Economic Growth Through Innovation

• Jessica Barfield, Local First Arizona: Learn how programs like the Navigator Grant brought millions of dollars to Tucson’s small businesses, supporting their growth and fostering sustainability.
• High Wire and The Grand: Discover how this local bar expanded with a repurposed venue, creating a unique space for weddings and events while celebrating Tucson’s penchant for preserving history.

Artistic Impact

• Creative Repurposing of Spaces: Hear about Tucson’s dedication to transforming historical buildings into modern hubs of activity rather than tearing them down.
• A Glimpse into the Arts Scene: Revisit stories of murals, public art installations, and the artists whose work enriches the downtown experience.

Resilience and Community Spirit

• Collaborative Efforts: Explore partnerships like those between Local First Arizona, Startup Tucson, and the Tucson Chamber of Commerce, which fostered innovation and community resilience in 2024.
• Post-Pandemic Creativity: Reflect on how Tucson businesses and individuals adapted to challenges with ingenuity, creativity, and an unshakable commitment to their community.

Looking Ahead

• Foundations for the Future: Gain insights into how 2024’s progress will shape Tucson’s economic and cultural landscape in the years to come.

This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the people and stories that made 2024 a year to remember. Tune in to celebrate the resilience and revival of Tucson’s urban core!

As the year draws to a close, we’re excited to share a special episode of Life Along the Streetcar: 2024 Highlights from the Urban Core: A Year of Resilience and Revival. This episode is a celebration of the people, projects, and partnerships that made 2024 unforgettable for Tucson’s downtown and urban core.

This past year has been nothing short of inspiring. Tucson’s businesses and artists not only weathered challenges but thrived, finding innovative ways to contribute to our community’s cultural and economic growth. In this reflective episode, we revisit some of the most compelling conversations of the year.

You’ll hear from Jessica Barfield of Local First Arizona, who shares how programs like the Navigator Grant brought millions of dollars to local businesses, strengthening the economic fabric of Tucson. Dive into the story of High Wire’s newest venue, The Grand, a beautiful example of how creativity and collaboration breathe new life into historical spaces.

But this isn’t just about economics—it’s about the soul of our city. From artists transforming urban landscapes with breathtaking murals to entrepreneurs reimagining how we experience community, every story showcases the resilience, creativity, and spirit that define Tucson.

We also reflect on the power of partnerships. This year, collaborations between organizations like Local First Arizona, Startup Tucson, and the Tucson Chamber of Commerce brought new energy and opportunity to the urban core. Together, they’ve built a foundation for growth and sustainability that we’ll see for years to come.

So grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us for this heartfelt look back at 2024. Let’s celebrate the people and moments that make Tucson’s downtown a vibrant hub of art, culture, and innovation.

Check out the episode now and let us know your favorite moments of the year in the comments! Don’t forget to share with friends who love Tucson as much as you do.

Explore more episodes, discover our book, and connect with us at lifealongthestreetcar.org. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. And you’re listening to Kate Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson. A community sponsored, all volunteer powered rock n roll radio station. This week, we’re going to take a look back at the business owners and leaders who shaped the urban core.

And we’re going to enjoy some of the highlights of their conversations with us in 2024. Today is December 29th, 2024. It’s our last show of the year. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life Along the Street car. Each and every Sunday, our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core, and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about.

From the University of Arizona to a mountain and all stops in between. You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on Downtown radio.org. Also available on your iPhone or Android by using our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app. If you want to interact with us on the show, you can do so on social media, Facebook and Instagram.

And if you want information about us, our book, past episodes, you want to contact us or just check us out. Head over to our website, which is life along the Street car talk. And of course, we invite you to listen to our podcast on all kinds of platforms like Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, and the like while we are, doing our traditional year end episodes where we, look back at some of the conversations we had in 2024.

And as I said last week, this is not a best of this is a sampling of the amazing people that we’ve talked to. We’ve had a lot of different business owners. Our art artists, social leaders, economic drivers, all kinds of different people in the, in the, conversation this year. And we picked six interviews of those shaping the economic front.

