyone out there was partying?  Well, I'd had the good fortune of finding an excellent deal on a used golf cart that was very much intact and just about functional while still being very inexpensive.  I looked around and couldn't find anything approaching that deal any closer to home.  So we drove up to Goodyear, picked up a U-Haul trailer, and found our way to a nice lady's ranch where we chatted for a while and loaded up her old cart.  Since then, I've been working hard to turn this little ranch runabout into a very legitimate electric vehicle that can be driven on the streets of Tucson and give us a much-needed break from hauling around our Dodge Ram at ten miles per gallon of (three-and-a-half-dollar) gasoline.

We're certainly not the only ones in the area with this idea—a family right in our neighborhood doesn't even use a regular car at all, but gets around with their own golf cart.  I've also seen other small electric utility vehicles being driven on major roads in town.  Beth tells me that when she lived in Florida, the residents of the Sun City development down south of  Tampa rarely drove cars around their town but famously got around by golf cart.  What will set my cart apart from these examples, though, is the fact that I am simultaneously building a solar charging station for it that will run on a different kind of solar power: thermal energy from the sun, instead of photovoltaic cells.

Before and After

At the moment, the cart is very close to being ready for registration at the MVD and thus being street-legal and permitted to travel on arterials with speed limits up to 35 miles per hour. To bring it up to code, I've installed new headlights, taillights, turn signals, a hazard-light wand, and a button for a horn that will soon be added for safety. up above you can check out my before and after video clip showing the turn signals. We will have a full featured how to video as time passes so stay tuned. I'll also be purchasing seatbelts and re-upholstering the seats. Soon, I want to enclose the cab and add a couple of climate controls for comfort in all kinds of weather.
                                                                                                                                   
Before beginning to add the street-legal features, I had to take a couple of important systems apart to ensure that they were in good condition and working properly.  Look at the effort I had to put into inspecting the brake system: The lugnuts had apparently been previously put onto the hubs with an impact wrench, so it was, at first, a rather troublesome time removing them.  After some work on them all was well with the brakes, though, and I was reminded to avoid impact wrenches when doing my own vehicle maintenance! You can check out the short clip below to see part of this. Of course we will be putting together a detailed how to video documenting all this.

Inspecting and Reworking the Brakes

After ensuring the functionality of the brakes, it was time to show other motorists that they were working--that is, connect them to the taillights.  It's quite a simple concept: I cut a hole in the brake pedal, inserted a switch, and wired the switch to the battery that is connected to the brake-light portion of the taillights.  When stepping on the pedal, the driver can't miss the switch and thus activates the lights. Also as part of that effort there was the intallation of the turn signals. The video clip illustration below shows this.

Great Brake Light System!

The cart needs a little bit of basic body work before I enhance it at all, as you can see here:

Saving money and fossil fuel is all well and good, but I feel that it is important to take the electric concept a step further by charging the cart with solar energy.  The destructive method of mining for coal in the Appalachian Mountains known as mountaintop-removal mining (MTR) is a growing crisis for both the ecosystem there and the citizens whose lives are being, honestly, ruined by this method.  The odds are good that my consumption of electricity originates with coal and I am very aware that I may well be benefiting from this terrible situation.  Charging my electric vehicle with the power of the sun thus moves me a step away from the use of not just petroleum, but that other fossil fuel as well.  Of course, solar panels have their environmental impact, too, however well-intended they may be.  Thermal has been known to generate an impressive amount of power but has been overlooked because it's too simple and inexpensive for anyone to be able to trademark it and lock out the Average Joe.  It would probably put electric companies out of business, to be honest.  It's this forgotten or overlooked nature of thermal that inspired me to build a thermal charging station.


The way the thermal station will work is with steam that will be created by heating water with a parabolic mirror.  The light is focused onto a pipe that can withstand moderately high-pressure steam escaping from it.  The steam will escape and turn relatively small DC motors connected in series that will be be about double the size of a man's fist.  The motors only have to have a reasonable amount of amperage and a little more voltage than the battery pack they are charging.  The released steam won't go to waste but will be condensed and collected for reuse to start the process over again.  The parabolic mirror is a "pre-prototype", you could say, and the goal is to have it working for a short time in the middle of each day.  Once I'm sure that it's effective and I've worked out the biggest bugs, I'll build an actual prototype. Check out my video of this concept in crude form. The more advanced version will soon begin.

