![Street view of downtown Tucson ](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2025-10/frankie-lopez-ZAUXI0Q3LHw-unsplash.jpg?itok=fHAXBu5O) # How Tucson’s Equity Experts Are Changing the Way Cities Work Tucson is pioneering a new approach to city services by using data and an Office of Equity to ensure every neighborhood gets the support it needs, setting an example other cities can follow. October 16, 2025 [ Stefanie Le ](#stefaniele) Since the beginning of Mayor Regina Romero’s term in 2019, equity has been at the heart of Tucson, Arizona’s governance, driving everything from [tree planting](https://datasmart.hks.harvard.edu/building-extreme-heat-resilience-tucson-million-trees) to [housing development](https://p-chip.tucsonaz.gov/). Even before the Office of Equity was established in 2022, several city government departments endeavored to advance equity in their work. For example, the Transportation and Mobility Department used an equity index for their [Move Tucson](https://movetucson.tucsonaz.gov/) plan, and the Housing and Community Development Department used equity data to determine neighborhood reinvestment zones. However, the creation of the Office of Equity, overseen by the inaugural Chief Equity Officer Laurice Walker, brought Tucson’s equity efforts to a whole new level. “What our office did was come in and make tools more available to be used widely,” said Equity Data Manager Laura Sharp. The Office of Equity offers assistance to other municipal departments, guiding them on how they could make equity improvements in their work and providing the support to do that, explained Sharp. Walker explained that for the past three years she has been working with municipal department directors to shift their thinking about how they can consider equity at the forefront of their work as opposed to on the backend or not at all. “When you talk about ward equality and ward equity, which wards are they going to start with? Oftentimes historically, they've looked at their mapping and recognized that they historically start with wards that tend to be more affluent to replace \[infrastructure\] a lot faster than wards that are a little bit more under-resourced or disinvested in,” said Walker. “How do we start to address the needs of those that might not have been replaced or that need it sooner? How do we start to differentiate that?” ## Accessible Data is Key The guidance and tools from the Office of Equity include the [Tucson Equity Data Strategy (TEDS)](https://datasmart.hks.harvard.edu/harnessing-data-visualization-unify-departments-equity-initiatives) and the [Tucson Equity Priority Index (TEPI)](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9a0ab238488240d6b4fad20a50b1d795), one of the foundational tools of TEDS. TEDS is a substantive method of collecting, tracking, and analyzing data to advance equitable outcomes in the city via a [toolkit](https://teds.tucsonaz.gov/) that includes templates for equitable data collection standards, a demographic look up app, a forthcoming Open Equity Data Hub, and TEPI. Meanwhile, TEPI is a tool that assesses demographic economic and personal factors such as income, housing cost burden, unemployment and limited resources that can lead to vulnerability. Tucson’s department directors are able to use TEPI to determine which socioeconomic factors and variables to consider in making rehabilitation decisions in their work, explained Walker. “To me, the work comes down to how do we shift their thinking about how they do their work on a daily basis?” said Walker. She explained that the goal is to make equity-informed decisions second nature for department leaders and give them tools that are easily usable and accessible. “My job as an equity officer is to help coach them as an advisor on how to think about it, how to use it, and how to shift their thinking,” said Walker. “It's really about how do we continue to support them in looking at what is the investment, what's the return that they see and the impact on the community at the end of the day.” ## Applying the Insights Driven by TEDS and TEPI, the first major equity infrastructure improvement project for Tucson’s residents is underway with Sun Tran, Tucson’s public transit system – rehabilitating and providing enhancements for bus stops deemed most in need along Sun Tran bus routes. Funded by a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, those [enhancements include](https://www.suntran.com/2024-federal-transit-administration-buses-bus-facilities-competitive-program-grant/): installing shelters at 80 currently unsheltered bus stops to alleviate consequences of extreme heat; installing green infrastructure to bolster street shade canopy; adding solar-powered LED lighting, emergency and customer service call buttons, and tamper-proof trash receptacles; and recreating bus stop signs to include audible, braille, large print, and wayfinding information. “People are making lots of choices about using transit. So how do we make it so that everyone who chooses transit is as comfortable as possible and has an experience that's good?” said Davita Mueller, the Director of Service Planning and Development at Sun Tran. Mueller, who played a central role in developing the grant proposal and overseeing its implementation in Tucson, analyzed data from both local and federal sources to make recommendations on which bus stops in Tucson needed rehabilitation. These include the TEPI and Sun Tran’s own ridership survey, plus national equity indices like Justice40’s [Climate and Economy Justice Screening Tool](https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=b82df3b058204ccea64619efcd8065d2) (CEJST) and American Forests [Tree Equity Score](https://www.americanforests.org/tools-research-reports-and-guides/tree-equity-score/). CEJST highlights disadvantaged communities that meet a certain criteria for being “(1) at or above the threshold for one or more environmental, climate, or other burdens, and (2) at or above the threshold for an associated socioeconomic burden.” Additionally, the Tree Equity Score tool identifies areas of inequitable tree cover and highlights where trees are needed most. ![Tucson tree equity score showing central areas with lower score/less tree coverage than areas of the city further out.](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/2025-10/Screenshot%202025-10-16%20at%2009-38-33%20map.pdf_.png) American Forest's Tree Equity map of Tucson: central areas have less tree coverage than northern areas of the city.Bus shelters and tree canopy are important factors that inequitably affect bus ridership, largely due to the climate in Tucson, explained Mueller. Located in the Sonoran Desert, the city has a [hot desert climate](https://weatherspark.com/y/2857/Average-Weather-in-Tucson-Arizona-United-States-Year-Round#:~:text=In%20Tucson%2C%20the%20summers%20are%20sweltering%2C%20the,temperature%20typically%20varies%20from%2042%C2%B0F%20to%20102%C2%B0F.) with high temperatures in the summer reaching over 100°F and a monsoon period in mid to late summer, bringing higher humidity, cloudy conditions, and frequent, warm rain showers. The proposed green stormwater infrastructure includes trees and low shrubs, explained Mueller. “Sun Tran completed a small survey of how shelters, tree shade, and/or no shade affected temperatures at bus stops in the summer,” said Mueller. “We found that tree and plant shading reduced the temperatures and increased that temperature reduction when plants and shelters were paired.” As for Sun Tran’s data, Mueller and her team layered insights from their Origin Destination Onboard Survey onto the cumulative insights from TEPI, CEJST and the Tree Equity Score in order to paint a holistic view of where bus stop rehabilitations are most pressing. The survey, a requirement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensuring non-discriminatory service, asks participants riding the Sun Tran buses about their personal identifiers such as ethnicity, native languages and proficiency in English, and income, in order to ascertain a demographic understanding of who is riding the bus and where along their service areas. Then, Sun Tran looked at the ridership and transfer points of the bus routes to determine whether bus stops in question have enough people waiting at the bus stop to justify adding amenities, in addition to ensuring that bus stops comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements (i.e. landing pads at the entrances and exits of buses). Each Sun Tran bus stop received a score dependent on how many equity indices it fell within. “The way we're using what Laura Sharp and her team have done in the Office of Equity is making sure that we've covered the city in a way that makes sure that everybody gets a chance to have the same kind of amenities,” said Mueller. As the project nears implemented in 2026, the Office of Equity and Sun Tran have identified 80 bus stops that will receive shelters and other rehabilitation improvements from the cumulative scores. “We want to make \[riding the bus\] as good as it can be for everyone, regardless of your demographics, or ethnicity, or income,” said Mueller. ## Future Equity Projects in Tucson Other forthcoming projects from the Office of Equity and municipal departments include: providing 100% coverage of the city for fiber high speed internet connection, paving and improving 100% of Tucson’s neighborhood streets, and determining additional locations for docking stations of the city’s bike share program to better serve residents in need of alternative transportation. In all of these anticipated projects, TEPI is the main tool utilized to figure out where to locate infrastructure improvements and determine the plan for rolling them out in an equitable fashion. “Something that we grapple with in the city is the idea of ward equality versus equity. Often, we want to say each ward is going to receive the same amount of funding regardless of the quality of their roads. But we know that some wards face greater infrastructure challenges and those are often the same areas with higher equity needs and more vulnerable communities,” explained Sharp. “It's not really an equitable approach to try to do the same treatment per ward. And so I think \[TEDS and TEPI\] helps address that.” Walker and Sharp recognize that support for equity-based municipal government work can ebb and flow. Therefore, their ultimate aim is to make equity-based decisionmaking a sustainable practice in Tucson, largely through building self-service, equity-informed data tools. “The more that we can empower staff to learn to use data in their everyday work, the more likely that work is going to survive,” said Sharp. “Lots of little decisions are made all the time, and the more that staff can support those decisions with data, the more likely our equity efforts are to endure.” ## About the Author ### Stefanie Le ![Headshot of Stefanie Le](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_1_1__100x100_scale/public/datasmart/files/sl_cropped_headshot_2.jpeg?itok=ygIrjZJc) Stefanie Le is a writer for Data-Smart City Solutions. She previously worked at the Washington Post, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard, the Information Disorder Lab at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, the International Criminal Court, and The Boston Globe. Stefanie holds two master’s degrees from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (2018) and Harvard University (2016), where she specialized in international law and investigative reporting, and international relations respectively, and bachelor’s degrees in journalism and English literature from Emerson College. See also:- [ Environment ](/topics/environment) - [ Equity ](/topics/equity) - [ GIS ](/topics/gis) - [ Mobility ](/topics/mobility) - [ Transportation ](/topics/transportation) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)