|
By
Rhonda Bodfield
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
July 21, 2003
The Greyhound bus
station, a building
that seems to elicit few warm memories, dominates the eastern
entrance to Downtown. The depot is poised to move.
In a Downtown with
visions of grandeur, the old Greyhound Bus terminal is like a poor
relation that just won't go away.
The city has made arrangements to move the generic bandbox that
dominates the eastern gateway into Downtown - but the preferred
option isn't far enough to satisfy some business leaders and
residents who worry the depot doesn't set the right tone for a
renovated city core.
The
only thing certain for now is that the squat building that was
described at its 1969 opening as "a concrete block structure in
a modern treatment of traditional southwestern architecture"
will no longer exist come next spring. The city wants that lot
straddling
Congress Street
and Broadway to make way for a newly designed
Fourth Avenue
underpass.
City
officials say they're looking forward to its demise in part because
the old building was just ugly. Even dressing it up with a
mountainscape mural in shades of brown and blue couldn't do much.
But it also helps ease some safety headaches.
"The
building is nothing special - there's nothing particularly
noteworthy about the architecture," said Rio Nuevo Project
Manager John Updike. "And it's not the most convenient because
it's a challenge to get in and out of the site. It's also somewhat
dangerous because buses are pulling out just as cars zip around the
corner."
Nor does anyone seem terribly
attached to it. Unlike the charming stories Updike hears from people
who frequented the Fox or
Rialto
theaters, for example, "I've never heard any old memories about
what the station meant to them on their first trip in to
Tucson
."
A 1999 city plan calls for the
station to settle in just north of the revamped historic train
depot, which will open to the public for a sneak peek in October.
It
makes sense, Updike said, to put various types of transportation
modes together. Travelers are expected to be able to catch passenger
rail trains at the depot, along with the trolley and rental cars and
cabs. Putting bus passengers into the same mix might work.
But
Updike said the Tucson Downtown Alliance raised concerns about the
facility staying Downtown, as did El Presidio Neighborhood north of
the city-county complex. Detractors are not only worried about the
potential for crime at the new site but also wonder if it would be
better to build up private investment around the depot complex
instead.
Tucson
police statistics show there have been 1,102 calls to the address
since January 2000, ranging from larceny and assault to narcotics
and disturbing the peace.
City officials have worked with
the Greyhound management to encourage more security. Part of the
problem seems to be that the facility cannot restrict access to
people without tickets, who are generally free to use the cafe and
restrooms at the site. The new facility would be redesigned to
discourage loitering.
But
Updike said he understands the lingering concerns by neighbors.
"We're asking the neighborhood to be pretty visionary. That's
asking a lot of the neighborhood."
Tavo
Garcia, who manages the Tucson Greyhound location, said employees
hope the question is settled early so employees aren't moved twice -
once to an interim location and again to a permanent site. About 20
workers staff the customer service area, another nine work in the
restaurant and eight drivers are based in Tucson.
Deanna
Simsek, Greyhound's senior real estate manager, said the neighbors'
concerns are misplaced given the more controlled environment that
the new building will provide.
"We're
concerned about crime too, but we can't help the city's homeless
problem. It's a city thing. It's not a Greyhound thing," Simsek
said, adding that even the Downtown library attracts transients.
Simsek said Greyhound isn't all that keen on an option to relocate
out by the airport. And, she said, she's not thrilled with the
roughly half-dozen other sites the city is pondering on the fringe
of Downtown. "We need to be near our client base. The whole
objective is to make it as convenient as possible."
Donovan
Durband, who heads the Tucson Downtown Alliance, said he hopes the
bus station ends up somewhere on the edge of Downtown - which is
where he'd like to see the city's
Ronstadt
Center
and its Sun Tran buses go someday.
"I guess the bigger picture is that we're trying to create a
visitor destination on the east end of Downtown, with the Fox and
the
Rialto
and the Depot," Durband said. "And we're trying to create
a pedestrian-oriented setting. Big buses with the exhaust coming out
the back are out of scale and not compatible with creating that
setting."
Durband said he's afraid keeping the bus station in Downtown would
eventually undermine the success of other ventures meant to attract
visitors. "You wouldn't want to put a use like that next to
something you're really trying to pump up as a visitor
location."
Not
everyone objects to Greyhound staying Downtown.
Monica Alden, a 47-year-old radiology technician, said it makes more
sense to leave it Downtown. "It's close to the Ronstadt center.
And it could bring more customers Downtown - and Downtown could
definitely use more customers."
Kyle Casey, a 22-year-old who works at Ike's Coffee Shop Downtown,
said he won't necessarily miss the old site, where he's had to pick
friends up before. "It's unfortunate that a lot of people come
Downtown on Broadway and that's the first thing they see," he
said. But he, too, said it makes sense to keep Downtown as a full
transportation hub.
JoAnne Rogers, a retired interior designer who lives in a historic
home in El Presidio, didn't sign the petitions when they came
around. "It has to be located somewhere. I, for one, am a real
downtowner. I've lived in cities all my life, and I don't feel we
can just put everything in someone else's yard so there's nothing in
mine.
"Bus
terminals and soup kitchens and theaters are just part of life in
the big city."
*
Contact Rhonda Bodfield at 807-7789 or at rhondab@azstarnet.com
Back
To News Articles
|
