While the Fourth Avenue Street Fair will not have a shopping experience like the Maeklong train market outside of Bangkok, it does appear as though it will be able to spread out down Seventh Street during the open-air bazaar in March.
Councilman Steve Kozachik (who sent us the above video, BTW) has been trying to work out a solution to the troubles the fair was having because city officials were insisting that they couldn’t skip a weekend of streetcar testing. Inside Tucson Business editor Mark Evans has the details:
Fourth Avenue Merchants Association Executive Director John Sedwick said this afternoon he received assurance from the city of Tucson that planned nearby construction will not take place during the fair and the fair will now have nearly a full complement of vendors.
Sedwick said he has revised the vendor alignment to the latest restrictions given FAMA by the city and that he expects the FAMA board to approve it Tuesday afternoon.
But there’s a downside to the whole thing: The decision to put booths along Seventh Street has resulted in a delay in county work on nearby water lines, which has Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry concerned about whether the work can get done on time:
Huckelberry, in his memo to the board, has referred the matter to the county attorney for review because he’s concerned delays could trigger performance clauses in the various contracts for the flood control project that could end up costing the county.
“I do not intend to place the (flood control district) in any liability position for performance-related penalties regarding construction of this last phase of the Arroyo Chico improvement. This includes any penalty for not relocating the reclaimed waterline in the timeframe specified by the city, as well as potential delay charge of $25,500 from the city’s contractor, Pure Technology, if construction work is not completed by March 27, 2014. This final phase of the project is an important component of the overall project to address chronic flooding problems along Fourth Avenue, to facilitate development of the city’s Regional Transportation Authority Links project, and to remove a significant amount of real improved property from the floodplain,” Huckelberry wrote.
This article appears in Jan 16-22, 2014.
As long as they have been farting around with the streetcar, one more week wouldn’t matter. I still don’t actually believe the damn thing will ever carry a paying passenger. The money would have been better spent building a northerly bypass around Tucson!
I couldn’t agree more. The streetcar has been a joke since day one – the cost spiraled (like anything else), we’ve heard time and time again that the factory in Seattle (?) couldn’t make the cars on time (why we didn’t cut the price every time they came up with another excuse is beyond me) and now they whine that the testing can’t be stopped for a few days, even though the city knew damn well that the 4th Ave street fair was coming up.
This may not be spring for most of the country, but this is a familiar mess that we see in Tucson every spring.
I wonder if the streetcar will mess up the Gem and Mineral Show?
What do you think will happen to the street fair next year? The trolley mite actually be running! Where can
the street fair move to? Just what will happen when
someone comes into contact with the ugly spiderweb
of electrical lines overhead. A vendor setting up a tent
or a child with a Mylar balloon on a long metallic ribbon.