Letters to the Editor

Mail letters to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe NM 87504, deliver them to 132 E. Marcy St., fax them to 988-5348, e-mail them to editor@sfreporter.com, or use our online form.

  KEEP PARKS OPEN             

I've spent some of my best evenings in Santa Fe in public parks-playing kickball or tag, having impromptu picnics or simply enjoying the chance to be outside and revel in conversation. In a city infamous among teenagers for having "nothing to do," parks are a consistently good option-they're free, they're beautiful and they involve their patrons in interactions with other members of the community [Zane's World, Aug. 1: "A Walk in the Park"]. And many of them, despite occasional noise complaints and parking issues, are safe. In my five or more years as a "regular" in the Cornell Rose Park and others, I have never once felt that I was in any danger. This is not something I can say about the streets, parking lots or even businesses of Santa Fe.

At the meeting of the city's Public Works Committee on June 23, several councilors expressed confusion in regards to the high turnout of young people. This, we were told, is not a youth issue. It's true that the problems facing parks such as Franklin Miles are not solely caused by teenagers. And it's certainly true that the extreme solution of a blanket curfew will negatively affect many adults as well as children and teens. But for better or for worse, young people in Santa Fe are particularly invested in the opportunities parks provide and I think I can speak for more than myself when I say many, many young people in Santa Fe love and treasure our city's network of parks. To curtail use of such a valued resource in the hopes of solving a problem far more systemic than the availability of parks as a place for violence, or to pass a curfew with the soothing caveat that it will only be enforced for the "bad people" is not only fruitless, but absurd.

  MONEY TALKS              

The July 25 issue's 7 Days feature bemoaned getting more Californians and Texans with new scheduled flights to Santa Fe. Since moving here from Santa Cruz, Calif., last April, this undesirable couple caused the following local damage:

• Generated nearly $80K in commissions for Santa Fe Properties and agents (your advertiser)

• Spent more than $5K at Jackalope (your advertiser)

• Patronized more than 20 local restaurants repeatedly (many are your advertisers)

• Gave more than $10K to Lowes, Home Depot and Big Jo's (your advertiser)

• Currently spent more than $13K with a local landscaping company

• Spent more than $2K at Santa Fe Greenhouses and Agua Fria Nursery (your advertiser)

• Leased space from the Santa Fe Business Incubator to develop local jobs

• Purchased over $5K of equipment and security services from a local audio business

We've spent at least another $20K locally with more than 20 other advertisers in that issue. We use a local hairdresser and need a doctor, dentist and everything else. Plus, we were very welcoming to Santa Feans who visited our tourist town, rode our roller coaster and swam at our beaches.

Do we really deserve to be denigrated? Do your paying advertisers think so?

  MUSIC RESEARCH          

"Jakob Dylan is mystifying. The Wallflowers' lead singer is steadfast about treading his own water without the help of his old man, Bob. Of course, if this were absolutely true he would probably be known as Jakob Zimmerman." [Ruckus, Aug. 1: "Hustlers"]

Do more research. As tempting as it is to use it, it's plain out wrong. Bob Dylan changed his name from Zimmerman to Dylan. Jakob, like all his other siblings, was born Dylan. Not Zimmerman.

  GRABOWSKI DEBATE          

As one of the neighbors on Cloudstone that would be affected by the construction of the Grabowski house [Outtakes, Aug. 1: "The Big Grabowski"], I would like to refocus the issue back to the basics. The EZO, which was created to protect our neighborhoods, includes within it provisions for variances based on a "minimal easing of the rules." The specific conditions and character of the lot-not the lot owner-are to determine whether any variance should be allowed. In fact, the rules specifically state that the granting of a variance cannot be based on the specific needs of a property owner. Whatever variance should be granted to one property owner, should be justifiably granted to any other property owner.

As suggested by the country staff in their report at the very first meeting of EZC, a much smaller house is in order, something on the order of 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. Even this house would require variances, but this was clearly the county staff's position regarding the interpretation of a minimal easing of the rules. The current design would result in one of the most visible projects in the foothills and I cannot understand how this could be considered "minimal."

  NUCLEAR DANGERS              

Thank you for your excellent piece on Los Alamos National Laboratory [Cover story, Aug. 1: "LANL 101"]. So often it seems the personal cost to local residents is the last thing acknowledged about communities living near weapons facilities. I grew up in Denver in the '50s and '60s, downwind from Rocky Flats. As well as exposure to plutonium from the fire in 1957 (the year I was born), an even more disastrous ongoing leakage (1958-1968) from a storage drum contaminated surrounding soil and eventually moved off site via a wind event.

That movement was not monitored at Area 903, but contamination was detected in soil and air samples collected at downwind sites. One particle of plutonium, if breathed or otherwise ingested, can cause cancer. Ongoing exposure to these events during the '50s and '60s may very well have contributed to a high incidence of cancer in our family. My big sister, age 49, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer last year. Another sister of mine died of cancer at age 48. Both of my parents have been diagnosed with cancer. Oddly enough, our Omaha, Neb., cousins (my father's brother married my mother's sister) with similar gene pool and age ranges have zero incidence of cancer in their family. It's not rocket science to consider that exposure to some cancer-causing agent might have happened to my family in Colorado.

An obvious concern of mine is that the disaster and mismanagement documented at Rocky Flats is also happening, or will happen, at LANL. I propose that, at minimum, LANL's mission be redirected to cleanup and, beyond that, forward-thinking sustainable industries focusing on renewable energy should be adopted.

In closing, it is painfully obvious to me, because of my family's tragic legacy of exposure to the toxins from weapons produced at Rocky Flats, that nuclear weapons are essentially a scourge on people living nearby and not generally in the best interest of the living, breathing citizens of New Mexico.

The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Please include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published.

Santa Fe Reporter