I sat down with three individuals on January 22 for the live taping of the Press Room at the Paul and Alice Baker Center for Public Media. They talked with me before hearing representatives from the RTA Next speak on the panel. This three part series chronologically looks at the Regional Transportation Authority from past, present and future lenses. The voices of Paul George-Blazevich, Denise Leahy, and an anonymous engineer are featured in each episode of this series, with additional background from RTA representatives Michael Ortega and Ted Maxwell.
RTA Next: Before the Vote pt. 1
VIEW LARGER Paul George-Blazevich attends the live taping of The Press Room discussing RTA Next at The Paul & Alice Baker Center for Public Media on Jan. 22, 2026.
AZPM Staff
We look at RTA’s past, from its beginnings in 2006, to its two-decade growth. Our three interviewees talked about the previous RTA projects and management, on the more recent side of the twenty year plan. Paul George-Blazevich has lived on and off in Tucson since 2018, and seen more urban projects, bad and good. Denise Leahy spoke about the last ten years since 2016 and how many changes have occurred with the agency. The engineer only started looking at RTA three years ago, and asked questions about Steve Kozachick and Farhad Moghimi. Mike Ortega, executive director of the RTA, spoke at the panel about how internal communications from the RTA were handled in the past, and how that will be different going forward.
RTA Next: Before the Vote pt. 2
VIEW LARGER A woman looks at an RTA Next pamphlet before the live taping of The Press Room on Jan. 22, 2026…