As of this afternoon, commuters and shoppers could park for free on the west side of Fourth Avenue, but certain patches of the east side of the street have brand new parking meters that are fully functional and taking coins, cards and app-based payments. 

Just like downtown, these meters are set at $1 per hour of parking. Donovan Durband of Park Tucson says the money made from these meters will go to back to funding parking infrastructure in the city, which may eventually include the construction of a parking garage off of Fourth Avenue. He says that he can see a garage setup similar to the Centro Garage that also offers retail and residential space.

In the beginning of the year, I wrote about Living Out Loud, the first clinic and wellness center primarily focused on LGBTQI people to open in Tucson. 

The clinic, a child of CODAC Behavioral Health Services, has functioned since December, but will celebrate its official opening this week. The event will feature a tour of the place, refreshments and speeches by state Rep. Victoria Steele, members of CODAC, the GLBT Chamber of  Commerce, the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance and others. 

When I visited the LOL crew in January, a few psychologists had already been seeing some patients, and there were lots of white walls and desks they hoped to fully staff by spring with primary care doctors, therapists, and other health and wellness providers to care for LGBTQI adults and children as young as 6 years old. 

“These populations are all very different and have different needs when it comes to their whole health care,” said Dennis Regnier, CODAC president and CEO, in a statement. "We are proud to be able to offer the core elements of excellent mental health and primary care, with staffing and program components that are specialized to the populations being served.”

All staff and volunteers are LGBTQI-identified and allies who have worked with the community, with some of them transferring to LOL from the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation and other CODAC facilities.

The place fills up a huge gap in health services for LGBTQI people. There are too many avoiding a doctor's visit for fear of discrimination, so bravo LOL.

The opening is Thursday, March 5 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the clinic, 3130 E. Broadway Blvd. For more information, call 327-4505.

Matt Rios of Maker House says the past two years of renovating and running the community space has involved 60 to 80 hours of work a week for him, but the journey has been rewarding. Despite all of that work, the team has announced that on April 11, the venue, restaurant, coffee shop and bar will shut down.

"It's been two really, really hard years of work," Rios says. "But it's been so worth it."

Cowgirl Rachel Dice gives a barely perceptible nod. The gate swings open.

Dice and her horse Katie shoot forward, angling to the right where a barrel waits amid dry mounds of dirt. Rider and mare slow as they approach the barrel, leaning their bodies into the curve. Dice’s white shirt billows in the lashing wind.

Dice and Katie successfully clear the second and third barrel, placed in a triangle formation. As they head back toward the gate Rachel gives Katie’s chestnut muscles a spurt of kicks, urging the horse faster during the last stretch.

Get your planners out, folks, because the Heirloom Farmers Markets and Living Streets Alliance have announced the dates for this year's Tucson Tandem weekends. The pair of two day events blend the Viva La Local Food Festival and Cyclovia Tucson into a weekend long celebration of two of the best things known to man: good food and bicycles.

On Saturday, April 18 from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Viva La Local will take over Rillito Park to present all things Tucson food including 25 of the town's best restaurants, over 80 farmers market vendors, local brewers and vintners, and more. Samples of both food and drink for the day run at $5 a pop and entry is $6 for adults and free for children under 12. Proceeds go to benefit the Heirloom Farmers Markets. Should you bike to the event, there will be a complimentary valet and if you buy a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables, a veggie valet will be there to watch your goods while you dine and imbibe on the park's East Field. Live music will include Tesoro, Cadillac Mountain and more.

Then on Sunday, April 19, downtown Tucsonans can celebrate a glorious five-mile stretch of carless streets from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. The sixth annual festival isn't about getting anywhere quickly or going a long distance—the day is just about imagining the city with fewer cars on the road with 50,000 of your fellow Tucsonans. Whether that means walking, skating, cycling, unicycling or whatever other alternative mode of transport that you fancy, Cyclovia is just a good day to get out and see downtown and south Tucson.


Tucson Tandem has also announced the whole thing will happen again Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 for the fall festival. After all, it's never a bad idea to look ahead past the expansive wasteland of summer to the glimmer of hope known as the end of October.

For more information, visit the Viva La Local and Cyclovia Tucson websites. 

