SFAR sues to stop housing tax
The Santa Fe Association of Realtors, at the end of the day on Thursday, Oct. 12, filed a lawsuit against the City of Santa Fe in an attempt to stop the ballot measure proposing a 3% excise tax on high-end real estate appearing on the Nov. 7 ballot. The tax would apply to sales over $1 million on the portion of the home sale exceeding the first million, with proceeds benefiting the Santa Fe Affordable Housing Trust Fund. SFAR, which also opposed a comparable measure in 2009, rejected by voters, argues in its filing in the First Judicial District Court on behalf of itself and two residents that the proposed ordinance violates state law as it relates to the city’s taxation authority. In an Oct. 6 memo evaluating the legality of all the Nov. 7 city ballot measures, City Attorney Erin McSherry calls the position that the city lacks authority to impose an excise tax “misleading and false” given prior opinions and laws from the state Supreme Court and Legislature respectively regarding home rule municipalities such as the City Santa Fe. McSherry further details differences, legal and otherwise, between property and excise taxes. United for Affordable Housing Chair and State Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, called the lawsuit, filed shortly after early voting began on Oct. 10, a “a shameless, last-ditch effort by the Realtors Association to try to deny Santa Fe voters a voice on affordable housing. The realtors know that the public overwhelmingly supports this measure. They have had months, including a lengthy city council debate, to lodge a complaint. To try to deny voters their voice after voting has already begun is cynical and anti-democratic.”
Both the pro-and anti-excise tax PACS, UAHC and the SFAR-supported political action committee Santa Fe Opportunity Partnership, filed their latest campaign finance reports last week, with UAHC’s report showing close to $68,000 raised, with approximately $14,000 in individual contributions and a $35,000 contribution at the start of the month from affordable housing and developer nonprofit Homewise. The SFAR PAC had raised $50,000, all contributed by the New Mexico Association of Realtors.
Oñate suspect remains behind bars
Accused shooter Ryan Martinez will remain in jail, First Judicial District Judge Jason Lidyard ruled Friday in a hearing at the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse in Rio Arriba County. Martinez, 23, faces charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault for the Sept. 28 shooting in Española during a rally by Indigenous groups at the Rio Arriba County Complex where officials had planned to erect a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. “Although there is a right to bear arms, Mr. Martinez arrived at the scene and engaged in activity that day that those around him would describe as aggressive,” Lidyard said, adding later, “It’s concerning behavior to say the least. It is certainly violent in its nature and the circumstances seem to have been created by Mr. Martinez.” First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies tells SFR her office plans to next file a hate-crime enhancement in the case, which activists and supporters called for last week. Shooting victim, climate activist and artist Jacob Johns (Hopi and Akimel O’odham) remains hospitalized. University of New Mexico physician Dr. Daniel Sarraf testified Friday Johns sustained level-one trauma injuries, and Johns’ mother Laverne McGrath told reporters before the hearing her son remains in “excruciating pain,” and noted: “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
Feds reject NM’s hydrogen proposal
On Friday, President Joe Biden and Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced the recipients for $7 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to “accelerate the domestic market for low-cost, clean hydrogen.” The Western Interstate Hydrogen Hub LLC—developed last year between New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, did not receive funding for its proposal. In a statement, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham described herself and the state’s various partners in the endeavor as “disappointed” but “undeterred.” The governor said she had spoken “with every project partner this morning and we agree: our bullish outlook has not changed and we will continue to move forward.” One of those partners, Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said in a statement the company—which has been involved in protracted litigation over a proposed merger with Public Service Company of New Mexico—remained “committed to developing these critical green hydrogen projects in New Mexico to advance the region’s clean energy transition…New Mexicans deserve the many benefits clean hydrogen projects will bring, and the Avangrid team is dedicated to using our experience in renewables to bring them to fruition.”
Lujan Grisham, who has faced criticism from environmental groups and others for both her pro-hydrogen stance and her vetoes during the last legislative session of climate-change measures, on Friday announced the creation of the New Mexico Climate Investment Center to issue low-interest loans to local projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “These investments will make a difference on the ground in communities around the state,” the governor said in a statement. “Climate action must be inclusive of all New Mexicans, and I am looking forward to seeing communities empowered through the Climate Investment Center. According to a news release, the center, whose nonprofit status is pending, will operate through the Santa Fe Community Foundation and use federal dollars through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
La Bajada drivers: Watch out!
