SHNA 2024 ANNUAL MEETING

January 16th @ 6pm

In person at Sam Hughes Elementary School

*Updates on neighborhood news

*Board elections ... please consider serving on the board!

The 2024 Annual Meeting will feature a special presentation by Koren Manning, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Development Services, to explore a new idea for Sam Hughes - A Neighborhood Preservation Zone.



Briefly, a Neighborhood Preservation Zone is an overlay zone with the purpose of preserving and enhancing the unique character and historic resources of a neighborhood. Let’s learn if this would be useful for Sam Hughes!

Open House to review walking path design

The Himmel Park Perimeter Walk is on its way to becoming reality! First mentioned in the 1987 Park Master Plan, the idea was revived six years ago by the Friends of Himmel Park. With the implementation of Proposition 407, the “Parks + Connections” bond of 2018, monies are being allocated to diverse projects across town. The Perimeter Walk has a budget of $136,000, and work could begin in early spring.

In conversation with Friends of Himmel Park, Park Run leaders, and other interested neighbors, Parks & Rec has developed a plan. Features include minimal grading of existing pathways such as the Palm Avenue running east-west and the Olive Lane running north-south near the basketball court. The path along the south side of the park, by the oleanders, will be given a stable surface. More trees and upgrading tree-care protocols will be part of the project, too.

Nothing, though, is carved in stone. We are invited to view the designs and comment at an OPEN HOUSE:

Wed Dec 6, 4:00-5:30 pm

Himmel Park Library

Conference Room

A place for pups?

Discussions are ongoing regarding the possible addition of a dog park area in Himmel Park. Key points being considered include finding an appropriate location, and the potential to have two separate dog park sections for our larger and smaller furry friends.

Join us to learn more!

Wed Dec 6, 4:00-5:30 pm

Himmel Park Library

Conference Room

Sam Hughes collection will be the week of Jan 8th

The City's Brush & Bulky Plus program works to make our city and neighborhoods cleaner, more attractive and safer. Twice a year, crews visit each of Tucson's 26 residential trash service areas to provide Brush & Bulky+ collection. This is your opportunity to clean out your yard, garage or storage shed and get rid of that unwanted debris.

To prepare for the Brush & Bulky collection, simply place your items where your neighborhood's trash is collected. Items must be at least 3-feet from all obstacles, including trash and recycling containers and utility meters. Have materials set out by 6 a.m. on the Monday of your collection week. Collection will be completed by the end of the week. Do not put materials out more than two weeks ahead of your scheduled collection.

The Brush & Bulky maximum is 10 cubic yards per household (1 cubic yard = size of a washing machine). Excess over the limit will not be taken.

By Gayle Hartmann

Vytas Sakalas and I have been waging war against buffel grass in our neighborhood. It is usually in alleys or occasionally in the area between the sidewalk and the street – places where no one claims ownership. As you all know, if left alone, buffel grass will grow into huge clumps and will out-compete everything around it.

Good exercise. Only a couple of hours at a time. Usually, once every week or once every two weeks. We’d love to have some help! If you’re interested, please contact Vytas at [email protected] or me (Gayle Hartmann) at [email protected].

The fight continues!

The City Board of Adjustment did not approve TEP’s request for relief from the city ordinance that requires undergrounding of utilities along scenic and gateway routes; namely the Kino/Campbell route. At the Nov 21st SHNA Board Meetingg, folks from TEP said they ARE going to file a case in Superior Court over the decision against them at the Board of Adjustment. The Board of Adjustment voted unanimously against TEP. The issue: TEP contended that their new lines were a “replacement and improvement,” not a NEW project and thus, they did not have to comply with the City ordinance that said all utilities within a Gateway Corridor Zone must be undergrounded.

TEP is once again starting community outreach with Open Houses and Neighborhood

Association Advisory Boards, a “re-branding” of their attempt to put giant poles down Campbell Ave. We need to stay informed, and at the table and in the fight!

If we are allowed, we would want our Undergrounding Coalition of neighborhoods to have legal representation there, next to the City of Tucson to argue for upholding the City’s decision. TEP Midtown Project Continues & Sam Hughes Needs YOU

How Neighbors Can Help:

★ Follow our TEP updates, and participate in local discussion with the Underground Coalition.

★ Attend planned TEP Open Houses and Meetings to share your views. Dates will be shared in our online newsletters and on the listserv when the meetings are announced.

★ Consider making a tax deductible donation to SHNA to support our legal costs.

