Neighborhood preps for Tucson park's reopening

Meanwhile, Tucson mutual aid groups have criticized the closure and are making their own preparations for the opening. 

In April of last year, the City of Tucson fenced off the park to begin roughly $8 million worth of renovations. Funding came primarily from Proposition 407, which voters passed in 2018. Additional money was sourced from the city's general fund, impact fees and a Tohono O’odham Nation Gaming Grant.  

The upgraded park is set to include a new splashpad, playground, perimeter walking path, plaza area and 350 new trees, said Matthew Christman, the Parks and Recreation project manager overseeing the renovation. 

In terms of safety measures built into the park, all light posts in the park will have security lights that will remain on during the night, Christman said.

Prior to the shutdown, the park had become a frequent spot for the homeless community and drug activity, but its history goes much deeper, said John Moreno, a longtime resident. 

The park, located near East 22nd Street and South Fourth Avenue, was originally built around 1907, making it one of Tucson’s oldest parks, a survey report from the city said. In 1915, it was officially dubbed Santa Rita Park, after the Santa Rita Mountains to the south of Tucson. 

Moreno’s grandparents built a house just across the street from the park in 1931 and soon expanded into building other properties nearby. 

“They bought a double lot, because that’s what Mexican Americans do,” he said. “They try to keep the family close.”  

Moreno has spent stretches of time elsewhere but has always kept his deep roots with the community. Over the years, he’s seen a lot of changes at the park. 

“It’s gotten steadily worse and worse,” he said. 

Since he moved back near Santa Rita Park in 2011, he has felt unsafe. On multiple occasions, his car was attacked by people at the park while he was inside of it, he said. Moreno's brother, who had bladder cancer at the time, had also been attacked by someone who would camp out on the baseball field.

With the coming reopening, Moreno and other concerned neighbors joined together to form Friends of Santa Rita Park, a community group with the goal of maintaining the renovated park. 

Run by Madeleine Golde and Leslie Hawthorne Klingler, the group is collaborating with the city government and Tucson Police Department to keep the park safe. To accomplish that, they have three main goals: setting up recurring events that bring the community out to the park regularly, setting up a safety protocol with TPD, and bringing about a new, more welcoming culture. 

Victoria DeVasto, another resident in the area and founder of Community on Wheels, responded differently to the influx of homeless people at the park. 

As she drove by the park every day, she was saddened to see how many unhoused people resided in the park. In late 2020, she and her roommate at the time created COW, a volunteer-based mutual aid group. They soon began hosting weekly pop-up events at Santa Rita Park where they gave out food, beverages, clothing and medical supplies. 

DeVasto said that for every COW event, they would bring their own trash cans and had specific volunteers whose duty it was to pick up any debris left behind. 

When the park shutdown came, the group was disappointed but carried on, relocating not far from their original spot. 

“We still serve over 200 people per week,” she said. 

Once the park reopens, COW will return for weekly events on Saturdays no matter what, DeVasto said. She hopes they will be able to work out a compromise with the city. 

The group has received pushback from some members of the neighborhood, though. Moreno said he believes that COW’s activity at Santa Rita Park has exacerbated the presence of homeless people and made things worse at the park.  

Friends of Santa Rita Park isn’t opposed to mutual aid at the park, but they want there to be a compromised, set schedule, so they can plan around it, Klingler said. 

“I think it needs to be coordinated, and it needs to be supported by city services, so you don’t have games at the same time and place you have services,” she said. 

As of now, the park is nearing completion, Christman said. They still need to set up power for the park and establish the grass to get the fields ready for use.

There are plans in place for an eventual second wave of renovations, which would include an expansion of its skatepark and a new dog park, he said.