Bill Plapp

Dear diary:

     always, I continue to walk the neighborhood. Mostly, I walk at night. And mostly, I walk the quiet streets of Hill Farm and Bosque Creek. Safe that way and all the dogs are behind locked gates. But I'm missing a lot. My pathway hardly represents a fair sampling of the Old Fort Lowell neighborhood.

     To really understand the neighborhood I need to expand the range of my wanderings and change the time of day I do it. Midday travels are the only time to really comprehend the neighborhood in all its diversity.

     So far, I only know much of the neighborhood from the windows of a pickup truck. For example, when driving east from Hill Farm on Ft. Lowell, there are all sorts of mysterious and secretive places along the north side of the road. There are private and unmarked driveways heading back into the brush. What's back there? I don't know.

     There are mysterious buildings along Ft. Lowell itself. Some are very large. Are they houses or apartments? They don't let the curious know.

     And across Ft. Lowell there seems to be a huge junkyard--some sort of resting site for aged construction equipment. I am reminded of Bill Mullins and his steamshovel Mary Ann. And as with Mary Anne, there are possibilities there.

     I believe the junkyard could be rebuilt into a residential area that could form the heart of the Old Fort Lowell area. How should it be done? Should the housing be upscale? Plebian? I don't know and I really don't care. What I would like to see is neighborhood control or at least neighborhood input into decision-making for the area. Could be interesting. It could serve to unify the neighborhood.

     Also fascinating to me is the sort of semi-street (unpaved) cutting through next to the horse farm from Ft. Lowell to San Francisco. There are no signs so I don't know if it a real public street. Back in there are houses along the lane--sort of an old-world village effect, not modern American suburbia. Interesting. I'd like to see more places like it.

     So, dear diary, what does all this mean? I guess my idea is this is an interesting neighborhood with possibilities Possibilities that need to be taken advantage of to conserve the strengths of the neighborhood and ensure its future. With any luck we could make the area a successful model for saving and regenerating many neighborhoods in Tucson.

     Think about it!

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