Unassisted Memories

“Are you watching this?” The phone call from SFR publisher Andy Dudzik came early in the morning. 

Real Life

 I’d quit my job as a reporter covering state government in Phoenix two weeks before.  The morning of 9.11, a girl I was seeing called to wake me. She said we were under attack.

Distance

A student walked in late to first period and I gave him a hard time about it. “A plane just hit the Pentagon,” he said with a smile and a shrug. “It was cool.” 

West Coast

 Like many aspiring writers, I planned to move to New York after college. When the towers fell, I stayed in California for a few years before eventually trying to make it there.

Math

A high school sophomore, I walked from biology to health class and saw the TV turned on and the towers smoking. One student told me we got bombed, which is what I first thought.

Separated

When I learned about the attacks on the Twin Towers, I was a tenth-grader stationed in Miss Feige’s English class in Westerville North High School in Westerville, Ohio. 

Is Santa Fe Mesh-able?

According to the Mesh, the future of business is sharing - but do we have the goods?

Lisa Gansky describes herself, somewhat improbably, as “a monkey with one trick”: starting companies. Gansky has made a career of spotting potential trends, then molding those ideas into wildly successful business enterprises. And while Gansky herself has thrived in the current economic system—Ofoto, a mobile photo-sharing company she cofounded in 1999 and then sold to Kodak two years later for somwhere under $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, is just one example—her latest venture involves upending that system. In Gansky’s view, a new economic paradigm is emerging with the potential to recast the way we think of buying, selling and creating wealth. She calls it the Mesh, and its premise is as simple as a kindergarten aphorism: We all need to learn to share.

The Margarita Challenge

Bus-ted

For years, local officials used a Texas price agreement to green-light bus purchases. Now they’ve stopped—but the same out-of-state bus company still dominates the market

On July 12, 2011, Lynn Degenhart resigned from his post as a member of the New Mexico Passenger Transportation Association board with a message titled “Ethical Concern.”

Extremely Well-Read and Incredibly Amused

SFR's incomplete and totally biased guide to summer reading

The book chooses the reader. I believe this; however, I also believe that the reader has an obligation to make himself available to the book.

Listen: Years ago, I stopped taking advice on reading material. First, every reader has his own tastes; second, some readers just aren’t very discerning—they’ll read anything; and finally, RIYL only applies to people who want to read books like the ones they’ve read. Moreover, as a literature and creative writing student, I struggled to split my time between the assigned texts and the books that interested me, and the required readings only interested me after they ceased to be assignments. Maybe I’m coming off as contrarian—as someone who just doesn’t like being told what to do—but really, I’m just a slow reader, and I only absorb materials out of personal interest rather than obligation.

Night Lights

SFUAD students illuminate Santa Fe with graphic art

On an unseasonably cold spring night, Santa Fe University of Art and Design students are busy cobbling together all manner of computers, projectors and speakers for a dress rehearsal of this year’s Outdoor Vision Festival—a free, outdoor celebration of interactive video installations.

Homeless in Santa Fe (Part 2)

The continuing saga of Santa Fe's homeless people - in their own words

Who doesn’t make bad choices, whether it’s choosing the brownie for breakfast instead of the banana or picking the life partner who lasts much less than a lifetime?

Shadow Economy

Eight years ago, Santa Fe’s economic development plan was supposed to change the game. What happened?

It’s late afternoon in March, and spring is blooming. Roughly 50 of Santa Fe’s movers and shakers are gathered in a small building that resembles a slick, revamped old church, with bright white walls culminating into a triangular point in the center of the ceiling. Creative Santa Fe, the arts and culture nonprofit whose broad mission is to improve the city’s “creative economy,” is announcing a new direction after seven years of inaction, mostly on the city’s dime.

How to Fund an American Police State

Local police forces are arming themselves - with your money

At the height of the Occupy Wall Street evictions, it seemed as though some diminutive version of “shock and awe” had stumbled from Baghdad, Iraq, to Oakland, Calif. American police forces had been “militarized,” many commentators worried, as though the firepower and callous tactics on display were anomalies, surprises bursting upon us from nowhere.

