Vaccinating children, one pediatrician offers insight on COVID 19.

Again, we don't have a lot of experience moving forward yet, but the experience that we have had in the amount of children that have gotten vaccinated, it's turned out very well.

Analyzing voter behavior What this week's election results signaled to local leaders kind of a surprise to not see i going down in flames like it has in the, you know, over the last 20 years, growth and development.

one town sees improvements in the last year.

All the people here care so much about one another.

We don't have a lot of resources, so a lot of peopl really help each other and they really like to come together.

Hello and welcome to Arizona 360, I'm Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks so much for joining us.

This week, voters weighed in on a number of issue affecting the region.

We'll have analysis of the results later in the program.

But first, we want to begin with the Centers for Disease Control recommending the COVID 19 Pfizer vaccine for children between the ages of five and eleven.

It's unclear how counties and school districts will respond, but many local pediatricians are urging parents to consider vaccinating their children.

For more on this, we're joined by Dr. Nathan Price, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, a pediatric department of the College of Medicine in Tucson.

Dr Price, can you give us some insight into what you and Banner are seeing when it comes to children who are being diagnosed with COVID 19?

Yeah, we're certainly seeing children that are getting infected with this virus, and in some of them, they're sick enough to get admitted to the hospital.

And every week we have children that get admitted with this disease.

Are there fatalities associated with the virus?

So certainly children can die in the US.

We have been saying that I personally fortunately have not had any of my patients that have passed away yet.

I suspect that's somewhat lucky, to be honest with you.

It's probably just a matter of time.

The Centers for Disease Control this week announced approval for the Pfizer vaccine for ages five to eleven.

What is your recommendation to parents who are weighing this decision?

I fully recommend getting vaccinated with this vaccine.

In fact, I have two of my own children that are in that age group, and I just set up an appointment to get them vaccinated for it.

Dr. Price, you all know this is a parent, of course, bu parents, don't hesitate when they go see their pediatrician for measles, mumps , rubella vaccines.

But to be fair, those have been on the market for decades, and there have been extensive research components involved with that.

Not so much with COVID 19.

How do you rest their worries?

Yeah, so any time something new comes along, you always wonder, is it going to work?

Is it going to be safe?

And I totally get wondering about that with this new vaccine.

It's come out in record time.

It's something that's brand new.

We don't have years and years and years of experience like we've had with these other vaccines, like you mentioned.

The good news is, is that this has been tested on thousands of children.

It has been shown to be safe and effective.

The vaccine producers didn't cut any corners.

They still had to follow all of those steps along the way to make sure that this was safe and that it is infected and that it is effective.

And so it should work just fine.

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't at this point in time.

Again, we don't have a lot of experience moving forward yet, but the experience that we have had in the amount of children that have gotten vaccines, it's turned out very well.

There are some side effects that are possible.

Most of those things are typical common things, but there are some more serious things like myocarditis.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart, and they've seen some children who got that after getting the vaccine.

And they've definitely seen that happen with children who got it after getting the infection itself.

The good news is is that the risk of myocarditis is very low and the risk of myocarditis with the actual disease is actually much higher than it is with the vaccine itself.

So long story short, it's a good vaccine.

It works very well, and it does seem like it's very safe for children.

Can you offer a guarantee to parents that there will be minimal risk or reaction should they decide to vaccinate their child with this Pfizer vaccine?

Yeah, so nothing is 100%.

So I always let people know that.

So there's always a chance of a problem with anything we do, whether it's getting into a car, taking Tylenol, that sort of thing.

All those things are associated with risk.

It'll be the same thing with this vaccine.

But again, the good news is is that risk of problems and especially severe problems is very, very low.

I tell people if they are really trying to avoid risk at this point in time, the best way to avoid risk is to get the vaccine because the vaccine so very many more problems and it causes at this point in time I want to ask you about the advisers to the Food and Drug Administration.

There were some advisers who were expressing hesitancy and people are consuming the media through various platforms and they see that and they think, Wait a minute now, I'm not so sure.

What do you say?

I think that's a really good thing.

So for for someone not to rubber stamp, it is the important thing, right?

So the people that were expressing concern are really doing their due diligence and looking at the data to say, Was this safe and will it be effective?

