TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - For years Tucson's downtown had a reputation as a place that went to sleep after dark.
Now after years of efforts to wake up the place, a rebirth is happening. Downtown is finally getting what it needs to become a 24 hour environment: people who actually live there.
People used to think of Tucson's downtown as just a place to go to work. Then it became a place to work, and to party but what's it like as a place to live?
More and more people are finding out, as new apartments and student housing make it easier to live downtown.
Tucson’s Downtown Partnership is working to help downtown thrive.
Morgan and Pat Fitch have built their own special place downtown---a condo that fronts on Broadway with beautiful views out the back.
Showing us around, Morgan Fitch said, “When you walk in the front door you are looking all the way through the house."
They love downtown life after having a big house in suburbia.
Pat Fitch says, “We had that. We had a greenhouse. We had a tennis court. We had all that and just, we would much rather be where everything is available and if we could we would not use a car."
They lived downtown in Knoxville, Tennessee. After Morgan Fitch retired as a patent lawyer the couple moved to Tucson and began a new career in theater.
They love the downtown atmosphere, feel safe there and say big events with plenty of people make them feel safer still.
So what's their advice for anyone considering a downtown move?
Pat Fitch says, “I'd say, come on. Really. I'd say there's a lot of people that don't understand how easy it is to live down here. Johnny Gibson's coming in as a market has been a Godsend."
She says, “I think there's such a feeling of what you might say, hope and there's a vibe, there really is that you just don't get when you're in a suburban or closed gate community type thing and I think there's a place for everybody down here."
