About that sprawl...

My grandmother liked to recall that when she and my grandfather bought this house, it was on the north edge of Tucson with a view of the Catalina Mountains. But unlike Boulder, which adopted a "blue line"  in 1959 to prevent development in the foothills, Tucson and Pima County have allowed plenty of development at the base of the Catalinas and in other mountain areas.

Still, this neighborhood is close-in these days. The University of Arizona Medical Center is just a block away (my grandparents liked to eat in the cafeteria!), and the rest of the city stretches out every which way. (i remember sleeping in the front room, behind the car, with the window open one autumn and hearing the sounds of the Wildcats playing football.)

It's cool to see their home, sold in 1996 (i think) after my grandmother died. The fence in front is new - my grandfather had a Midwestern-type hedge out front that one of his neighbors mocked, i believe. Despite the fence, i took a little not-great picture over it: