Minesh Bacrania
Agua Fria Nursery and other Santa Fe independent nurseries were required to close as peak planting season comes closer.
Online, April 10: “Nipped in the Bud”
Aggravating Absurdity
I'm a serious amateur gardener and orchardist who has fairly equally patronized the locals—Agua Fria, Payne's, Newman's, and Plants of the Southwest—over the 26 years that I've lived here. But well beyond my personal experience, I feel great sympathy for the many New Mexicans who grow much of their own food. Now, at the beginning of the growing season, are they forced to buy their seeds, plants and trees from the big boxes or from out-of-state companies? If growing healthy food isn't vital to our existence, what is?
This absurdity is aggravated by scanning the governor's list of "essential" businesses, which includes fracking for oil and gas where I'm sure the oilfield workers practice adequate social distancing…There is no reason why local nurseries cannot regulate the number of customers at any one time as do other businesses.
Robert Baroody
Santa Fe
It’s Fine
This too shall pass. No need to risk your life or someone else's for a plant.
Linda Mac
via Facebook
Enough upset?
This is totally absurd that local nurseries cannot stay open. Payne's Nursery is practicing absolute distancing. I rely on planting my organic vegetables and you have to -follow nature's growth cycle.
The big box stores are selling garden supplies like it's a normal day. I don't know how to get my comments to [Gov. Michelle Lujan] Grisham but maybe enough voices coming to you can send a collective! This is not the way to handle an essential business
Miles Fairris
Santa Fe
We have to live with it
I blew it. I should've gone to Newman's for the start to our vegetable garden but went to Home Depot for lumber instead. Now Newman's and all the nurseries are closed, while Home Depot remains open, even though most employees go maskless and at least one of them thinks "masks don't help because the virus isn't airborne," which is the kind of bad information and behavior that helped get us into this mess in the first place.
Now we have to live with these drastic measures for a while, but such measures can still be done well—closing nurseries doesn't seem to buy us any more protection from ourselves. More people will line up outside big box stores for their "garden centers," forcing customers into fewer locations. I'd feel much safer going to Newman's than Home Depot, anyway, but closing a few nurseries doesn't improve our circumstances at this point. What non-compliant people will do at nurseries they will do at Home Depot. We need masks, distance, clean hands, mutual respect. And nurseries with a nice breeze blowing through them.
Jeff Donlan
Santa Fe
Editor's note: Some local nurseries are retailing at the curbside and taking telephone orders.
Cover, April 8: “Lawyer Up”
What about retirees?
Your article and the Supreme Court's report do not address the pool of attorneys in New Mexico that, contrary to the Chief Justice's remarks, are not "shrinking." This pool includes the growing number of experienced attorneys who have come to New Mexico to retire but cannot practice law here, even part-time—and therefore cannot take on cases on a pro bono or reduced fee basis—due to licensing and other state requirements.
I am an attorney licensed in Ohio, but have resided in New Mexico for 6 years now. I would be willing to take on certain cases—and I believe there are other professionals like me—if there were a sound program to facilitate such work. Why not admit qualified attorneys who are licensed in other states for limited purposes in New Mexico (rather than licensing non-lawyers), provide them, though the law school or bar association, with training in the areas where access to justice is most acute, and then permit them to perform legal work in those areas where it is most needed? This solution—as opposed to those in the report or the article—could be implemented within months at less cost.
Kenneth S Resnick
Santa fe
Allow out-of-state
Potential resources should not be wasted by limiting consideration to "young" lawyers.
New Mexico could likely do much to alleviate its "lawyer deficit" problem by lowering the bar for New Mexico licensure of out-of-state attorneys (maybe those in "good standing" in their "home" states, with at least 10 years of experience and no professional discipline or at least no serious professional discipline), and ensuring membership in the New Mexico bar does not require actual full-time residence in the state…This would permit attorneys from other states to practice also in New Mexico, and might go far toward attracting attorneys who would like to scale down or "semi-retire" to relocate their practices and residences to New Mexico…
Some pretty worthless institutions of higher learning have successfully established online higher education. Why doesn't New Mexico establish online legal education opportunities which would render graduates eligible to take the New Mexico bar, and which would ultimately be free if the student (i) is ultimately admitted to the bar, and (ii) commits to practice in the state for at least 2 or 3 years after admission. The suggestion creates some problems re ABA accreditation (which should not be required to practice in New Mexico only—but will make their online New Mexico degree less "portable" to other states—not necessarily a bad thing if you want to keep them in New Mexico).
Yvonne M. Renfrew
Los Angeles
Letters, April 8: “Explore Your Hood”
This is stupid
The parking lots at the trailheads are full of cars, many with out-of-state tags. If the cars aren't social distancing, you can be sure the people aren't either. Why endanger our first responders to rescue a lost hiker right now? This is stupid. If we're going to close down, just do it! Priority one is safety on every possible level.
Elizabeth Holmes-deForest
Santa Fe
Poo Alert
As a Santa Fean who appreciates the beauty of Santa Fe and easy access to the outdoors, I have been noticing an excessive amount of dog waste on the more frequented trails near where I live. This is a friendly reminder that there is a city ordinance which requires pet owners to pick up their dog waste (even if you are on a city trail).
In this time where we are having to come together more than ever as a community, this is another way for us to consider others.
If you can see it, so can others, and they can potentially step in it! We are all in this together. Thank you!
Lindsay Conover
Santa Fe