Solar Furnace Concept is Implemented

Returning to the thought of photovoltaic cells--While I am concerned about their environmental impact and their cost, they still have their utility.  They can be used to manufacture new cells or be refurbished.  I'm interested in collecting secondhand solar cells for my future plan of building more of these enhanced electric vehicles.  I want to be able to provide these vehicles and cells to people at a very affordable non-profit price to give more people a break from having to use their gasoline-powered vehicles and to enable them to charge up without the high up-front cost of solar power that might otherwise prevent them from making the switch.  *I am currently accepting donations of your old solar panels, working or not, to make this possible.*  I am also accepting donations of other related items, such as carts (one has already been donated to us), delivered deep-cycle lead acid batteries, and laptop computer batteries.  Computer batteries are great for powering other electrical systems on these carts, such as cooling, climate control, etc.

To sum up, I've started what I think is a great golf cart prototype that so far, has a range of about forty miles, is designed to operate at the maximum legal speed, contains all of the necessary safety lights, and is ready for the horn to be wired.  Regarding the maximum legal speed, I want to distinguish between what the cart is capable of and what it can legally reach.  It legally must be designed to travel at 25 miles per hour and is not allowed to exceed 35 on any street without the driver being cited by the police.  These are the parameters for all street-legal golf carts of this class.  After mine becomes legal, it will be enclosed and climate-controlled, have its cargo space increased (likely with a detachable trailer), and have a cooling system installed so that the demands I put on the electrical system won't strain it, such as maintaining speed on steep hills or using one of those turbo switches I mentioned earlier. You can see it still in its early stages here yet it is very fun to drive and has a very long range for what it is and zips right along.

Here it Comes!

As I continue my research and experimentation, I am increasingly really looking forward to using similar methods to develop enhanced full-sized vehicles converted from gasoline to electricity as I am developing a greater understanding of this comming bup with plans on how to make such things more obtainable to those who would otherwise feel it is out of their reach..  I'll use some the same concepts as on the golf carts, such as design, cheaper ways of acquiring and fabricating parts, and soliciting donations.  This way I can provide very viable electric vehicles to car owners who would like to switch, even part-time, to electricity but otherwise couldn't afford to.  I want to see lower-income citizens be a part of the movement and hope to extend financing to people who want to purchase them and the accompanying charging stations.  I feel strongly that hybrid cars are not a real answer, nor are all-electric vehicles that depend on charging through conventional means.  The electrical grid actually wastes much more energy than it makes useful to consumers, so I want to do my part to move the world in the direction of hyperlocally-generated electricity (i.e., in one's own backyard).  If the vehicles catch on, people will be inspired to increase their use of solar power in their homes and businesses, which will greatly reduce the materials needed to build houses and transportation.

"Animal Teachings From Hayley's Angels": A book to make the world a better place for animals and people.

Please share this link with your networks, such as Facebook, or other social networks that would appreciate it.  Thank you kindly!  Please see the accompanying video below.  This video depicts the 2011 "Caring For All Animals" event hosted by Hayley's Angels, as well as an overview of the work of Dr. Joanne Lefebvre, DVM.

How can we live in greater harmony with ourselves, our animals, and the world around us? How can we communicate better with our animals and improve the quality of life for all? What happens to people and animals when when we die, and how can we focus on the quality of the death experience as well as the quality of life experience? These are some of the questions Joanne asked in her book Animal Teachings from Hayley's Angels Methods.

When it comes to communicating with animals, I offer this example from my own life: My dog Velvet recently came barging into the bedroom, lay on the floor, and refused to leave. Velvet has free reign of the most the house and the backyard but not the bedroom. If it were up to me Velvet would also have free reign of the bedroom too, but relationships always require agreements that meet the needs of everyone. So with this in mind, not only did Velvet barge into the bedroom, but she refused to leave without me leading her out by the collar. While Beth was asking why this was happening, I realized it was because Velvet was telling me that she badly wanted for us to take her on a run. She had not been on one for a couple weeks and the weather that day was ideal for it. We were short on time, but I agreed with Velvet to take her on her walk. In exchange, I wanted from her a quick bath first because she spent some time rolling in the dust and was covered in dust and dirty. She wanted to run out in the Rillito riverbed but because of time constraints, we took her to a nearby area where she and Jane Doe, my other dog, could be let off the leash for a bit. After letting off some steam, the dogs were happy and good, and they didn't try to come and occupy the bedroom. The kind of animal communication that Joan speaks of in her book is along these lines.

She also speaks of controversial issues such as birth control for animals and people, medicine, living for a better world, and many other fascinating subjects. She advises people to know the personalities of the animals in their lives and recognize that many pets' behavioral problems are actually caused by humans. She even touches on the idea that people and their pets often show striking similarities in their ailments.

