We're answering community questions from readers collected from our Community Conversation Survey!

Today’s question: “Why aren’t there better public transportation options to travel to Tucson? With so many accidents on I-19 with the housing growth there should be better options."

Answer: While I don’t have an exact answer as to why there aren’t better public transportation options to travel to Tucson, I did some research on the transportation services in the area that provide rides. According to an online guide developed by the Green Valley Council and Green Valley Recreation, Sun Shuttle by Sun Tran is the only public transportation service that provides rides from Green Valley and Sahuarita to Tucson. However, Friends In Deed and Valley Assistance Services are two local resources in which volunteers provide transportation from Green Valley to Tucson at no charge.

Sun Shuttle by Sun Tran offers Route 421, which is free until Dec. 31. The route has stops at the Laos Transit Center on Irvington Road and the Ronstadt Transit Center at North Sixth Avenue and East Congress Street in downtown Tucson. Be sure to check the route schedule for daily departure and arrival times. Unfortunately, Sun Shuttle doesn’t offer its Dial-A-Ride service from Green Valley to Tucson.

Friends In Deed is a free local service that offers two categories of transportation to and from medical, governmental, financial and legal appointments in Tucson based on the passenger’s needs. The Personal Driver program provides volunteers who use their personal vehicles to transport passengers who have... (More)

We're answering community questions from readers collected from our Community Conversation Survey!

One reader asked, “How can we keep the javelina in the desert and out of our front yards eating our plants?”

According to Arizona Game and Fish Department Urban Wildlife Specialist Locana de Souza, there’s three reasons javelinas come to people’s yards: food, water and shade.

Non-native plants in people’s yards tend to be more lush, and provide “a food source that the javelina can't get elsewhere in the surrounding desert,” de Souza said. “They're going to go for these tasty foods, that's the biggest reason.”

De Souza continued, “Sometimes they're after irrigation lines and they smell the water, so they're coming in for that. The other piece of that is sometimes they just need some shade under somebody’s porch, or under a tree, or a hedge or something.”

To keep javelinas out of your front yard, de Souza recommended keeping flowers and succulents out of reach of javelinas.

“[Flowers and succulents] can be hanging, they can be up on a wall, they can be up on the baker's rack, or up on a high table; but essentially the javelina cannot access them,” de Souza said. “That, or those types of plants or are kept in a backyard that’s walled.”

Building a wall or fence with a gate around your front yard is also an option to keep javelina out if it is acceptable under the guidelines of your HOA. The Arizona Game and Fish Department has additional... (More)