And more on the issue from Steve K 's Nov 20th newsletter

Last week TEP advanced some of their planning for the midtown transmission line project. Prior to the public meeting held last Thursday they had announced an expansion of the project study area. That’s the perimeter of where the new transmission lines could go. The update last week shows which segments within that perimeter may be under consideration for getting the poles.

This is the new map TEP provided last week.

The midtown ‘destination’ is the substation located at Banner hospital just north of the UA. I’ve circled it in red on the map so you can more easily see where they’re trying to connect the lines:

The blue line along the east (right hand) side of the map is Country Club. That’s now the eastern-most boundary of the project study area. By now you likely know that Campbell is a gateway corridor and is therefore subject to our ordinance requiring undergrounding new utilities. Country Club is not a gateway so that’s why they’ve moved the study area over a mile to the east.

Remember, their ultimate destination is what’s circled in red on the map. So even if they run the poles down Country Club, they still have to somehow snake the lines over to Banner. What’s shown on the map in green are the streets/corridors they’re now looking at for possible line segments to make that connection.

Those green lines are also possible routes they’ll use to get from the Kino substation (bottom center of the map) into midtown. None have been decided upon yet, and the purpose of the public outreach is to gather input they’ll use in deciding which route they’ll ultimately propose to the corporation commission. This is a quote from the letter sent out by TEP last week:

Each of the opportunities identified on the attached map have been reviewed by TEP’s Engineering Group and represent segments that the transmission line could reasonably be constructed and operated from an engineering perspective within the area of opportunity. These preliminary segments do not represent proposed transmission line routes. This is the very first step in putting lines on a map for further evaluation. 

Take part in public meetings. If your neighborhood association would like to have a TEP representative come and give a presentation, please reach out to me and I’ll help facilitate that. Their goal is to get a proposed preferred route to the ACC by early next year, and to have the project under construction by ‘25.

If you’d like to see these segments in more detail, please visit the project webpage at www.tep.com/midtown.

Home of yoga, meditation, mindfulness & more

Hello Sam Hughes Neighbors,

We are happy to formally introduce ourselves to you! We are the Sol Center: Home of yoga, meditation, mindfulness & more. We have been open and operating at 527 North Tucson Blvd. for over 2 years. Our previous location was on Country Club.

The Sol Center is the expression of a vision for a contemplative practice community. Yoga is at the heart of what we offer, yet there is much more to the story. We have a large mindfulness and meditation component to our schedule and programs, as well as interest in how contemplative practices work together to form an integrated, modern spiritual path.

If you have been watching our development through the years, you know it has been a labor of love. We intentionally departed from social media years ago and depend on the goodness of our vision and the support and word of mouth of our students who value what we are doing.

We are doing a lot. From basic and specialty yoga classes to yoga teacher training; from beginner mindfulness to in-depth mindfulness courses like Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, and Mindful Self-Compassion; from grief workshops to contemplative study programs to Soul Collage. 

We work to keep it simple and meaningful for all to begin, continue, immerse, or simply drop-in when needed. So come say hello!

We wholeheartedly invite you to visit us for a class or program; your first class is complementary and we have a few specials in place to see how it feels to come regularly. We’ll have an open house New Year’s Day with free classes, talks, and treats. Please join us then or anytime.

Meanwhile, Happy Holidays from your neighbors at the Sol Center.

Festival of Illumination

Here's a wonderful outing for the holidays. Our very own midtown jewel is putting on a fabulous light show. This small five-acre garden sure knows how to go big. It runs through January 7. See website for dates, times, prices.

Installment V: Neighborhod History

Sam Hughes has a long history for a Tucson neighborhood, as well as quite an interesting history. The oldest house still standing was constructed prior to 1900, and the second oldest was probably built in 1918. Before 1890, the land east of Campbell Avenue, in what is now the Sam Hughes Neighborhood, was unoccupied, creosote-bush flatland with a few small rivulets bordered by mesquite trees. In 1890, it began to be carved up into 40-acre to 160-acre homesteads under the provision of the federal Homestead Act of 1862. The five homesteaders were Eugene Bruner in 1890, Louis Mueller in 1889, William H. Campbell in 1898, Charles S. Edmondson in 1900, and Hugh Byrne in 1906 (see Figure 10).

The first plat for construction was filed in 1906 by Victor S. Griffith who, a few years later, built a house on the south side of Speedway Boulevard in the 2100 block. He laid out the route for the eastern extension of Speedway Boulevard and graded it out to his house. His house later became part of the Barfield Sanitarium, which then became the Oshrin Indian Hospital. In 1977, all the buildings on the parcel were razed for the Sun Station Post Office.

