Aaah, it's a lovely morning when you start out with an argument about whether a hospital is in Tucson proper, or in South Tucson. Basically, I love getting bitched at because someone (and if you read this regularly, you can probably guess who) is stressed out from her exams.
Here's the thing about Tucson: it's big, and it's one of the oldest continuously settled areas in the country. Various Native American tribes have been living here since about 800 CE, and, well, there's a city here now. While it's geographically big, it's got a very, very small downtown core. For historical reasons, if you go much further south than this core, you get to South Tucson, which is a separate municipality in and of itself. I think we share a few things, but have very separate city governance. All this is hugely interesting, I know, but it's relevant to say that, sometimes, it's difficult to tell if you're going to South Tucson or just southern Tucson. Now, where I work is in Oro Valley, which is about 20 miles north of downtown Tucson. I live just north of the university, so it's a bit of a drive (we don't exactly have a viable mass-transit system) to get to work. Oro Valley is, essentially, a retirement community, so drivers there are incredibly slow and oblivious to other cars on the road. So, while we argue, I'm getting later and later.
Anyway, this post is needlessly long. I will talk a little bit later about urban legends surrounding Tucson's strange weather patterns.
Here's the thing about Tucson: it's big, and it's one of the oldest continuously settled areas in the country. Various Native American tribes have been living here since about 800 CE, and, well, there's a city here now. While it's geographically big, it's got a very, very small downtown core. For historical reasons, if you go much further south than this core, you get to South Tucson, which is a separate municipality in and of itself. I think we share a few things, but have very separate city governance. All this is hugely interesting, I know, but it's relevant to say that, sometimes, it's difficult to tell if you're going to South Tucson or just southern Tucson. Now, where I work is in Oro Valley, which is about 20 miles north of downtown Tucson. I live just north of the university, so it's a bit of a drive (we don't exactly have a viable mass-transit system) to get to work. Oro Valley is, essentially, a retirement community, so drivers there are incredibly slow and oblivious to other cars on the road. So, while we argue, I'm getting later and later.
Anyway, this post is needlessly long. I will talk a little bit later about urban legends surrounding Tucson's strange weather patterns.