The Los Reales Landfill is getting a new name—and a new mission.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the Tucson City Council voted this week to rename the Los Reales Landfill as the Los Reales Sustainability Campus.

It is part of a larger planning effort to achieve waste reduction goals established by City Council in a Climate Emergency Declaration.

The declaration committed the City of Tucson to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 and to become a zero-waste city by 2050, with an intermediate 50% diversion goal by 2030. The city currently spends more than $8 million per year at Los Reales for waste processing and disposal operations. 

“To become a zero-waste city, we must fundamentally change the way we view waste—from a liability to an asset,” Romero said in a prepared statement. “The Sustainability Campus is an outside-of-the-box initiative to transform Los Reales from merely being a landfill to a sustainable space—illustrating our city’s commitment to acting on climate.”

The project will also update the layout of Los Reales, designing it for new sustainability uses, including allowing solid waste/resource management companies to locate at this campus, space for a city tree nursery to help supply the Tucson Million Trees campaign, installation of solar panels and 500 feet of buffer between the campus and adjacent properties.

“The Los Reales Sustainability Campus will be a catalyst in attaining many of the city’s sustainability goals while yielding extensive community benefits for current and future generations,” said Carlos de la Torre, director of the Environmental and General Service Department.

City staff is working with the Mayor’s Office, the City Commission on Climate, Energy and Sustainability, the Environmental Services Advisory Committee, Mayor Romero’s Climate Action Advisory Council and community stakeholders to outline a plan to achieve zero waste at Los Reales.

State lawmaker Kirsten Engel, a Democrat elected to her first term in the Arizona Senate in 2020 after serving four years in the Arizona House of Representatives, is in the race for the retiring Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick’s seat. (The district lines are scheduled to be redrawn before the 2022 election by Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission.) Engel is an attorney who has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency and taught environmental law at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. Also in the race: Engel’s fellow state lawmakers Rep. Randy Friese and Rep. Daniel Hernandez. (You can find Friese's Q&A here; Hernandez's interview will post on Friday.)

What makes you the person for the job?

I'm a mom, I am a working parent, I've lived through some of the challenges and stresses that families have faced, especially working women during COVID. And I think that gives me perspective and even more understanding of this district, and even more interested in a post-COVID recovery, so that we come back out of this pandemic stronger than ever. We have some real opportunities here. And I think, my experience—as a legislator, as an attorney, as an environmental law professor and somebody who's worked on water issues—puts me in a really good position to deal with some of the challenges we're facing. We're facing issues in terms of investing in our infrastructure. And I'd say that's both hard infrastructure—you know, roads and bridges, digital broadband, EV charging stations—but also that social infrastructure that is so critical to getting parents, moms, back into the workforce, finishing their degrees. And those are things like childcare subsidies, workforce training programs, things that really will make the difference in terms of getting families back to work. And getting people who have been left out back to work, you know, women people of color. So, that's going to be my primary emphasis.

What do you make of the ongoing audit of the Maricopa County election?

Well, I could call it something other than an audit. But I will refrain from that. But I think it's really harmful and it is really endangering our democracy. And it's really trying to and it might be succeeding and perpetuating this conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen. And that is entirely untrue. And it's also opening up citizens’ voted ballots to scrutiny by conspiracy theorists and their contractors. And I'm just concerned about the sanctity of our ballots, and could they be corrupted? And we've already heard from Secretary of State (Katie) Hobbs that the voting machines now cannot be used after they've been tampered with by the auditors. And that's costing the citizens money, that's millions of dollars. So I'm concerned with what it's saying and perpetuating this myth that there was something wrong with that with the election, as well as what it might do with respect to the concrete evidence of the 2020 election.

Were you disappointed that a proposal for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was blocked by a Senate filibuster?

Yes, I was. I do think that a bipartisan commission to investigate that was in order. That was a really sad day in American history. And I think that we should know more about who was behind it and who was involved with it. And it seems like that commission would have been on track to do that.

How do you grade Congress's response to the pandemic overall?