Last week we focused more on the art and culture. Today is more economic. And, we’re going to share some of those stories with you. And we’re going to start off with, our, interview with Jessica Barfield. She’s with local First Arizona. And just want to talk briefly about kind of what they’re doing in our, in our community.

This is back from a June in 2024.

Kind of a spread, but a lot of them 0 to 10 employees. And so we really work with businesses to help strengthen, you know, their education. Like what is it that they need that we can help them get. So we have monthly networking events where we encourage, you know, business owners to come out and, find collaborative partners in the community to do business West.

But we also do educational workshops depending on what our members need. And we’re spending a lot of time, uncovering opportunities. We have some programing, such as our sustainable programing, where we help small businesses or any Arizona business up into the large, larger scale projects. Take a look at their footprint. What is it that they’re doing in terms of their operations?

That’s having an environmental impact. And what changes could they make to improve that impact? And their bottom dollar, like keep more money in that company so they can reallocate those resources and strengthen their business elsewhere.

And partnership wise, I’m also seeing a lot of times where the name local first Arizona’s connected to like a startup coalition or a pitch competition or something where you are participating or supporting, you’re helping each other out. But it seems like your local first name is attached to a lot of things in the community.

That’s a really good point. And to kind of brings us back to your first question. When you were asking about grants. So during Covid, we were really, we were really active in going out and applying for money. And one of the grants that we were successful at bringing to, the state was the navigator grant. We received $12 million to help support small businesses.

And what we did is we developed this spoken hub kind of model where we went out into the community and we found partners like our local partners, like Startup Tucson, Startup, you need us, the CIC, as a growth partners. And we were able to find some of the work they were doing in the community during Covid behind the scenes to get their programing out there.

And so whenever they’re out doing some of their workshops that have been funded through the navigator grant, you’ll see our name attached. And a lot of times we are also supporting those. So because we ended up I know we topped over 2 million right into the Tucson area through the navigator grant, that has been realized through programing, in our community over the last, you know, to you.

Was Jessica Barfield of local First Arizona. And we’ve we’ve talked about this on the show many times for local first has so many different threads to what they do. It’s hard to summarize that. That’s just one example of how they are supporting businesses through events, opportunities and by working through grants and bringing millions of dollars into local businesses here across the state.

One of those, local businesses that’s part of Local First is the high wire, bar downtown. And the group, recently, launched their new venue, which is in the spot where the old drawing room used to be next to, Johnny Gibson’s downtown market. And we had them on to talk about the, their newest venture called the Grand.

Partners in this, Kelly and Ronnie Abbott from Johnny Gibson’s market, who previous owners of Rincon market. Historically, they’ve owned event centers. They currently own Star dance up in Marana. They’ve own Park Avenue Event center, Bates Mansion. So putting on events, specifically weddings is their their thing. They’re a well-oiled machine. And so I think with the grand that’s going to be the majority of our business will probably.

Be like weddings.

Weddings for couples that want a more downtown urban.

Experience. And then from a like a layout perspective, it’s it’s it’s connected, right? It’s all part of the footprint.

Yeah. It’s all connected. You’ll be able to, have your event in the grand and you and your guests will be able to just walk down the hallway and walk into our beautiful patio and, get to experience high wire, afterwards, if you want.

And then, because you build out the kitchen now you’ve got a catering service right in there for them as well.

Yes.

Yeah. It’s fantastic. This is I think that’s one of the things that I’ve really come to love about Tucson is the repurposing of space. And it’s we’re not tearing stuff down and rebuilding. We’re we’re looking at what’s there and how can we use that. And I mean, did you nine and a half years ago, I mean, what was your vision for this?

Was it okay, we’re going to take over and we’re going to take over that, and we’re doing event center and.

I was going to get high wire off the ground, move back to Scottsdale Real Estate. And then very quickly became evident that this is a full time job. Yes. And that’s been John and I since and all kinds of things, pandemic it you know, we went from however many employees down to just John and I hawking t shirts and bottle cocktails out of the alley.

I remember, yeah, the scary times had.

A drive through going through the air, but.

Yeah. And, did what we had to do to stay afloat. And here we are now. Yeah. High wire, 7500ft², two buildings, big courtyard. We’re adding the grant, and then there’s more stuff coming.