And does it apply to all children or should there be subgroups that we prioritize?

And so I think it's a good thing that they looked at that and did their due diligence, and I'm glad that there are folks that are out there, there being the skeptics that are making sure that everything is looked at very closely to make sure that we're doing the right thing.

It is cold and flu season.

Undoubtedly, children are coming down with things that are pretty typical this time of year.

You're a parent.

How do you advise other parents about what to watch out for?

Yeah.

So it's it's really hard because regular colds, regular flu and then COVID can all look the same early on.

And so really, what I tell people is if you're having a hard time breathing, if you are not able to keep fluids down, are getting dehydrated by all means, go in and seek care if it's just regular , kind of.

I got some cough and some runny nose, and with or without fever, you can usually take care of that sort of thing at home.

And I always recommend that you stay away from others when you're sick.

That way, you don't share those germs with other people.

And we see kids get sick from all of these things, and some of them can actually do very poorly with any one of these things.

And it really just depends on the person and how their immune system works and how they respond.

So again, just try not to be around people when you're sick and take care of yourself.

Dr. Nathan Price from the UVA College of Medicine in Tucson.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And now to Pima County election news.

Voters in the city of Tucson returned to Councilmember Steve Casar, Chick and Richard Femurs to office and new to the City Council, representing Ward three as Kevin Doll.

Voters also approved an increase of the minimum wage to $15 by 2025.

The outcome of the proposal to increase the pay of the mayo and council separated by about 150 votes when the initial results were released and in the Vail Unified School District, voters approved a budget override.

We got analysis from Dylan Smith, editor and publisher of the Tucson Sentinel.

one of the interesting things about this is that it not only sets the bar for the minimum wage in Tucson higher than the state by a bit, but also includes increases in the future, much like the increases that the state has seen over the last several years.

So even as the things go up statewide, they will continue to be slightly ahead for Tucson workers.

Another very slim margin that is still likely being decided.

You and I are chatting here on Wednesday afternoon, but the pay increase for the mayor and council, that's kind of another surprise.

You know, the mayor and council, their pay raises need to be approved by the voters.

They can't vote themselves a pay increase.

It's in the city charter.

Only the voters can change the charter, and they haven't had any increase in their pay.

Last one was in 1999, and basically they get paid less than minimum wage right now.

If you count them as working 40 hours a week, which most of them do, if not even more.

And right now, as we can see it in the middle of the week, there are still some votes to be counted that were turned in at the last minute.

It's up by 150 some votes, which is a very, very narrow.

It might change, but it's kind of a surprise to not see it going down in flames like it has in the, you know, over the last 20 year when voters have been asked if they want to start paying the mayor and the City Council members more.

What are voters saying when they approve minimum wage, but not an increase for mayor and council?

It's, you know, kind of you get what you pay for when it comes to politicians, but people are not very fond of politicians in general, and it kind of speaks to that general attitude of folks not wanting to reward people, even if they're voting for them We saw, you know, the Democratic candidates for the City Council easily, easily when they really didn't have much organized opposition at all.

And the same voters who went to the polls and gave them, you know, a clean sweep to be an all Democratic City Council also were a little lukewarm on whether we should, you know, give them a slightly larger paychecks.

OK?

Dylan Smith, editor and publisher of the Tucson Sentinel Thank you for your analysis.

Take care.

Those local leaders will continue to work alongside the Rio Nuevo District, a multi-pronged effort to revitalize downtown Tucson.

This fall, the board is touting a number of milestones.

Earlier, we spoke with Edmond Marquez, a member of the six person board of directors.

We're.

Remind our viewers, how exactly does Rio never work because it's been in place for since 1999, right?

You're right, it was 400 1999 I was created.

City of Tucson filed it with the state of Arizona at TIFF District, which is tax increment financing.

Basically, as you look at our district, which is downtown.

Are you going to go down Broadway, pick up Alkon, pick up Park Place Mall?

That's our district, for the most part.

And we basically keep in simple math about half the state sales tax generated in that area.

That's our income.

That's why we've had to figure out public private partnerships where you'll have a private entity, private developer putting up the risk, putting up the majority of the money.

And we usually come in last with our dollars or we figure out how to do a sales tax rebate that might help them or we do what's called a flat, which where we forgive the property tax on the properties we've had to make our way.

