The west end of the street borders on the industrial but east of 1st ave it gets more homey and residential. They even have islands and speed bumps in the road to slow down traffic on the street, but there are plenty of

Public transportation is as good as it gets for Tucson, which isn't that great, to be honest. But there's plenty within walking distance once east of Campbell. Everything nearby of interest takes place on Grant, though, but it's tough to find houses on Grant..

Within walking distance, mostly on Grant, there's a variety of restaurants including pizza and Cajun (live music on Tuesdays), dancing, coffee houses (at least two, I recall. One of which roasts their own coffee), a movie theater, and several used bookstores. The area really reflects its proximity to the university and much of the entertainment is geared toward kids that age. For the company of more mature people, you need to travel further from the university.

Housing is priced higher than average for the city, but it's certainly not the most expensive part of town, nor even the most expensive street. The slow traffic is good for kids, but I saw a number of noise violation stickers on the windows of the houses in the area -- complaints from neighbors, but I never heard any of them from where I lived.