Joanne also seems to blend humanism with animal rights, two concepts that are too often more like and oil and water when in fact, both are necessary. She believes that taking good care of our animals is a major ingredient in the improvement of society. It is good to love both humans and animals. I can say that I've seen animals teach people lessons of compassion, caretaking, and other valuable living skills. I've also seen communities judged by how they treat their animals—some serious food for thought.

Hayleysangels.com hosts fundraisers for worthy causes, as well as helps the community in humanitarian, environmental, and animal causes. That is why I am asking you to share this link with your friends, as you will be helping Hayley's Angels help your community. Hayley's Angels does this in a well-rounded enough way that some part of it will seem worth your while. So, help get the word out and take a look at this video we put together for her. Joanne is definitely on to something that deserves our attention.  You can find her at the following contact information:

Dr. Joanne Lefebvre, DVM

hayleysangels@yahoo.com OR hayleysangels@hotmail.com

www.hayleysangels.com

West University neighborhood is getting stepped on and your neighborhood is probably next.

 Please pass the link to this blog entry around Facebook or other media because Tucsonans want to be able to build their own city without outside developers or the city government displacing them without their input!

As it turned out, once the petitions were submitted to the City for review, more than half of them had to be rejected due to a small technicality.  It was only long after the City reviewed the language and format of the petition, then accepted it, that it finally told WUNA about this technicality.  What happened was that some fine print had been omitted from the documents: 1) The right of a signer to look through the text of the entire petition before signing.  2) It is illegal for a person to sign more than once.  Petitioners knew enough to say these things to signers, but they needed to be in print to be legally binding.  Now, once WUNA found out about this, they made certain to correct these problems and then continued circulating the petition.  It didn't help those signatures that were rejected, though, and they had to be thrown out.  When I was at City Hall for the review, I observed that the officials who did the reviewing and made the announcement came across as rather sympathetic to the neighborhood's situation.  They apologized and acted as though they didn't want to have to reject the effort.  Interesting ... I hear nowadays that as time passes, it is becoming increasingly difficult for petition efforts to be successful because our elected officials seem to be increasingly opposed to grassroots political efforts from their constituents.  How anti-democratic!  This particular situation in West University isn't just limited to the one geographic location, either.  Other historic neighborhoods are and should be concerned because it opens them up to possible rezoning and veritable destruction, and the people will have no autonomy over their own living space.  The good news is that I'm also hearing that City Council has been receiving a good number of disgruntled phone calls about the results of the petition effort.  So, if you are inclined, I ask you to please assist with this call effort by contacting your respective city council member.  Follow this link to see a list of council members and click on your respective council member to get their contact information. Also, to see this event in action please watch the video below.

Thanks for reading my blog and supporting grassroots democracy.  We can expect to see more action taken by WUNA in some way and I'll be sure to update the blog as I find out more and continue to help.

Repeal the Main Gate Overlay: What's Next

The West University Neighborhood Association, along with a few other adjacent historic neighborhoods, ended up collecting almost 12,000 signatures for their petition.  The total amount of labor involved came to about 2,000 man-hours distributed among over 100 volunteers, most of whom turned down offers of payment for their legwork.  These data were announced on Thursday, March 29th at El Presidio Park next to City Hall in the presence of members of WUNA, other neighborhood associations, and other concerned citizens.  Someone also suggested that a coalition of neighborhoods be formed to give more of a voice to residents.  After all, if the City Council thinks it can just ruin a perfectly good historic neighborhood, evicting residents from their own houses, what's to say that the other neighborhoods like Iron Horse, Pie Allen, or Dunbar Spring would be any more immune?

I'd say that it was a victorious moment for WUNA!

As I promised, I helped to gather some signatures myself and promoted it however I could through my usual media channels.  So far, it's been an educational experience and I'm looking forward to more opportunities to help out.

Update on the Rottweiler (see entry "Good cop.").

I called Pima Animal Care Center last week to ask if they had received a Rottweiler from the police.  I've been told previously that when the police find stray house pets, they turn them in to PACC.  They said that none had been turned in that night or the next day by the police or anyone else.  The good news is that apparently, the dog did not end up at PACC.  Perhaps someone took on his case and tried to find his owner.  That's all I have and I wish the dog luck.

Petition-signing opportunities for Repeal the Main Gate Overlay at the 4th Ave. Street Fair!

(If you like what you read here, please post it on your wall complete with the link that leads to our blog so your friends can see it and remember to sign the petition at the fair.)

