Feldman's Neighborhood

The Feldman's Neighborhood Association received ~$7,000 in 2015 to restore Rio Mabel, the neighborhood wash named for the street on which it most heavily flows. This historic neighborhood’s goal was to rebuild the natural heritage of native wash plants along the floodplain of their wash, for which they gathered seeds from the neighborhood. Streets with steep curbs were designed to replace the wash when the neighborhood was built in the early 1900s, and the flow path is braided through several streets in the neighborhood to distribute the impact on the streets.  Since flows were to heavy on Mabel street for curb cut, the restoration took place along 5 blocks in the public right­of­way on 1^st Avenue,  which transects the braided wash and helps reduce flooding downstream. First ave is a overly large street adding more hardscape, heat and runoff to the neighborhood. Additionally, a 2015 Walkability Assessment, led by the Living Streets Alliance, showed neighborhood concern that First Avenue’s wide streets lead to high-speed traffic, so neighbors set out to plant 15 trees since they are known to help calm traffic by creating a sense of place.The C2E project provides shade along an important walking corridor for both UA students, families and elders community.

The neighborhood leaders partnered with Trees for Tucson, Tucson Clean and Beautiful Adopt a Street program, Girl Scouts, and the University of Arizona Hydrocats (rainwater harvesting interns) to help get this project in the ground. The relationship with UA Hydrocats allowed the large UA rental population to get to know their long term residents in the community.  It also established a relationship with C2E where Hydrocats became available to help to study effectiveness of this green infrastructure and trained them to lead volunteer groups at future sites. The neighborhood thanks Chapel Haven West (the neighborhood school), the National Junior Honor Society, Girl Scouts and the Dedicated Student. Additional donors included the HUB Tucson, Wildcat Liquor, Arizona Native Plant Society, and Tucson Integrity Realty (who rents to students in the area).

The sign can be found (soon) at St. Luke’s assisted living facility for elders. The Feldman’s Green team are the site stewards in addition to the adjacent neighbors.  The Green Team developed a guide for plants, installation and maintenance of sites available on the Tucson C2E grants web page.