A reflection

This blog was conceived in a online journalism course at the University of Arizona in conjunction with our class' semester-long project, Borderbeat.net.

In the past few months, our class has written stories of artists, political leaders, caring do-gooders, and even immigrants themselves. From those stories, I have learned the intricacies of the border and how its influence spreads indiscriminately across culture lines.

For instance, the assignment was to create a Web site dealing with the U.S.-Mexico border, but many times over the Border Beat staff would mistakingly write a story about Tucson, or a Tucsonan. As editor, this caused me much ire, but interestingly enough, with minimal tweaking those stories could easily become "border stories."

The reason is that as a border town, Tucson IS a border story.

The culture south of our city limits plays a part in the architecture of the city, flavors the celebrations of masses, and plays on the compassion of the people. Most importantly our proximity to the border morphs our feelings towards the immigration debate. To us, it is not some hypothetical situation that can be solved by men spitting cold logic at a round-table discussion. The long term affects of immigration have enhanced our culture in many ways. It has become an economic strain to the working people, and--as more and more men, women, and children die in the desert each year--it has also dangerously tested our limits of humanity and compassion.

For those who are not fortunate to experience this first-hand, our online magazine is now available to the entire world. I encourage anyone who feels strongly that this country should do something, or anything, about immigration to earn their opinion first--as we are all stake holders here.

The Web site is re-invented each semester and there is new content added every few weeks or less. Next semester, I hope that the staff becomes as passionate about the issue at hand as the staff had this semester.

Additionally, I hope that the class will continue to explore and exploit multimedia offerings of the journalism department. I hope to see more videos and narrated stories, so that the important people we find as journalists are able to tell their own stories too. Their faces should be seen and their stories heard by the world.

...you're on a bike.

This weekend in Tucson held the 25th Annual El Tour de Tucson, a 109-mile biking race that unites the wellness-loving community each year. The race also includes an 80, 66, 35-mile options and a Kids & Family Fun Ride of 4-miles or 1/4-mile.

This year racers competed hard amongst neighbors with a record number of bikers--over 9,000.

Traffic was terrible driving to work Saturday morning.

Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond attended the events of the weekend, (LeMond was the first American to win the famous race), and Tucsonans were excited to race alongside the celebrity, but he didn't end up competing.

Carlos Hernandez of Hermisillo, Ariz. was the champion of the 109-mile race, finishing in a record-setting 4 hours, 10 minutes, and 51 seconds. Just one second behind Hernandez was Michael Grabinger, the winner of last year's race who has since turned pro.

Brent Barber of Tucson, Ariz. and Jim Hays of St. Augustine, Fl., led the pack for the 80-mile event, both finishing in 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 37 seconds.

Geoff Ernst and Gregory Patchen tied for the win in the 67-mile event, both finishing in 2 hours, 33 minutes, and 54 seconds.

And, David Murray of Phoenix won the 33-mile event with one second to spare finishing in 1 hour, 31 minutes and 18 seconds.

Below is a peek at the events of the weekend.

Courtesy of You Tube user rjfonty

...the skyline is more outdated than mullets.

For years the City of Tucson has been contemplating a new addition to its downtown skyline. As a large city that lacks in downtown pizazz, voters approved proposition 400 in 1999 that funded the Rio Nuevo project with the purpose of revitalizing Downtown Tucson. Seven years later there’s little tangible evidence of progress, but developers now have a few things in the works.

For one, big name developers have been competing for a bid to build a 700-room luxury hotel. Tomorrow, the city council will decide who wins.

The selection committee has already made its recommendation.

Garfield-Traub developers have won the big bid with their Sheraton hotel. The Sheraton plan by Garfield-Traub Development is closest to the Tucson Convention Center. This plan has 707 rooms and will cost about $200 million. The main difference in this plan compared to the other competitors is the close proximity to TCC and the spacious built-in convention room.

The construction costs will be paid by the developers, but if the council agrees with the recommendation, Garfield-Traub will will low-interest financing from the city. So, in essence the Sheraton will manage the hotel, but the city will own it. In return, the city will have a new cash cow downtown, supposedly.

Jaret Barr, manager of the project, admits that after so long, the public seems to would be happy to see any change, and that the hotel selection process has taken many years. “There are a lot of moving parts to this project,” he said.

While the hotel developers compete for what they believe to be a good investment, the public is skeptical that the hotel will help or even survive.

The hotel is meant to support visitors to Tucson who visit the convention center and the new arena which construction is already in the works. Rio Nuevo funded an extensive market analysis of Tucson, determining that the city can in fact feasibly support a new, large arena, and in turn a hotel.

Although there are no other convention arenas within Tucson, it will still have to compete with casinos like AVA Amphitheater. Venues like AVA have an advantage, as they have room to cut ticket prices and make up the profits in casino revenue.

However, the new arena will be much bigger with 11,000 seats for ice hockey and up to 12,500 seats for other events compared to AVA with just under 5000.

The amount of money residents can spend on entertainment will affect the success of the arena. Tucson’s median income sits about $2,000 below the national average at $40,817.

The study mentions that the income characteristics of Tucson may indicate the city’s lack of ability to use disposable income on entertainment, although still conceding that the arena is financially feasible.

The hotel will not be as directly affected by Tucson residents’ spending habits, as most patrons will be from out of town. However, if the arena goes under, the hotel goes with it.

“It’s a chicken-and-the-egg thing for us,” Barr said, explaining that the hotel will be built to support the new arena, which will bring business to the hotel, and how both are meant bring revenue to Tucson.

...the dead are alive.

The blocking power of the Arizona-Mexico border is no match for ancient tradition. El Dia de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead, a Mexican tradition dating back to before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived, is celebrated with fervor across Arizona.

The celebration is now a hybrid of pagan, indigenous culture and Catholicism, honoring those who have died.

Below is a great video of this year celebration.






Visit http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/ to learn about the celebration and Tucson's adaptation of the celebration, and stay tuned to http://www.borderbeat.net/ for a special report on Dia de los Muertos and All Souls Day.