Rooted in Tradition: Celebrating the Agave Heritage Festival with Todd Hanley

Inside the 2025 Agave Heritage Festival
→ What to expect from this year’s 4-day lineup (April 10–13)
→ Over 30 events, including tastings, educational workshops, and cultural showcases
→ A look at the Agave Renaissance Summit and its global significance

Agave: More Than Just a Spirit
→ The cultural, historical, and environmental role of agave in the Southwest
→ Tequila vs. mescal—what’s the difference, and why does it matter?
→ How agave supports sustainability and reflects desert living

Todd Hanley’s New Role with Watershed Management Group
→ Why he made the shift from Hotel Congress to community conservation
→ How WMG is tackling desert sustainability through education and action
→ Real talk on drought tracking, rainwater harvesting, and urban heat mitigation

A Festival with Soul
→ The international reach of Tucson’s agave celebration
→ Music, food, storytelling, and art—all tied to a single desert plant
→ Why this event is becoming the premier agave festival in North America

In this week’s episode of Life Along the Streetcar, we’re turning our attention to a festival that is uniquely Tucson—a celebration that bridges centuries of culture, ecology, and community. We’re talking about the Agave Heritage Festival, and there’s no better guide to this rich event than Todd Hanley, the driving force behind its evolution and a familiar face to our listeners.

The 2025 Agave Heritage Festival, happening April 10–13, is a meaningful exploration of one of the most important plants in the desert Southwest. With over 30 events planned—ranging from conservation-focused talks and educational panels to bar takeovers and culinary experiences—this four-day celebration promises something for everyone.

Whether you’re a connoisseur of mescal, a desert gardener, or simply a curious Tucsonan looking to connect with the heritage of the Sonoran Desert, this festival is a rare opportunity to taste, learn, and experience what makes agave such a powerful cultural and ecological symbol.

Why Agave?

Agave is a food source, a fiber for tools and textiles, and—yes—a base for spirits like tequila and mescal. But it’s also a beacon of sustainability. As Todd shares, agave thrives with minimal water, making it a natural hero in a desert facing the challenges of drought and climate change. In many ways, agave is a symbol of resilience, mirroring the people and culture of Tucson itself.

The Agave Renaissance Summit, a central part of the festival, gathers farmers, scientists, artists, and producers from across the globe to discuss the future of agave—from environmental stewardship to the economic forces shaping its cultivation. It’s this thoughtful integration of culture, science, and celebration that makes Tucson’s Agave Heritage Festival the premier event of its kind in North America.

Todd Hanley’s New Chapter: Conservation in Action

This episode also marks Todd’s first appearance on the show in his new role with Watershed Management Group (WMG). After years of hospitality leadership at the historic Hotel Congress, Todd has transitioned into nonprofit advocacy, working to advance sustainable desert living across Southern Arizona.

WMG is a powerhouse of local impact, tackling everything from rainwater harvesting and composting education to drought monitoring and climate justice. With deep roots in Tucson—its founders are University of Arizona grads—the organization promotes environmental awareness and action at every level, from individual households to regional policy.

In Todd’s words, WMG is all about helping people “do a better job living in the desert.” And what better plant to illustrate that ethos than the mighty agave?

Why You Should Go

If you’ve ever wanted to connect more deeply with Tucson’s culture, this is your moment. The Agave Heritage Festival isn’t just for drink lovers—though the tastings are top-notch. It’s a festival for thinkers, doers, makers, and stewards of the Sonoran Desert.

Come for the conversations. Come for the food. Come for the deep sense of connection to this place we call home. Whether you’re wandering through a downtown tasting or sitting in on a summit panel about sustainable farming, you’re participating in a movement—one rooted in tradition and growing toward the future.

Explore the full schedule and get your tickets at: AgaveHeritageFestival.com
Listen to the full episode on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/lifealongthestreetcar
Stay connected: facebook.com/LifeAlongTheStreetcar

Life Along the Streetcar is your guide to Tucson’s urban core—the stories, the people, the passions that make our community thrive. Tune in every Sunday on 99.1 FM Downtown Radio or catch the podcast wherever you stream.

Let’s raise a glass to agave—and to the people nurturing its legacy.

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. And you’re listening to Katy Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock n roll radio station. This week we’re going to speak once again with a familiar face, Todd Hanley. Todd’s here to share details about his new role with Watershed Management Group.