Hello, everyone, I just wanted to remind you and encourage you to let the citizens of Tucson know that petitioners for “Repeal the Main Gate Overlay” will be at the 4th Avenue Street Fair this weekend. I want to give you some insight into what it is all about. Yesterday, I was able to attend a petitioner training session, so you might see me at the fair as well because I will be there.

First of all, I am impressed with the stance the neighborhood has taken. It is not about whether or not the students get more housing, it is more about what kind of building will they be housed in and how detrimental that building could be to the surrounding neighborhood. The neighborhood wants the students to get the housing they need. They just want citizens to have a chance to vote on it, since it will be a fourteen-story building that encroaches on historical homes, makes the residents unhappy, requires a zone change that flies in the face of Tucson's culture, and is basically being dictated by someone in Chicago who does not understand Tucson.

One of the things that I noticed about the neighborhood's proposed plan (which was turned down) was that it looked a lot like the developer's plan--just with some very important changes. It spared historical buildings, it was not fourteen stories high but was still several stories, the building would staggers up in height as it gets closer to existing buildings, and it would not put a permanent shadow on some people's houses like the City of Tucson's version does. Residents do not necessarily want to stop the building, they just want it to be available for a vote and for it to be built according the the proper and zoning laws and with respect to the community.

The plan as it exists currently does not comply with the Department of the Interior's standards for development in a historic preservation zone.  It overrides national, state, and local historic preservation standards, and is even missing many standards.  To view the details, visit http://westuniversityneighborhood.org, scroll to the bottom, and click on the WUNA final document. Below are some illustrations of each plan so you can see for yourself what I just mentioned.

I decided to add the next section of material from the neighborhood association to this post for your edification. Please read it and if it matters to you, come down to the fair, have some fun, and sign the petition.

Talking Points for Repeal the Main Gate Overlay

ARE YOU A CITY of TUCSON REGISTERED VOTER? Do you know your Ward number?

DO YOU CARE ABOUT PRESERVING HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS IN TUCSON?

Mayor & council passed an overlay/rezoning in West University that affects all historic neighborhoods in the city. It does not comply with Department of the Interior standards for development in an historic preservation zone. It overrides national, state and local historic preservation standards. This overlay zoning allows for fourteen buildings up to fourteen stories high (159' or 50' higher than the Marriott). It imperils more than a dozen historic structures by creating incentives for demolition of historic properties, replacing them with buildings up to 84 feet high. COT has created high hurdles for historic demolition for a regular citizen but made it doable for a developer. Mayor and council’s overlay (rezoning) has given a developer the green light to build a fourteen-story high-rise near the corner of Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard. There have been no major impact studies completed for this rezoning. Who will pay for the infrastructure costs? The public?

One developer paid for a minor traffic study and has funded the urban overlay design and the lawyer who wrote it. Speedway is already rated as a “failing” street and there have been no sewer or water studies. The City of Tucson, developers, and the West University NA were in discussion for the past eight months AND the plan was just developed in the last three months after mayor and council voted in the Plan Amendment at the December meeting.  Heights and historic properties were included after the Call to the Audience was over and the recommendation went to M&C.

We do not want to stop development. We do want the public to have an opportunity to vote on it and to have proper impact studies done prior to starting. We ask mayor and council to consider the West University alternative area plan which allows for heights (up to ten stories) near Park Ave. and change of use and preservation for historic properties. We do want the city to develop a winning plan with proper studies and relativity to neighboring areas.

“Repeal the Main Gate Overlay”:  As you may have heard, the folks from West University are in the middle of trying to repeal the rezoning of the Main Gate District. Previously most of this the area was height-limited to forty feet. The current zoning now allows buildings of up to 159 feet. While not all of the buildings will be that tall, eventually we will see at least one fourteen-story building a half-block away from existing historic owner-occupied residential. Several others are proposed for the area along Park Ave. where Posner’s Art Store is currently, and also along Tyndall Ave. from Speedway on south.

Why are we going to all this effort and expense to fight the rezoning? We have three basic objections to the rezoning as it was passed by Mayor and Council.

Number one is the process: This project was fast-tracked to meet the time frame of an out-of-town developer trying to meet a construction schedule that has his building open for business in the fall of 2013. Unfortunately the rezoning isn’t just for this one project. It encompasses a twelve-block area from Park Ave. west to Euclid Ave. Much of what was rezoned won’t be built for years. What’s troubling about this is that zoning hearings are one of the few places neighborhoods can voice concerns and guide projects. Sure, we’ve been able to speak out now, but nobody knows what will get built in the future—and once a project does go forward, there will not be any public discussion. Let’s put a number on “fast-tracked”:  From a City Council study session in June 2011 to a rezoning on February 28, 2012. The actual rezoning process was much shorter, initiated by Mayor and Council in mid-December 2011, finalized February 28, 2012.

