Road runner: Volgy's underpass a lesson in political humility

Imagine you served for 10 years as a city councilman, and then did one term as mayor, during which time you supported major changes in local transportation infrastructure and priorities.

Now imagine yourself more than two decades later being approached by city officials looking to rename something in your honor. What would you pick? A park? A road? A building visible for miles in all direction?

University of Arizona professor Thomas Volgy, who was the Tucson Ward 6 councilman from 1977 to 1987 and mayor from 1987 to 1991, chose an underpass. The Warren Avenue Underpass, which runs under Speedway from the northeast corner of the University of Arizona campus, was dedicated at a ceremony two weekends ago.

“At first glance, you might think this is hardly recognition enough for a man who has generously given his time, passion and ideas to this community,” Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said at that ceremony. “For God’s sake, he was mayor of Tucson.”

Many more-prominent local landmarks bear the names of former mayors. There’s the Murphy Overpass on South Kino Parkway, named after Lewis “Lew” Murphy, who was mayor from 1971 to 1987 and whose name also graces the Murphy-Wilmot Library (Your humble columnist honestly can’t think of a better name for an overpass).

Ochoa Elementary and Ochoa Street are namesakes of Estevan Ochoa, who served briefly from 1875 to 1876. Pinckney Tully (1882-1883), got Tully Elementary and even Tully Peak in the Rincon Mountains, according to “Arizona Place Names.”

But for Volgy, the underpass — built in 1991 — holds important lessons of humility and respect for voters for local politicians and for planners.

You see, during his tenure in local politics, Volgy and some of his colleagues supported a big-ticket rethinking of Speedway north of campus: They imagined the major arterial diving underground and a pedestrian-only boulevard packed with green spaces, university buildings and shops springing up in its place.

Several people who were involved in the roughly $25 million project said the city had the cash on hand but that the mayor and council decided to put it to the voters, who, Volgy recalled, “said ‘no’ very clearly.”

The underpass that now bears his name, along with two others that give pedestrians and cyclists a car-free entrance to campus, was a pared-down compromise of sorts. Bruce Wright, who was then the UA’s director of community and public service, said the total bill was around $3 million.

Looking back at the failed Speedway push, Volgy suspects that if it had been successful, the current boom in downtown Tucson development may have never happened.

Instead, businesses might have been drawn to the new Speedway strip, and the downtown area might have “continued to wither and die.”

“In the long run, I think the public was smarter than we were,” Volgy told the Road Runner.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“It’s a really important reminder to politicians, that sometimes when your great ideas get turned down, there might be a good reason for it, and really in the long run you should trust the voters.”

Wright and Pima County Department of Transportation Director Priscilla Cornelio, who was then Tucson’s deputy transportation director, were more skeptical that downtown development would have been inhibited by the larger Speedway plan and still think that it would have been better for the university area.

However, because the plan was “contentious,” Wright said the Tucson council was “right ...The public needed to weigh in.”

“The mayor and council have to live within the political context they operate in,” he added. “I understand why they needed to take it to a vote.”

While they didn’t get the project they had hoped for, Wright and Cornelio agreed that the underpasses marked the beginning of a more collegial and collaborative relationship between the university and city government.

As to his underpass, Volgy said he is unaware of any others locally named after politicians, but is “really proud” that this one is.

“I learned something really important about the public,” he added of the experience.

DOWN THE ROAD

• Starting Saturday and ending Oct. 2, Colossal Cave Road will be closed at the railroad crossing near its intersection with the Old Vail Road to allow for improvements.

To get to the road north of the crossing, motorists will need to take Houghton Road to Mary Ann Cleveland Way. The work is intended to improve visibility at the railroad and Success Drive.

This is the first of three closures anticipated for the crossing, and future dates will be announced when they are confirmed, according to a release from the Pima County Department of Transportation.

• In the city, new water lines are to be installed at the Stone Avenue-Drachman Street intersection. Starting early Tuesday morning, only one lane of travel will be available to drivers until early Friday morning. Depending on the time of day, southbound or northbound travel will be detoured. Drachman will be closed at the intersection throughout the work.
• Crews are also set to start work today on Tucson Boulevard between Fort Lowell Road and Grant Road and on Rosemont Boulevard between Speedway and Winsett Street. Work on both segments will take place between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. City officials say delays are to be expected. The Tucson project is expected to be completed by Nov. 11, and the Rosemont project is expected to be finished by Dec. 16.
• A significant city crack-seal, fog-seal and asphalt-patching effort is to begin Monday. Between Monday and Thursday, crews will work on Stone Avenue between River and Wetmore roads between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Between Wednesday and Oct. 4, crews will work on Oracle Road between Miracle Mile and Drachman Street with the same shift. The work, part of the $100 million, five-year Road Recovery bond program approved by voters, is to fill in roadway imperfections and extend the life of roads and will eventually be done on 16 additional segments. At least one lane of travel will be open during the work.
• Also, Oro Valley is set to have a “community conversation” about distracted driving on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 6 p.m. at the El Conquistador Resort. The forum is intended to “provide an for attendees to discuss their concerns and ideas to help raise awareness and improve the overall safety of drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists in our community,” a release says.