Dear Editor:
Your December 2020 issue featured an article by Robert Samuelson called Calamity with Kestrels! It was a great article and I enjoyed it very much.
However, I wanted to inform Robert and the Vail Voice that the name “Anasazi” to refer to Ancestral Puebloan Native Americans is incorrect. The name Anasazi was given to these tribes by one of their fiercest enemies, the Apache, and I believe that the name is in fact considered derogatory. The correct name that is preferred by modern Puebloans to refer to their ancestors is “Ancestral Puebloans”. I am also a writer, editor, and a big fan of Native American culture and history 🙂
Kind regards,
Jasmine Hanner
Dear Editor:
First, I agree with Michael O’Grady who submitted the letter in your January issue regarding the new intersection at Old Spanish Trail and Valencia extension. The intersection is not done well. There have been numerous times as I have been driving back to the Rocking K neighborhood when there are 15+ cars waiting to make the turn left back onto East Old Spanish Trail. The number of vehicles heading into town to the NE (heading W, NW or call it NE) is 15-20 deep and you cannot see if there are any vehicles continuing on the Valencia extension. Everyone waits or as I’ve seen, chances it and possibly causes an accident. Throw in a few bicyclists and it’s a nightmare disaster waiting to happen. I am an avid bicyclist in the Rocking K neighborhood and have warned many of my bicyclist friends to be extra cautious at this intersection.
Second, Pima county missed a perfect opportunity to create a short bike path around this intersection that would allow bicyclists to continue NE, E on Old Spanish Trail without having to be involved in that nightmare right hand turn. Why can’t a bike path be put there? It is a wasted piece of land now. It’ll be interesting to see how the Rincon Creek is going to behave when we get our first extended rain. Does anyone remember the scene along Old Spanish Trail in 2006 when it turned into a river with rapids?
Third, trash along Old Spanish Trail extending from Escalante to Camino Loma Alta from all the construction consists of cement bags, plastic bags, plastic bottles, beer bottles, fast food takeout containers. Trash along Mary Ann Cleveland Way, the “Gateway” into Vail looks like a dump. More trash is along Old Vail Road and there is so much debris in the bike lanes. I’ve had numerous flats along that roadway so I avoid it. Trash also is along Valencia from Kolb to Houghton. How does the community hold the developers and construction contractors accountable to clean up their trash?
It is so disheartening to see the community roadways so full of trash.
Marie Geraci
Longtime Rincon Valley Resident
