Earlier this month, the Tucson Bus Riders Union, a group of community members, businesses, and organizations taped a Local Matters show with host Vicki Evans at Access Tucson Community Media.  Guests, Jim Hannan and Cesar Aguirre with the Tucson Bus Riders Union and Elizabeth Burden with the Downtown Neighborhoods & Residents Council talked about how to make sure Tucson's transit system serves all residents in the most affordable, convenient, and easy-to-use way.

The Union is made up of bus riders and their supporters organizing in the interest of bus riders.

"This is a Poor People Movement," says the Union, as many poor people use the bus to survive. It gets them to work, school, the clinic, the grocery store.

The bus is also a huge environmental issue in this age of climate change and environmental devastation. For the sake of the planets' survival, car culture needs to give way to alternative modes of transportation.

The idea is for poor and working people, with the support of all sectors of the community, to have an authentic voice in the decisions this community makes. Democrats' politicians might have warm feelings about the needs of poor people and bus riders, but without an organized, informed transit constituency, they will get led down a path prepared for them by bureaucrats and moneyed interests.

Right now, in February 2014, the city is declaring war on bus riders with their plan to increase bus fares, possibly cut routes and develop the Ronstadt Bus Center.

The union response is a gigantic membership campaign that kicked off in January. The Union plans to sign up one thousand new bus riding members and their supporters by the time the city budget is finalized in April or May. Memberships are also being offered to faith-based institutions, neighborhoods, unions, businesses and other community groups.

We have already signed up 150 new members.

What can you do?

Join the Union!

The Tucson City Council plans to discuss a fare increase on Wednesday, February 19th at the City Council meeting. Then attend our Big Bus Rider Party outside City Hall at 4pm. We will be signing up new members at that time. For more information call: 520-624-0312.

Visit our website or like us on facebook to see when our next event or call to action happens. 

See the Tucson Bus Riders Union episode of Local Matters on-demand online or on channel 20 (Cox) / 74 (Comcast), Thursday 2/20 and 2/27 at 6pm and Saturday 2/22 at 10am.   

Saturdays 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Access Tucson

124 E. Broadway

Only $15 per session!

March 8th through April 12th

·        How to get started with your story

·        Structuring your screenplay

·        Riveting & realistic characters.

·        Plotting your story

·        Three Act Structure

·        Plot twists

·        Where to sell your screenplay

Screenplay writing is extremely disciplined and in many ways is more difficult, demanding and tightly organized than writing a play or a novel. But the powerful medium of film can affect and reach huge audiences. Film is THE medium of this Century and reaches out to all parts of the population.

Every movie has a bedrock: it is the screen story and the screenplay. The long complicated process of making a movie starts with the screenplay. This presentation will outline the basic steps necessary to get your screenplay started!

Instructor Rob Walker is a writer, director and producer now living in Tucson, Arizona. Walker began his career in the theater, directing over 100 productions around the globe, writing 10 plays and winning the Binky Beaumont Best Young Director Award while managing London's famous Half Moon Theatre for 7 years. 

He directed in London's West End: the Broadway musical, Pal Joey, the biographical Mr Laurel & Mr Hardy, the Capone thriller, On The Spot, his own Rock n' Roll musical Yakety Yak! and his translation (from the Italian) of Can't Pay? Won't Pay! which made Alfred Molina a star and ran for two years at the Criterion Theatre. 

He became one of BBC TV's most acclaimed and accomplished directors, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Miniseries for the 6 part Die Kinder with Miranda Richardson and Frederic Forrest. He won Best Miniseries for four films on Blind Justice at the Royal Television Society. Rob Walker also directed multiple Movies of the Week, among them Wild Things with Karen Young.

He wrote the feature Beyond Bedlam for Elizabeth Hurley, directed Circus (Columbia Tristar) with Famke Jannsen, John Hannah, Eddie Izzard, Peter Stormare and Fred Ward and the underground cult classic Gothic Vampires From Hell.

The Hermitage No-Kill Shelter is dedicated to the shelter, protection, and care of homeless cats, especially those that are often not considered adoptable by other organizations. The Hermitage is both an adoption facility and long-term sanctuary. Guests Joe Sprague, Executive Director and Lee Bucyk, Executive Assistant discuss the programs and services the Hermitage No-Kill Shelter offers the Tucson Community and what the community can offer the shelter.

 

 

 

Local Matters: Hermitage No-Kill Shelter (15min)

Thursday 2/20 and 2/27 at 6:15pm
Saturday 2/22 at 10:15am 

Channel 20 (Cox) / 74 (Comcast)
On-Demand 

  

For the ninth year, Access Tucson teams up with KOLD 13 and the Tucson Rodeo Parade Committee to bring the La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo Parade live to Southern Arizona.  If you can't be there in person to watch the longest non-motorized parade in the world, see it live on KOLD Channel 13, starting at 9am on Thursday, February 20th or watch an encore on Access Tucson Community Media.

Producer Gypsy gives us a fast-paced hour of local music, entertainment, variety and interviews with national entertainers. This month's episode is a hilarious blooper reel but don't worry, there's still a lot of music too.