And then in the the the space, just to kind of give some perspective. At last tenant was the drawing studio, right?

Yes. And, they vacated when the courtyard got going or Gibson, the whole property in general in 2014 I believe. And they’ve moved up north of here. And it’s kind of cool. So they had some, murals out front, tile murals, which are being replaced with our Ben’s Bells project. And they had made custom wrought iron gates, which we’re going to return to them.

So they’ll they’ll have it back at their space, which is pretty cool.

Yeah. That was the nick of high wire with his partner, John. They have been opening up a lot of different, opportunities in the downtown area. They took high wire, expanded it, took over what? Used to be the distillery. They now have the patio, the drawing room, which is now the Grand. And in there he made a very slight reference to more to come, and I, I pushed him on this during the interview and he said, I can’t really talk about it, but we do have some other plans for that area.

Well, we’re now seeing that come to fruition since they’ve taken over the, Johnny Gibson space and I believe the Crescent Smoke shop space and are looking to expand that entire block. Johnny Gibson’s as a grocery store has, closed just about a week ago, and renovations are underway, and it’s going to reopen with a new concept. And I look forward to getting, Nick and John back in to, to discuss them.

Well, just down the road. And another member of local first Arizona. Inside of the proper shops are the visionaries and the creators behind the timber tote, which is a, a wooden purse and I it’s just amazing how well this product is taking off. We’re seeing it, just start as a concept in a in a prototype, and now it is all over the area.

It is being sold in, several different outlets. Artists are latching on to this product and, putting their artwork in it and, and selling it through places like the Museum of Art. I know it’s in several places across the state, and we have the, the visionaries behind this, Jason and Chelsea on the show to talk about their creation, the timber tote.

Let’s get into a timber tote, because this is an interesting concept. And it came. Who came to whom with this idea? First of all, what is a timber tote and then how do we get this thing launched? Haven’t how to get started.

So Timber tote is a purse made out of wood. It’s, stadium sized. So it’s a little five by seven person. It’s made out of wood and it’s made from one continuous piece that wraps all the way around. Jason found a, cutting technique with the laser where it cut these little grooves into the wood, and it allows the wood to bend, so able to create a rounded shape.

Purse completely out of wood. And he came to me first.

You’re a collaborator? Yeah.

So, so during the summer months, my mind sitting idle is not a good thing. And so I was doing some collaborations with some with someone else that was in here. And so I was like, Chelsea, we should be.

Able to come up with something.

Fun. So I was like, hey, there’s this technique. What if we did, like, a purse? Which was like, first I was like, I make clothes like, you can’t wear wood. And he said, but.

Challenge.

X, right? So I made like a prototype. Yeah. And, and, it’s taken some trial and error. A few, hoops to jump through. We might have accidentally poisoned ourselves a little bit. And then we spent a lot. Yeah. You’re not supposed to cut vinyl with a laser.

Oh, sorry. I always go.

Yeah, yeah. So there’s a lot to learn.

So that’s where the timber totes came from. I have an idea.

But, that led to, kind of toying with this, this process of adhering actual fabric to the entire wood, which I have now pretty much perfected. I think, it’s, process that we’re actually trying to get patented. So that will be a really big step and a game changer for people to do that.

Yeah. And I’m assuming it’s removes the health risks from.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I made triple sure like for no no.

Surefire way to kill clothing makers.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then the, the evolution because now the two of you got together. But I see there’s designs on these that are done by Jenny. And I think you have one with Ignacio, right?

That’s right.

We do so. Yeah. So the collaboration just keep going.

Yeah. It’s, we’ve started with Jenny, being able to engrave on the wood, you know, we gave her the dimensions of the piece, and she created specific images that fit right on it, onto it. Was able to engrave that. And then with Ignacio, we had the opportunity to print on fabric, and, Ignacio was more than willing to let us use some of his artwork.

So, and that has been so awesome, like a game changer on that was could we print our own fabric?

That was really.

What we were striving for. And so he said, well, I’ll use mine and see if you can make it work. Now that we’ve been successfully printing images on fabric, now it just opens up the world to other artists, not just him. But if someone comes to us with like a picture of their.