In the early 1900s, other developers began to convert homestead lands into future home sites. According to William Barrow’s article in The Saguaro:

“Judge Sawtelle’s Arizona Improvement Company purchased the Byrne Homestead and turned it into the Fairmount Subdivision in 1907. The Edmondson land became the Mundo Vista and Morningside Additions. Louis Mueller’s homestead is now part of American Villa, and the Brunier parcel later became a number of subdivisions, including Terra DeConcini.”

The most significant subdivision for its time was University Manor, the southwest 40 acres of Campbell’s property, which was annexed into the city on 1 July 1920. It required paved streets, curbs, sidewalks, streetlights, and, in 1922 when the subdivision was purchased by the Southwest Improvement Company, deed restrictions. The deed restrictions were filed under the auspices of the company’s officers, President Monte Mansfeld, a prominent Ford dealer, and Treasurer Arthur Hazeltine, an officer of Tucson Realty. Among other restrictions, they prohibited the construction of any business, apartment house, hotel, bar, or oil rig and required that residences cost at least $5,000.

As William Barrow notes in The Saguaro:

“There was also the then common prohibition against ‘African or Asian’ residents,which provisions were struck down nationally in the 1950s by the U.S. Supreme Court. Most of University Manor’s restrictions were to lapse in 1970.”

The first houses in University Manor were built in the 1900 block of 3rd Street and the 1900 block of 4th Street. For example, Monte Mansfeld’s house, at 1944 E. 3rd Street, and William T. Pierce’s house, at 1923 E. 4th Street, were both built around 1922. In 1923, homes were built at 1935 E. 4th Street (Ed Bertram), 1941 E. 4th Street (Frank H. Packard) and 1939 E. 3rd Street (Eugene Meyer). All these homes are still standing.

One of the most distinctive houses in the neighborhood is the Tudor-style house at 2101 E. 3rd Street. It was designed for Tucson physician Samuel Townsend and his wife by the architectural firm of Foster & Foster. In 1938, they sold it to the Hamilton Shavers of New Jersey. The third owners, the Grunewalds, who owned a downtown jewelry store, bought the house in 1945 and, as William Barrow noted in The Saguaro:

“It has been such a wonderful family house that she [Abby Grunewald] cancelled her original plans to move after just a few years.”

Most of the original homes were built in Sam Hughes in the 1920s and 1930s, although a few were built in the teens, with one apparently built in the late 1800s. Nearly all still stand and many of the smaller ones have been greatly enlarged.

The oldest house in the neighborhood that is still standing was built as a one-room, adobe structure on the southern part of the Campbell homestead. It was apparently built sometime before 1898 as the notice of the homestead document (published in the Arizona Daily Star on 1 January 1898) notes:

“…the following named settler [Campbell] has filed notice of his claim, and that said proof will be made before the Register and Receiver of the U.S. Land Office at Tucson, Arizona, on January 18, 1898.”

This statement indicates (“said proof will be made”) that Campbell had already built a structure on his land. Long-time residents in Sam Hughes recall hearing of the “Campbell Ranch,” but whether Campbell actually ran cows on his land is unknown. The house, at 621 N. Wilson, has been greatly expanded over the years (Figure 11). What is apparently the second oldest house, a multi-room brick structure, is located at 2307 E. 1st St. and was built in 1918 (Figure 12). 

Important Dates

Fall Schedule:

• Dec 6: Last Day of Classes
• Dec 7: Reading Day (no classes/finals)
• Dec 8-14: Final Exams
• Dec 15: Dorms Close
• Dec 26-29: Winter Closure 

Spring Schedule:

• Jan 7, 2024: Dorms Reopen
• Jan 10: Spring Classes begin

7^th annual Arizona Bowl in Arizona Stadium, Dec 30 at 4:30pm

 UArizona Neighborhood Hotline

If at any point your peace is disturbed, report neighborhood loud party/unruly gathering complaints to 911. You may also call the UArizona Neighborhood Hotline at 520-282-3649. A team from the University’s Community Relations office and TPD’s Red Tag unit can visit problematic properties to educate students about the City’s Unruly Gathering Ordinance and UArizona’s consequences for violation of the Student Code of Conduct.

Books are just the beginning . . .

Check out how to grow great tomatoes!

