Poll: Majority of voters support housing tax
A new poll commissioned by United for Affordable Housing reports 66% of Santa Fe city voters support the proposed 3% real estate excise tax on the Nov. 7 ballot, versus 20% who do not. The tax, if approved by voters, would apply only to properties sold for more than $1 million, on the portion of the home sale exceeding the first million, with proceeds benefiting the Santa Fe Affordable Housing Trust Fund. “This poll shows overwhelming support for the affordable housing measure, from every corner of Santa Fe,” pro-tax UAH Deputy Campaign Manager Natalie Sept tells SFR. Area housing organizations yesterday led a tour of several affordable developments that have benefited from the Housing Trust Fund, such as the New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing’s Siler Yard: Arts + Creativity Center; Homewise’s El Camino Crossing; Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity’s affordable homes in Plaza Bonita; and St. Elizabeth Shelters’ Santa Fe Suites. “Every one of these projects got support from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund,” New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing Executive Director Daniel Werwath said during the tour. “So when you see a realtor flier next week that says this doesn’t build housing units, you can actually now know for sure that that’s an absolute bullshit line, and they are not towing to any form of reality with their campaign around this.” UAH will hold a voter education event on the tax with District 4 City Councilor Jamie Cassutt, who is running for re-election against challenger Joel Nava, at 5:30 pm today at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, and several more throughout the month.
To bee or not to bee
Earlier this month, restaurateur Dagoberto Melara told SFR he had named his new Guadalupe Street eatery Santa Fe Bees in homage to his late former employer, Bumblebee’s Baja Grill creator Bob Weil, who died in July 2021. Now, according to a lawyer for Weil’s widow, not only does Melara’s new restaurant infringe on the Weil family’s branding, Melara and his wife also allegedly stole thousands from the restaurant. Barbara Joanne Weil fell ill after her husband’s death, and only became aware of the alleged embezzlement last year, her lawyer John Day tells SFR. “These were trusted employees for years,” Day says. “It turns out they were robbing them blind. Bob’s widow was in the hospital after he died, and that’s when they made their move.” Melara, identified in Magistrate Court documents as Dagoberto Melara Leon, and his wife Karen Garcia Reveles, each face numerous 4th degree felony charges of embezzlement, as well as tax fraud, unauthorized withdrawal and conspiracy to commit embezzlement, according to criminal complaints filed this month. Day also sent a cease and desist letter to Melara and Garcia Revela’s lawyer, Dan Cron, arguing the new restaurant infringes upon the trademark Weil’s restaurant has used since 2001.
US Rep. Leger Fernández wants drones for fires
US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández this week pushed US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore to use infrared drones for all prescribed burns in New Mexico. In a letter dated Oct. 18, Leger Fernández notes several planned prescribed burns in the area this month—including the previously delayed Rincon prescribed fire scheduled to start today—and references a commitment she says Moore made during hearings last April (Leger Fernández appears around the 41-minute mark) to use infrared drones during prescribed fires. The Forest Service has acknowledged its culpability in the state’s catastrophic 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire, which began as two separate prescribed burns. “The Forest Service has an obligation to rebuild the trust of New Mexican communities devastated by the agency’s past negligence,” Leger Fernández writes. “We cannot have another prescribed fire escape or another pile burn lay dormant for months. I appreciate the use of handheld infrared technology at prescribed burns. However, the handheld technology is insufficient. Firefighters and USFS personnel can use drones to access places that are difficult or impossible to reach on foot. New Mexicans deserve to feel safe in their homes knowing that the Forest Service will use every available technology to make sure the fire is out.” Leger Fernández also asks Moore to respond to a series of questions regarding the use of such drones, including whether infrared drones have “been used at every prescribed burn in New Mexico since the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.”