After less than a year of running Tru Vibe Lounge Hookah & Vapors, Adam Brock is putting his hookah and e-cigarette business up for sale, but not in the way that you might think. On Wednesday, Feb. 18, Brock posted an ad via Craigslist to help draw attention to the sale of his business, which is located at 22nd Street and Wilmot Road.

"It was more of just a way to make a public announcement quickly," he says. "I'm not dedicated to idea of it selling through Craigslist, but I'm hoping to make some contacts."

The lounge's LLC, along with all of the shop's assets, are on sale for a listed asking price of $25,000. Brock says the decision to sell came after about three and a half months of renovation to try to convert the head shop into a medical marijuana club.

"I can't afford to float it anymore because I had to close it during renovation," Brock says. "I've basically been living off of credit cards."

He says that in the future he hopes to open an MMJ patient lounge elsewhere, but it'll take time. Until then, interested parties can contact Brock through the Craigslist ad, which lists all of the following incentives in the asking price:

Fully Operational Business
Low Overhead
2 Entrances
Private, Enclosed Parking Lot
Split into 2 Rooms with a 3rd Room Reception Area
Lounge and Retail Can be Separated
Reverse Glass on 2 Doors
Possibly take over Insurance Policy
Central Alarm
Monitored 24/7
Motion Sensor and Panic Button
Intelligent Control Panel with Remote Access
Security Camera System
4 Cameras, Monitor and DVR
Internal and Cloud Storage w/Remote Access and Viewing
Air Conditioning and Heating and a Swamp Cooler
Private Office with 2 Doors
Internet and Phone via COX Business
Router set to Provide Free WI-FI
Sharp 207 Programmable Cash Register
possibly take over Card Merchant Services through Wells Fargo with Additional Operating Accounts
Accept Any Card/Chipped Card
Large Depository Safe - New in Box and Ready to Mount to Floor
Large Granite "L" Shaped Bar
4 Seating Booths
Several Couches, Chairs and Tables
Mobile Stage
Unisex Restroom
3 Large Stained Glass Mosaics
Ceiling Fans
Refrigerator and Bar Sink
Pepsi Cooler, Sparkletts Water and Coffee (w/Contract)
Several Display Cases
Existing Inventory
Many Hookahs, Shisha, Coals and Accessories
E-Cigarettes and Vaporizers
Smoke Shop Items
Signs, Banners, Flags, Open Signs
Next to a Friendly and Inexpensive Neighborhood Bar
All Needed Tax Codes are Current for 2015
No Restrictions on Hours of Operation

Your backyard might be home to a fig, pomegranate or quince tree and chances are you have no idea what to do with it. You know the fruit on the tree is edible, but when it comes to growing, pruning and grafting these trees, well, you might need some help.

Get a professional look at the world of heirloom fruit trees when Jesús García chats about his work with the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project all while showing workshoppers tips on the propagation and maintenance of these unique trees. 

On Thursday, Feb, 26 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., García will kick off the class at the Sonoran Desert Museum, located at 2021 North Kinney Road, where he will discuss the historical significance of these trees. After some hands-on care instruction, he will end the class at the base of A Mountain with a guided tour of the Mission Garden, which was central to the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project.

Registration for the Heirloom Fruit Trees workshop is $54 for members and $59 for non-members and is available online, along with more information, on the Sonoran Desert Museum website.

Cooking for yourself at home can save you cash and it can also be a good outlet for your culinary creative energy. However, by the end of the meal, there's a good chance you've built up a small pile of odds and ends off of veggies, fruits and more. Unless you're an avid gardener and already have your own compost situation figured out, this food waste probably just gets thrown in the trash. Shannon Sartin calls this "compost guilt"—but you don't have to feel it anymore.

Sartin looked at her recycle bin and she looked at her garbage can. She knew composting the food was the way to go, but didn't want to have her own compost pile in her backyard. So, she enlisted her sister Moira's help to start a food waste pick up service called Scraps on Scraps.

Just one year in, Sartin's service boasts over 100 users all over Tucson with an estimated 35,000 pounds of food waste given to the Community Food Bank's farm Las Milpitas to turn into very usable compost, which in turn helps grow nutritious food for people who have limited access to it normally. Sartin says, in this way, she's lending a hand in the "redistribution of food wealth" from the astronomical amount of food wasted in this country alone every year to the people that truly need it. 

"It's about closing gap of what we're wasting and what we can give back out," Sartin says. "We need to change and shift the way that we look at food insecurity."