Connecting with neighbors

In a city with over 500,000 residents, connecting with our neighbors is as important as ever for the quality of life. One issue which touches us all is our changing climate. How are we going to be prepared for an extreme heat crisis? Are we ready in our homes, and what about our neighbors?

So many of the good things that happen in Sam Hughes are done by volunteers.

Whether it’s organizing Mah Jong game days, getting a ramada built in Himmel Park,

notifying folks of roaming wildlife, picking up litter, or stopping the butchering of beloved oleander shrubs, alert residents have been the eyes and ears, hands and voices that have made a difference.

The BaRN project uses a simple model of outreach – informing neighbors of climate

risks and practical ways to prepare their households, sharing contact information as

needed so that no one on the block will be left out in time of power outage.

You have probably seen the 2-pg Household Checklist and taken steps to upgrade your home’s resilience. We are looking for volunteers to continue this outreach:

1. Be a Block Connector! Volunteers reach out to their nearby neighbors with the

Checklist and encouragement to share contact information.

2. Be a visionary! BaRN has grown into a coalition of residents representing nine

neighborhoods. We need members with skills in areas such as publicity, graphic

arts, social media, project management, and leadership.

Perhaps you know someone with one or more of these skills or interests. Or, perhaps you have been thinking, “I want to do something more about climate change and our city.” If so, we’d love to hear from you! Write to [email protected].

SANTA IS MAKING PHONE CALLS TO THE TUCSON COMMUNITY AS PART OF A TUCSON PARKS AND RECREATION PROGRAM - Santa and his elves would like to add some sparkle to a child’s holiday season through the Santa’s Calling program. Children ages 4-8 years old get an opportunity to speak with Santa and listen to his elves hard at work. Complete the online request form at the link below by Saturday, Dec. 2, to take part, and be available by phone, Dec. 5-7, from 5:30-8 p.m., so you don't miss Santa’s call. All children who cannot be reached by phone will receive a letter from Santa. 

Santa's Calling website

Tucson listed as one of the best places to visit

Condé Nast Traveler magazine includes Tucson on its list of "The Best Places to Go in North America & the Caribbean in 2024." It cites Tucson as a novelty in the rebirth of old favorites. "In Tucson, long a draw for foodies and backcountry adventurers, the culturally rich neighborhood of Barrio Viejo will receive a National Historic Landmark designation in 2024, anchored by the soon-to-be-restored Teatro Carmen and a flurry of upcoming restaurants and cafés." The magazine goes on to say, "Sitting in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui tribes, Tucson has always drawn travelers looking for outdoor adventure. And now, they will have a whole new reason to visit: a revitalized downtown." To read more about the list and mentions of Tucson, follow the link below.

Read the article

Sign up for an information session about FoodCycle at Home on Saturday, Dec. 2, or Saturday, Dec. 9!

Sign Up

Learn More

Thanks to our friends in the Garden District for sharing this information!

PACC is at Critical Capacity

As of Nov 15th, the shelter continues to be operating at CRITICAL capacity.

If you can't adopt, please consider fostering, volunteering or donating food/money. 

The dogs pictured below are all available for adoption and in the shelter as of the date above. They so want to go to their new home!

SHNA Monthly Board Meeting:

December 19th @ 7pm.

Ward 6 office and Zoom

Zoom link posted on www.samhughes.org

SHNA is looking for volunteers

SHNA works on a wide variety of projects.

Newsletter * Himmel Park * Home Tour

Transportation and Mobility * Water Tower * Board of Directors

Please contact us at [email protected] to volunteer, or if you would like to pursue something new with SHNA’s support.

Emergency: 911

Non-Emergency: 520-791-4444 (Monday to Friday; 8:00 am to 6:00 pm)

Lead Police Officers for Sam Hughes

Ofc. Cody York

Phone: 520-730-3845

Email: [email protected]

On Duty: Weekends, Days

Ofc. Garrett Behan

​Phone: 520-539-7250

​Email: [email protected]

On Duty: Weekends, Nights

Community Resource CSO

Ramon Silvas

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 520-837-7428

Contact for Midtown substation:

Lobby hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

1100 S Alvernon Way, Tucson AZ 85711

Front lobby phone: 520-791-4253

Homeless Outreach Team:

To Report a Homeless Camp, use online reporting tool or call 520-791-2540

Recent Criminal Activity

For a list of recent criminal activity in Sam Hughes, visit https://nsn.soaz.info/incidents/zsamhughes.html

For crime data in Tucson, visit https://policeanalysis.tucsonaz.gov/