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City to issue Midtown RFPs
The City of Santa Fe will be moving forward on several actions it says will make the Midtown Campus “shovel ready” for development. Following approval last week by the City Council of a Midtown Moving Forward resolution, along with a series of community outreach efforts, the city will be issuing a request for proposals to redevelop and operate the the campus’ Visual Arts Center as an arts, culture and film hub; expand and update Garson Studios into a state-of-the-art film and multimedia production studio; and create a Garson Performance Theatre “that will be affordable for local groups and attract regional, national, and international performers.” Other actions the council authorized include: a plan for re-use of Fogelson Library as a public library and “innovation center”; and submitting a plan and application for mixed-use zoning on the property to allow for a variety of uses, such as residential, commercial, educational and open space. The resolution also calls for an analysis of the viability of locating city facilities on or adjacent to the property, along with the possibility of acquiring adjacent land. “This resolution marks a major milestone for the Midtown project,” Mayor Alan Webber said in a statement. “The community engagement process was an outstanding success. The work that’s been going on by city-staffed committees has provided us with the roadmap to action. Action is now what we’re taking. We’ll push ahead with the rezoning, the master planning, and the requests for proposals that will move Midtown forward.”
NM Republicans choose their candidates
New Mexico Republicans gathered in Ruidoso on Saturday—1,000 of them, according to the state party—and elected their candidates for the June 7 primary election. Convention results came long after voting, following what the Albuquerque Journal and other outlets described as problems with the party’s electronic voting machines necessitating a switch to paper ballots. Delegates awarded Jay Block with the most votes for the gubernatorial race to challenge Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham; he will appear at the top of the ballot, followed by state Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, and Greg Zanetti. Former KRQE weatherman Mark Ronchetti, who lost a bid for US Senate to Ben Ray Lujan in 2020, did not receive enough delegate votes to appear on the ballot, but says he’s collected sufficient signatures to do so regardless. Ronchetti also issued a statement calling for “unity” among Republicans and said “the chaos and dysfunction of today’s convention underscores how tragically flawed this process is.” The state Democratic Party also responded to the convention’s mishaps, describing it as a “disaster of technological issues, paper ballots, missing delegates and dysfunctional leadership. The New Mexico GOP can’t even organize a functional convention—imagine the disastrous consequences if they had to lead the state.” Dems hold their pre-primary convention March 4-5 in Roswell. In other convention outcomes, Anthony Thornton will be the sole GOP candidate for lieutenant governor; Louis Sanchez and Michelle Garcia Holmes will run for the 1st Congressional District; incumbent US Rep. Yvette Herrell is unopposed in the 2nd; and Alexis Martinez Johnson will challenge US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, to whom she lost the same race two years ago in the 3rd.
Fighting for the Southside
After close to three days of testimony that ended on Friday, the state Environment Department is expected in the coming months to issue a final order on Southside residents’ appeal of a permit allowing Associated Asphalt and Materials to consolidate its operations. The department approved the permit last July; Miguel Acosta, co-director of nonprofit Earth Care, and Tierra Contenta resident Linda Marianiello—represented by Maslyn Locke and Eric Jantz with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center—filed an appeal last August, and view the permit as part of a larger fight for low-income and non-white neighborhoods against environmental racism. Part of the dispute centers on Associated Asphalt’s emissions modeling in its permit application, and Southside petitioners’ contention the company won’t be complying with federal standards because it relied on estimates rather than actual data. “I believe this is an issue of serious concern for many engaged residents throughout our city and across the state,” Katherine Shera, who noted that she doesn’t live on the Southside, said during the hearing’s testimony. “It’s time for NMED to side with the people, especially those residing in our most vulnerable communities, and to turn away from permitting practices of the past.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
Feb. 25:
New cases: 453 (a 27.8% decrease from the day prior); 510,783 total cases
Top three counties: Bernalillo County with 143; Sandoval County with 38; San Juan County with 37
Santa Fe County: 19, 14 from the 87505 ZIP code, which ranked 8th in the state among ZIP codes for the most new cases
Breakthrough cases: According to the most recent weekly vaccine report, between Jan. 24-Feb. 21, 48.9% of COVID-19 cases were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 29.5% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 21.6% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 64.2%, 20.1% and 15.6%. The percentages shift to 61.7%, 22.5% and 15.8% for fatalities.