Family or their dogs.

Or something, we can build a whole person around that.

That was adjacent. He and his partner, Chelsea, have created the timber tote and, taken the world by storm. We can’t wait to see how this all shapes out and such such amazing plans in the works. And they are just part of the economic story we told here on a life along the streetcar. Coming up after the break, we’re going to talk about food, which is kind of an important deal here in the, the Tucson area and maybe a little bit little libations as well.

But I want to remind you that you’re listening to life along the streetcar in downtown radio 99.1 FM and streaming on downtown radio.org.

This podcast is sponsored by Tom Heath and the heat team and over home Loans. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, continue listening or head over to life on the Street Khou.com for current events and information on what to do while visiting Tucson. Tom Heath animal House number 182420 Nova and MLS number 3087 VK number 0902429. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Welcome back, welcome back. It’s our year and show last Sunday of the year. So we’re taking a look back at some of the economic drivers of 2024. We had a chance to interview with and have these great conversations focused on a variety of businesses and organizations. In the first half, this section is going to be focused on food, and festival.

So we, are the city of gastronomy and a fabulous time of year for different festivals in Tucson. And we had some great interviews. And, you know, these are the ones that we chose here today. These three, these are our fantastic. But I don’t like to call it a best of segment. I really think these are more representative of the types of interviews that we do here in life along the street car, and we’re going to start when you talk about food in Tucson, you got to start with Tucson Foodie.

And we had Shane Reiser on talking about kind of his start, how he got going and, some, some key elements that he has brought to Tucson foodies since purchasing it a few years ago, the Shane Razor with Shane Rising, razor with Tucson Foodie, which is really become just sort of synonymous with Tucson’s gastronomical. See, I mean, it’s hard to find something happening food wise or drink wise in Tucson without Tucson Foodie having a say in it.

Which are best when I know you’ve been involved. You took over at one point, but two years ago. And so that’s it. Yeah, it started like nine years ago and I don’t know, it started, but I bought the company got two years ago. Wow. Cuz I remember was when I first met you, we sat down the hotel Congress and you were telling me about all these events that you wanted to do.

And I remember thinking to myself, and that’s it’s pretty aggressive. It’s how I see all these events out here. Anyways, it’s only been two years. Yeah, man. Mash went over two years ago on so almost almost two years man. So I look back and I think man, like we just said we’ve done nothing. But then my team and everybody reminds me we have done a lot like look at what we’ve done.

So I’m trying to be like, you know, honor what we’ve done and be grateful. But also also it’s not about if I was la, I want more. There’s so much.

Opportunity.

So yeah. Well, what, what what kind of drew you to this. Because you I know you’ve done a lot of different, kind of your entrepreneurial in spirit. So you’ve got a lot things. But what you’re doing the Tucson foodie. Well, I moved here about ten years ago, and if I’m to something and it was part of my falling in love journey, but I didn’t want to, so I moved to.

I was like, what’s going on? There’s not a lot. And then just, I think you just proved me wrong. And I was I was a fan subscriber for a long time, and some of my first friends when I moved here were in restaurants and I went to because of to some foodie. So, you know, Covid hit to some foodie struggles and I had the opportunity to buy it and not just keep the laughs.

That’s really important to the economy of Tucson, but also do really cool, new, interesting things in my background, the community building, you know, so it makes sense for me to just like pull people together. We launched a club. It brings people together. We we’ve acquired festivals, we’ve launched new festivals, a club like, like a physical club or like a mount physical.

Okay. It’s called Tucson Foodie insiders and, some foodie insiders. So it’s pretty cool. I appreciate the enthusiasm. Yeah. So it’s just the ultimate club for foodies. It’s a great way to explore Tucson’s restaurant scene. We have 80 restaurant partners that give our members a bunch of different gift cards. In fact, you get like $350 in gift cards every month.

