Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Burrito Files - One Year Later

It has been slightly over a year since I embarked upon a project to go downtown and ask people, "If downtown Tucson were a burrito, what would be in it?" I have talked to over 150 people of all ages and backgrounds and heard the full range of comments - from negative to funny to bizarre. Some people hate downtown but the majority love it and want to see it be better. Folks remember coming downtown to go shopping at the department stores, attend church services, get married, start a first job, view a first art exhibit, experience a first kiss, and so much more. I believe that these positive sentiments and memories can be tapped to move downtown forward in a way that both honors the history and embraces innovation.

Year one focused on collecting these thoughts and stories. My plan for year two is to review the interviews and come up with a format to talk about the project with City Council (as mentioned in my interview in The Tucson Citizen), downtown stakeholders, and the public. It is my hope that the voices of the public can contribute to preserving and improving the heart of Tucson.

Thanks to everyone for your participation and support! If you have any suggestions for presenting The Burrito Files to the community, please comment here!

P.S. This blog contains interviews from September 2008 to April 2009. Interviews from April 2008 to August 2009 are posted at the Downtown re:VISION blog.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Julie, maybe the Tucson Visitor Center would want The Burrito Files to become a quasi-permanent "attraction" in their plaza. Or maybe commission The Burrito Files to be its satellite ambassador strategically placed somewhere downtown, giving people information as well as getting responses. In any case, I hope the record of the first Burrito Files participants gets reshaped into a unified digital story that gets housed online at your site and elsewhere. Good luck, Julie, on year two!

Unknown said...

What a cool project, best of luck moving forward. I think downtown Tucson is a unique place full of interesting shops and buildings. It will be amazing to see what is done with downtown in the future. Check out this other blog post which talks about new projects that are in the works for downtown Tucson -- Dove Mountain Residential: Downtown Tucson Prospers

Julie Ray said...

Thanks for your comment Jessica! Are you involved with downtown?

richpix said...

I've never been to Tucson, but in reading through the interviews the one comment I saw missing in why people were downtown was, "I live here."

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Curtis Dutiel said...

Julie, it is chinese, here is what is translates (via google translator)

The behavior of a simple pleasure of others souls, prayer is better than thousands of people to bow their heads

Curtis Dutiel said...

and it is a phishing attempt.. (the link)