Tucson's Environmental and General Services Department is holding hazardous waste collection events, allowing residents to drop off hazardous waste, electronic waste and paper documents for shredding at no charge.

The next event will be 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, July 10, at the Eastside Service Center at 7575 E Speedway Blvd.

The events will continue every second Saturday throughout the year at various locations:

• July 10 – Eastside Service Center – 7575 E. Speedway Boulevard.
• Aug. 14 – Pima West Campus – 2202 W. Anklam Road
• Sep. 11 – Pima East Campus – 8181 E Irvington Road
• Oct. 9 – Pima Downtown Campus – 1255 N. Stone Ave.
• Nov. 13 –Tucson Rodeo Grounds – 4823 S. Sixth Ave. (enter on Third Avenue)
• Dec. 11 – Hi Corbett – 700 S. Randolph Way

Acceptable waste: automotive fluids, engine oil filters, rechargeable batteries, lithium batteries, cleaning products, drain openers, cooking oil, fluorescent lamps and bulbs, wet paint products, solvents, hobby chemicals, pesticides, lawn products, pool chemicals, propane cylinders, computer equipment, printer cartridges, and other items labeled as acid, flammable, caustic, poison, caution, toxic or danger.

The City asks you NOT to bring: business or commercial waste, commercial gas cylinders, explosives, ammunition, infectious or radioactive waste, dried paint, alkaline batteries, televisions, or medical waste such as syringes or old medications.

The Loft Cinema is loading their calendar now that they’re back to hosting in-person events, and their latest announcement continues one of their most beloved series: the Cat Video Fest is back!

This new addition of the festival features a collection of funny cat videos curated from across the world, and helps raise funds for local cats in need. The festival includes approximately 100 cat videos, and at less than a minute each on average, there’s plenty of opportunity to rapidly see all types of feline fun.

A portion of ticket sales from these screenings will benefit Tucson’s Hermitage No-Kill Cat Shelter and HOPE Animal Shelter. The Cat Video Fest 2021 is only available in theaters. The Fest runs from Friday, July 23 through Wednesday, July 28 (except Monday), on the Loft's big screen. $10.

Read more on the Loft's website. 

TUCSON – It’s been a year since the Bighorn Fire blackened broad swaths of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. Now, a recent tour of Catalina State Park and Mount Lemmon reveals sprigs of new growth peeking through the forest floor. Wildlife, including bighorn sheep, are returning. Life in Summerhaven, a tiny community near the summit of Mount Lemmon, has returned to normal.

But at a time when more than 20 wildfires are burning across drought-wracked Arizona, the memory of – and respect for – fire is never far away.

“The mountain was lit up like the Fourth of July, and it was very startling to many people – scary, in fact,” Mark Hart, public information officer for the Arizona Game & Fish Department, recalled on the news media tour.

The fire began June 5, 2020, after lightning struck the Pusch Ridge Wilderness. It burned for 48 days, growing into one of the biggest fires in Arizona history at nearly 120,000 acres.

Residents of the Southwest are intimately familiar with the devastating effects of fire on homes and businesses, but Hart said wildlife in the rugged Catalina range can benefit from such events as the Bighorn Fire.

“It clears dense vegetation, promotes new growth and, indeed, can alter the landscape in many positive ways,” he said.

Harkins Theatres is hosting Tune Squad vs. Goon Squad Space Jam: A New Legacy Special Event on July 17 at Tucson Spectrum 18.

For only $12, guests get a ticket to see the movie, a small popcorn, a mini basketball and a part in the Tune vs. Goon face-off. Guests can wear orange to show their Tune love or purple to cheer on the Goons.

NBA future Hall of Famer LeBron James goes on an epic adventure with Bugs Bunny with the animated/live-action event Space Jam: A New Legacy.

When LeBron and his young son, Dom, are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes to victory over the A.I.'s digitized champions on the court: a powered-up roster of professional basketball stars as you've never seen them before.

To purchase tickets, visit Tucson Spectrum 18 or Harkins.com.