Category: Albuquerque & New Mexico

From The New Mexican:

The state Judicial Standards Commission director on Monday took possession of scores of Santa Fe Municipal Court documents found blowing down the street in front of the court building.

The documents, which included personal information about court defendants and records detailing bank deposits in a Municipal Court account, stretched from a trash bin outside the Santa Fe Police Department, past the city court building and nearly a block to Airport Road.

“How those got there and when they were disposed of, we have no way to tell,” Santa Fe Police Chief Beverly Lennen said.

The debris included citations containing personal information about those who had been cited, including names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

What does the police chief mean, “no way to tell”? NewMexiKen assumes this is violation of some city or state privacy law; that is, a crime has been committed. Who would have access to the records? Whose job is it to dispose of them (or not to dispose of them, as the case may be)? It’s not as if this is just littering.

The temperature was above average in Albuquerque on all but three days during the month of July (exceptions being the 27th, 28th and 29th.) As John Fleck has pointed out, this was primarily due to warm overnight low temperatures.

at Albuquerque airport. Great, large readable letters. As I passed I could read “ELCOME, THURSDAY, JUL”.

There is much to love about living in Albuquerque — a climate with seasons, yet none of them extreme; affordable real estate and manageable traffic; a simple, yet attractive airport; red and green chiles.

And, as with all places, there are things worth lamenting — more than our share of violence; a police force that fails to police itself; awful newspapers (despite some good local writers); failing schools; no Crate and Barrel.

And there are three comparatively minor things that annoy NewMexiKen and that I would change in a second if I were emperor.

1. New Mexico’s largest and most comprehensive community college goes by the deplorable and self-defeating name Technical Vocational Institute (TVI). Could there be three words strung together that could possibly make its students feel more second class? And this despite programs in Business and Information Technology; Communications, Humanities and Social Sciences; Health, Wellness and Public Safety; and Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering that demonstrate a reasonably broad curriculum.

If I were emperor TVI would be renamed Albuquerque Community College, or Rio Grande Community College or Bernalillo Community College.

[Update: A name change is in the works, possibly Central New Mexico Community College or Community College of Central New Mexico. Thanks for getting me to do my homework, Kelly.]

2. The Rio Grande is (Sandia Crest notwithstanding) simply the best thing about the Duke City. America’s third longest river passes through the entire length of the city from north to south. And yet, at no place along the river can one stroll at the river’s edge. Yes, there are paths parallel to the river through the bosque (groove) that borders the river, and one can occasionally push aside the bushes and bugs and find the river’s edge. But nowhere can one stroll, or paddle, or stop and drink some wine or enjoy some New Mexican cuisine and watch the river roll by. With lesser rivers, San Antonio and even Oklahoma City have made attractive river walks. Why not here?

If I were emperor I would forget about pandas for the zoo and new arenas and re-zone a few appropriate areas of the Rio Grande waterfront for commercial development. Inviting developers to such an area would, I believe, be so attractive that no public funding would be needed and safeguards to protect the natural beauty of the riverfront could be easily enforced.

3. For more than half of its 299 years this community was known as Alburquerque after the Spanish duke — note that the fifth letter is an “r”. When English-speaking settlers began arriving in the mid-to-late 19th century Alburquerque was corrupted to Albuquerque.

If I were emperor the name would revert to its orginal — AlbuRquerque. What the hell, most strangers can’t spell Albuquerque anyway — what’s another letter?

Last night was the warmest night ever in Albuquerque according to John Fleck, who covers these kinds of things for The Albuquerque Journal and blogs about them.

That is, the low of 73°F was the highest low ever, breaking a record set in 1925.

Albuquerque has not had one day with a below-average temperature in more than five weeks.

According to our license plates, New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment — but locals know it’s also the Land of Mañana, where things get done just a little bit slower than might be anticipated.

George Adelo Jr. of Pecos came up with the perfect slogan to describe the New Mexico way…: “Carpe Mañana,” Seize Tomorrow.

Santa Fe New Mexican

National Rifle Association certified instructor, NRA range safety officer, New Mexico Department of Public Safety instructor and concealed-carry instructor Steve Akins addresses the shortcomings in recent legislation. Excerpted from a column in The Albuquerque Tribune.

The changes to New Mexico’s Right to Carry gun law that were adopted during the 2005 legislative session took effect June 17.

Significant progress was made during the session, but there are some issues that remain unresolved. Some of the initiatives ended with less than completely desirable results for concealed-carry advocates.

We succeeded in getting the minimum age for concealed carry lowered from 25 to 21. This is a big step forward, but still we need to recognize that this minimum age fails to address our military personnel in the 18-to-20 age group. They are trained for combat and expected to use firearms, putting their lives on the line to defend their country. Yet they are not trusted to carry a concealed firearm to defend themselves or their families here in New Mexico.

