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Council takes up Pecos Trail rezoning
At its meeting tonight, the Santa Fe City Council will tackle a contentious proposal to rezone property on Old Pecos Trail in order to approve a new subdivision. According to the massive packet on the development (if it doesn’t load, try viewing it here instead), the council will need to both approve the rezoning of approximately 9.59 acres—as recommended by the Planning Commission last summer—and approve or deny the 25-lot subdivision. The city’s planning department also has recommended approval of applicant Pierre Amestoy’s proposal, and says the property’s R-1 zoning is “mismatched” to the city’s General PlanFuture Land Use Map, and rezoning to R-3 would “correct that mismatch.” (Last month, the city announced it was undertaking a multi-year, multi-phase revamp of its land-use code. ) Multiple petitions opposing the development cite a variety of concerns, from traffic to the potential conflict with Old Pecos Trail’s designation as a scenic corridor. Senior City Planner Daniel Esquibel, however, says no criteria for that designation have ever been codified. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, longtime nearby resident Bruce Throne, a former lawyer, has requested to cross-examine witnesses at tonight’s hearing, and for others to cede their two-minutes of public comment time to him in order to do so. New rules bar both practices, which critics say is stifles public comment. The meeting starts at 5 pm and can be viewed on the city’s YouTube page.
Guv appoints new finance head
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham yesterday named Public Regulation Commission Chief of Staff Wayne Propst as the next cabinet secretary for the state Department of Finance. Propst will assume the $169,000 position in January following Secretary Deborah Romero’s retirement. Propst—who is married to Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst (and is the governor’s second spousal appointment this month)—will become DFA’s head as the state awaits an influx of nearly $3.6 billion in new revenue for the fiscal year starting in July 2023. That new money, the Albuquerque Journal reports, could lead to another round of tax rebates. “It is an honor to join the governor’s administration at a truly historic and optimistic time for New Mexico,” Propst said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the Legislature, agency colleagues and others to make smart, fiscally responsible investments in New Mexico’s future.” The governor said in a statement she looks forward to working with Propst again; he served as director of the Office of Policy and Multicultural Health during Lujan Grisham’s tenure, circa 2004, as the state’s health secretary. He also spent close to a decade as executive director of the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico; served as executive director of the New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority; and as a principal analyst for the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Eastern New Mexico University and is a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Bah, humbug
‘Tis the season for farolitos, biscochitos and, according to the FBI, a bevy of online scams the likes of which reinforce philosopher Thomas Hobbs’ view of humanity. “Scams take many forms, and criminals every year try to think up new ways to steal your money,” Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda of the Albuquerque FBI Division said in a statement. “But one thing stays the same: If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. You can protect yourself from most scams by being suspicious of unsolicited emails and making sure you secure your banking and credit accounts with strong passwords.” While scams may take many forms, the FBI highlights one in particular: “Pig butchering.” No, this is not a matanza-related scam. In the vernacular of online scams, “pig butchering” refers to “a fraud that is heavily scripted and contact intensive” (aka one that fattens up the prey). In this case, one that merges romance and crypto currency. To wit: The scammer makes contact with a victim—usually on a dating and/or social media app—builds trust and rapport and then convinces the victim to invest in cryptocurrency, using websites the scammer controls. Another scam involves usually elderly victims who are told their financial accounts have been compromised and are given bogus links to transfer funds; New Mexico law enforcement agencies say they are seeking an uptick in the latter. Read more about these scams and the ways to avoid them here. Watch Miracle on 34th Street here.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Dec. 13: New cases: 442; 653,719 total cases. According to the most recent report on geographic trends for the week of Dec. 5-11, the state had a nearly 21% decrease in reported cases compared to the prior week. Deaths: three; Santa Fe County has had 375 total deaths; 8,749; total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 211. Patients on ventilators: eight.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Dec. 8 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, shows eight counties categorized as “orange”—high risk—for COVID-19, versus three last week. They are: Cibola, Guadalupe, McKinley, Otero, San Juan, San Miguel, Torrance and Valencia. Santa Fe County remains “green,” classified as lower risk. Twelve counties are “yellow,” with medium risk. 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. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
US Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, will deliver remarks at 11 am MT today at the White House Electrification Summit. Hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Climate Policy Office and Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation, the summit will focus on electrification opportunities in the wake of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Heinrich, founder and co-chair of the first-ever bicameral Electrification Caucus, will discuss how electrification can help the US meet its “climate and equity goals, while lowering costs, creating jobs, and improving air quality.” Watch the livestream here.
Agnes Martin’s complicated life
Author Darcey Steinke’s essay on painter Agnes Martin begins primarily focused on Martin’s painting “Friendship,” which Steinke viewed “on a cold day deep in the pandemic” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting’s grid provides Steinke a vehicle through which to consider Martin’s technique—sgraffito—”scratching into the barely dry gold paint to expose the red paint underneath”; her complicated relationship with other people; and Martin’s affinity with (among other topics): Gertrude Stein, reality and gender performativity. Eventually, Steinke finds her way to the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, where she considers a series of Martin’s paintings from the 1990s: “The seven paintings, horizontal stripes in white and pale blue, activate one after another. Their surfaces opening, flooding with subtle light.” Yet they don’t have the same impact on Steinke as Martin’s New York grids had. She sends a photo to Los Angeles–based painter Kevin Appel, who tells her Martin’s New York paintings were more laborious: “In New Mexico she freed herself from labor.” The full essay, “Touching the Void,” appears in Agnes Martin: Independence of Mind, published in October by Santa Fe-based Radius Books. Read an excerpt recently published by LitHub here.
Safe travels
Little in life is certain, but we’ll go ahead and presume New Mexico will remain a popular travel destination in the new year. Despite the “floods and fires” referenced by the New York Times recently as challenges to the state’s tourism economy, New Mexico does not appear on Fodor’s “No List” for 2023—a list of locales in need of environmental/cultural breaks from visitors—but does make Forbes’ roundup of spots for “responsible travel.” Specifically, Forbes highlights New Mexico travel company Heritage Inspirations, whose CEO Angelisa Murray has trips planned next year for Chaco Canyon and the Taos wilderness for stargazing: “She and her guests will be in the canyon for archeoastronomy during the spring and autumn equinox and new moon, and glamping in the Taos wilderness during the Perseid meteor showers and new moon in August,” Forbes notes. These trips reflect Murray’s dedication to taking visitors “to see the state at its most genuine and also its most sublime.” If that sounds too aspirational, worry not: Forbes also includes New Mexico—Albuquerque in this case—on its list of travel destinations for people who like to visit places where their favorite TV shows and movies were filmed, aka partake in “screen tourism.” And, yes, in the case of Albuquerque, that means a Breaking Bad tour.
Brrr
Winter may be officially a week away, but it sure feels like it’s already arrived. According to the National Weather Service, today will be sunny, with a high temperature near 35 degrees and northwest wind around 15 mph.
Thanks for reading! The Word knows better than to judge a book by its cover, although some of LitHub’s best book covers of 2022 also look like interesting reads.
