artdirector@sfreporter.com
City: Discolored water safe
The City of Santa Fe says it has received approximately five times as many reports as usual over the last few weeks about discolored water—around 200 customers out of its 36,000 accounts. In response, the city has “modified operations to help pinpoint the root cause” of the discolored water, which officials say can be caused by a variety of factors, including hydrant flushing, water line breaks, source water chemistry, oxidizing minerals etc. In the meantime, the city says, the water is safe, even if aesthetically unappealing, as its distribution system “is a closed network of pressurized pipes carrying treated and chlorinated water. We sample water almost continuously where it enters the system and on a regular basis at a number of points throughout the system. That sampling ensures that we know that the water in the system is safe.” To flush your line, the city suggests: Turn on the cold water and let it run for five minutes; If it doesn’t clear, wait 20 minutes and try again (capture and use that flushed water for the plants and garden). If the cloudy water persists, call (505) 955-4333 so the city can send someone to check what’s happening. The city does not have a timeline for resolution of the issue, but will post updates here. “City of Santa Fe Water is working hard to understand and address the issue,” Water Division Director Jesse Roach says in a statement. “We apologize for any inconvenience discolored water has caused you and appreciate your patience as we work toward a solution.”
Ronchetti out-raises Gov. Lujan Grisham
Campaign finance reports filed yesterday show Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti has raised more money than Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in the month since the June 7 primary election when he won his party’s nomination in a five-way race. Ronchetti brought in about $1.2 million for the month-long reporting period ending July 2, whereas Lujan Grisham raised approximately $755,000. “Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham relies on out-of-state dark money groups and the political elite while our campaign is focused on hard-working New Mexicans who deserve better than the career politicians who have run New Mexico for far too long,” Ronchetti tweeted. “We’re definitely ready for change.” Lujan Grisham’s spokeswoman Kendall Witmer, however, pointed out to the Albuquerque Journal that the governor still has an edge over Ronchetti with $2.7 million in her reelection account versus Ronchetti’s $1.4 million. “Gov. Lujan Grisham continues to be in one of the strongest positions an incumbent governor in New Mexico has ever been in,” Witmer told the Journal. “She’s one month into the general election and has nearly twice as much in the bank as her GOP opponent.”
Republicans challenge NM abortion legality
State Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, and others this week filed a case in the state’s Fifth Judicial District challenging abortion in the state. Last year, in anticipation of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, state lawmakers repealed a 1969 state law that had criminalized abortion in New Mexico. The petition argues that while legislators repealed the old law, they didn’t enact a set of statues to replace them and requests a declaration from the court that no statutory authority exists that legalizes abortion here. State Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the bill repealing the abortion ban, tells the Santa Fe New Mexican she maintains the right to an abortion is legal and protected here. As that story notes, the Center for Reproductive Rights describes New Mexico’s abortion rights as unprotected because the courts have not yet determined whether the state constitution protects them. The governor’s office, however, disputes that characterization, telling the New Mexican that last year’s bill removed abortion as a criminal offense along with any ambiguity about its legality here. “There is no requirement for every legal act in New Mexico to be codified as statute,” Press Secretary Nora Meyers Sackett wrote. “And any competent attorney will tell you as much.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 1,189; 569,619 total cases
Deaths: three; Santa Fe County has had 318 total deaths thus far; there have been 7,960 total fatalities statewide. Statewide Hospitalizations: 174. Patients on ventilators: 17.
Community levels: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly community levels report, which uses case rates along with two hospital metrics in combination for its framework, for the seven-day period of June 30-July 6, 11 counties—including Santa Fe for the second week in a row—have “red” or high levels (one more than last week). Among other recommendations, the CDC recommends indoor masking for communities with high levels. Twelve counties are “green,” aka low—three more than last week—and the rest are “yellow,” or medium. The CDC updates its map on Thursdays.Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends, for the seven-day period of June 27-July 3, Grant County had the highest daily case rate per 100,000 population: 73.3, followed by San Juan County at 66.7 and McKinley County at 60.9; Santa Fe County’s case rate was 49.4, down from 57.8 last week. In total, the health department reports 6,344 cases during that seven-day period, a 7.7% decline from the week prior.Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. Vaccines for children: Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years can now schedule appointments for vaccinations at VaccineNM.org.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
Are you hoping for a fall harvest from your garden? Then start succession planting this month. So says Jannine Cabossel, aka the Tomato Lady, who offers July garden advice in the Garden Journal podcast’s “Home Grown New Mexico” edition. For even more garden-to-table inspiration, be sure to also check out The Garden Journal’s most recent episode, presented by Slow Food Santa Fe, featuring Vinaigrette restaurant chef/owner/farmer Erin Wade.
Psychoanalyzing Carmen
Writing for Psychology Today, Judith Fein considers Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen, which opened the Santa Fe Opera’s 65th season last weekend, through the lens of, yes, modern psychology. Typically, Fein writes, “Carmen is portrayed as a flashy femme fatale who collects men like ornaments on the charm bracelet of her life, and Don José, the soldier, is a hapless and weak-willed victim of her seductive charms.” Not this production, in which director Mariame Clément, who brings a feminist perspective to the opera. That perspective prompts Fein to consider the fictional characters’ other characteristics: “Carmen may be wonderfully liberated, but she is also narcissistic. Don José writhes in emotional pain in front of her when she discards him, but she is unmoved, unable to feel anything for him. And a narcissistic person can easily attract a co-dependent person, which may be a fair description of her soldier lover. He loses his identity, his job, his social standing by following her, and he even becomes an outlaw at her beckoning. And then, when he is at his weakest, Carmen loses interest in him.” SFR also has reviews of Carmen andThe Barber of Seville, minus the psychoanalysis, in this week’s paper.
And the praise keeps coming...
We’re smack dab in the middle of tourist season, and the love keeps pouring in from magazines far and wide. Travel Noire magazine includes Santa Fe in its list of five “swanky US tourist towns worthy of Black luxury travel,” along with Laguna Beach, California; Aspen, Colorado; Beaufort, South Carolina; and West Palm Beach, Florida. Santa Fe also ranked at #9 in Yelp’s recent list of cities for foodies in 2022, a compilation of cities with populations under 250,000 “that have must-know food scenes,” which had “the highest restaurant ratings from out-of-towners.” Visitors particularly loved “classic dishes like huevos rancheros from places like Pantry and The Shed,” Yelp says. Taos appears on Livability.com’s list for nine “small towns with stellar art scenes.” Lastly, Best Life shouts out White Sands National Park in its story on eight national parks one can visit in a day. “Few places enchant first-time visitors more,” travel photographer Adam Marland says tells Best Life. “There is no one must-see viewpoint. Instead, the joy is in just getting (proverbially) lost in the silky-soft white dunes. Even with some short recommended walks, most travelers are in and out of the park within a few hours, save for the photographers who just can’t leave.”
Fingers crossed
Santa Fe has a 30% chance of precipitation today, which is better than we’ve had so far this week. According to the National Weather Service, those chances will start after noon via scattered showers and thunderstorms. Today will be otherwise mostly sunny with a high near 83 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon. Tomorrow looks about the same, except the chances for rain rise to 40%, then back down to 20% on Sunday, with continued possibilities for storms into next week.
Thanks for reading! When she finishes reading about the history of lobsters in fashion, The Word plans to re-read the late David Foster Wallace’s essay “Consider the Lobster.”
