Commentary: Tewagate

The Tewa Street neighborhood undergrounding project has begun just as the drought-plagued fire season begins. Council Member Gaasterland, working with political allies in the neighborhood, convinced the Council majority (Gaasterland, Druker, Martinez, Quirk) to move this project to the head of the line against the advice of the citizen advisory committee which called for neighborhoods adjacent to Crest Canyon be first because of their higher fire risk. Members of the advisory committee resigned in protest. The construction will take about four months. The Crest Canyon neighborhood project is now scheduled to begin construction in mid 2023 and take about 18 months to compete — this will take it through two more fire seasons. These projects are part of a city-wide, multi-year undergrounding program funded by a 1% sales tax increase approved by voters in 2016.