Objection two:  Scale and context. What that means is, “How does what gets built work with what is already there?” Buildings have to relate to their surroundings. Remembering that this is a rezoning intended to support the Modern Streetcar project, so it’s important to create community in a larger context, not destroy it to replace it with another.

The final objection is that large portions of the area rezoned are in a City of Tucson Historic Protection Zone, or HPZ. There are five HPZs in the city of Tucson: Armory Park, El Presidio, Barrio Viejo, Fort Lowell, and West University. An HPZ is a cohesive area with large numbers of historic structures. It’s an area that we as a city have identified as being worth preserving, and because of this we have adopted protections that encourage the preservation of the buildings in an HPZ. The Main Gate District creates an economic incentive for demolition of historic properties within the HPZ by allowing a historic building that is demolished to be replaced by a building of significantly higher density and therefore higher economic value to the property owner. Why pit the interests of historic preservation and development against each other? Why not craft an ordinance that encourages adaptive re-use and encourages a collaborative process between developers and preservationists?

Find me on Facebook!

Hey blog readers, I'm just reminding you with some shameless self-promotion: If you like what you read here, please log into Facebook and search for me there under "Carl Fiske Exist Kind Tucson" (those are search terms, not my URL).  Thanks!

If you keep reading the blog for long enough, you'll get to see me look like this again :)  (I plant to cut my hair short again and grow it long all over again in approximately two-year cycles.  It's fun and provides me with a variety of looks that help me connect to a wider range of people.)

Good cop.

Tonight, we spent the evening helping another Access Tucson producer and preparing some more of our flyers for distribution, so we were out around town for a few hours.  While we were out, I saw a stray dog loose in the street at a major intersection.  He wasn't paying any attention to the traffic and just managing to avoid it.  He was black and tan in color, so he really blended in with the nighttime street lit by sodium-vapor lights.  He was moving quickly and none of the traffic was stopping for him, unlike Chewy, the last dog I rescued.  He made his way to a parking lot on the corner, so I followed him there to see if he had a tag so I could call his owner.  He turned out to be a large male Rottweiler.  By then, he seemed a little tired and maybe thirsty.  A lot of people in the parking lot were concerned for him and one person even gave me some bread to give to him.  I couldn't really get near him, though, since he was pretty skittish.  Another man and I were able keep him in between us so that he wouldn't escape, but the man was probably about twenty years older than I, so I was doing most of the fast footwork.

I saw the dog sniff around and snap up a couple of food items from the ground (I didn't see what they were), and eventually he took up the bread I tossed to him.  Someone had called 911, so we waited for the police to arrive.  I ended up calling the police as well to get them to come more quickly, since it was hard to keep the dog in place.  An officer arrived shortly after my call and he turned out to be tall, lean, and strong, but I think he was still at risk because the dog could have gotten him with his teeth (he was a Rottweiler, after all).  The dog tried to run away once the officer appeared on the scene, so I had to block him again.  He seemed to have more energy this time and was moving with a greater sense of urgency.  I had to think twice about trying to block him, but I decided that he was more afraid than dangerous.  The officer and I kept him between us and the officer tried to lasso him with some kind of short leash.

At this point, keeping the dog between us started to resemble a soccer game and became even more difficult.  I had to repeatedly dart one way and then the other--like a cutting horse in a rodeo, actually.  The dog seemed to gravitate towards the officer, who was calling to him and trying to be friendly.  Being friendly didn't work, though, and he had to start issuing commands (like "sit", "down", and "stay").  The dog was able to sit and stay, fortunately, and the officer put the leash on him.  It looked like it was going smoothly until the dog really got wild and started pulling on the leash and wildly trying to escape.  He had no intention of giving up and I was afraid for the officer's safety.  The officer looked like he was getting either a taser or a gun ready, so I was pretty worried for the dog's safety, too.  Thankfully, the officer kept it controlled enough and tried to calm the dog as well as he could while still issuing commands.  The leash seemed to be some kind of choking device that didn't release when the dog pulled on it.  He cut off his own air supply and fell to the ground--not a pretty sight.  The officer maintained his cool and as soon as the dog was in kind of a twilight state, he risked putting his hand right near the dog's mouth in order to release the collar and restore the dog's normal breathing.

