NM delegation boycotts Israel PM speech
All five members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation’s boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress yesterday. “While I am committed to standing with the people of Israel, its right to security following the heinous Oct. 7 attack, and securing the release of remaining hostages the Prime Minister has been divisive and undermined efforts to end this conflict,” US Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-NM, says in a statement released on Twitter. US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-NM, also released a statement prior to Netanyahu’s address that she would not be attending. “Instead of attending his speech today, I will begin my day by meeting with families of hostages—families Netanyahu refused to meet with. I’ll then meet with Israelis and Palestinians focused on fostering peace in the region, forging a path toward a two-state solution, and bringing all Israeli hostages home,” she said. “I have heard from countless constituents who have asked me to send a message to Prime Minister Netanyahu. My decision not to attend today sends a strong message that enough is enough—it’s time for Netanyahu to stop his indiscriminate war on Gaza and work toward peace,”
Report: Increases in NM home prices, unhoused residents
New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority officials yesterday reported on the findings from its most recent housing needs assessment. Some of the report’s key findings include the state’s poverty rate, which is 18.3%, and higher than the national average of 12.5%, along with its median household income of $58,722, which is lower than the national median household income of $75,149. Its homeownership rate, however, of 79.9% is higher than the national average as well: 64.8%. Statewide, between 2018 to 2022, the median home sale price increased 53% (from $200,000 to $306,000); with a current median price of $353,000—a 9.2% jump from last year. Nearly 44% of renters and 28.4% of homeowners are cost-burdened (aka pay more than 30% of their income for housing costs), and the number of unhoused individuals increased by 50% from 2022 to 2023. “The housing needs assessment findings provide us with a reality of what the affordable housing necessities are in our state,” New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority Executive Director/CEO Isidoro Hernandez says in a statement. “Along with our partners, we have assisted over 500,000 families across the housing spectrum for close to 50 years. By signing House Bill 2 earlier this year, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham appropriated $50 million to support the New Mexico Housing Trust Fund. This funding allows us to continue our pursuit to do even more to help New Mexicans get into safe, affordable homes.” The MFA Board at its May and June meetings approved allocation of those funds, along with $34.6 in 2024 severance tax funding for various housing projects.
Hungry for community
Southside advocates hope to see movement on a proposal to create civic plazas and sit-down areas to help foster the area’s vibrant food truck ecosystem. “What we’re looking to do is talk to food truck owners and operators, survey commercial business interest, survey customers and talk to the landowners,” Earth Care Co-Director Miguel Acosta, whose organization focuses on community development, tells SFR. “We want input from our stakeholders, and we can also use it as an opportunity to increase the local conversation around community economic development.” Acosta says the team hired a local surveyor to do a preliminary analysis to study the idea with the help of a portion of a $35,000 McCune Charitable Foundation grant. District 4 Councilor Jamie Cassutt tells SFR she’s been working on an update to the 2015 food truck ordinance and code for a couple of years—efforts that started after she heard from constituents about the lack of tables and chairs—but there’s still work to be done.”Something that we’re very interested in as we look at opportunities for dynamism in different parts of the city is where we might be able to bring in food trucks to a specific area where we can have communities enjoy it,” Cassutt says.
Opposing pits
Anti-nuclear activists turned out in force earlier this week to argue against plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration held a “town hall” July 22 to provide information and take comments and questions about the DOE’s ongoing project to supplement the nation’s pre-existing stock of plutonium pits (a key component of nuclear weapons) with at least 80 per year beginning in fiscal year 2026, with 30 per year produced at LANL and the remaining 50 at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby told attendees the US is prioritizing increased plutonium pit production to “deter” the world’s other nuclear powers, namely Russia and China, as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine and China is projected to have 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035. “We do not want an arms race, this administration doesn’t want an arms race, the NNSA doesn’t want an arms race. We’re trying to exercise leadership and transparency, but we also can’t sit on our hands,” Hruby said. Attendees overwhelmingly objected to the plan, with some referencing the uncompensated downwinders who have suffered generations of cancers as a result of the 1945 Trinity Test here. “I have no trust in what you’re telling me because you have not earned my trust,” attendee Meredith Maines said. “You have not cleaned up the damage that has already been done, so if you’re planning more, how can we believe your plan?”