…

We made a common-sense change in the caliber-qualification requirement. Now, a licensee can qualify with a large-caliber firearm and is authorized then to carry any lesser caliber of the same category – that is, semiautomatic or revolver.

…

A limitation was added in New Mexico saying a licensee may carry only one concealed firearm at a time. That limitation is ridiculous, in that licensees often carry a primary and a backup firearm. In New Mexico, they can’t legally do so.

…

A major failure was our inability to address the alcohol-establishment issue. Under the law, a licensee may not carry a concealed firearm into any licensed alcohol establishment. Doing so would turn the most law-abiding, trustworthy citizen in the state into a felon.

That means licensees must disarm before shopping for groceries – going into a Wal-Mart, for example, or trying to pay for gas inside a convenience store if it sells alcohol. Not only is this an encouragement to those that have no respect for the law and find safe havens to rob or injure others in such establishments, it also requires a licensee to leave a firearm unattended in his or her vehicle.

And while were on the topic of Albuquerque merchandise, check out the Albuquerque City Store.

A front license plate you can get for just $7.95 from Albuquerque Tricentennial.

Too bad the state isn’t making an actual commemorative tag.

of raindrops. It could be a six-inch rain — a drop every six inches.

You need to realize that there’s been just two-tenths of an inch of rain in Albuquerque during the past 10 weeks to understand. It becomes a craving about now.

Oops. The drops stopped in the time it took for me to write this.

Pandas might still be coming to Albuquerque.

Mayor Martin Chávez and Gov. Bill Richardson announced a plan Friday for using $1.5 million in state funding to help the effort.

State capital outlay money pledged by Richardson would replace funds that were cut from a general-obligation bond-issue proposal by the City Council.

The Albuquerque Journal

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of New Mexico’s schools have at least one inadequate building feature (e.g., roofs, plumbing, electric wiring), and 75% have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition (e.g., poor air quality, poor heating, too much noise).

American Society of Civil Engineers

“It is proper to ask what the appropriate balance is between basic services such as sidewalks – particularly in city with high pedestrian fatalities – and the mayor’s proposal to spend $1.8 million on a panda exhibit and $3 million on a diving tank for the city biopark. The mayor’s proposal set aside only $400,000 for sidewalks.”

From an editorial in The Albuquerque Tribune

According to the National Weather Service, yesterday Albuquerque only received 94% of the possible sunshine. No wonder I was in the dumps. What a dreary day.

On July 3rd and 4th it was 100% of the possible sunshine.

Not a lot of clouds around.

Single digit humidity again today in Albuquerque. You’d think it was a desert or something.

Albuquerque added 10,916 people between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004, according to the Bureau of the Census. That made it the 11th largest growing city in the U.S. during that time.

Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Fort Worth were the top five.

Albuquerque had 484,246 residents a year ago according to the Census estimate. It ranks as the 33rd largest American city.

Albuquerque suburb Rio Rancho grew to almost 62,000 residents by this time last year. It was New Mexico’s fastest growing community; up nearly 5% over 2003.

Central New Mexico today has a significant haze of smoke from the Arizona wildfires. I don’t mean significant like a European airport, but enough to smell and more than enough to cause a blue haze for hundreds of miles.

Interesting and good looking stuff from New Mexico and beyond at Santa Fe Journal.

From American Heritage, a modern tour of America’s oldest highway.

In 1598 Oñate blazed the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a trail that became the most used and most significant route of commerce and culture for 300 years. At its peak the Camino Real ran 1,800 miles from Mexico City north to Santa Fe. Spaniards used the trail to settle towns and villages all along the way, Franciscans used it to spread their gospel, troops from the United States and Mexico used it for waging battles and building forts, Indians used it to fight the swelling tide of foreigners, and traders used it for commerce.

(Reposted from NewMexiKen, May 21, 2004)

Albuquerque made it to 90° Thursday, 93° Friday (a record for the date) and is looking for 97° today. Albloggerque claims The Evaporative Cooler As An Alter Of Manhood; personally I think they’re a pain in the behind, but I got mine running this morning and I’m grateful.

According to the National Weather Service, Albuquerque averages three days a year where the temperature reaches 100°, 22 where it reaches 95° or more, and 63 with a max of 90° or more. Three down, 60 to go.

NewMexiKen mentioned Thursday that the web-based RSS aggregator NewsGator had left New Mexico out of its list of available weather alerts — all the other states and outlying areas of the U.S. were listed (except Ohio).

Today I received an email from Leland Rucker, the Content Manager at NewsGator Technologies. He has corrected the list (including Ohio). Mr. Rucker says, “I’m a big fan of your fair state and have spent much time there the last twenty years.”