DSNA Meeting Minutes: June 2025

Call to Order: 7:03pm

Attendance/Introduction Question: What is your favorite thing about summer in Tucson? Thomas Stellini, Dustin Daley, Natasha Winnik, Noémie Despland-Lichtert, Brendan Shea, Kiana Necoechea, Jacob Hardy, Karen Greene, Prabjit Virdee (LSA), Kate Saunders(LSA)

Changes/Approval to Previous Month’s Minutes: Approved

Treasurer’s report: $520.77 (Change: No Change)

Announcements (External and Internal)

Neighborhood Foresters (Links in Headline):

• Hands-on pruning, mulching, & tree care workshop 6am Saturday, June 28 at NW corner of 11th Ave and University Blvd Skill up to get ready for summer storm damage and Brush & Bulky pick up. Details on the Events page at NeighborhoodForesters.org
• Brush & Bulky pick up July 21 - get your pruning done ahead of time Details on the Events page at NeighborhoodForesters.org
• 2025 annual rain & neighborhood native food forest planting another success
• Sign up now for installation of street-side rain gardens and plantings with the 30th Annual Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Rain, Tree, & Native Food Forest Planting
• Neighbors spearhead four new water-harvesting traffic-calming chicanes and other installations
• Neighborhood Bat Walk & Talk, Time & Date: 7:35pm, sunset, Thursday, June 26th, 2025, Where: SE corner of 9th Avenue and University Blvd by the community bulletin board, Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood, Tucson, AZ. Kathy Gerst, Conservation Research Coordinator, with Bat Conservation International (batcon.org) will lead the walk and talk as we identify what species of bats are out and about at dusk in our neighborhood, and how we can collaborate to enhance their lives as they enhance ours.
• Traffic Calming Circle - The request for a traffic calming circle at 2nd and 11th is approved! Brendan asks that we get a letter of approval from the neighborhood association. Next steps will be fundraising efforts.
• Book Swap - Karen let us know about a book swap happening next Sunday (June 22nd) from 10am-12pm at the Coalition Space (311 E 7th Street)
• Rolloff Dumpsters - We are able to get rolloff dumpsters twice a year provided from the city. We are going to plan to get the rolloffs in our neighborhood in April and October. This will mean between Brushy and Bulky (January and July) along with the rolloffs (April and October) we should have available areas for disposal approximately every 3 months.
• Bus Route 5 - Kiana and Brendan attended the public meeting on bus route changes including route 5. Route 5 was in the top 5 least performing route but would also save the most money which is why it’s being eliminated. A link to the Powerpoint from the meeting with the proposed changes is connected in the title.
• Dunbar Pavillion - Thomas got a response from the Dunbar Executive Director, Freda Marshall, regarding the garden space. They are currently reviving the space as The Dunbar Cultural Garden with the vision to use the garden space as an outdoor event space for tenants, community partners and cultural initiatives. There will be opportunities in the future for neighbors to attend the events they have planned. Thomas has invited them to attend one of our upcoming meetings for everyone to learn more and we’re hoping to continue to build on that relationship going forward.
• Main Library - The Board of Supervisors voted to purchase the Wells Fargo building across the street from the existing library. The county will assess the site and decide if they will move forward with the purchase with the intent of being the space for the new main library. Karen will keep the neighborhood updated on dates and times for public hearings once they are available.
   

Discussion

• Fall 2025 Cyclovia Presentation Pradjit Virdee and Kate Saunders from Living Streets Alliance (LSA) presented to let us know that they are bringing Cyclovia back to Dunbar Spring this Fall (October 26th, 2025). This event did take place through Dunbar/Spring in the Fall of 2022. Cyclovia is an all ages block party that Living Streets Alliance puts on twice a year in conjunction with the city and conservancy groups to highlight communities and safer streets along with providing all kinds of activities like entertainment, food and vendors. The proposed route will start in Dunbar with a hub at 2nd and
• 11th, down to the bicycle boulevard on University and then up 10th Ave across Speedway at the community college. The route will then do a loop in Bronx Park and Barrio Blue Moon neighborhoods. Karen mentioned that the deck plaza as part of Downtown Links might be completed by the event and that may be another option to look into as part of the route.
• LSA is wanting to work together with the neighborhood to highlight what we have to offer. They are actively looking for local artists, musicians, conservationists, etc that would want to be involved with the event. A few initial ideas were raised around highlighting our neighborhood’s water harvesting efforts, tours of our neighborhood public art and a neighborhood association booth for people to learn about our history.
• The two main areas of concern raised were around communication and cleanup leading up to and after the event. Pradjit and Kate outlined the communication plan to residents to make them aware of the event happening and the road closures. People in the neighborhood will receive a mailer a month before the event letting them know and another flyer on their door a week before the event. They also offered to help coordinate volunteers for a neighborhood cleanup before the event and to walk the streets to let neighbors know about the event happening and the closure involved. It was raised that the route through our neighborhood includes passing by two churches that could be impacted with the Sunday date for the event. We’ll be looking for more volunteers to knock on doors and make people aware as the event gets closer.
• Prabjit and Kate suggested we create a ‘subcommittee’ to work closely with them as the event is being planned. If you would like to volunteer for the event, knock on doors to make people aware it’s happening or help with the planning of highlighting our neighborhood, please reach out!
• Sign Stewards discussion: We have neighborhood signs that advertise the monthly meeting that were created long ago. We thought they were lost but they have been found! We are looking for volunteers that would be willing to plan to put out the signs in highly visible places on Wednesday or Thursday ahead of our Monday monthly meetings and then pick them up the Tuesday after it’s held. Ideally we would distribute these across many areas of the neighborhood to spread awareness as far as possible. We have 11 signs and a few volunteers already. We are mapping out what ideal coverage might be and may reach out to individuals close by locations to see if they would be willing to help.
   

Reports From The Field

• A. DNARC (Downtown Neighborhoods and Residents Committee) - No Update
• B. Downtown Links - No Update
• C. Dunbar Coalition - No Update
• D. HFAC (Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition) - No Update
• E. Stone/Speedway - No Update
• F. 11th Ave/1st st housing project - Our previous contact at this project is no longer involved. We have the contact information for the new person in charge. We are looking at inviting them to our August meeting for additional updates.
• G. WAMO (Warehouse Arts Management Organization) - No Update
   

For The Good Of The Cause - Future Topics

Brendan formally requested that we vote on the neighborhood writing a letter of support for the traffic circle at 2nd & 11th. This will be added to next month’s agenda.

Natasha brought up the offer that Plan Tucson gave us to come and speak at one of our meetings. Thomas is going to reach out to get them scheduled to join a future meeting and for us to learn more.

Adjourn: 7:58pm