Best Of Tucson®

Best Event to Help Us Reclaim Our City's Soul

Second Saturdays Downtown

One problem with all of the hullaballoo about the future of downtown Tucson—or what seems like the lack of a future to some—is that there are people still around who remember when downtown Tucson was all right. Of course, that was before the Internets, apps and social networking. This was a time when a flier and a mention in the Tucson Weekly was all it took to get crowds to stroll through all of the cool, funky galleries that lined Congress Street and spend a Saturday night watching local bands perform at the Ronstadt Transit Center. (Of course, that was long before city leaders bought into the developer notion that the downtown bus terminal is an eyesore preventing development and attracting the poor. Can't have that.) The return of Second Saturdays Downtown—a better-organized version of the former Downtown Saturday Nights—isn't what downtown needs to help redevelopment. It's what Tucson needs to help us reclaim our city's soul, and if that means dancing at the bus terminal, popping into the galleries that remain, and eating some red chile tamales while watching break dancers, so be it.