Tom Heath
And give us an inside scoop on this year’s Agave Heritage Festival, which kicks off in just a couple of days. It’s a celebration of culture, cuisine and a vital role in our desert landscape. And Todd is going to give us the scoop. Today is April 6th, 2025. My name is Tommy, and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar.

Tom Heath
Each and every Sunday, our focus on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core, and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about, from a man to the University of Arizona 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 with our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app.

Tom Heath
And of course, if you want to interact with us here on the show directly, we recommend you do that through Instagram and Facebook. And if you want more information about our show, past episodes, or learn a little bit about our book, you can head over to our web page, which is life along the Street car.org. And of course, we remind you that if you missed this on Downtown Radio, you can catch the podcast version on Spotify, iTunes, iHeart radio, and also on the You Tube.

Tom Heath
Well, it’s it’s festival season for sure. We have the Arizona International Film Festival that kicked off last week. We’re in the midst of the folk festival this weekend, and coming up later this week is the Agave Heritage Festival. So these first few weeks of April are quite busy with people coming to experience our history, our art, our culture and our cuisine.

Tom Heath
So we’re going to jump right into an interview we did with Todd Hanley. Just a matter a week or so ago. I came into the studio, we talked about his new role with Watershed Management Group. He’s been on the show before. He was with the with the Hotel Congress in the past. And he’s also so heavily involved with the Agave Heritage Festival.

Tom Heath
So he’d get the, the details of what to expect. When that kicks off later this week, it is a chance to catch up with, a good friend, Todd, handling it. I don’t know how many times you’ve been on on the show now.

Todd Hanley
Twice, though. This be my third. I think.

Tom Heath
That’s it.

Todd Hanley
I think so.

Tom Heath
I must do some repeats because I’ve seen your face pop up. Yeah, on her feet a lot.

Todd Hanley
I face that keeps us doing, Well.

Tom Heath
Todd Hanley, this is, our first interview in, your new role with, Watershed Management.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. Watershed management group.

Tom Heath
Okay.

Todd Hanley
Is that tomato? Tomato, right.

Tom Heath
Is that different? Is there like, a watershed or are you guys, like, in a battle with the watershed management?

Todd Hanley
And we sent out a cease and desist letter just a few days ago.

Tom Heath
Okay.

Todd Hanley
You know, but for those viewers.

Tom Heath
And for the.

Todd Hanley
Group, and I guess listeners got to know Watershed Management Group. Okay. WMG, baby.

Tom Heath
All right, well, I kind of ties into everything that you and I have ever talked about. This is.

Todd Hanley
True. Yes. Even anything good, by the way. Everything good. By the.

Tom Heath
Way, when you were you. Oh, you’re at Hotel Congress and in the show over there, so much of what you were doing was focused on conservation. Not just water, but just interest in general conservation.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. Always been a passion of mine. Hotel Congress is the outlet for just as many ways to minimize the impact from food to heat. You know, electricity to water to just basic recycling that everybody can do a better job of. Yeah. I, proud of the time spent that hotel Congress in the conservation that I started. So thanks for recognizing.

Tom Heath
Yeah. Well, then, you know, when you announced that you were moving on, I initially I was a little surprised because, you know, you’re like a fixture for me at Hotel Congress because that’s what I’ve always known you. But then when I found out where you were going, I was like, okay, that’s no surprise at all. That’s that’s that’s your your bailiwick.

Tom Heath
That’s your passion.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. It would, it would have. I needed to make a change no matter what. But there was no way I was going to go from one hospitality situation to another. That was just the fill my bucket. Nor just ultimately, you know, make me happy, you know, because conservation environment has been something I’ve been very passionate about for 20 years.

Tom Heath
Or I do want to transition in a moment into the Agave Heritage Festival, because that’s coming up and there’s definitely a connection to all this, but just kind of catch me up. Like I understand the basic concepts of Water watershed management group.

Todd Hanley
Yeah.

Tom Heath
But I don’t fully understand. I didn’t realize that you were telling me some of the things that you’re that you do, and I was kind of surprised that you were. You were so, involved.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. Symbolically, when you think of watershed management and watershed management group, especially, you know, our nonprofit, you think of rainwater harvesting, whether or not it’s active through cisterns or passive just through kind of how you manage your landscape. You know, earthworks from little swales, which are a fancy term for, you know, little ditches, if you will, to berms, which are mounds of dirt.

