Accusations Mount in Santa Fe City Elections

Accusations mount in city elections

The mostly genial City Council District 2 campaign trail grew heated this week as challenger Phil Lucero released a campaign email and video criticizing opponent and incumbent Michael Garcia’s voting record. Lucero cites 23 times Garcia abstained from voting and says abstentions “slow things down” and that the city needs “a leader who isn’t afraid to take a stand, let constituents know where they stand, and move things forward with urgency.” Garcia, in turn, tells SFR all his abstentions took place during committee meetings and that Lucero’s comments reveal he “does not understand the governing body process…an abstention is absolutely a tool to be used as we are considering legislation as we make our way through the committee process. That is where the sausage is made,” Garcia says. Meanwhile, District 1 Councilor Sig Lindell, who is not up for re-election, has taken issue with one of Garcia’s mailers that claims he “successfully increased the budget for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to $3 million for three years straight.” The statement misrepresents the facts, Lindell says: “The mayor along with the city manager make up the budget that is presented to council. I do not see that Councilor Garcia had the opportunity or the ability to have moved $3 million from our general fund into the budget that’s presented to council. That seems highly unlikely.”

Mailers and texts from the Santa Fe Realtors Association’s political action committee Santa Fe Housing Opportunity Partnership opposing a ballot measure that would create a 3% excise tax on high-end real estate also drew ire this week. The United for Affordable Housing PAC has a series of voter education events set up this month, one of which took place last night and at which attendees discussed the mailers. UAH also recently sent out a “voter alert” email refuting the realtors’ claims and warning voters to “watch out for misinformation.”

State touts record-breaking tourism spending

The state tourism department yesterday highlighted tourism spending’s impact on New Mexico’s economy, noting data in a new study that shows a record $8.3 billion in direct visitor spending from tourism in 2022, surpassing the previous record from 2019 of $7.4 billion. Of the spending, 32% went to lodging—$2.7 billion, a 13% percent increase from 2019. Visitors spent $1.9 billion on food and beverage. “New Mexico’s record-breaking tourism success in 2022 is a testament to the incredible allure of our diverse landscapes, vibrant culture and warm hospitality,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “The numbers bear out what New Mexicans already know: There is truly no place in the world like our beautiful state.” Officials estimate visitor spending sustained an 70,433 jobs, an increase of more than 7,000 jobs from the year prior. A news release notes that visitor spending generated $782 million in state and local taxes in 2022, representing a 10% increase from the year prior, purportedly offsetting New Mexicans’ tax burdens by $981 per household. “The news of New Mexico’s record visitor spending in 2022 further demonstrates the resilience of tourism and its potential as a tool for economic diversification,” Acting Tourism Secretary Lancing Adams said in a statement. “As a state, we must continue to include tourism in strategies for economic development, workforce training, and infrastructure investments so New Mexico can continue to prosper.”

Forest Service cancels burn near Santa Fe

The Santa Fe National Forest announced yesterday it has canceled the North Aztec Springs prescribed fire that had been scheduled for this month. “After careful evaluation of weather patterns and fuel moisture, fire management personnel determined conditions did not meet the required criteria outlined in the prescribed fire plan,” a news release notes. The burn area is located at the northwest corner of the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed adjacent to Hyde Park Estates, Paseo Segundo, High Summit, Los Cerros Colorados, Cerro Gordo and Upper Canyon. “We appreciate community members expressing comments at a recent public meeting. Fire managers will consider a later date in 2024 when conditions are more favorable for implementation of the prescribed fire project,” the Forest Service says. The agency, earlier this month, had said it intended to burn the 650-acre area mid-month; the unit is located north of the the 350-acre South Aztec Springs unit burned in the fall of 2021. The agency, however, also noted it is following protocols from the National Prescribed Fire Program Review, which Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced last year. Those protocols followed a 90-day moratorium on prescribed burn in response to the Forest Service-caused catastrophic Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon wildfire.

