Plan would provide housing options, link to downtown

It may not be the most efficient use of public funds, but if the federal government and the City of Tucson want to spend $150 million on an improved transportation system to link the UA with downtown, students should welcome the change.

The proposal, which could be operational in 2011, is currently being debated by the Tucson Department of Transportation and various community action groups. It could come in the form of improved SunTran bus service, an expansion of the historic trolley line or a rapid bus circulator.

One of the major motivations of the system is that it would come in anticipation of downtown Tucson's revitalization. The revitalization, including the Rio Nuevo project, will bring new cultural amenities as well as 2,000 new student-housing units.

A mass transit project will improve the value of those housing units to students by allowing students to use the transit to get to campus. This would eliminate the need for some students to purchase parking permits and would theoretically alleviate some of the UA's parking shortage.

Moreover, it will give students living closer to campus better access to the amenities of downtown Tucson. For example, students would be able to use mass transit to get to Fourth Avenue shops and bars. Besides decreasing drunk driving, it will encourage more development in the area.

Urban core revitalization has been a hot topic in cities across the country over the past 10 years. As downtown centers lose their cost efficiencies for businesses and people increasingly choose the suburban life over living downtown, calls to get people back to downtown have increased.

In Phoenix, Arizona State University's new downtown campus is expected to bring the type of energetic young people that urban core revitalization calls for. Now it appears Tucson will be doing the same by linking the UA more closely with downtown.

It's extremely expensive. Some students would surely prefer the $150 million went toward the UA general fund, or even to provide Tucson with a modern drainage system. But when the federal government and all of Tucson are going to pay for a transportation system that will affect the UA more than other areas, and students will reap a great deal of that benefit at little to no cost (indeed, many students don't pay city or state taxes), they should smile at this public generosity.

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Evan Caravelli, Brett Fera, Caitlin Hall, Ryan Johnson and Jesse Lewis.