Todd Hanley
But really, it’s an educational organization focused on the broader context of sustainable desert living. But we do a lot of work, policy and advocacy. Not me personally, but the co-founders, Lisa Cat Lo Shepard, husband and wife. They are visionaries in terms of a lot, but specifically and lately, drought mitigation, drought management, drought tracking. We are doing things that the municipalities are doing.

Todd Hanley
We’re monitoring shallow groundwater in the taga verde and the Rito in the Sabino. I mean, we’re doing a lot of things because you can’t monitor drought by just one metrics. Lake Mead, I mean, you can’t monitor droughts without action. So they founded a small collaboration of 40 different organizations called the Santa Cruz Watershed Collaborative. But so, I guess kind of digressing back, watershed management Group is an educational organization around sustainable desert living.

Todd Hanley
The symbol is water to a degree, but it’s also what to plant, where to plant it, how you use compost, how we cool our cities. Because obviously this urban heat effect is a real challenge for everybody, marginalized communities that have one tenth the number of trees. As you know, you other communities that are out there. So it’s it’s an organization that is trying to shift individual behaviors, that leads to groups, that leads communities, that leads to states and regions.

Todd Hanley
I like to say it’s, you know, tried to move a paradigm shift to understanding that living in a desert is unique and special. So here’s what you need to do a better job of.

Tom Heath
And the founders of this than they they are from this region. They you said they went to the university of Arizona. I mean, they graduate.

Todd Hanley
They graduated. Yep. So they’re actually, Chalo, from Sierra Vista. So yes, he is from the region. Lisa, his wife, she’s from the East Coast. They met in undergrad at a school in Saint Louis, Missouri. But they came to you of a for grad ed, started with a few other individuals. Watershed management group in 2003.

Tom Heath
Okay. 20. Oh, man. That’s.

Todd Hanley
Yeah, 22 years ago. Wow. Yeah. No, it’s pretty wild. I mean, it’s really kind of. And it’s surprisingly received a lot of great public relations, but still, you know, it’s a niche organization that tried to grow in terms of awareness.

Tom Heath
It’s interesting when you I guess for me, you hear terms or you hear you, I like I heard the name of the company, I kind of knew what it was. But now, as I think about it, watershed management, I mean, that really is kind of the essence of, of of what they started was, was how to mitigate. Yeah, this, this loss of water was it was about it was about how to control the loss of.

Todd Hanley
Well, yeah. I mean, where we’re sitting is within a watershed. Santa Cruz is probably order of about.

Tom Heath
Oh, yeah. That’s, Okay. So I was completely making that up. And so a watershed as a, as a, as an official term.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. No, it’s a, it’s an actual term.

Tom Heath
So I thought it was some see I was giving it some kind of philosophical spin on it like, but but what I did.

Todd Hanley
You could I think I would say it could be both a, I guess.

Tom Heath
This is how much research I do here.

Todd Hanley
So if I thought it’s okay, that’s.

Tom Heath
That’s a lot of it.

Todd Hanley
You think about, you know, what word is water. Start. Well I mean it starts from above. It starts not just at, you know, the top of the mountains, but it’s also above through clouds. And so watershed Management Group is about the totality of how we are impacted by aspects of precipitation, snowmelt and rain, which obviously leads to aquifers.

Todd Hanley
You could even make a case. Effluent water is a is a process that needs to be made. And so one of our things is we are one watershed like again, it’s a physical space, a place. Your watershed currently is Santa Cruz. I have Arroyo Chico as my quote unquote watershed, so it can be as big as a Santa Cruz River or small as Arroyo Chico.

Tom Heath
So how little I know. I did not know that watershed was a was a location.

Todd Hanley
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Tom Heath
I thought it was a verb.

Todd Hanley
Well, let me say something. This is totally off. You know, nouns can be a person, place, thing or idea. Yes. Oh. You’re right. Oh, really? You know, it was an idea. Yeah, I never do. So when idea is a thing, it’s, like, very abstract to me. So my six year old is telling me that, so I didn’t you didn’t prepare I didn’t take sixth grade English very seriously.

Tom Heath
For those sixth graders, we wouldn’t know.

Todd Hanley
Oh, truly, man, she’s helped me learn a lot about how yeah, we’ll digress.

Tom Heath
The, the conversation we’re having, though, it’s very interesting to me because even though it’s it’s a new venue and I’m sure you’re dealing with it at a different level, this conversation is not new. Every time I talk to you, this is the conversation. And and that’s what got me, I think, more involved with understanding what big of a heritage festival was, because that for me, originally, I think we talked about it was like tequila.