Deaths: 30, 21 of them recent and nine from more than 30 days ago, including two from Santa Fe County: a male in his 40s who had been hospitalized and had underlying conditions; and a female in her 80s who underlying conditions. Santa Fe County has had 247 deaths; there have been 6,903 statewide. Hospitalizations: As of Friday, 304 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 (35 fewer than the day before).
Vaccinations: 91.8% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 78% have completed their primary series; 44% of adults 18 years and older have had a booster shot; 12-17-year-old age group: 70.9% of people have had at least one dose and 60.8% have completed their primary series; Children ages 5-11: 38% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 28.8% have completed their primary; Santa Fe County: 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 86.9% have completed their primary series
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.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
What better way to wait out winter than to start prepping the soil while helping the planet? 350 New Mexico’s speaker series at 6:30 pm tonight, “Growing Climate Solutions in Healthy Soil,” will feature Isabelle Jenniches and Claudia Reynoso of the New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group providing an overview of the principles of soil health; its climate benefits; and how you can get involved. The talk is free; register here.
Oklahoma investigates beloved NM novel
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office is reviewing New Mexico author Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima following obscenity complaints. First published in 1972, the semi-autobiographical story centers on a young boy growing up in 1940s New Mexico and his mentor, the curandera Ultima. Anaya, who died in 2020, received a National Humanities Medal in 2016 and Bless Me Ultima is widely considered one of the most critically acclaimed Chicano novels in history. The novel has been criticized and banned numerous times for a variety of complaints, ranging from its use of profanity to its depiction of religion. In 1981, the Bloomfield School Board near Farmington burned the book. Bless Me Ultima now appears on a list with 51 other books under review by the Oklahoma AG, first reported by the nonprofit journalism organization Frontier. Those books include Forever by Judy Blume; The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; A is for Activist, written and illustrated by Innosanto Nagara; and Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, to name a few. Las Cruces author Denise Chávez tells the Las Cruces Sun News she’s unsurprised to see Bless Me Ultima on the Oklahoma list. “It’s been banned before,” she said. “It’ll be banned in the future.”
Soaking up Taos
In Winter in Taos, Mabel Dodge Luhan writes she found pleasure “in being very still and sensing things.” AFAR magazine has more ambitious recommendations for “things to do in Taos in winter” (nine recommendations, to be exact), and the story’s title appears less an homage to Luhan than a coincidence. As for those recs, some are about what one would expect: winter sports, in the form of skiing, snowshoeing and ice skating. The story also details the pleasures to be found at various hot springs in the area such as Manby/Stagecoach Hot Springs and Black Rock Hot Springs, where, at the latter, temperatures in the mud-bottomed pool hover around 100 degrees and dogs are welcome. For slightly off-the-beaten track ideas, the story endorses a trip to check out the Greater World Earthship Community, which has nightly rentals (and here’s last month’s Washington Post story about Earthships, in case you missed it here the first time around). Last, but not least, the story highlights a hot air balloon journey from a local outfitter, noting that Albuquerque “isn’t the only place where you can hitch a ride in a woven rattan-stick basket.”
Farewell, February
The final day of February will be mostly cloudy with a high near 55 degrees and northwest wind around 10 mph. The National Weather Service forecasts a lamb-like start to March this week, with a slight cool-down and chance for showers next weekend—a lifetime away.
Thanks for reading! The Word thinks perhaps everyone has seen this already, but just in case: Here’s the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York on Saturday Night Live performing “Prayer for Ukraine.”