As anyone in Santa Fe with the unfortunate need to drive to Albuquerque since the state Transportation Department’s La Bajada reconstruction project began last year can attest: Drivers be crazy. As such, the State Police announced on Friday that in response to an uptick in “motor vehicle crashes, aggressive and distracted drivers, and other unsafe driving conditions” along the construction route, New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler has ordered additional officers to patrol the area. “The New Mexico State Police have worked closely with the New Mexico Department of Transportation since the beginning of the construction project on La Bajada Hill to create the safest conditions possible,” Chief Weisler said in a statement. “It has become evident in recent months that our strategy needs to evolve. The safety of the NMDOT and construction workers, the motoring public, and those traveling through our beautiful state are a top priority for the New Mexico State Police.” According to a news release, the traffic operation “will focus on stopping and issuing citations to drivers who continue to drive above the posted speed limit, drive aggressively, drive distracted, follow too closely and any other dangerous driving behaviors observed by officers.”
Listen up
In advance of an Oct. 14 “fireside chat” spearheaded by US Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, on Artificial Intelligence and the creative economy, this writer—who moderated the chat—asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT (the free version) to characterize some of the threats it posed to the creative economy. It responded quickly and with detail: “One of the potential threats that some experts have highlighted is the concern that AI like ChatGPT might reduce the demand for human-generated creative content,” ChatGPT said, before enumerating additional threats related to copyright, job displacement and quality control. Heinrich and fellow panelists writer George RR Martin and University of New Mexico Computer Science Professor Melanie Moses, an external faculty member at Santa Fe Institute, iterated similar concerns during the panel discussion. Martin is among 17 writers who have joined a proposed class-action lawsuit over ChatGPT, filed by the New York-based Authors Guild, which accuses OpenAI’s program of “flagrant and harmful” copyright infringement.
How to Santa Fe
Condé Nast Traveler rounds up the 12 “best things to do” here in Santa Fe, which it describes as “a sampling of the best classics and newcomers in the City Different for all the art, tradition and spicy cuisine you can handle.” Those new and classic suggestions include visits to the Santa Fe Farmers Market and Randall Davey Audubon Center and Sanctuary (classics), along with a trip to Canyon Road for gallery hopping. The latter pro forma suggestion lands on the “new” list by specifically recommending a visit to 4Kinship, a 2022 addition to Canyon Road, owned by Amy Denet Deal (Diné), where Denet, who once worked in fashion, stocks “New Mexican indigenous pieces, colorful up-cycled fashion, vintage denim, Kiyani’s eco-friendly soaps and washable blankets courtesy of Thunder Voice Hat Company,” among other items. The story also suggests a trip to Canyon Road’s “smaller, hipper alternative”: Lena Street, where one can peruse and partake at Teresa Robinson and Eric Mindling’s shop Living Threads; ceramicist Kimmy Rorhs’ Whiskey + Clay; Japanese eatery Ozu; and one of our weekly haunts (do not sleep on the green chile focaccia): Jacob Brenner and Mayme Berman’s Bread Shop. The newest addition to Guadalupe Street, Museum of New Mexico’s Vladem Contemporary, also makes the list as a “key addition to what’s quickly being hailed as Santa Fe’s premiere arts district.”
The afterglow
NPR talks with “eclipse chaser” David Baron, author of American Eclipse, who left his home in Colorado over the weekend to watch the annular eclipse from Farmington, New Mexico. “I’m at a very remote overlook over some beautiful badlands,” Baron told host Scott Detrow. “There are eroded cliffs striped purple and gray and beige. And one of the wonderful things was to see the colors change as the moon moved in front of the sun, and the landscape dimmed and dimmed and dimmed. The colors really got deeper. And it was like the contrast of the colors also was heightened. So that was something to watch. It got colder. I would say the temperature dropped a good 10 or 15 degrees.” The New York Times also included various dispatches from New Mexico in its coverage, including a dispatch from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and the University of New Mexico campus, from which Penn State engineering students as part of a NASA program launched a balloon to livestream the eclipse (all the participating teams’ livestream links can be found here and NASA’s official broadcast also includes live coverage from Albuquerque.) The Times also reported live from Chaco Culture National Historical Park. There, “the normally blaring desert light grew gentle. The birds flitting in a thicket of golden rabbitbrush fell silent, and a chill breeze swept over the sandstone cliffs.” Chaco Canyon, the story notes, “whose ancient inhabitants were known for their astronomical knowledge,” drew “hardcore eclipse photography enthusiasts” and at its largest ruin, Pueblo Bonito, “phalanxes of tripods with expensive camera equipment lined the plaza where people once ground corn and traded turquoise.” Of course, amazing shots from here and elsewhere proliferated over the weekend.
A perfect fall day
The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day, with a high temperature near 69 degrees and east wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon.
Thanks for reading! The Word loves October, the month and the poem by Nobel Prize-winning poet Louise Glück, RIP.