After all of that, the dog was calm and even friendly, and the officer was able to calmly bring him into his cruiser.  I was impressed by both the officer's sense of restraint and his bravery in risking injury to get the job done.  I told him as much, that he was brave, and that I was glad he was able to round up the dog without injury to either of them.  He said that it was better than the dog getting hit by a car.

I hated to see the dog captured in this way because he's likely to end up at Pima Animal Care Center.  Nonetheless, I'm glad that he was contained so that he couldn't get hurt or killed, or cause injury to a motorist.  He was so determined to run around on six-lane Broadway that he would most likely have gotten killed.  I'd like to give a hearty thumbs-up to the police officer for being brave enough to risk injury for the sake of the safety of the dog and others.  It was important for him to show the restraint that he did, too.  Another dog rescue well done!  Here's hoping that his ultimate fate is a good one.  I'll be alerting my dog rescue network to try to influence this.

Flyer distribution tonight.

Tonight we'll be distributing our flyers about Repeal the Main Gate Overlay to the residents of the West University Neighborhood.  I still need to post a copy of the full flyer on the blog, but in the meantime, here's a small part of our supply that will be unloaded tonight.

Helping to attract citizens to the Main Gate Overlay cause.

I've drafted a flyer to distribute around the West University neighborhood this weekend as a way to help organize people in support of Repeal the Main Gate Overlay.  I'll post a digital version here once it's finished and I plan to get the hard copies tomorrow, Saturday.  Stand by ...

The Influence of a Third Party on Individual Citizens

The entry I just posted discussed an expansion upon one of the issues addressed in my most recent episode of Exist Kind.  Here, I'd like to in turn tell you a little more about the show itself.

My guests were Beryl Baker, Kent Solberg, and John Kromko.  As I said before, Beryl had seen some of my work under the Exist Kind umbrella and was impressed such that she asked for my help with her campaign for office.  She ran for City Council on the Green Party ticket last year.  She presented a lot of very common-sense ideas and promised that if she got very few votes, then that must mean that few citizens care about the issues that she cares about.  Well, she took an unprecedented 34% of the vote--that's over one third--so a lot of citizens proved that they did share her concerns.  She gave Beth and me a lot of credit for doing so well, so we promised to get together again in the future to get some more political ideas and messages out there.  I invited her, Kent, and John to a panel discussion on Saturday, the 10th in Studio A.

Kent Solberg also ran for political office at one time as a member of the Green Party.  In 2007, he ran for the Arizona House of Representatives and though he did not take office, he has continued to stay politically active.  John Kromko was a Democrat in the state legislature from 1976 to 1990, where he took an aggressive, progressive role in his representation of his constituents.  One of his major accomplishments was getting the state to adopt Medicaid in 1982, which doubtlessly has saved lives.

Together, we touched on a number of topics that related both to Tucson politics and longer-range concerns for Americans in general.  These topics included the following:

*appropriate allocations of RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) money

*the necessity of maintaining a city's core

*the importance of grassroots citizen involvement

*threats to citizen involvement and ways minimize them (thus keeping the power with the people)

*whether it is better to build a very limited downtown streetcar system or use the money for improving the existing bus system that serves the area as far out as the suburbs

*the question of whether or not the auto industry would support the streetcar (as it does currently) if industry leaders believed that it would actually make a significant difference

*Repeal the Main Gate Overlay (initiative of the West University Neighborhood against an incomplete process of finding agreement over an upcoming development)

We also rolled in the video of my interview with John Patterson of Repeal the Main Gate Overlay.  Below is a still from the show.  I was unable to embed the video itself here, so under the picture is the link to the YouTube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwVCVQtd_Q)

"No Way Overlay!" (Repeal the Main Gate Overlay)

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to interview a resident of Tucson's West University neighborhood who is part of an effort to correct an incomplete process that was used to push development through.  John Patterson is part of Repeal the Main Gate Overlay and is helping to collect signatures for a petition that ends with the end of the month.  West University is a historic neighborhood of Craftsman bungalows to the west of the U of A, and an out-of-town developer succeeded in convincing the City of Tucson of the urgency of getting his out-of-place project into the neighborhood as quickly as possible.  This caused residents to be left out of the planning process and impact studies to be skipped over.  The residents may well have agreed to the high-rise development IF they'd had a chance to participate in the process.