And the good news, I guess when something bad happens, you usually have to figure your way out of it when your backs against the wall.

We figured out how to how to effectively make deals happen downtown and really help downtown and our and our Broadway corridor progress forward and for economic development to happen with the with the little cash flow that we have and the tools at our disposal.

There are some very visible properties like Caterpillar or the Annex.

And of course, the TCC is something that you are particularly proud of.

Why were those point or targeted points that you said they need attention?

Yeah.

The TCC is actually the main reason renewable it was even created.

It's our primary component.

So the TCC, we are proudly in the midst of a 65 million dollar upgrade to the TCC campus.

If you visit there today, you'll see a brand new DoubleTree hotel right off of Cushing.

You'll see a brand new parking structure.

We've remodeled the arena.

We're in the midst of just finishing up the music hall, which is two songs We deserve a nice musical.

It was just really rundown and dated from new bathrooms, new seats, new sound system and the little rich theaters under construction.

Right now we're doing some upgrades there.

The campus you'll see flowing grass now flowing, the water flowing in the fountains that have been dry for years.

The annex, which is the West Side, believe it or not, if you really analyze the deals and the and the dollars that we've invested in our district, most of them have bee , believe it or not, on the west side of the freeway And you've got the Gladstone Group there that it really on a lot of land and they've brought numerous deals to us.

And it's all been great.

So and if you look at caterpillar caterpillars right next door to them, and that's one thing I wish our community did more of, which is to simply say yes to opportunities because I think some people, as you're living in Tucson, you don't realize that we as a collective community are actually competin against other communities, whether it's San Diego, whether it's Austin, whether it's Albuquerque next door, we're competing against them.

If we continue to say no to opportunities for companies, et cetera, to move here, they just simply move somewhere else.

You and I both know the key to a strong economy is better paying jobs, and so we want to continue to attract them here.

And I think we're doing a great job doing that with reasonable.

Over the years, there have been some businesses in the downtown area that don't quite fall into the district and they have felt left out of the process.

I know this is not news to you.

How have you reconcile those conversations to ensure that everyone feels like they're getting a fair shake?

It's a tough conversation.

I received a phone call a couple of years ago from a community leader saying, you know, great job on an downtown bill.

Why the heck aren't you helping us on the east side Like, what's happening on the south side?

What's happening in the northwest side?

Why aren't you helping us?

And I said, sure, and I didn't know him very well I I thank you so much for the for the phone call, and I appreciate that.

But we can only invest these dollars within our district period.

So luckily, if I think of a business is down fourth or down six, there are either side north or south and they're near our district.

I think they're going to see they're going to see an uptick and they're going to they're going to feel the the the peripheral economic development still playing into their area.

Where do you think Tucson would be without Ryan Weber?

We've had this discussion one after another.

I think if you had to rely on the simply organic.

Economy of the city of Tucson, the downtown would look like what it looks like today, you wouldn't see the development you see today, and there's no dig on the city of Tucson.

And just simply, we are actively looking for deals and we say yes, and then we try to get out of the way so they can build it And I think the more that we dream and the more that we think big about what we can do in the desert and the downtown area or down Broadway, it's amazing .

When you bring the right people to the table, they want to invest in Tucson.

Tucson's an amazing, beautiful community with the weather, and if you see the different rankings that we have, you know the Congress is listed as one of the hippest, hippest streets in the United States.

We're listed as one of the best music cities.

We're obviously the city of gastronomy and people want to invest in that.

But if people here aren't saying yes and and again, helping people, the deals are incentivizing deals or are just simply being positive about a deal.

And they just don't happen here.

They'll go somewhere else All right.

Marcus from the Rio Nuevo District.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

As communities continue to recover from the economic challenges of the pandemic, many towns are on the path to recovery by recruiting new industries and attracting young families.

North of the Catalina's is San Manuel, a once thriving copper community.

Residents are joining forces to improve their town.

Tony Bonagura takes us there to show us how.

If you drive about 45 miles northeast of Tucson on Highway 77 and exit on Redington Road, you'll come across a small community of salmon, while many people have never heard of this place, let alone visited.

But this was once home to the largest underground copper mining operation in the world.

