Downtown Ambassador - Jose Garcia

Every day, Downtown Tucson Partnership ambassadors are out on downtown streets helping keep the district clean, safe, welcoming and connected. Clean Ambassadors tackle everything from litter, graffiti and sidewalk cleaning to beautification and maintenance, but their role often goes far beyond the tasks on their daily list. As Certified Tourism Ambassadors, they also provide directions, answer questions, assist businesses and residents, and serve as a familiar, friendly presence for the people they encounter downtown.

---

Jose Garcia, raised on the south side, has watched downtown Tucson change over his 40 years, including 13 years working in the district. He is an ardent advocate for downtown, which he believes is becoming a destination in its own right rather than a pass-through. His beat includes Congress Street, where the theaters, restaurants, transit and foot traffic offer a steady flow. 

Q: Are you from Tucson?

A: Born and raised, 40 years. Been here 13 years downtown. It's been an experience. It's good and bad, but lately it's been great. Downtown has evolved into its own place, offering new experiences for different people from different backgrounds. If you come down here, the food, the people, the experience, the shows. It's diverse. It's great.

Q: What's the first thing you notice when you start work downtown?

A: The sunrise as you're driving downtown. You can see everything, all the roads, all the restaurants. You see people that are working out, running, experiencing it, loving downtown. It's a beautiful place.

Q: What's your favorite block to walk, and why?

A: Congress. You get everything. You can walk around, go to the show, go to a restaurant, talk to people. Diversity. The Ronstadt, so many different types of people who use it, the buses, the trains. You could go down one block, then another, and it's a whole different experience.

Q: What moment with a downtown business owner, resident or fellow ambassador has been meaningful to you?

A: The meaningful part is when somebody gets lost, and I get to help them find their car, or where they parked, or where they were at, and then learn their background. I never knew a British person from England, and they needed help finding a restaurant, and I got to talk to them. I'm like, I never got to meet someone from literally the other side of the world, and it was such a great time. It was a great experience.

Q: What's the most common way you end up helping someone?

A: Directions. Specifically the courthouses, the restaurants. People get turned around because they've never been downtown. It's a small downtown, but yet nobody knows about it. They come down here and say, oh, where's this and that. We tell them where they're at, and it opens up to a bigger world, because they get to experience everything from El Charro all the way to the Rialto and everything in between.

Q: Do you get a lot of people from Tucson who don't know about downtown Tucson?

A: Yes. A lot of people come for the courthouses, but when they get here and experience Congress, they get to see the restaurants and the shops. And it's like, wait, we have all this. Not just Fourth Avenue, but downtown.

Q: What do people most often ask you about downtown?

A: (Again) directions, mostly. But a lot ask what the historical places are, where they can go. I tell everybody Old Town and the old-school buildings in the historic area south of the TCC. It looks like you stepped into a time machine, going back to see the historic buildings.

Q: Where in Tucson were you born, and is your family still here?

A: South side, Kino Hospital, the Irvington area. My dad passed away, but everybody else is here. Forty years, loving it.