I was connected with John and this situation through local community leader Beryl Baker.  Beryl had seen some of my work under the Exist Kind umbrella and was impressed such that she asked for my help with her campaign for office.  As you may recall from my post on October 17, 2011, she ran for City Council on the Green Party ticket.  She presented a lot of very common-sense ideas and promised that if she got very few votes, then that must mean that few citizens care about the issues that she cares about.  Well, she took an unprecedented 34% of the vote--that's over one third--so a lot of citizens proved that they did share her concerns.  She gave Beth and me a lot of credit for doing so well, so we promised to get together again in the future to get some more political ideas and messages out there.  "The future" came this month when she brought us into touch with John and a couple of other local leaders working to get things done in Tucson.  So, I'd like you to see one result of this over on my YouTube channel.  Here's the video of my "No Way Overlay" interview:

(If the above link doesn't work, follow this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv7r6ZY1Tt8)

Later that day, we broadcasted my regular programming live from Access Tucson and talked about this, as well as other current issues in Tucson.  See the next blog entry for a link to that and more details.

By the way, work like this costs us a good amount of money for raw materials and fuel used for promotional and publicity efforts.  If you would be so kind, I'd like to direct you to the front page of my website, www.existkind.com, and ask you to scroll down to the small button that says "Make a Donation".  Please consider helping us out with what we spend on printer ink, paper, fuel, video equipment repair, and the like.  Thank you very much!

Upcoming show episode: A perspective from someone other than the Democrats or Republicans.

I'm excited about the next episode of my show and how it seems to be coming together.  Over the years, I've felt that a major third political party would really benefit American politics.  In various aspects of life, I've concluded that when there are only two strongly competing sides to an issue, they tend to lock horns and end up in a stagnant stalemate, and this carries over to America's political system that is dominated by two big parties.  Adding a third or even fourth element can break up this impasse because if two parties lock and fail to make progress, the external elements will gain ground right under their noses.  This negative stalemate thus becomes too costly for those engaged because the external forces will just outperform them.

The idea of a strong third political party, such as the Green Party, has had its ups and downs over the years and people have doubted its success, including myself at times.  However, nowadays, our two-party system has become what many would consider to be dysfunctional to the point at which we would do well to give more merit to third parties and those that do not necessarily closely resemble the dominant parties.  My own thinking on this led me to invite Green Party member Beryl Baker back to the show, along with a couple of other local members.  I consider myself largely independent, as opposed to partisan, so it's my pleasure to present a variety of perspectives.  In addition to Beryl, I'll be joined by former Arizona House of Representatives candidate Kent Solberg and former state legislator John Kromko.  We'll take a look at the current state of things from a reasoned, critical point of view and review Beryl and Kent's achievements as they put themselves out there in their respective runs for office.

I'm excited for this show and I'll post more updates as it takes shape.  You can bet you'll be watching this promising show on YouTube after the fact.  Catch you later!

Final wrap-up of the Philippines charity effort.

It looks like we've done what we can for now with our efforts to aid survivors of the floods in the Philippines that occurred last year.  If you're new to the story, I'll sum it up here for you and you might look through this blog for detailed entries.
In December, I received word of a new subscriber to my YouTube channel--Senator Richard Gordon from the Philippines, who is also the chairman of the Philippines Red Cross.  Just a few days later, I learned of the disastrous and deadly flooding happening there.  These two events inspired me to launch an effort with the Exist Kind name on it to help survivors.  An acquaintance of mine is from the Philippines and I decided I should contact him for input and perhaps assistance with this idea.  Since he and I met while we were working for an Episcopal church, I then realized that a fundraising effort might do very well if it had the support and endorsement of the Episcopal Church.  During a New Year's visit to Phoenix, I stopped by the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona to see if the bishop might consider endorsing the project.  I was not able to meet with him personally, but my visit to the cathedral reminded me of the time years ago when I contacted another bishop to ask for a monetary donation to the organization I was volunteering with.  I realized that perhaps I should just take a direct approach and contact the bishops from all fifty United States.  I sent letters to one bishop from each state to request that they send a donation straight to the Philippines Red Cross for the flood effort and I requested that they simply mention that they were sent by Exist Kind.  I received a few responses in the subsequent couple of weeks, and that is where the project has left off.

I'm planning on bringing in a local Episcopal minister to broker the donations for a future effort.  I'd like to take this approach for any humanitarian crisis that may arise.  We don't yet have a way to keep track of donations and where they're coming from, but the idea is more to tap the bishops on the shoulder and urge them to donate to these causes.  Because of this shift towards a broader focus, I of course will not be referring to it as the Philippines flood effort but rather, something else that we generate in the future.  Whatever it gets named, it will refer to Exist Kind, the Episcopal Church, and relief efforts.  It will occur approximately once per year and only seek out modest donations from each diocese.