Todd Hanley
Yeah, it.

Tom Heath
Was like, hey, let’s make some cool drinks.

Todd Hanley
Vibes and salt and.

Tom Heath
But you’ve always had this, this conservation aspect of the agave.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. I mean, really I’m working for Watershed Management Group because of the Agave Heritage Festival. I won’t go into the story. It’s not an exciting story, but agave are ubiquitous with southern Arizona. They’re native, they’re wild, they’re cultivated. They’re 60% more water efficient. You know, they’re drought tolerant. They can exist without, without really any water, depending upon, you know, how mature they are when we go into a drought like we are.

Tom Heath
That is Todd Haley. We’re talking about the Agave Heritage Festival and, the importance of the agave plant here in our region as he’s throwing out big words like equitas. So he’ll, we’ll be back to finish up our interview with, Todd in just a moment. But first, I want to remind you that you are listening to life along the streetcar downtown radio 99.1 FM streaming on downtown radio.org.

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

Tom Heath
If you’re just joining us, our guest today is Todd Hanley. He’s been on the show a few times before. The, the bulk of what we’re talking about today is the Agave Heritage Fest, where they get a little bit information on his new role, with Watershed Management Group. But really, he’s here to talk about the upcoming, festival that’s kicks off really this, this Thursday.

Tom Heath
And we’ll go through the weekend and know a bit of the history of it and what we can expect from, this year’s lineup.

Todd Hanley
It’s a source of food. It’s a source of fiber, you know, that you can use to make bags, sandals. You know, brushes for your, you know, scrubbing your body. But most people think of it as mescal, you know, and actually, most people think of it as tequila. But tequila is a mescal will remind you that all tequilas are mescal, but not all the scales are tequila.

Tom Heath
There we go. Hopefully your sixth grader didn’t teach you that.

Todd Hanley
Yeah.

Tom Heath
That’s. Hopefully that’s.

Todd Hanley
Not.

Tom Heath
You learn that on your own.

Todd Hanley
Yeah, I learned that on my own. It took me a few years to figure it out. Yeah. So mescal basically means roasted agave. So any type of spirit that comes from a cooked agave is considered mescal, even if it’s terribly industrialized. Cooking mechanism, which we don’t want to talk about or shed light on because that’s those are the bad guys.

Tom Heath
But and you talked about the the utilitarian and the practical uses, but the things that I’ve learned through, the festival and the research is that it’s also a social and a cultural connection as well. I mean, these are, these are and these are revered plants for for generations.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. Great point. I mean, I often put that, you know, a little bit behind the conservation because I’m a little bit more passionate about that, but it’s more a cultural phenomenon, obviously Mexico than anything. But it’s a socio economic, it’s a agricultural, but it’s to a lot of individuals in Mexico, it’s a part of their daily life.

Todd Hanley
It’s existed. And so yeah, great. Great point. I again, that’s why the the mission statement talks about sustainability, culture and gosh, what’s the other one? I can’t even remember. My brain is completely so.

Tom Heath
We think.

Todd Hanley
We’ll get there. Oh commercial. Yeah. Because yeah, unfortunately the money does make the world go round. If we can use it for the betterment of our community. And we can be happy with commercial, but. Good point.

Tom Heath
So, where are we with the festival? Because it’s gone through. It’s had, like an identity crisis. We were the tequila contest, and then you were like a month long celebration. Yeah. And then it was like. It was just like, there’s different lengths. Like, where are we now?

Todd Hanley
It is staying the same. It’s four days, you know, three and a half. If you consider Sunday is a little bit of a shorter day. But three days, April 10th through April 13th. So Thursday through Sunday, it’s streamlined this year, which is, for me, just a way of making sure that I don’t put so much out there that the consumer is, you know, frozen with what the choices are.

Todd Hanley
Right? Because I’ve heard that quite a bit over the last couple years. To your point. You know, pre-COVID, it was literally at one point, I think 14 days. It was kind of foolish in that Covid had for everybody.

Tom Heath
I don’t know if it was foolish. I just think it was a different you were focusing on a broad range of topics, and it’s hard for someone that’s that’s not 100% committed to that. To really participate in 14 days worth of activities.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. Good. Great point. I mean, I guess foolish from the consumer perspective, but it was rooted in because it started as Cinco de Mayo. It was both the last weekend in April to distance yourself from Cinco de Mayo and have the real culture and education and conservation, and that take advantage of Cinco de Mayo. When everybody’s out having fun.

