Another Railyard not needed
Yet another attempt to resurrect the midtown campus to try to prop up that dilapidating “archipelago” of crumbling buildings, roads and walkways? Forget about it. Too little, too late. Let’s face it, the city doesn’t know how to do urban development. Officials tout the Railyard as a success story, yet it has floundered for more than 25 years, losing money — our taxpayer money.
The only thing to show for it, besides the Santa Fe Farmers Market and the Violet Crown Cinema, are four brewpubs facing.
The Railyard’s arrested development (not including those great, surrounding galleries) stems from an endemic trouble, with a capital T, that rhymes with P and stands for parking. At any rate, it’s not an example for the midtown campus — which should be sold as soon as possible.
Juan Geyer Santa Fe
Losing Santa Fe
Thanks to Sallie Bingham (“Who will save Santa Fe?” My View, March 28) for drawing attention to the current “hideous apartment buildings” that have been constructed without any community oversight.
One example is the four-story monstrosity plopped down on Cordova Road off St. Francis Drive behind the Natural Grocers. No one can miss it. Not only does it block views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, but it’s an ugly multicolor building better suited to Myrtle Beach, S.C., than to Santa Fe. Named Capitol Flats, the structure hasn’t one redeeming feature in my view. And unfortunately, because of its location near many shopping destinations, I see it all too often. Who’s responsible?
Or as Bingham says, “Who cares? Who will speak or write?” Caring citizens need some say over the architecture of our city — not just the historic downtown and east side — but all of the city, before we lose this place we have valued for so long.
Jake Barrow Santa Fe
Absent a sense of place
Esteemed, longtime Santa Fe resident Sallie Bingham’s incisive commentary on overdevelopment and questionable architecture offers fair warning as we rapidly subvert what previous generations were able to protect. Outsize, cookie-cutter, “Southwestern” residential design, gaining false entry through the Trojan horse of “affordable housing,” poisons the aesthetic well that nourishes Santa Fe’s uniqueness.
In only a few years, hiking the magnificent Dale Ball Trails has become as much an unintended parade of new homes tour as an escape into nature. Mindless development is birthing a Dollar General store across from an entrance to Eldorado, one of the nation’s first planned “solar communities.” Can a Dairy Queen and a McDonald’s be far behind? As Anywhere, USA, metastasizes along Rodeo Road and around town and the county, how long before we lose forever the sense of place that drew us here in the first place?
Peter Glankoff Santa Fe
Pepsi, please?
So the GOP-controlled Legislature in Georgia made a racist move by passing a law to suppress voters and decreed no food or water could be handed out to people waiting to vote.
My guess is the GOP — the loophole champions — might have left one in the law. Remember, Republicans would circumvent the law if it were created by Democrats. I would suggest not handing out water or food. Just provide it. Wheel it around for people to take — don’t hand it out. And maybe, instead of water, give them a Pepsi.
Phillip Trujillo Santa Fe
Reset priorities
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called a special session of the Legislature to consider legalizing recreational marijuana. It seems this was the top priority in New Mexico, not gun safety. And yet firearms are the second-leading cause of death among children and teens in New Mexico, with an average of 32 firearm deaths every year, 47 percent of those deaths being suicides.
When commonsense seat belt bills were introduced in the early 1980s, only 14 percent of Americans regularly wore them.
New Mexico’s first seat belt law was effective Jan. 1, 1986, and as of 2017, it is estimated that we have a 91.5 percent use rate. In 2021, it’s common sense to put on a seat belt when getting into a car and to make sure that passengers, especially kids, buckle up for safety. Common sense tells me we need to reset our priorities.
Martha Burns Santa Fe