A TALE OF TWO CITIES
America’s coronavirus divide is reflected in two NM mayors
GALLUP — Louie Bonaguidi had been mayor of this small city for just a matter of hours last week when the governor called. “I want to congratulate you on your election,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told him. “And give my condolences, because we’re locking your city down.”
Bonaguidi was not disappointed to hear that state troopers would be deployed to blockade all roads into Gallup. He was relieved: This was the only way, he believed, to stop local hospitals from spinning out of control during the coronavirus outbreak that already had overwhelmed them.
Less than an hour’s drive east, in the even smaller city of Grants, the mayor there was fighting a very different enemy last week: the governor.
Mayor Martin “Modey” Hicks was screaming at state troopers he had called “Gestapo” and leading a rebellion against Lujan Grish
am’s statewide stay-at-home orders. His community has not experienced an outbreak like the one in Gallup, and he was encouraging local businesses on the city’s hard-luck main drag to reopen. There was no sense shutting down the economy, Hicks said, just because of a virus that, like the flu, needed to be left to “take its course.”
The disparate reactions from two mayors within the same region of one state reflect America’s ever-widening gulf in the struggle against coronavirus. As the country attempts to navigate its way out of a pandemic without slipping into full economic depression, every state, city and county leader is making his or her own determinations about how to weigh the threats.
They’re coming to very different conclusions.
Opposing views
Gallup and Grants — though geographically close on either side of the Continental Divide — represent opposite ends of the spectrum. One mayor volunteered for his city to be cut off from the world, a surefire blow to the economy, but one that might save lives. Another sought to boost flailing local businesses, but in a way that public health experts — and the governor — say is deeply reckless.
Where on that continuum the country ultimately lands will dictate the course of its struggle with a disease that has claimed more than 72,000 lives, infected more than 1.2 million and forced more than 30 million Americans out of work.
“Some community leaders are doing everything right. They understand the gravity of the situation,” Lujan Grisham said in a written response to questions. “Others do not seem to believe it is all that serious, despite the disease ravaging their constituencies.”
The lightly populated county surrounding Grants, Cibola, had reported just 74 confirmed novel coronavirus cases as of Wednesday. In neighboring McKinley County, home of Gallup, there had been 1,274, or about 30% of the state’s total. Behind Sioux City, Iowa, the area has the fastest-growing infection rate in the country.
The first payday weekend of the month typically brings tens of thousands of people to Gallup to shop, many from the Native American reservations that ring the town. The reservations already had been hit hard with infections. A big shopping weekend could be disastrous for the city and reservations alike.
So after consulting with Native leaders, Bonaguidi and the outgoing mayor, Jackie McKinney, last week opted for what they acknowledged was “a drastic measure.” They wrote to the governor and ask to be locked down.
Lujan Grisham said her response “was not a hard decision.”
“The state guidelines were not being heeded,” she said. “Stronger action was necessary.”
She invoked the seldom-used Riot Control Act to deploy state troopers, who set up roadblocks at the city limits and have barred anyone without an essential reason for visiting Gallup — such as to seek medical care — from entry.
The order has since been extended twice, until noon Sunday.
‘The right thing’
“With a lengthy shutdown, a small isolated economy like this is going to go under,” said Tracy Lister, who runs one of the few open storefronts in Gallup, a coffee shop offering beverages to go. “But don’t do anything, and you have a disease running rampant.”
The city of 22,000 relies on people coming in from outside Gallup to shop. Bonaguidi said the shutdown “hurts” but that residents on the whole have been understanding.
“Yesterday, I decided to take a drive out to the roadblocks. People are bringing the troopers water, bringing them KFC,” he said. “Hopefully, the numbers improve in our favor and show that we did do the right thing.”
The decision already is appreciated in the nearby Navajo Nation, President Jonathan Nez said.
The reservations, Nez said, have been devastated by the novel coronavirus, and for a variety of reasons: among them, a lack of running water, medical infrastructure, government funding, internet access and adequate housing.
All of it adds up to one of the highest infection rates for any community in the nation. As of Wednesday, the Navajo Nation had recorded 2,654 positive cases, including 85 deaths.
Nez said he was grateful to Bonaguidi for locking down Gallup, “knowing it would devastate his economy. But the safety and well-being of all citizens is what’s important.”
‘Insult to injury’
The calculus was different for Hicks, the mayor of Grants.
The city of 9,000 was facing economic depression before the coronavirus outbreak, its once-vibrant industry of uranium mining having declined years ago.
“Coronavirus has been insult to injury,” said Ronnie Pynes, 68, who co-owns a handbag store and a storage facility in Grants with his wife, Cheryl.
Three weeks ago, Pynes decided the city had “bled long enough” and started a petition to open local stores in defiance of a state order banning nonessential businesses from operating. He said he believes the virus is a threat, but a manageable one that doesn’t justify collapsing the economy.
“People die in car accidents, and we drive anyway,” he said.
Pynes and friends collected 83 signatures and presented them to Hicks, who began encouraging businesses to open up.
On April 27, approximately 10 local businesses opened, and Hicks, a Democrat, helped lead a couple of dozen people in protest of the state’s restrictions. He also ordered city employees to return to work, firing the city manager when she refused to open the municipal golf course.
State police issued several warnings and a fine of $60,000 to the owner of a combined gun store and pawnshop — $5,000 for each day that it stayed open after the governor’s order kicked in.
Troopers served Hicks with a letter from the New Mexico attorney general saying that “death and serious illness are likely to increase in Grants” as a result of his actions and asking the state Supreme Court to intervene.
On April 30, the court sided with the attorney general, ordering Hicks to comply with the governor’s orders. None of the nonessential businesses that briefly opened last week appeared to be operating in Grants this week.
Hicks was unrepentant. “It’s not going away,” said Hicks, a former Marine who works as a security guard. “It’s just amazing that we’re going to kill an entire country, and put so many Americans out of work, for this thing.”
But not everyone in his city agrees. Thomas Whelan, chief executive of Cibola General Hospital in Grants, said his medical experts had warned against an abrupt reopening of the city, especially given its proximity to one of the country’s fastestgrowing hot spots. Gallup is about 45 minutes away.
Henry Lackey, who runs the Route 66 Junkyard Brewery out of an old salvage yard, also opposes a rapid reopening.
“I’ve got one customer that comes in here with one lung. Would I be able to look her family in the face if she got an infection traced back to here?” he said. “Not being open is bad for business. But killing your customers is really bad for business.”