Over $4,000 a year. It’s 20 bucks a month. So it pays for itself instantly, and then you get 50% off to all of our festivals, and we have a dinner series that you get invited to just for membership on by top chefs. And we’ve lined up awesome perks at other dinners and festivals from our partners around town that Shane Riser of Tucson Foodie talk with him earlier in the year in February, as they were getting ready at the time for the Vegan Night Market, which has been a huge success, as are many of their, their festivals, the the beer Crawl.

And they’re, their monthly dinners have been a lot of fun. I’ve gotten to attend a couple of those really well thought out and, and curated, events. The, thing he talked about was festivals and bringing people into the Tucson area. And so we thought we transition right into one of the big festivals that we have here at the, middle of the year.

And on April ish with the Agave Heritage Festival that started years ago as a, a contest that really focused around tequila and has grown into a cultural, really a cultural educational seminar and series of events that do include food and drink, but also a lot of information about the use of the agave plants. And, you know, Todd Hanley, who’s been running this operation for some time, sat down, just before the last Tucson Agave Festival to talk a little bit about why he thinks it’s so important and, some key elements that were driving the 2024 Agave Heritage Festival.

To be a place where you can visit lives, you know, sleep, eat, play and understand the history, the culture, the heritage of it. So and the agave plant is so prolific in this region, it was like a perfect symbol. I mean, saguaro is what most people think of in the desert. But for me, I think of the agave plant.

I think it has so many applications. So just my passion and love for southern Arizona, the beauty of the desert, really.

So so you get going with this, this festival, it’s more like a one day event. And now it’s it’s and it’s a week, right?

Yeah. Well, it went from one day to ten days in 2019, and now it’s down to a robust four days. And just by design, it was because it was just too much for people. I want everybody to come in for a 3 or 4 day weekend. You know, part of this reality is eco tourism. You know, sales tax.

I mean, obviously that’s what makes the world go round on some levels. But now it’s four days, 50 events. It’s really rooted in education, conservation. But the vessel, pun intended, is the spirit in the food to bring you to the table and talk. I mean, the best way to frame the festival is there’s a Brazilian orchestra, ages 16 to 20 ish, that are coming to the festival because it was their dream to play at the festival and their instruments and, you know, not all of their instruments, but the vast majority of them.

The guitars, the violins, the violas are made of repurpose agave plants. And in that same vein, they are in a large research and development around how to use that same agave when it’s actually living into biofuel. So replacing sugar cane because agave is 60% more water efficient than any other plants on the earth, it’s in and of itself.

You just there’s.

Doing that, that the students that are that are playing or.

Oh no, I’m sorry. It’s a shell oil with a couple universities in Brazil.

Okay. So, so so the the Brazil connection, they’re doing this in Brazil. And then the, the students are coming to play. And you said they’re, they’re like they’re the same age as in the festival.

Yeah. Right. A couple of them are asking if they could go to the fiesta. And I said, well, no, you cannot, because that’s the big party, the grand tasting. But yeah, the Brazilian orchestra and the fact that this plant is the future crop and commodity for Brazil in terms of biofuel is pretty much tells you all you need to know about the festival and the fact that they have asked to attend the festival and play on a cultural exchange is is beyond my even wildest dreams.

Real would be the best word to use, but.

That was Todd Hanley talking about the success of the Agave Heritage Festival here in downtown Tucson ties right in with the, the Food and festival and drink theme that we have going on in the second half of the show here. And we’re going to finish up the interviews, the, that we’re sharing with you today with Gabriel Moreno.

He is the owner of Jimmy’s Pizza and Kitchen. This is a family run business. It’s got connections to, his father’s business, on Fourth Avenue, years back, going back to the to the 80s. So there’s a family legacy of culinary excellence here in Tucson. We’ve got many of those stories to share. This is one that we, thought we’d put up because it’s it’s a fairly new business.

And downtown, although they are, quickly becoming one of the, the go to places when you want a good slice of pizza here in, the urban core. This is, Gabriel Moreno. Talked to him back in September of this year. You know, my grandfather instilled some major family values, my grandfather and my grandmother, and then as well as my parents, of course.

But, being the older generations, my grandparents made sure that we knew how fortunate we were be. We were to be born into the family we were born into, and that kind of stuck with us. So when it came time to open, business of My Own, the only thing that made sense was to name it after what made me fall in love with a family operated business, which was my grandfather’s bar.