Listen Up
As we write this, our cat is lying on a filing cabinet staring into space. When we get into the office, two more cats will await, also lying on filing cabinets and staring into space. For those ambitious feline owners who want their cats to do more than sleep, stare and occasionally attack invisible foes, be sure to listen to the most recent episode of Pet Chat. Hosts Española Humane Director of Community Engagement Murad Kirdar and Bobbi Heller, executive director of Felines & Friends New Mexico, talk with guest Molly DeVoss, a certified feline behaviorist, who previews her upcoming “Cat Clicker Training” class, and also shares her recommendations for litter and toys in a live broadcast from The Turquoise Teapot and Cat Cafe. Pet Chat 9 am on Saturdays and 3 pm on Sundays 1260 KTRC and FM 103.7, and online SantaFe.com. Email the hosts at petchat@santafe.com
Side by side
Brooklyn-based arts writer and essayist Vittoria Benzine writes about SITE Santa Fe’s newest exhibition Teresita Fernández / Robert Smithson (through Oct. 28) for London-based FAD magazine, characterizing the show as the first to place Smithson’s work “in conversation” with a contemporary artist. “A satisfying symmetry asserts itself straight away,” Benzone writes. “Two sculptures, one by each artist, anchor that first room—side by side, each with a wall-mounted piece behind it. Small works on paper and panel by both ring the walls surrounding the other’s sculptures. Smithson’s ‘Road to Crater’ (1969)—a map he drew as an early proposal for an unrealized earth work at a malachite mine—hangs feet from Fernández’s ‘Viñales (Reclining Nude)’ (2015). Its angular arrangement of Wakkusu concrete, bronze, and malachite sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo compares Cuba’s verdant Viñales Valley UNESCO site with the luxuriating feminine form.” Benzine also talks with Lisa Lefeuvre, executive director of the Santa Fe-based Holt/Smithson Foundation, who co-curated the show with Fernandez: “Both artists were really interested in the way the movement of capital and materials is so fundamental,” Lefeuvre tells Benzine. “What does it mean to get malachite from the Democratic Republic of Congo? What does it mean for Smithson to work with this material 50 years before?”
And—action!
The New Mexico Film Office this week announced the itinerary for its Sept. 7 New Mexico Film and Television Summit, which will be held in Albuquerque at the The Clyde Hotel. The one-day summit includes sessions on topics such as navigating film incentives, entering the film industry, New Mexico’s particular features for filming and working here and so-called “life lessons” from pros, during which attendees will hear advice from “below-the-line experts, from production and art designers to camera professionals, who have made working in the New Mexico market a rewarding career.” In a statement, Economic Development Acting Secretary Mark Roper described the forthcoming summit as “a unique opportunity to learn from industry experts about our state’s burgeoning film industry and why productions choose New Mexico year after year. With nearly $1 billion in economic output per year in our state, the film industry in New Mexico is big business. We are excited to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones, welcoming and fostering growth in this talented community.” State Film Office Director Amber Dodson will be leaving her position Aug. 2, the office announced recently; Deputy Director Carrie Wells is serving as interim director until a permanent hire has been made.
As Roper notes, the office earlier this month reported the state’s film tax credit is generating an average of $1 billion in economic output annually.
Haze (not) over
The National Weather Service forecasts a 30% chance for precipitation today, with scattered showers and thunderstorms after 3 pm, along with widespread haze (from wildfire smoke in Canada and Northwestern US), increasing clouds and a high temperature near 89 degrees.
Thanks for reading! The Word is learning about poison books and wondering if she has any laying about.