artdirector@sfreporter.com
City: Downtown fire under investigation
The Santa Fe Fire Department responded yesterday afternoon—at approximately 12:40 pm—to a structure fire on Otero street near Paseo de Peralta. According to a city news release, the event was a “first alarm fire” requiring three fire engines/ladder trucks, a Rescue Engine, two medical units, battalion chiefs and a training captain. Here are some photos. Both the Santa Fe Police Department and the Fire Department’s Prevention Office are investigating the fire, the cause of which remains undetermined. The structure that burned was an unoccupied commercial building under renovation—the former McKee Office Building whose owners hope to turn into a downtown hotel. Developer and partial owner Marc Bertram tells the Santa Fe New Mexican he thinks the fire could have been started by an unhoused person camping in the building. “We have had constant problems with people, specifically in the building that caught fire, ever since we started demolition on it,” Bertram told the paper. “They will sneak in there and they’ll camp out in there…we’re in the process of sort of tearing it apart, so it’s wide open.” He said the fire could push the project back by six months. SFPD last summer arrested and charged Oryan Yazzie with arson and burglary in the same vicinity, following a fire they say he set at La Casa Sena; that case remains pending following a psychiatric evaluation of Yazzie to determine his competency to stand trial.
Gov. Lujan Grisham heads to Egypt
Having won re-election on Tuesday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced yesterday she will head to Egypt on Friday to represent New Mexico—and the United States—at the second week of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The governor also attended last year’s conference in Glasgow, Scotland. According to a news release, the governor will participate in a variety of events focused on actions and innovations needed to address the climate crisis, alongside various members of the Biden administration and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The governor is expected to highlight New Mexico’s initiatives, including its plans for electric grid modernization; the forthcoming 100% zero-carbon electricity requirement for New Mexico’s investor-owned utilities and rural electric co-ops; and adoption of low-emission and zero-emission rules for passenger vehicles, to name a few. Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst, along with other members of the governor’s administration, also will be attending. The governor’s office says the Climate Registry and the Climate Action Reserve are paying for the New Mexico delegation’s travel expenses.
NM launches environmental crimes task force
The state environment department yesterday announced the formation of an Environmental Crimes Task Force in conjunction with the US Environmental Protection Agency, geared at increasing multi-jurisdictional cooperation “in investigating and prosecuting criminal violations of federal, tribal and state environmental laws.” In a statement, Environment Secretary James Kenney said the task force would “bring much needed investigation and prosecution resources and coordination to New Mexico, which will serve to level the playing field and increase environmental compliance in our communities.” To do so, the task force will meet regularly with federal, tribal and state agency members to share information and plan responses to people and organizations violating environmental laws. “If you circumvent New Mexico’s environmental laws—we will find you and we will prosecute you,” Kenney said. According to a news release, the task force also will focus on advancing civil rights and environmental justice. “Low-income communities and communities of color have disproportionately borne the burden of environmental crime,” US Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alexander M.M. Uballez said in a statement, adding that the task force “will bring fair treatment and meaningful involvement of underserved communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by systemic environmental violations, pollutions, climate change and abuse of natural resources.” Examples cited of environmental crimes run the gamut and include illegally disposing pollutants on land or in water; illegal disposal of asbestos or radioactive waste; false reporting of emissions. Tips about suspected environmental crimes can be submitted here or here.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Nov. 9: New cases: 894; 633,631 total cases. The state’s most recent epidemiology report on geographical trends shows a 27% increase in the number of cases over the prior seven days compared with the week before. Deaths: two; Santa Fe County has had 363 total deaths; there have been 8,675 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 170 (11 are children). Patients on ventilators: eight. Yesterday’s hospitalizations represent 10 more than the day prior, continuing a rising trend over the last three weeks Health Department Communications Director Jodi McGinnis Porter confirmed to SFR earlier this week. With the rise in hospitalizations, the health department “strongly recommends New Mexicans get their flu shot and stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters,” which can be received at the same time, “with public health offices and pharmacies offering the vaccines free of charge.” DOH also encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Nov. 3 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, categorizes McKinley County as “red” now (with high risk) and seven New Mexico counties as “yellow,” (medium risk levels, two more than last week): San Juan, Rio Arriba, Taos, San Miguel, Harding, De Baca and Grant. The rest of New Mexico’s counties continue to have “green,” aka low, levels. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Curative testing sites; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
Who says you can only go to the opera in the summer? Not us! And certainly not OperaWest, which returns for its third production this weekend—Friday through Sunday—with Pagliacci, SFR’s top pick of the week (find tickets, $20-$200, here). By all means, see it in person if possible at St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art. But $20 tickets also are available for livestreaming of its opening night performance at 6 pm, Friday, Nov. 11 and the 1 pm matinee on Saturday, Nov. 12. In addition, you can catch last year’s performance of Madame Butterfly gratis on YouTube (the company received second place in the national American Prize competition for best livestream opera performance during the COVID-19 pandemic).
