“Is Tucson in Arizona?” John Lennon asked Paul McCartney as they worked out a hometown for Jojo in “The Beatles: Get Back” documentary. McCartney’s answer: “Yeah, it is, yeah — it’s where they make ‘High Chaparral.’”

More than half a century later, Tucson’s vintage TV-Western identity lingers in the public imagination, and to be fair, this is still the kind of place where you’ll find working ranches, as many pickups as sedans, and citywide school closures during February’s Rodeo Break.

But some things have changed. Since Jojo’s day, the metro area population that has more than tripled, to about 1,080,000. Roughly 547,000 live in the city proper, although locals consider themselves rightful Tucsonans inside or outside the city limits. Today, Tucson is also the kind of place that boasts the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation in the United States, enough optical sciences expertise at the University of Arizona to service sone of the largest telescopes in the world — and so many local observatories, an official astronomy trail launched this year.

The vibe: Aerospace hub meets outdoorsy college town with a distinct Mexican flavor.

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