Downtown Street Closure Pilot (Wards 1 and 6)

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: a one-night pilot closing Congress Street to vehicles on Halloween, Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., between 4th Avenue and just east of Scott Avenue. Garages and lots stay reachable and the streetcar keeps running.
Where it stands: on October 20 the study session carried (voice vote, no opposition) Council Member Schubert's motion directing the city manager to return with a work plan for a phased approach to pedestrian-focused street closures downtown and elsewhere.
Next: the Halloween closure and an after-action review; then the staff work plan, with a public process and academic and community partners.

Brought by Mayor Romero, Council Member Schubert and Vice Mayor Santa Cruz.
Jen Toothaker (spelling approximate, Transportation and Mobility): about 30,000 to 40,000 people projected downtown versus 6,000 to 8,000 on a regular day; crowding at Congress and Toole, 4th Avenue and Arizona Avenue near the Ronstadt Transit Center.
Cost to the city: about $5,000 for contracted barricades from the department's operating budget, plus staff time (about 40 TPD personnel, transit ambassadors, city staff). Crystal Moore said Downtown Tucson Partnership will add street ambassadors, rideshare zones, signage and merchant coordination; 11 merchants had confirmed 5:00 p.m. trick-or-treating.
Last Halloween drew more than 24,000 people downtown, up from 16,700 in 2024 (Downtown Tucson Partnership figures).
Evaluation: traffic control, streetcar operations and crowd control, parking access and detours, attendance, and merchant and pedestrian experience (mostly anecdotal).

Models staff presented: a permanent pedestrian corridor in Merida, Mexico; Cyclovia Tucson (about three miles, about $100,000 per event); the 4th Avenue Street Fair (about $280,000 per three-day event); the full-time Washington Street closure created by petition in 2021.
Funding: a federal Safe Streets for All demonstration grant of more than $2.8 million (county board approval September 22; effective August 2027) includes open-streets events; the city would be a subrecipient. Staff said it is too early to say how it could be used.
Council Member Schubert wants broader measures (pedestrian counts, dwell time, business sales, accessibility, emergency response, cost) and baselines, and is contacting University of Arizona researchers. The 2014 downtown circulation study judged permanent closure premature before Downtown Links opened.

Council Member Cunningham: Second Saturday closures ran until two years ago; Dusk festival, street fair and Fall Crawl are natural next closures; permanent pedestrianization needs freeway connectivity and access to the downtown parking structures.
Mayor Romero: traffic mitigation for 4th Avenue, Iron Horse and Armory Park neighborhoods. Staff cited the Downtown Links bypass and wayfinding signs to garages, and agreed to add similar signs for 4th Avenue.
Council Member Barajas suggested a Santa Monica pedestrian street (funded with block grants) as a case study and Ward 5 as a future site; Council Member Dahl favored more frequent closures.

About 37 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-20 - Mayor and Council	37

2026-10-20 - Mayor and Council - Study session item 3 (about 37 minutes). Staff outlined the Halloween closure and other pedestrian-street models; council voted (voice, unopposed) to direct a work plan for phased closures.
2026-10-22 - Page created from a posted agenda; no meeting transcript processed yet.