Santa Fe glam
While Santa Fe has always been fashionable for artists, it hasn’t always been so fashionable for fashion. Those days have changed. Indigenous fashion, as showcased during the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, can certainly take much of the credit, as can fashion curator and IAIA Assistant Professor Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation), who produced last summer’s fashion shows and Art of Indigenous Fashion at IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art (through Jan. 8). Writer Röw Sarkëla talks with Bear Robe in advance of this weekend’s free panel discussion, “The OGs of Indigenous Fashion” (3-5 pm, Saturday, Nov. 12 at SITE Santa Fe). Vogue magazine also spotlights fashion in Santa Fe with a story about Orren Davis Jordan and Robert Parker, whom the magazine describes as “one of Santa Fe’s best dressed pairs.” The couple met in Santa Fe in 1978, and it was “love at first sight” when Parker applied for a hair-dressing position at a salon Jordan managed. “I remember vividly that he was wearing green army pants, a pale yellow shirt, and loafers with no socks,” Jordan tells Vogue. “Wearing no socks today is quite the norm, however in 1978, this was shocking. When he walked through the door, I just thought, ‘Wow!’” Jordan and Parker, who married legally in 2013, recently celebrated 44 years of partnership. The story includes the couple’s Santa Fe shopping tips and has plenty of photos documenting their indisputable fashion sense.
Made in New Mexico
Architectural Digest’s editors includes two New Mexico businesses in their shopping guide for Native American Heritage month: Digital Design Editor Sydney Gore’s pick is Maida Goods’ Martínez Blanket collection “made in collaboration with Suzie Garcia, who weaves them by hand on a Rio Grande loom in Nambé, New Mexico. The wool is hand-dyed with endemic natural dyes” by Maida Branch and New Mexico-based artist and chef Johnny Santiago Adao Ortiz-Concha. Associate Digital Features Editor Katherine McLaughlin particularly likes Taos-based Bison Star Naturals corn-shaped soap bars, and notes that the line started by husband and wife duo Angelo and Jacquelene McHorse “uses naturally, locally, and organically sourced ingredients” in all of its products. And speaking of soap, pianist Jeremy Denk—whose memoir published earlier this year—highlights Los Poblanos’ blue corn mint soap as one of his favorite “things” to New York Magazine: “I’m a New Mexico-raised boy, so I’m obsessed with New Mexico things,” he says. “This soap just smells, in a way, like a corn-tortilla factory, and it creates a kind of Proustian memory for me. It’s really amazing.” We may look for that soap at Los Poblanos’ new Farm Shop Norte Santa Fe (201 Washington Ave.), which we first mentioned back in September, and which has just opened, along with its Bar Norte tasting room featuring its new botanical spirits.
Chill out
The National Weather Service forecasts a chillier day today, with a high temperature around 50 degrees, plenty of sunshine and north wind 10 to 15 mph. Look for the sun to continue straight on through the weekend with temps ranging from the mid 40s to the low 50s, and our next chance for some weather (aka snow) via a new storm system starting Sunday night.
Thanks for reading! The Word returns Monday, Nov. 14 and plans to pair this LA Times newsletter on hope with Stephen Colbert’s post-midterm monologue before collapsing in an unwashed heap. PS: Speaking of midterms, ICYMI, Democrat Gabe Vasquez declared victory in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District yesterday afternoon (and incumbent RepublicanYvette Herrell conceded).