Party's Over

With its budget slashed and a proposed nuclear facility dead in the water, Los Alamos National Laboratory and local activists look for new direction

On the morning of Feb. 13, Joni Arends, executive director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, was sitting in her downtown Santa Fe office when a flurry of emails suddenly flooded her inbox. President Barack Obama had just released his fiscal year 2013 budget, and it dealt a serious blow to a project against which Arends and others have been campaigning for years. The budget recommended that not a single penny go to construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement nuclear facility, a proposed plutonium pit manufacturing plant at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Rescue Me

Atalaya Search and Rescue, one of only two technical teams in the state, is up for recertification next month; Will Taylor goes along for the ride

 Wispy, cotton-candy clouds move briskly across the mid-February sky. My girlfriend, Thea Hutchinson, and I take turns climbing the mottled brown basaltic rocks of the cliff band just outside of White Rock. Thea gives me a hanging belay—making sure that, if I fall, she can catch me with the other end of the rope from her position 25 feet off the ground—as I climb. The sky doesn’t seem to be falling, but that changes in an instant.

Bullet Points

Some county manager candidates need a résumé refresher

With at least 14.6 million Americans jobless, including more than 5,000 right here in the Santa Fe area, one would think a few more qualified candidates might have put in for a steady gig that pays in the low six figures.

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 or email them to editor@sfreporter.com.

Letters to the Editor

March 31

Tango tangles, Wi-fi-fo-fum, ski master Barney and the end of the world at the hands of cattle.

Letters to the Editor

March 24

Wi-fi, whining and wine. Plus changes at Amavi.

Letters to the Editor

March 17

Local meat is still just meat and the tea party is still just the tea party.

Letters to the Editor

March 10

Mail letters to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe, NM 87504, deliver them to 132 E. Marcy St., fax them to 505-988-5348 or email them to the editor Tea Panarchy Far from being

Letters to the Editor

March 10

Don't drink the tea party's kool-aid and run for your lives if more Wi-Fi comes to Santa Fe.

Letters to the Editor

March 3

Senator Rod Adair opines on the Jackson case and columnist Zane Fischer poses as a punching bag.

Letters to the Editor

Feb. 17

Capitalism versus socialism and Sam Bowles, medical marijuana and the location of Alfredo Vigil's head.

Letters to the Editor

Feb. 10

Everyone weighs in on Sam Bowles and his crazy (or not so crazy) ideas about how to right the listing economy.

School Re-Formed

Common core standards: an answer, or a question?

Behind the push toward a national set of “common core” standards in English and math is the attractive idea that every kid in the nation should be more or less reading, writing and arithmeticking at the same level at the same age.

Crapshoot

Two candidates seek to continue former House Speaker Ben Luján’s powerful legacy—but voters may be the ones who lose

Voters in House District 46, which stretches from Santa Fe up through the northern pueblos to Española and includes parts of White Rock and Chimayó, have grown accustomed to power. Outgoing New Mexico House Speaker Ben Luján, who represented the district for more than 35 years, possessed a legendary ability to control the Legislature and defend northern New Mexico. But by next session, all of this will change.

Under Pressure

Feds say New Mexico Gas Company isn’t ready for another deep freeze

On May 15, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission voted to grant a protest, lodged by a branch of the federal Department of Energy, that questions whether New Mexico Gas Company is adequately prepared for another weather event like last winter’s deep freeze—and whether it could have prevented the major service interruptions that devastated much of the state last year.

No Opponent? No Problem

Legit or not, unopposed candidates are spending just as much campaign money as those who actually have challengers

The campaign to unseat longtime state Sen. Phil Griego, D-Los Alamos, is heating up with allegations that Griego used campaign contributions for illegitimate purposes—NFL tickets, golf, personal credit card bills and new tires for his car. In 2010, Griego didn’t even have an opponent—yet according to challenger (and former Santa Fe County Commissioner) Jack Sullivan, he raked in and then spent tens of thousands of dollars.

Passing the Baton

Santa Fe Community College seeks its next leader

In attempting to fill the vacancy left by outgoing president Sheila Ortego, Santa Fe Community College has narrowed down the field of applicants to six promising candidates—though a closer look at some casts their accomplishments in a different light.

Catch-19?

NM’s decision to review its gun policies has advocates up in arms

He may live in one of the safest counties in one of the safest states in the country, but that doesn’t stop Gary Slider from carrying a handgun with him everywhere he goes. He’s been doing so for the past 35 years.

