CHIP NOTES

By Stephanie Kopplin On Friday, October 20th, Tucson Audubon joined forces with the City of South Tucson’s Public Works Department , Barrio Restoration and 100+ United Way volunteers to “pour love into the soil” at Luna y Sol Cafe in South Tucson. Cafe owner, and native South Tucsonan, Selina Barajas first met Tucson Audubon staff at PARK[ing] Day and was inspired to transform a vacant lot, adjacent to the forthcoming cafe, into a community gathering space and habitat hub. The cafe is located in the City of South Tucson, one of the most heat vulnerable communities in the Tucson metropolitan area. Opportunities to access nature and relax in cooling habitat zones are extremely limited and reflect a history of inequitable distribution of green infrastructure across the region. This 1.2-square mile city within a city is often ineligible for Federal funding, like that being dispersed through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, because it doesn’t meet the “city”