I’m his bar and grill was on Fourth Avenue, so it was time, after, two decades, to shake the dust off of all the old jackets and, and kind of just color up the logo a little bit and then put it back where it belongs, prominently in the downtown fourth Ave areas of Tucson. As I noticed the high mesa, if you look at the logo, it says established in 1989.

That’s that’s the bar. That’s okay. So yeah, it’s actually a little bit more of a brand. It was high mas Mexican favorites, which transitioned into High Mas Bar and Grill. And then I can’t remember exactly where it was located, but it was kind of in an industrial area off of Broad Mont. He opened Jaime’s restaurant, which I also wash dishes and learn how to serve tables at.

So it’s a continuation of that brand. So what was his for driving force to get into the food? Did he did his family, his parents? We were in transportation before that. And I think that the transport of, produce and seafood, which is a little bit bigger, in the, in the Nogales area, which is where he kind of started that, led to maybe not a passion, but at least a desire to go to the next step of where that food and drink, it kind of dropped off.

And what happens to it after that? And just knowing the ins and outs, of what really makes a business which is having deals and knowing where your suppliers are and how to work with them, made it kind of an easy transition from transportation into, business ownership. And his son’s a chef, so it made sense to open something while he’s already had kind of a built in staff, a model which with my wife and kids working with me, I identify with Gabriel Marino.

Jamie’s pizza, a family tradition here in Tucson. The Moreno family has been doing, customer service hospitality for decades. And I’m, lucky to, have a gallery a couple doors down from these cool people. My name is Tom Heath. You are listening to lifelong the streetcar in downtown radio 99.1 FM and streaming on Downtown radio.org.

Support for downtown radio is provided by the Tucson Gallery, located in downtown Tucson. Instead of the proper shops at the East Condo Street, the Tucson Gallery offers original work, reproductions, and merchandise from Tucson artists like Joe Padgett, Just Curtains artist Ignacio Garcia, and many more. For information about other artists, including when they will be up at the gallery, head to the Tucson gallery.com or find them on Instagram and Facebook as Tucson Gallery.

Arts radio Club crawl. Brother Mark, just one of the fabulous volunteer deejays that creates amazing shows on downtown radio. All that information is on downtown radio.org. Highly encourage you to to check that page out. Find some music that you might not normally listen to and listen you, you may find something that you really don’t like, and that’s okay, because I guarantee you’re going to find something that you didn’t know that you liked.

And it’s a good way to broaden your horizons. It’s worked for me. So I can say that as a testimonial that you, you listened to our station long enough, and you’re going to find music you’ve never heard from people you didn’t know existed, and you’re going to find yourself really impressed with their music and looking for more.

That’s the power of an underground radio station like Downtown Radio. And you can support us by hitting that donate button up there on the, the, the top of the page when you when you log in, we don’t go anywhere. Ted Brzezinski’s coming up with words and work to wrap up his year. And we want to thank you for spending your time with us this year.

We took a look back 2025. I got some, some, more fun shows coming your way. Just a a little bit here, but want to know what you would like us to cover if you’re involved with something? And what’s your passion? Because you’re listening to a show like this, that’s hyperlocal. We know that you’re in tune with Tucson.

So tell us what we should be covering through. You know, hit us up on Instagram and Facebook. And certainly if you’ve got, an account celebrating the urban core, tag us in that so we can share what you’re doing as well. Our website is Lifelong Street car.org for more information and a contact button there. The, year end festivities don’t happen without the support of an amazing team.

And I really want to give a huge thanks to James Portis, our production specialist. We’ve been blessed with Amanda Maltose as our production assistant. My name is Tom. Here as host and producer. You know, last thank you is to Ryan Hood, who allows us to use Dillinger Days to open up the show every day or every week. And this year, as the as we’re we’re finishing up the year, our last episode, we thought it was going to be a very fitting way to wrap up by adding the sequel to Dillinger Days as our outgoing music.

So you’re listening to the, the song Happy Returns from the 2021 album Under the Leaves. I hope you have a great year and celebration and tune in next Sunday for more life along the street. Car.