The Santa Fe City Council is nearing a final vote on whether or not to adopt a master plan for the city-owned Northwest Quadrant property. The meeting will be packed, contentious and interminably whiny, combining the attributes that have come to typify even non-controversial issues before the council.

Maybe you've heard that the recession is over? If you believe that, I've got a condo in Santa Fe I'm willing to sell for a song. It's powered by methane from the dump.

A so-called manifesto for sustainable cities turns out to be promo for one firm in particular and a far cry from the global vision it claims to espouse.

The City of Santa Fe has such a broadly publicized penchant for social justice that it can apparently afford to occasionally turn in the opposite direction without anyone really noticing. We officially oppose the war in Iraq, don’t allow our cops to roust illegal aliens and will be a bright blue spot on the electoral map until the end of time. So what if we’re touchy about skateboarding on the Plaza and we dole out refunds to short-term rental property overlords?

Last spring my wife Lala somehow fancied herself a gardener and started planting like Johnny Appleseed—if Johnny were a Janey and had taken liberal doses of speed.

So what if sunshine is free--that's not going to stop Public Service Company of New Mexico form selling it to us in the form of electricity. Even if it has to use our own property to generate it in the first place.

In Santa Fe, one has to wonder if there is a Sisyphean curse that demands perpetually grappling with the same tired issues at the expense of true progress. We’d like to dive into alternative energy, public transit and solving affordable housing for real, but we just can’t figure out what to do about vacation rentals and fantasy developments.

There have been points during the last year when Santa Fe was poised to factionalize into parking wars. Especially as paid parking became a reality in the Railyard, it looked like violence was unavoidable. It sounds extreme, but I have it on good authority that a Santa Fe Reporter distribution box was hurled into the street after this column defended paid parking.

After nearly two years of uncertainty about the College of Santa Fe, we woke up on the morning of Thursday, July 30 to a full class schedule and open registration on the CSF website. We also woke up with a 26-year lease deal with Laureate Education, Inc. She’s cute and she’s got some nice assets, but she’s still a stranger. Oh my god, what happened last night? Did I buy you a $30 million drink?

When my wife Lala proposed purchasing a trampoline, I couldn’t help but think like my old man: When she said fresh air, I pictured fresh bone breaks; when she said exercise, I envisioned lacerated exoepidermis. Instead of scoffing at the idea and truly morphing into my dad, I did extensive research, pouring over injury statistics, case studies and hospital records.