Todd Hanley
Yeah. So but now we’re four days, three and a half days, you know, whoever’s counting and it’s it’s still, I think, as unique a festival within the, the West as anything. I really believe that in my heart and,

Tom Heath
Where people come from all over the world. Yeah.

Todd Hanley
Just for you.

Tom Heath
To participate, that’s in and it’s it’s, I mean, just refresh, refresh my memory because I know there’s, there’s a, there’s food and alcohol involved. Sure. But there’s also the other component that we talked about or highlighted.

Todd Hanley
Yeah, I would say there’s 32, 33 events, give or take. Probably half of them are free to, you know, almost free because it’s educational and conservation based and then the other half is the community engagement through food and drink. I mean, to me, it’s, as everybody knows, the best way to have great dialog while you’re sitting, sipping on whatever your choice of beverages can be a prickly pear mocktail, if you so choose.

Todd Hanley
But that’s where the real magic happens, is when people start to come together as a community. And more than anything, I hope they leave with a broader understanding. Like you said of this place is not just agriculture, not just the spirit, but really it’s cultural phenomena that we are very lucky to have in our backyard.

Tom Heath
And I think the the connections to our ancestors and the those that have come before us, that’s always something that, I don’t if it gets lost in general, but I think it’s so important that we just keep reminding that we’re, you know, we’re we’re sustaining ourselves off of, you know, the, the legacy of the same plants that were sustaining, you know, generations before us.

Todd Hanley
And because I am not one to practice what I preach, but, that’s just me. But, you know, the agave in general is this kind of symbol of slow growth, adapt to the environment, you know, basically the antithesis of our current society, which is instant gratification, fast, fast, fast. And so I think for me, it’s some kind of cosmic way of hopefully the world saying every once in a while, Todd, slow down, you.

Tom Heath
Know, your moment of.

Todd Hanley
Zen, my moment of Z. Right? I mean, so but, you know, there’s so much more to the festival from the perspective of it’s highlighting and it’s this city of gastronomy. I hesitate to go there because I, I don’t want to shortchange the City of Gastronomy and Unesco in terms of boiling it down to agave or restaurants. It’s a broader context, but I think it does help show people that our designation as a city, because try to be is rooted in such a diverse aspect of the region, and agriculture is a huge part of it.

Todd Hanley
But agave was a part of it.

Tom Heath
Yeah. I think if you look at the the application and the information that came out when that award, all the things you’re talking about are part of it, not just our great current restaurants, but the connection to that history in the past, but on the on the festival, just as we’re kind of wrap it up here, where you got 33 or so events over three and a half or four days, depending on.

Todd Hanley
Who’s got.

Tom Heath
The round up or not.

Todd Hanley
I guess. Yeah.

Tom Heath
Talk to your sixth grader about whether we round out the day or not, but where do people get it for? Is it at all or nothing past you get by for events?

Todd Hanley
Great question. Thank you. Go to our website. It’s Dot Agave Heritage festival.com and they’re all there. I finally have made the the next step. It’s both in English and Spanish, which is a very logical and important step forward. But that’s where you can find everything. Everything is a la carte. We have it broken down into tasting events, agave culture events, bar takeover events and dinners.

Todd Hanley
So it’s there is literally something for everybody, probably one of the most important parts of the festival that I could, you know, so be so bold is to shout out is we are in year three of a new part of the festival called the Agave Renaissance Summit, and it’s a group of basically 100 or so different practitioners within this large industry, if you will, from farmers to ecologists to academics to scientists to brand owners to producers of the spirits, we all know the challenges of our current water system, our current water realities that’s impacting Sonora.

Todd Hanley
I mean, in particular. So how do we. Deal with meaningful change, impact the sustainability both economically and environmentally of this plant, this industry, but without sacrifice? Facing what you said very eloquently a few minutes ago was the culture of it. I mean, there’s a lot going on within the agave industry, not just tequila mescal, but the agave renaissance.

Todd Hanley
Some of this is going to become one of the keystone events. It is one of the key stone events, but a lot of people are bringing their bartenders. To actually be a part of the summit because it’s free, but it’s a wonderfully in-depth conversation about all aspects of this particular plant in this region and how we can make it.

Tom Heath
I would really encourage people just to, to take it, even if you can’t absorb three, you know, three and a half days of information, take an event and and learn something, you know, expand that knowledge a little bit. And just I want to leave on this note because I think you and and your team deserves some kudos because I think this gets lost.

