Our trips to Phoenix used to take 4 hours. Now they take 8

My wife and I have had a place in Puerto Peñasco (aka Rocky Point) for the past 10-plus years.

We have traveled to and from the greater Phoenix area for our medical, shopping, family and charity pickup trips.

Our travel time is normally four hours up to Phoenix and four hours back to Rocky Point.

From our home there to the border in San Luis, Ariz., is about 3 hours, then we add the border wait time. The average border wait time used to be 30 minutes. It has now shot up to 90 minutes.

Lukeville border closure: Hundreds wait for days in desert

Had we opted to drive to the border in Nogales, Ariz., the drive would have taken us 4 hours and 44 minutes, not counting the border crossing wait time.

That would also mean driving through Caborca, Mexico, which we have been advised not to do for safety reasons.

Our normal trip north to Phoenix for medical appointments, shopping, donations and families went from four hours through Lukeville to eight hours through San Luis.

We used to be able to make the trip up and back in one day.

Now it takes us a minimum of two days plus additional gas and expenses.

The economic impact on Mexican nationals and expat Americans and Canadians is bad!

Kris Nichols, Chandler

Homelessness has spread all over

Kudos to the city of Phoenix for clearing out the homeless camp in downtown Phoenix — the one that came to be known as "The Zone."

Now the people who don’t want to be confined to a shelter have dispersed all over the Valley.

You can’t find a bus stop in Phoenix that doesn’t have a person sleeping on the benches.

Plus, the grocery stores are losing shopping carts left and right when they’re not fending off shoplifters.

Darren Zizek, Phoenix

Why we added students to our board

We heartily agree with Phoenix high school senior Sarakanti Iyer’s call for adults to involve students in setting the education policies that impact young people.

The Arizona State Board of Education and 10 Arizona high schoolers are proud to have formed the first Student Advisory Panel in the board’s history to do exactly that.

The panel is the brainchild of Mizuki Yashiro, a wonderfully ambitious Scottsdale Preparatory Academy senior who reached out to our staff this summer with the idea.

Imagine our delight when more than 100 impressive Arizona students applied to join the panel in just three weeks.

Some states require school boards to have an official student member, but Arizona has no such law or provision in the state constitution.

Our board ended up with something even better: 10 student advisors from across the state.

The perspective these youth bring to our decision-making is invaluable.

Daniel P. Corr, president of the Arizona State Board of Education and Arizona Western College

What students across Arizona want

I was overjoyed when the Arizona State Board of Education welcomed the idea of creating a Student Advisory Panel.

The 10 students on our panel meet at least once a month to discuss a variety of topics. We come from Maricopa, Pima and Cochise counties and have diverse schooling backgrounds, including public district, charter, private, home school and online.

Recently, I presented feedback from the panel to the board on high school graduation standards. Whether students decide to seek higher education, attend trade school or directly enter the workforce, we believe they should have access to resources and workshops in high school to help them smoothly transition to post-graduation life.

We also advocated for revamping the curriculum in subjects such as civics and financial literacy, which are often sidelined in our schools but are critical to building students’ life skills.

Working with the Arizona State Board of Education has been an incredible experience. And knowing that students have a seat at the table has been rewarding.

I’m grateful to everyone who has made the Student Advisory Panel possible, and I look forward to more young people following in our footsteps in the future.

Mizuki Yashiro, chair of the Arizona State Board of Education Student Advisory Panel

What’s on your mind? Send us a letter to the editor online or via email at opinions@arizonarepublic.com. And consider joining our moderated Voices: Engaging Arizona group on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix to Rocky Point is a 2-day trip, thanks to border chaos