Tim Steller’s column: Woes on Tucson's North Fourth Avenue go beyond parking

For people who live, work, dine, shop or attend events along North Fourth Avenue, the street’s problems are becoming harder to ignore. Business owners say fewer customers are coming through, storefronts are sitting empty and the avenue feels less energetic than it did before the pandemic. Parking has become the most visible point of frustration, but the challenges reach well beyond meters and curb spaces.

Chef Maria Mazón, who has operated BOCA at 533 North Fourth Avenue for nearly 17 years, brought renewed attention to the issue in September after posting a video asking Tucson residents what was keeping them away. She specifically questioned whether parking, including the meters, was discouraging customers. The response was large enough that she made two more videos calling on city leaders to address what she sees as a decline along the avenue. By the time she discussed the issue in BOCA’s kitchen, she was calling for free parking to return.

Mazón said her business has fallen by about 40% over roughly the past year and a half. Owners of the Surly Wench, at 424 North Fourth Avenue, also have been pressing for changes. They started a petition in August asking the city to reverse an expansion of parking meter hours adopted in July. That change added Saturday to the days when meters operate and extended the weekday metering period from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The city had previously considered extending enforcement until 10 p.m. and adding Sundays, but that proposal was rejected after public meetings.

The parking changes may be aggravating existing problems, but they do not fully explain the avenue’s decline. Meters have been in place since 2015, while Mazón’s reported drop in business covers a much more recent period. The broader economy is one factor. Prices have risen, wages have not kept pace and national consumer confidence reached its lowest point in 12 years in September. In Pima County, restaurants recorded only 1% real sales growth in the year ending in July 2026, a sign that diners may be limiting discretionary spending.

Fourth Avenue also depends heavily on students, visitors and tourism, all of which have faced setbacks. University of Arizona enrollment has dropped by more than 7,000 students over the past two years, reducing a major source of customers for the corridor. International travel to Arizona and the United States has declined as well. Canadian visitors, who are important to the region’s winter tourism economy, have reduced travel in response to President Donald Trump’s threats involving Canada and his trade policies. Travelers from some countries are also encountering greater difficulty obtaining visas for events such as the gem and mineral shows. Passenger traffic at Tucson International Airport fell 1% in the year ending in July 2026.

Investment patterns have added to the imbalance. Along the streetcar corridor, downtown has attracted more attention and financial support than North Fourth Avenue. Downtown businesses can benefit from Rio Nuevo, a tax increment financing district that provides millions of dollars for projects involving restaurants, hotels and other developments. Fourth Avenue has no comparable pool of funding. That leaves business and property owners to handle more of the work of maintaining the area’s appeal, even as they contend with a smaller customer base and rising operating pressures.

Safety and the street’s overall atmosphere are also part of the concern. Fourth Avenue has long mixed an unconventional, rough-edged character with its independent shops, bars and restaurants. Since the pandemic, however, business owners say the balance has shifted toward more visible drug use, panhandling and other disruptive street behavior. DeeDee Koenen, owner of PopCycle at 422 North Fourth Avenue, described the growing number of unhoused people as difficult for employees, who increasingly find themselves acting as informal social workers. She still considers the avenue a center of Tucson’s local identity, but warned that it is in a precarious position without more support.

The city says meters are intended to make parking more available, not less. Andy Bemis, deputy director of the Department of Transportation and Mobility, said that when curb parking is free or has no time limit, residents, guests, students and employees may occupy spaces for much of the day. That leaves fewer spaces for customers making short visits. Under the current schedule, drivers can begin parking on the avenue at 5 p.m. and, after paying for two hours, leave their vehicles there later into the evening. Still, the system is difficult to use when the equipment does not function. Of the city’s 382 meters, 185 are inoperable in some way, most often because they cannot accept coins. Park Tucson is waiting for batteries and plans to prioritize repairs on Fourth Avenue once they arrive.

That failure has become a practical barrier for businesses. Randy Koch, who opened 1989 Bakehouse earlier this year, said his business has been doing well overall, but broken meters create an unnecessary hassle. He also noted that older customers, who may have more disposable income, can have a harder time navigating the machines. His view was straightforward: if the city is going to use meters, the meters need to work.

Ward 6 Council Member Miranda Schubert is promoting a longer-term approach, a Business Improvement District for North Fourth Avenue. Such a district could provide services similar to those offered downtown by the Downtown Tucson Partnership, including maintenance, security awareness and ambassadors wearing the recognizable purple shirts. A BID would need approval from more than half of the property owners in the proposed district, rather than simply a majority of the businesses. Schubert said she would prefer the effort to be organized and driven by the businesses themselves, with services administered by the same type of ambassador program used downtown.

The city still has basic obligations, including functioning meters and an effective police response when emergencies occur. Mazón said she does not want to leave Tucson because she feels abandoned by her own city, but warned that business owners will depart if conditions are not resolved. The future of Fourth Avenue, however, will likely require more than a decision about whether parking should be free. Property owners and merchants may need to work together on safety, vacant storefronts, street conditions and the avenue’s broader identity. Parking is an immediate complaint, but the avenue’s recovery depends on confronting the full collection of problems threatening one of Tucson’s best known local business districts.