Tom Heath
This is your website is Agave Heritage Festival. Yep. It’s not Tucson Agave Heritage Festival. It’s not the southwest. It’s it’s like you have that name and you are driving this effort right there. I know there’s other celebrations, but but this one is becoming the premier. If it’s if it’s not already it’s the premier event. Yeah.

Todd Hanley
And I’m just going to show you out because you’re so. Oh my goodness I want to end on this. It’s agave Heritage festival.com. It’s not Mescal Heritage festival.com. It’s agave. It’s a much broader festival that really is critical to the future of southern Arizona, the future of our binational relationship with Mexico. Because it’s 45 minutes away. It’s. I’m proud of it.

Todd Hanley
And there’s been so many people to help lift it up. I mean, all people that have done so much more than I have, so much smarter than I have, truly. But I was lucky. I was passionate about not just being a margarita championship event almost 20 years ago, and here we are today.

Tom Heath
That is Todd Hanley, finishing up our conversation about the Agave Heritage Festival and yes, his passion, almost 20 years ago to create something meaningful and, something impactful here in Tucson has really come to fruition. I’m curious to see how it keeps getting better every and every year. So I hope, if you have a chance to check out their, their website and dig into some of the details of what events are happening this week, that you might be interested in joining.

Tom Heath
My name is Tom Heath. You’re listening to lifelong The Streetcar, Downtown radio 99.1 FM streaming on downtown radio.org.

James Portis
Support for downtown radio is provided by the Tucson Gallery, located in downtown Tucson. Instead of the proper shops at buried East Congress Street, the Tucson Gallery offers original work, reproductions, and merchandise from Tucson artists like Joe Pejic, Jasper Gonzalez, Ignacio Garcia, and many more. For information about other artists, including when they will be live at the Gallery, head to the Tucson gallery.com or find them on Instagram and Facebook.

James Portis
As Tucson Gallery.

Tom Heath
Well, don’t go too far. We’re going to stay tuned here for words and work coming up in just a few minutes with Ted as he interviews writers and others from the Labor movement. And, I also want to make sure you stick around for Ty Logan at the top of the hour and back into the music at 1:00.

Tom Heath
If there’s topics you want us to be sharing on the show, please, hit us up on Instagram and Facebook. Let us know what we should be covering. We love uncovering those hidden gems. But you know, when you talk about things that are pretty popular as well, like the Agave Heritage Festival last week we had the Arizona International Film Festival.

Tom Heath
So if there’s things out there, you just want to know a little bit more about it. We’ve got some good insight or have a good contact. Let us know. We’d really like to to share that information. Of course. If you’re doing things in the community that are, really worth noting, then please tag us in your Instagram or Facebook so that we can share those, elements with our audience, such as it may be.

Tom Heath
Well, I, ran a little long last week, so didn’t get a chance to talk too much about this, but our guest, Margo Sisco, brought up that this Thursday at 11 a.m., they’re dedicating the Sixth Avenue underpass. And they’re renaming it the, Donovan Durbin sixth Avenue underpass. That’ll be at 11 a.m.. There’s going to be images of downtown, along there as well.

Tom Heath
It’s been cleaned up and, a little bit brighter than that. That artery that connects Fourth Avenue in and downtown, the, Donovan Durbin story we told this, about a year or so ago, and we had his wife, Erin, on. You can head over to our web page, lifelong streetcar.org, and put in Durbin and, urban and the with the at the end Durbin and in the search bar and that’ll get you, information about his life.

Tom Heath
And, you know, he spent 11 years as the administrator of Park Tucson, which is where I got to know him. But his life was full of downtown and community development. Well, well before that. So I think this is, a fitting legacy for a young man who passed away very unexpectedly at the age of 58. But that will be this coming Thursday at 11 a.m. will be the dedication.

Tom Heath
So if you’re out about maybe swing by and say hello. Well, we all want to thank James Portis, our production specialist. Amanda Mulatto, our assistant. My name is Tom Heath. I’m the host and producer of lifelong The Streetcar. And as always, our music at the beginning of the show is from Ryan Hood. And today, we’re leaving you with an artist.

Tom Heath
So, and the CSO, it’s a youth orchestra from Brazil that was here last year for the got the Heritage Festival, playing musical instruments made of a guy playing. So I thought their, their music would be fitting to leave you with today. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.