COVID-19 by the numbers
Over the weekend, New Mexico health officials reported 471 new COVID-19 cases: 288 on Saturday and 183 on Sunday. Santa Fe County had 17 new cases—12 on Saturday and five on Sunday. There have now been 186,922 total cases, with 156,554 designated as recovered by the health department.
The state also announced 22 more deaths: 10 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday, bringing the total number of fatalities thus far to 3,808. As of yesterday, 169 people were hospitalized with COVID-19.
You can read all of SFR's COVID-19 coverage here. If you've had experiences with COVID-19, we would like to hear from you.
Webber wants a second term
Over the weekend, Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber ended speculation regarding November's mayoral election and said he's running again, describing the job as the "greatest professional honor" of his life in an op-ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican. Acknowledging the "heavy cloud" of the COVID-19 pandemic, Webber said the city had met its challenges "head on," characterizing the $17.2 CARES Act funds the city received from the state as acknowledgement of the "outstanding job city workers did to respond to the pandemic." He said the work ahead will focus on affordable housing, jobs and sustainability. "Coming out of COVID-19, we're ready for better times," Webber wrote. "Key crime rates are down. We're addressing our housing shortage: In spite of the pandemic, our land-use team issued permits for almost 1,000 new units and we put $1.4 million into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. We're building our city at the same time that we protect our quality of life." In an interview, Webber said he wished he had addressed controversies over public monuments earlier. "I think we would be further along, and I think the obelisk wouldn't have been torn down the way it was," he said. As of now, no other candidates have jumped into the mayor's race, although City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler remains a rumored contender.
Clock ticking on cannabis
Lawmakers are scheduled tomorrow to hold a second hearing on a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana, as the session creeps toward its March 20 end date. The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee had originally been slated to consider a consolidated version of four separate bills over the weekend, but the bills' sponsors needed more time to work on finding consensus between their bills, according to Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe. While sufficient time remains to pass a bill, procedural missteps could also stall efforts once again. House Bill 12 likely has the best shot, as it has already cleared the House. If a different proposal moves through the Senate, it would then have to be heard by House committees before a House vote—a longer shot, Wirth says. Still, Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, one of HB12's sponsors, sounded optimistic at the end of last week. "We are always cognizant of the clock running," Romero said. "Every session is always a race to the very end to get these meaningful pieces of legislation through. Many, many folks are on board with getting this done this year, and it's time for New Mexico."
Food for Love raises more than $800,000
The online musical event benefiting New Mexico's food banks raised $862,000—and it's still not too late to contribute. The Food for Love concert streamed for 48 hours starting Feb. 13, featuring numerous New Mexico and national musicians, including David Byrne, Jackson Browne and Shawn Colvin, along with special appearances by various public officials and celebrities. "New Mexico food banks are grateful for the generous help provided by people from our home state, those from other parts of the US, and people from as far away as Europe and Australia," New Mexico Association of Food Banks Chairwoman Sherry Hooper, executive director of The Food Depot, said in a Friday news release. "Not only did the Food for Love benefit concert raise enough funds to provide more than 3.4 million meals for New Mexicans in need, it called attention to the severity of hunger in New Mexico." Food for Love proceeds will be distributed to all five of New Mexico's food banks: The Food Depot in Santa Fe; Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque and Las Cruces; the Community Pantry in Gallup; the Echo Food Bank in Farmington; and the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico in Clovis. One in three New Mexico children and one in five adults faces food insecurity in New Mexico, a situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone who would like to help still can by donating to Food for Love here.
Listen up
In the first of a two-part series on Santa Fe's affordable housing crisis, writer Leah Cantor delves into the creation of the inclusionary zoning law that brought the city into the national spotlight as a leader in affordable housing 30 years ago, as well as who ended up benefiting and who didn't. Cantor also discusses her story—created in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network—on Episode 11 of the fourth season of SFR's Reported podcast. Look for Cantor's second installment on potential solutions to Santa Fe's housing crisis in this Wednesday's paper.
Creature feature
Artist Sayaka Ganz grew up with the Shinto animist beliefs "that all things in the world have spirits," she writes in her artist's statement. So when she sees discarded items, either on the street or in a thrift store, she feels "a deep sadness for them and I am moved to make these abandoned objects happy." The result: "Reclaimed Creations," an exhibit in which Ganz transforms common household items such as spatulas, spoons and plastic hangers into sculptures depicting animals. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science exhibited the show in 2020 and has now transformed it into a virtual experience that includes extra content, such as interviews with Ganz and music inspired by her art. Ganz classifies her work as "three-dimensional impressionism" and says she believes "the best way for artists to help reduce waste is to show how beautiful these materials can be, and what can be done with these mundane objects and materials. When we think of these things as beautiful, we value them."
The pink horse rides again
New York Times crime-novel columnist Sarah Weinman occasionally revisits older novels, as was the case on Friday when she took a look back at Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes (later made into a film with the same title). Originally published in 1946, Hughes' novel is set in Santa Fe, specifically during Fiesta and even more specifically during Zozobra. Sailor is intent on revenge against his crooked politician boss, but there's yet a third man following them both through the streets of Santa Fe. "Hughes juggled this pas de trois with an increasing sense of dread," Weinman writes, in "contrast to her clear, abundant love for the city she called home for many years."
Spring sprinkles?
According to the National Weather Service, we have a "slight chance of sprinkles" between 8 and 11am today. Otherwise, it will be mostly cloudy and then gradually become sunny with a high near 65 degrees and east wind 5 to 15 mph becoming west in the morning.
Thanks for reading! The Word doesn't understand why reading (or watching) other people declutter is interesting, but it is (at least to her, at least when Ann Patchett writes about it).
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong name for the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee.