Virgin Galactic announces new research flight

Virgin Galactic will open a flight window for its next research trip on Nov. 2, the company announced yesterday. The crew will include Alan Stern, a US planetary scientist and associate vice president in Southwest Research Institute’s space sector; Kellie Gerardi, a US payload specialist and bioastronautics researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences; and a private astronaut of Franco-Italian nationality who was not identified by name in the company’s news release. “The pursuit of scientific discovery has driven Virgin Galactic from the beginning, and we’re thrilled to offer a wide breadth of high-quality and reliable access to space-based research,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement. “Galactic 05 will be our second commercial human-tended research mission, and insights from this flight will be used to enhance and refine the research capabilities of our future Delta fleet.” According to the company, Stern, “a long-time advocate for commercial suborbital research platforms,” will fly a biomedical harness during the flight “to collect physiological data related to human spaceflight and conduct practice activities for an astronomical experiment” in preparation for NASA’s Flight Opportunities program. Gerardi plans to fly three payloads,” two of which will evaluate novel healthcare technologies in microgravity conditions…and examine how confined fluid behaves to inform future healthcare technologies in space.” Read more about those research projects here.

Listen up

Certainly, one can easily find recorded readings by the award-winning poets who will take the stage at the Lensic Performing Arts Center at 7 pm tonight for the Lannan Foundation’s Readings & Conversation series celebration of Copper Canyon Press’ 50th anniversary. Santa Fe poet Arthur Sze, National Book Award winner for his collection Sight Lines, will introduce the event, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown (The Tradition) and Paisley Rekdal, long-listed this year for the National Book Award this year for West: A Translation, will read before discussing the current and future state of poetry with Copper Canyon Executive Editor Michael Wiegers. Both Sze and Brown also have playlists that accompany their award-winning books. We won’t spoil them except to say Sze’s playlist includes some jazz and Brown’s playlist does not shy away from R&B. Tonight’s in-person reading also will be livestreamed; register here.

Ritual visit

Boston Globe correspondent Patricia Harris documents two trips she and her friend Patti made last year for Day of the Dead to commemorate their mothers, one of which was to Santa Fe for the city’s first celebration of the holiday (occurring again this year Oct. 27-28). After visiting San Antonio, Texas, Harris and Patti hightail it to Santa Fe where last year’s events included a screening of Disney’s Coco, “the obligatory speeches by organizers and politicians,” and an Aztec dancer from Oaxaca, Mexico who told the crowd: “You are enacting one of the most ancient traditions of my people. Our ancestors want to look down and see that we are happy.” Harris and Patti decided to take that advice and proceeded to enjoy local cuisine, such as green chile cheeseburgers (with candied red chile bacon) at Luminaria restaurant at the Inn and Spa at Loretto, and green chile risotto at SkyFire restaurant at Bishop’s Lodge. They end their trip at Ojo Santa Fe, where the “aroma of piñon smoke hung in the air as we walked trails through golden cottonwood trees.” They feed the spa’s chickens and pet the spa’s Puppy Patch puppies. Of course, they soak, as well. “I’m certain that our mothers were looking down and smiling,” Harris concludes. FYI: This year’s Santa Fe Day of the Dead includes a community ofrenda (an altar to honor a loved one); submit photographs here.

Here come the holidays

With Halloween swiftly approaching, Love Exploring presents a slide-show of each state’s best Halloween event, proffering Las Cruces’ annual Zombie Walk for New Mexico’s top pick. It’s Oct. 29, by the way, and it does look pretty fun. But Santa Fe also can be fun and…cheap, according to The Travel (and no one else of whom we are aware). The Travel includes Santa Fe in its list of “cheap places to travel for New Year’s Eve,” citing Santa Fe Kiwanis’ Club New Year’s Eve event on the Plaza and the Canyon Road farolito walk as two free happenings to ring in the holiday season. The Travel also includes New Mexico in several other stories about traveling in economical fashion. Ruidoso appears in its assemblage of “10 affordable vacations in picturesque US towns,” squeaking by in the 10th position, with The Travel noting it “offers visitors a variety of snow activities like tubing at a fraction of the cost” of locales such as Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah. “Not to mention, the Sierra Blanca mountain views are pretty spellbinding, too,” the story says, with specific recs for Ruidoso Winter Park and Dam House at Grindstone Lake for affordable activities. Meanwhile, The Travel’s story on visiting “budget-friendly ancient sites” (a weirdly specific category) includes three New Mexico locations. Bandelier National Monument appears at #8; Chaco Culture National Historical Park ranks sixth, and offers several free-fee days (the story claims entrance is free year-round; we see no evidence this is true on the park’s website). And Santa Fe appears again, this time at #5.

Get it while you can

The National Weather Service forecasts another gorgeous day: sunny, with a high temperature near 76 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon.

Thanks for reading! The Word thinks some of these food-related book recommendations sound delicious.