ACLU-NM Raises Red Flags on Mayor’s Median Proposal

ACLU NM sees red flags in mayor’s median bill

A proposed ordinance from Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber seeking to ban people from sitting or standing on medians less than 36 inches wide could face legal challenges, American Civil Liberties New Mexico Legal Director María Martínez-Sánchez tells SFR. Such bills have popped up all over the state and, while “each iteration of these bills is a little bit different,” this one “doesn’t even try to be constitutional,” she says. “It just outlaws any type of speech in any median less than 36 inches.” While Martínez-Sánchez doesn’t think any of the comparable ordinances are “legally sound,” she notes such laws must “allow for ample alternative places for people to engage in speech activities, whether that’s engaging in protest, selling newspapers or soliciting donations.” Webber’s bill, she adds, “doesn’t seem to do much in that respect.” Webber, in turn, says he’s “an absolute proponent” of First Amendment rights, which he characterizes as “the bedrock of democracy.” His bill, he insists, doesn’t target a particular population. “This is not about people who are unhoused or exercising free speech. That just isn’t what we’re doing here,” Webber says. “I don’t think we should confuse that with safety. I think people who are unhoused also have a right to safety. It shouldn’t be an ‘either/or choice,’ they should have every right and privilege to safety and housing as anyone else.” Martínez-Sánchez says that explanation is essentially laughable and that elected officials may say such bills don’t target specific populations “to try to make [them] constitutional,” but proposals such as Webber’s “are meant to criminalize homelessness, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.” The City Council and mayor will hear public comment on the bill at its meeting tomorrow, April 24. The US Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments in a case expected to have implications on local governments’ policy-making regarding homeless encampments—including in a pending Albuquerque lawsuit.

NM Gov legislative session goes beyond guns

Speaking of medians, pedestrian safety also may factor into Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s agenda for the recently announced special legislative session, along with behavioral health and retail theft, she tells SFR. In other words, don’t just look for a reprisal of gun-reform laws from the regular session earlier this year—although the governor, along with lawmakers and advocates, also plans to back firearm-related proposals, such as changes to sentencing for felons in possession of firearms. Special sessions, the governor says, should be “very focused, because if they’re not, you don’t typically have good results.” That being said, public safety includes those topics creating “an interruption in growing risk in our communities,” including retail theft. “I challenge you, particularly in Albuquerque, to find a pharmacy where more things than not aren’t locked up,” she says, adding while work in behavioral health and housing is important, “we also need interventions because these are individuals who are often addicted to drugs, who are openly using them on the streets and are often victims of crime and are put in places in order to have access to funds for additional self medication.” Much like Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber, Lujan Grisham says she also plans to tackle pedestrian safety issues, including the increase of panhandling on streets. “I cannot tell you how many times I’ve almost seen someone hit or car accidents as a result of trying to miss a cart, a person, several people, any number of things,” Lujan Grisham says. The session is scheduled to begin July 18.

Feds award NM $156 million for solar project

The US Environmental Protection Agency yesterday announced the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department will receive $156 million as part of $7 billion in grants from a federal Solar for All competition. According to an EPA news release, 60 recipients—including local, state and tribal governments—will receive the funding to provide solar to more than 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged households nationwide through the EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. “The selectees will advance solar energy initiatives across the country, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, saving $8 billion in energy costs for families, delivering cleaner air, and combating climate change,” EPA Administrator Michael S Regan says in a statement. New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission announced yesterday the state’s community solar program will receive a portion of the award. Under the grant application, the money will be used to create a fund to support “interconnection upgrade” costs; pay for the community solar program’s administration over five years “while the New Mexico Legislature determines a long-term funding mechanism;” and provide support for the Human Services Department’s “management of low-income customers,” among other expenditures. The state’s community solar program requires reserving at least 30 percent of energy produced at each facility for low-income subscribers and low-income-serving organizations. “The NMPRC is proud to partner with other state agencies as we move toward a modern electrical grid,” PRC Chief of Staff Cholla Khoury says in a statement. New Mexico tribal governments also could benefit from the approximate $62 million awarded to the nonprofit California-based GRID Alternatives, whose Western Indigenous Network Solar For All initiative prioritizes working with tribal governments, including in New Mexico.