That's what brought Donald Burch and his wife to this area.

Jobs were plentiful if you were willing to work hard.

Employees could make a decent living for their families.

Whenever I first got here, I mean, this town was every house in this town was completely full.

Kids are everywhere.

Businesses were booming.

I mean, it was a thriving little town here.

Burch worked for the copper mine for 20 years, but when the operation closed unexpectedly in 1999, he had to find employment elsewhere.

About 2500 people lost their jobs.

Once they shut that mine down, this town started going downhill.

People moving out and it left us like a little ghost town here.

The current signs of distress include locked up storefronts at one location and boarded up businesses elsewhere.

This large strip mall used to be a hub for commerce, but now it is mostly deserted.

Only in ace hardware and a few other businesses remain.

According to official figures, Salman will had close to 4400 residents at one point and people drove here from other cities to work at the mine.

The population had dropped to about 3600 in 2010, but it has increased again in recent years.

The town has relatively large groups of veterans, retirees and families.

The median annual income is about $42,500, compared to around $65,700 for the whole country.

Today, the mammoth salmon well, unified school district is the largest local employer, but many other working age adults have to leave town for jobs.

However, residents are joining forces to try to increase opportunities locally.

Kennedy Ivey is the president of the Ceremonial Revitalization Coalition.

It was founded in 2020 after like-minded residents expressed an interest in improving their community.

The coalition is collaborating with local first Arizona, Pinal County and other groups to address concerns.

I'd say some of the biggest things here would be like the blight issues, and there was a lot of vacant residences, but those have actually all pretty well been filled now.

We have a small drug problem that's that's been improving quite a bit since the sheriff has been taking an interest in Sam and well.

It's really economic development, I think that is our biggest issue and then giving something for the kids to do.

Happy that one over this weekly gathering for kids and parents is an example.

It's called first Things first, and Ivy's wife is an enthusiastic supporter.

Brianne and Kennedy, both in their thirties, could have chosen to live elsewhere, but they decided on San Manuel.

This town is absolutely amazing.

I mean, all the people here care so much about one another.

We don't have a lot of resources, so a lot of peopl really help each other and they really like to come together.

And that's really important to me and it's something I want to share with my family.

Slowly but surely, there are some signs of progress, and one is as basic as simply something.

So for the first time in years, residents in town have a grocery store with a variety of fruits and vegetables or other essential items.

Cecilia Trujillo and her husband opened the shop earlier this year.

They had moved from Tucson to salmon well with the intention of retiring.

However, I don't like driving 30 miles for food.

That's really the truth.

We I work for Food City and bashes for a lot, a lot of years and now to come here and not be able to get anything produce wise that doesn't cost under $4 for like a lettuce.

And it's just really crazy prices unless you drive into town.

And our closest area is bashes in Catalina, so it's 32 miles one way.

When we corral scheme has lived in this area for more than 20 years.

This story is fantastic because we didn't have anywhere to have fresh food.

And you know, a lot of people live in salmon oil, are retired people, and they don't always have someone to go to the grocery for them.

And especially during the pandemic, it was terrible.

Residents say this destination has a lot of possibilities, especially if they focus on the outdoors, which is what this company is doing.

The community overlooks the scenic Ilaro Mountains and the San Pedro Valley.

It's also a gateway city to the Arizona Trail.

Endorse the Salmon Well, Historical Society Museum has information about this master plant community.

It was built in the 1950s for the mining companies employees.

Sharon Mathews is the president of the Historical Society, and she's also a member of the Revitalization Coalition We're a bit of a struggle getting started because of the pandemic, and so this year has been just really active.

Kennedy's keeping us all hopping, which is good.

But you know, he wants to us to make connections and.

Have more activities, have more people come to our public meetings content and just to let us know what you want, what you're concerned about.

I can help whoever is next.

Kashif Afzal has owned the only gas station in town since 2005.

He also bought the Ace Hardware and another business, and he plans to work here until he retires.

Pray for us!

Pray for us, and if you can do something, do it, there is a lot of potential in this town.

A lot of potential.

So we have to be together, support each other, help each other and sail this boat together again.

The Coalition's President Kennedy, I've really that's kind of the way that we approach a lot of the problems here.