For users of Sartin's unique service, the process is fairly simple. Drop-off customers can go to either St. Philip's Plaza Farmers Market on Sunday or the farmers market at Mercado San Agustin on Thursday to exchange full buckets for empty ones at the Scraps on Scraps table for $7 per month. For $13 per month, users can opt for bi-weekly home pick ups. The goal was to make the service easy and flexible for everyone.

"It's an extra step but its not like something you have to mentally be like 'oh man, I have to do this,'" she says. "I maybe put out my garbage once per month now."


Sartin, who lives with her daughter, says leaving this example for her child is important. 

"Conscious consumerism is the driving base of the movement we're in right now. It's about who you're supporting and why," she says. "I want my daughter to know and be conscious of where what she's getting comes from."

It hasn't all been easy though. For starters, Sartin and her sister have never run a business before.

"I thought, 'I'm not writing a business plan cause I think business plans are bullshit.' Let's just buy some buckets," she says. "When it comes down to solving a problem, it's on me. It's been so unbelievably rewarding—and challenging."

Now she works full time and her sister goes to school full time, meaning work on Scraps on Scraps happens after hours, despite the fact that neither of them get paid for the work they do. Aside from time, the sheer issue of the bucket they would used was a challenge in itself, though they eventually found one that sealed so users of their service could keep the bucket in their kitchens without a rotting food smell. With many of the initial kinks worked out, Sartin is looking to expand to commercial customers and go into lower income neighborhoods, ideally packaging the business concept into something that could be done in any city anywhere.

In the end, Sartin's main goal is simple: "Waste less, use more, and compost what you don't."

If you find yourself doing things last minute more often than not, and forgot that if you don't have health insurance, you have to sign up by Feb. 15, keep reading.

Tucson Unified  School District and the Pima County Health Department are going to help people sign up for health insurance Saturday, Feb. 7 at Tucson High Magnet School. They will also provide free flu shots and measles, mumps and rubella vaccination for kids 17 and younger and adults without coverage. (If you believe in vaccines, definitely take advantage of this, especially nowadays that everyone is freaking out about the measles outbreak.)

Reps from the Pima County Enrollment Coalition will be there to help you explore the insurance options and find a plan that best fits you. 

This enrollment period, there are 13 health insurance providers, among them the country's largest United Healthcare. More options help keep the premium cost down. Last period, there were 10 providers to choose from.

The deadline to sign up for a health plan through the Affordable Care Act without having to deal with tax penalties is next Sunday (Feb. 15). If you don't apply, the next enrollment period is later this year, but coverage won't start until 2016.

The city of Tucson also partnered with local health organizations, such as El Rio Community Health Center, for various events where people could get help signing up. 

Pima County would like to reward you if you get covered, too. All of those who attend qualify to win an iPad.

Also, there will be food trucks, mobile health units, TUSD student performances and many more services. 

The event is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and, if you can, bring your child's immunization record if you plan to get them vaccinated that day.

The next enrollment help event, according to the county's calendar, is Feb. 14 at Tucson Medical Center's El Dorado Campus, 1400 N. Wilmot Rd., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. You'd be really pushing it at that point.

Here is a helpful guide courtesy of Pima County. 

I watched Obama's speech describing his executive order on immigration with a group of people who gathered at St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church where Francisco Perez Cordova has been in sanctuary for the past few months. Obama's executive action means that Francisco will able to live in the U.S. without fear of deportation, though it's not clear exactly when he'll be able to leave the church.

After Obama finished, Pastor Jim Wiltbank talked to the people gathered there with Francisco at his side.

"Sixty days ago," he said, talking to Francisco, "we stood here in this place. We struggled with the question, what do we do now? We didn't know how long it would be. Now we know. We don't know the exact date, but we know the process. President Obama said you get to stay."

When the applause died down, Francisco managed a tearful, "Thank you."

Francisco’s wife and children were there as well. "We are so thankful that their father gets to stay here with his family,” Wiltbank continued, “and together, we get to change the United States."

"A lot of work went into making this day happen," he said, addressing those who helped with the sanctuary process. "Your letters, your calls, your being with Francisco, all of your love has made this happen. Let us continue loving this family and continue loving all those who others don't yet qualify, who are left out of this action. Let's continue to work."