Rothschild Content with Tucson's Progress

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild has been in office for 18 months and is pleased with his accomplishments.

Those accomplishments include the improvements from the $100 million [road bond] (https://www.azpm.org/p/yourvote-featured/2013/2/19/22618-road-bonds-to-fund-tucson-road-repair/), Rio Nuevo settlement, among others.

On Tuesday, the Tucson City Council will vote on a $7.8 million project that would fix up the Tucson Convention Center. Rothschild said this would make the downtown area more marketable. If the plan is approved, he said it would take six months to a year to complete.

In February, Rothschild and Rio Nuevo Board Chairman Fletcher McCusker settled the pending litigation between the Rio Nuevo District and the city. The 16-part agreement included $1.1 million from Rio Nuevo for the Mission Gardens project on west downtown, as well as the $2.2 million Rio Nuevo owes the city for bond payments.

The city is seeing a renaissance downtown, Rothschild said.

“I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say, we haven’t seen downtown like this in 40 years. You come downtown and it’s exciting and it’s fun,” Rothschild said.

Another accomplishment Rothschild cited was the improvement on the streets in Tucson. In November, voters approved a $100 million bond package to fix the city’s ailing roads. The changes made from the road bond can be seen on roads such as Speedway Boulevard, Campbell Avenue and Broadway Boulevard, Rothschild said.

For the future, Rothschild said he hopes to improve relations between Arizona and Mexico, in order to create a mutually beneficial economic relationship.

Rothschild plans to bring business from Mexico to be located in the U.S., and to make Tucson the logistics hub, in order to create a strong economic region.

Plans for the future include fixing the I-19 transit, and reforming the retirement pension system, he said.

Ashley Grove is a journalism student and an intern for Arizona Public Media