State nixes MMIW task force
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration has quietly ended a state task force created to find solutions to a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The group hasn’t met since May, a few months after several members publicly opposed Lujan Grisham’s nomination of former San Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. James Mountain to lead the Indian Affairs Department, which housed the task force. The governor’s press secretary, Caroline Sweeney, didn’t answer a question about whether some members’ opposition to Mountain’s appointment factored into ending the task force, but told New Mexico In Depth the group achieved objectives spelled out in an executive order that expired in summer 2022. Sweeney did not explain why the administration continued to fund and convene the group for a year after it had achieved its objectives. Indian Affairs spokesperson Aaron Lopez says via email the agency “understands that members of the task force may wish to continue a dialogue with the department, and we are actively evaluating ways to provide that opportunity.” The agency is also asking state lawmakers to fund four full-time employees to focus on recommendations the task force made, Sweeney and Lopez say. Several lawmakers who acted as the task force’s policy advisors say the group needs to continue. “We’re not where we need to be,” state Sen. Shannon Pinto (Diné), a Democrat from Tohatchi, says.
Listen up
On the most recent episode of Report from Santa Fe, Hugo and Nebula-award-winning author Connie Willis talks to host Lorene Mills about her newest novel, Road to Roswell (included in SFR’s recent fall books issue). Among other topics, Willis and Mills talk about the late science-fiction writer Jack Williamson, who died in 2006 at the age of 98 at his home in Portales (Report from Santa Fe aired a prior show honoring Williamson’s legacy). “We always say in science fiction that he gave us our vocabulary for discussing science fiction,” Willis says. “He invented so many of the concepts that we deal with every day.”
All that’s old is new (again)
The New York Times’ Fine Arts & Exhibits Special Section includes a look at the Museum of New Mexico’s new Vladem Contemporary wing, with an emphasis on the contemporary quality of the building designed by Devendra Contractor. The original New Mexico Museum of Art Pueblo Revival building, the Times writes, “was too much of a good thing…Covered in earthy, brown stucco, and with roof timbers protruding through its exterior walls, the 1917 structure is decorated along doorways, stairs and ceilings with intricately carved wood trim.” That ornate style fit art in the first part of the 20th century—painters like Georgia O’Keeffe, for example—but became less suitable for abstract, conceptual and digital art. Enter the modern Vladem, with its more galleryesque high ceilings and white walls. “Good architecture should just be a stage,” Contractor tells the Times. “Then when human occupation occurs, the building should disappear.” The LED light installation in the museum’s breezeway by Albuquerque native and internationally known light sculptor Leo Villareal, the story notes, “gets at the heart of how the museum wants the public to experience both the inside and outside of the new building,” the story notes, along with the building’s deck, open lobby and classrooms. “The idea is that we would not only be showing contemporary art, but letting the museum also have a kind of social function,” Museum Director Mark White tells says “We want it to be a hub for community activity.”
Fright city
Breaking news: Santa Fe loves Halloween. We start early with the decorations and take advantage of every opportunity to wear a costume or carve a pumpkin. Speaking of which, the Santa Fe Botanical Garden will host a pumpkin-carving contest from 10 am to 2 pm tomorrow (Oct. 21); $5 if you bring your own pumpkin; $10 if you need one. If you require a more challenging Halloween art project, the Santa Fe Public Library from 2 to 4 pm today at the La Farge Branch (1730 Llano St.) will host a “ghostly masterpieces” workshop in which participants “will paint the ghosts that haunt some of the world’s most famous masterworks.” All supplies will be provided, but attendees must be at least 18. Also on the library/Halloween beat, the library’s Booked Solid in Santa Fe blog has a roundup of “witchy reads” available on the library shelves. If pumpkins, ghosts and books feel too low-tech for our AI age, worry not: Los Alamos National Laboratory will host High-Tech Halloween from 4 to 6 pm next Friday, Oct. 27 at the Bradbury Science Museum (1450 Central Ave., Los Alamos), with stem activities described as “both eerie and educational.” Costumes encouraged. Nuckolls Brewing in the Railyard will host an extra-terrestrial themed “Out of this World” party at 3 pm tomorrow, and also encourages costumes—alien costumes, to be precise. Last for now (expect more next week), Sky Railway’s nighttime Fright Train also features costumes, entertainment and Halloween-themed cocktails.
The vagaries of fall
The National Weather Service forecasts a warm, sunny, day, with a high temperature near 79 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. NWS says today’s near record-high temperatures will taper off next week, when cooler and more “unsettled” weather arrives.
Thanks for reading! This weekend, The Word looks forward to reading novelist Karen Russell’s optimistic take on things for Esquire magazine.