Big Picture

May 9

On an anti-rape video, file cabinet o'drugs, and NM ghost town.

Under the Wire

Blue Cross Blue Shield pushes for yet another rate hike—its seventh in eight years—before new financial transparency rules kick in

Blue Cross Blue Shield New Mexico may get one last rate hike just under the wire, before new state health insurance transparency rules take effect.

Long Line of Cars? Not Anymore

The Las Conchas fire’s unlikely gift: a public shuttle system at Bandelier

In the aftermath of last summer’s Las Conchas wildfire—the largest in New Mexico history—a wall of black, muddy, log-choked water came roaring down Bandelier National Monument’s Frijoles Canyon. The National Park Service had prepared for the Aug. 21 flood, wrapping the historic visitor center in heavy plastic and erecting concrete barriers to deflect the waters.

Marker Trail

Three markers you (probably) didn’t know were in Santa Fe

I’ve officially lived in Santa Fe for nearly a year now (I’ve been here longer, but I waited nearly two months to get a driver’s license) and I thought I’d done a pretty fair job of sightseeing—Loretto staircase, check; Plaza markets, check; Roundhouse, double-check. So when I decided to start a Santa Fe bucket list, I was surprised at how much I had missed.

Evaluating the Evaluating

Is New Mexico’s teacher evaluation system fair? Joe Teacher investigates

The Big Test was upon us, and during the next three weeks of testing, my special education students felt like complete failures—due to the fact that they were complete failures. They cried. They screamed and threw chairs. They stared at text that may as well have been written in Swedish and conjured up an answer. Many of them bubbled in the same letter each time, or simply rewrote the question in the “extended response” boxes, painstakingly recopying words that held no meaning for them.

Hi, Desert

I thought spring had sprung

I sprawl away my Sunday on the front porch of my housesit in a whisper of a sundress, soaking up the vitamin D, while reading the New York Times. Spring at last; spring at last; thank God almighty, spring at last!!!

Death by Miracle

Bird populations have enough to worry about without poisoned birdseed

I felt no smug satisfaction when reading of a recent federal court case involving The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. In March, the company pled guilty to charges that it had knowingly sold poisoned birdseed.

School Re-Formed

The maybe-not-so-wild-world of Waldorf education

I rapped on a wall to make sure I wasn’t on the set of Little House on the Prairie.

I wasn’t. I’d just entered the world of Waldorf education.

Poisoned Prairie

Federal agencies’ negotiations could affect an entire ecosystem

In a shaky, hand-shot video from 2010, Nimish Vyas of the United States Geological Survey pans across a field in Vernon, Colo. Vyas focuses on a dirt mound and then zooms in on a pale spot atop the dry, tawny grass. The spot twitches, and he zooms closer.

Leave Bad Enough Alone

Accepting mediocrity helps no one

On Feb. 27, the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education summoned its courage and did the right thing: It voted (narrowly, 3-2) to buy out the contract of Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez.

Hi, Desert

Let’s Stay Stupid, Santa Fe!

The VP (Vagina-Penis) Dialogues show is proving to be an existential roller-coaster ride before I even set foot into Warehouse 21 for the It’s on; it’s canceled; it’s back on again multimedia extravaganza. Apparently, the venue—“a hub for youth directed development”—got all freaked out and flighty when an anonymous group of “concerned community members” collectively opined that sex education should be taught in the home. Logistical chaos ensued—or, at least, it tried to.

The Skinny

Hot Off the Press Releases

A eulogy, not obituary ---The big event this week (in my life, anyway) was the death early Friday morning of dear friend Daryn Curtis who finally lost her decade-long battle with cancer.  She

The Personal Is Participatory

How can a broken 5♥5 reimagine itself?

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope captured dramatic images of gas formations in the Eagle Nebula, approximately 7,000 light-years away from Earth. One of these images became known as the “Pillars of Creation”—an awe-inspiring demonstration of star formation, of literal creation in the vastness of the universe.

Youthful Thinking

Santa Fe youths need more than jobs

In 2008, the US elected its first black president. In 2009, as a late-blooming college student, I spent a semester in Chicago and saw firsthand the affective powers of hope. Now, the Barack Obama honeymoon has ended, and yet people still say, “Well, he’s better than McCain.”