So that's the story of this project to date.  Thanks for reading and following along, and I'm looking forward to sharing upcoming Exist Kind projects along these lines.

List of pet PSA video links.

Hello, my friends, I'd like to introduce you to the dogs and cats who are featured on my YouTube channel thanks to the efforts of FAIR.  We are just starting to promote these videos through flyers and social media and I invite you to be among the first people to see them.  Here are the links:

Meet beautiful Bluebell

Ma Petite Chienne! (My little dog!)

Iyonna and Izzie

Carlton, a Great Dog at FAIR

"Boo-Boo", a Bait Dog Fostered by FAIR

Meet FAIR's "Tinkerbell"

Help to Sponsor FAIR's "Charlie"

Revisiting FAIR.

Another thing I'm working on as I return to business is promoting those PSAs I shot in Studio A with the help of FAIR.  Beth and I designed a couple of initial drafts of flyers that I want to distribute to call attention to the organization and once we get the approval from FAIR, I'll post digital versions of them.  They include pictures of the dogs and cats from the taping and contact information.  Stand by for these.

(Remember Bluebell, the husky mix with one blue eye?)

Emerging from the uproar, and other updates.

If you didn't see this on Facebook, here's why I've been out of the loop this month:

"Hello, supporters of Exist Kind: I want to acknowledge all delays and lack of communication on my part and apologize sincerely for it. In the last few weeks, my role of caregiver has been brought to the forefront. Recently, I was given some real property in exchange for supervising my very elderly parents (ages 82 and 97). My mother recently fell very ill and I have had to tend to her in addition to my usual duties to my father. I've been running her around to the emergency room and calling ambulances as she deals with both recovery from a blood clot and working her way through pneumonia. All of this has led to a significant transition in the household and my assuming of greater permanent responsibility for all household functions. So, my outreach and video production efforts have been on hold as I figuratively put out many different fires. I expect the bulk of this transitioning to be done by the end of the month, so I'll be at full power by then. Thanks so much for your time and energy towards Exist Kind!"

So that's why I've been away from the blog and staying low-key on everything else.  However, by the time you're reading this, progress is slowly but surely underway.  I'm currently balancing the life transitions with my usual Exist Kind work.  As a result, I can share some new things with you.

I've decided to actively look for an Episcopal minister who would be willing to act as a liaison between donating dioceses and beneficiaries for upcoming charitable efforts.  I have someone in mind with whom I'd like to talk first, and I'll look to others if necessary.

This Saturday the 25th is the annual Peace Fair here in Tucson, if you're not familiar with it, which is sponsored by the Tucson Peace Center.  Beth and I always look forward to attending and we always get to talk with interesting people, pick up good literature, and hear good music.  We're planning to attend Saturday if no more emergencies or problems prevent us.  Look for me in my yellow Exist Kind t-shirt with a redhead at my side.

I have more to tell you, but I'd like to put it in a separate post, so stand by.  Thanks for reading!

Responses are coming in!

We've gotten our first couple of letters back from our big mailing!  Pictured here is the one from Albuquerque.  The process appears to involve an executive assistant who screens requests like ours and then passes them along to the bishop at their discretion.  We saw this in action in a slightly different manner when we visited the Diocese of Arizona, as I mentioned in that previous blog entry.  Keep your fingers crossed so that we pass muster with the other bishops, and stay tuned.  I hadn't planned on posting updates because we didn't design a system for tracking donations this time, since they're supposed to go directly from the dioceses to the Red Cross.  But, recall that I did ask the bishops to mention Exist Kind to the Red Cross if they donated, so I hope to get wind of a few donations to share with you here.

Letters to Episcopal bishops are in the mail!

The photo above shows our stack of letters that we sent to Episcopal bishops in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.  Thank goodness for mail merge tools in word processing software!  After a few obstacles, we now are ready to launch the campaign in earnest and see if we can't do something for the flooding survivors in the Philippines.  Now we have a plan and a template to work from for future similar projects.  It feels good to say we've done our part in another project for the greater good.  As time goes on, we plan to occasionally do the same thing for other humanitarian causes--not overly tapping the bishops for a lot of money, but calling on them about once a year or so for a modest donation when we identify a cause such as a natural disaster.  We really want to include a church minister to act as a liaison between the bishops and the beneficiary to reinforce the legitimacy of the cause.  For now, stay tuned for updates on future mailings like this.