Ryan wasted no time getting me involved in the Tucson community. My first two weeks of on-site work have largely been spent working with him on an Energy Efficiency Expo that he has been putting together. It's exciting to see something like this come together, especially when I feel like I am putting forth meaningful contributions. I have been calling and emailing local business organizations and trade associations trying to win over potential attendees. I have also been put in change of researching simple, streamlined possible methods of RSVP-ing, which I have been told is the most complex part of the event-planning process (especially because the expo is being held in the secured Tucson Electric Power building, and all who attend need pre-made name tags). Witnessing--and partaking in--the sheer amount of effort that goes into a mere three-hour long energy efficiency workshop is truly eye-opening; I can only imagine how long and how hard everyone in the office has been working on Mayor Rothschild's upcoming State of the City Address.
As I only work three days a week, I have a substantial amount of free time. I've managed to fill it up with outside reading assigned by the Mayor, particularly Alan Ehrenhalt's
The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City, which tackles the tough subject of gentrification in the United States' largest urban areas. [Note: Shawtaroh discusses gentrification in more depth in his Week-Two blog post, which can be found
here.]
As an interesting aside, I have also been asked to be the Mayor's representative at this Friday's Southern Arizona Water Users Association (SAWUA) Forum. Exciting!
As always, thanks for reading!
Jacob
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