And well, is nobody else is going to do this for us We're out here on our own.

So let's get the community together and get behind it and see what we can do together.

Back at the house he has owned for decades.

Veteran Donald Burch says he joined the coalition because he wants to make a difference.

He's living comfortably on his retirement, but he says that's not enough.

We got to take care of our children.

The reason I care about kids because I had kids, I got grandkids, I got great grandkids, and I feel that they deserve the same that I had when I was growing up, if not better.

I want to see this town thrive again.

You know, we're trying.

That's all we can do.

To Oro Valley now, where the town has seen an increase in business and residential development, a community of more than 47,000, it's estimated about 13,000 people who live there traveled to surrounding communities for work.

Earlier this week, I spoke with Paul Melcher, the community and economic development director, on the job for nearly a year.

He says with a town north of Tucson, SC now has been years in the making.

Really, what it comes down to is that the town has planned for its own success through the development of the general plan has led to the development of comprehensive economic development plans and strategic plans that the town council and the community have supported.

But there has been a global health pandemic.

Businesses and other parts of this region have had to shut down.

Has that been the case here?

No, actually.

We've seen an increase in new business starts this year, about 12% yea to date so far over the total that we had last year.

I think that really speaks well to the fact that we have some outstanding partnerships in the community.

We have an amazing relationship with the Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce.

As you spoke about the pandemic, we had over safe steps and it was that opportunity for the town and the chamber to partner, to help support local business, to keep it going through the pandemic.

So sure, we had some closings during the pandemic, but seeing the new businesses getting started and opening has been reassuring for us that the local economy is very sound.

What would you say are some of the factors that are contributing to this recent growth that you're seeing?

It's really Town Council's support of economic development in that emerging tech, bioscience and aerospace industry.

For example, Town Council approved the allowance that you can have light bioscience and tech development in commercial one and two zoning districts that would allow for some research development, some light manufacturing and warehousing.

It also allows for some adaptive reuse of some buildings, so we could have some new starts there or allow for the reuse of buildings to accommodate some tech and bioscience uses there.

The Town Council also created an economic expansion zone in Innovation Park that allows the town staff to expedite projects and get those businesses up and starting in that area.

New business also equates to people, families they want to be here.

What have you learned about what the draw is to this region?

For the at the family level, it's really two components is one you look around and Oro Valley is just an amazing, beautiful setting in which to live.

We have very safe, livable communities.

We always pride ourselves that the roads are the best in the whole region.

But it's a little bit more than that, even when you go to the education here in our valley.

You have schools K through twelve that are not only the top in the state, but sometimes top in the nation .

So it really does create and help that family atmosphere Local parks and Recreation, the local ability for us to go out, hike, bike, do all of those things, it's just a great place to live and raise a family.

Sounds like a lot of sunshine and rainbows, any growing pains along the way I think for the town, the growing pains are just keeping within what we've already talked about in terms of planned growth.

The community has a really great plan for growth, but we also understand that there are opportunities in the future to see what the town wants to be, in particular for the general plan.

The community's been discussing what those opportunities might look like.

We have a changing workforce, changing demographics, so it's great that the general plan has an inherent ability to change and adapt to economic and residential conditions.

But you also have a beautiful mountain range, a state park.

When you talk about growth, where does Oro Valley continue to develop?

We still have some build out places in and around Tangerine Road, Rancho Vista, so in general, kind of the northern area of the town.

But we also have some annexation strategies that the town has been pursuing initially in some of the short term strategies have involved, as you probably saw recently, where westward look.

So there's an opportunity for the town to grow and expand and allow some commercial and future residential opportunities along Iona Road.

There are also some short term objectives for some annexations for the existing commercial near and around Iona and Kostis Adobe's and then moving back to Oracle Road.

So in the short term, it's really focusing on existing residential and commercial opportunities is a long term strategy we're looking at with the possibility of annexation might hold for Arizona State Land to the North, and that would be for new development.

They're engaged from start to finish on plans.

They're actively attending council meetings.

So we do get that feedback in terms of what the town is currently doing and then future strategies for growth and development.

That's all for now.

Thanks so much for joining us to get in touch, visit us on social media or send an email to Arizona 360 at AP-NORC Dawg and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.