Expert: Sunland Park water issue “public health crisis”

The Washington Post highlights ongoing problems with arsenic levels in Sunland Park’s water. The story opens with resident Rosana Monge, whose husband Joseph’s medical records showed exposure to arsenic before his death in February. In total, the Post reports, federal and state records show “illegally high levels of arsenic” in Sunland Park’s drinking water every year for the last 16—five times the legal limit in 2016. Earlier this month, the state environment department reported arsenic compliance sampling at the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority in Doña Ana County from which all four of the drinking water samples analyzed came in below the federal drinking water contamination level. That sampling followed testing at the end of March that showed one of 10 samples was above the federal standard. NMED in early March issued CRRUA an administrative order that included $251,580 in penalties for continued violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and New Mexico Drinking Water regulations. In an interview with the Post, Columbia University professor Anne Nigra, who studies “the impacts of arsenic-laden water on Latino communities,” called Sunland Park’s situation “a public health crisis.” Arsenic occurs naturally in New Mexico’s soil, the story notes, and can be removed, but consumed over time can cause a variety of health problems. “It is not entirely clear why arsenic has been allowed to seep into the water in Sunland Park year after year,” the story notes, “though problems with infrastructure, lax enforcement of regulations and general inattention to the problem appear to be contributing factors.”

Listen up

The University of New Mexico’s Indigenous Design and Planning Institute (iD+Pi) debuts a new limited podcast series on “placeknowing.” Hosted by iD+Pi founder and Director Ted Jojola, the series examines “the essential relationship between land, storytelling and community and the importance of visioning and revitalization around brownfields…in Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.” In the first episode, Jojola, a Regents professor in the Community & Regional Planning Program at UNM’s School of Architecture + Planning, and his team introduce Indigenous design and planning fundamentals in advance of upcoming episodes focused on case studies of communities mitigating contaminated lands. “Indigenous design and planning methods honor the ages-old strength, wisdom and beauty inherent in our communities,” Jojola says in a statement. “These approaches benefit community planners, advocates, educators and policymakers as we offer up powerful approaches for land rematriation and restoration of brownfields in this time of climate chaos and environmental upheaval.”

Suddenly Santa Fe

Travel Noire includes Santa Fe in its list of fun travel destinations for spontaneity. “Spinning a globe, closing your eyes and letting your finger land on a random spot is how we are choosing our 2024 adventures!” the publication proclaims. Santa Fe, apparently, is “ideal” for such devil-may-care travelers, at least for those in search of sunny skies. “Getting to Santa Fe is accessible and hassle-free,” the story continues, marking what may be the first time in history such a statement has ever been uttered. “You can opt for an impromptu road trip or fly into the Santa Fe Regional Airport.” Once you figure out how to escape from the airport (we’re taking liberties with Travel Noire’s increasingly hard-to-swallow narrative), “getting around is easy with various options available. The city is walkable and great for biking. It also touts an efficient bus system.” AFAR magazine also includes Santa Fe on its list of favorite family vacations for 2024, and recommends staying with the whole family at Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado, “which can be stocked with baby gear and child-size robes and slippers on request.” La Fonda is the pick for folks wanting to stay downtown. As for the trip itself: Meow Wolf and Sky Railway for fun; the Shed and Dolina Café & Bakery for grub; Kakawa Chocolate House for treats.

NM winners

The New Yorker magazine includes Institute of American Indian Arts’ MFA in Creative Writing Director Deborah Taffa’s new memoir on its list of “the best books we’ve read this week.” Whiskey Tender, the story notes, “recalls the author’s childhood on the traditional lands of the Quechan (Yuma) people on a reservation in California, and in a Navajo Nation border town in New Mexico.” In recounting her history, “Taffa regards the broad tapestry of history and picks at its smallest threads: individual choices shaped by violent social forces, and by the sometimes erratic powers of love.” In an interview with SFR earlier this year, Taffa said she’d “never seen a comprehensive coming-of-age memoir written by a Native person. They say you should write the book that you need, and for me, that’s the story of a Native kid growing up and leaving home.” In other accolades for local authors, Northern New Mexico native Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of the short story collection Night at the Fiestas and the 2021 novel The Five Wounds, has received a prestigious 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. Quade, an English professor at Stanford University, also served as the fiction judge for SFR’s 2023 writing contest. Santa Fe artist Susan York also received a 2024 Guggenheim and notes on a social media post that that she’s applied for the fellowship 10 times since 2008. “With other artists, I have made it an annual rite to apply,” she writes, “developing plans and examining my work for each year’s application. Tenacity is the secret weapon of artists and writers.”

The calm before the blowing dust

The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day, with a high temperature near 74 degrees and northwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Enjoy today and tomorrow before the temperature drops and the wind picks up.

Thanks for reading! The Word is trying to avoid ruminating on the “trial of the century” and is instead thinking about people finding human fossils in their floors.