Cocoposts

LAMMAS PARTY

aka Sal's Birthday.

Dogs Don't Blog

New York Times weighs in on cats and the internet.

Here's Maxi

... who weighs quite a bit, Coco

UPDATE:  The Boss finally let me get her picture: 

The Mayor and the Chairman

Albuquerque Journal's Dan McKay frequently tip-toes around One Civic Plaza poking the bears - a little too gently for my taste.  But hey, it is the Journal.   

Chávez Wants Joint Jail Boards Dissolved. You see, the City and County have "rocky relations."  Well, that's one way to say that some people just can't stand Marty.  County Chairman Armijo, for one.  "Marty thinks he's the King." 

Lest we forget, when the City and County fight, they fight with taxpayer money.  City residents pay County taxes and visa versa.  This kind of competition doesn't result in a better deal for anyone except but those who bill taxpayers.  The contractors, consultants, developers, and others on the government dole love it!   

This is expensive bitching between two governments over the same turf and tax base.   

The pawns should be getting restless.  Coco

Stop the Monks!

Alamogordo News staffer Laura Hunt interviewed a resident of  Fat Cottonwood town, William Meadows, who was angered at the news that Japanese monks are on their way to Trinity site walking with the atomic flame.  (Route and schedule here).

He called Congressman Steve Pearce to complain. 

“I’m a veteran of World War II, and I don’t think that these monks got any business coming over here,” he said, “because if it hadn’t been for the A-bomb, there would have been millions of people killed on both sides over there.”

“Since when are the Japanese allowed to come down to Trinity Site? That’s what I’m asking the congressman, if he would stop them.”

Other residents she interviewed were supportive. 

Wonder if  Congressman Pearce or any other New Mexico officials are planning on attending the televised world peace ceremony planned August 9th - anniversary of the day Fat Man hit Nagasaki?

Hope full circle,  Coco

Amrep is Right

  From Joe Monahan:

FOLLOW THE MONEY

They can argue until another bridge is built over the Rio Grande, but the facts speak clearly: money is moving to the northwest in the ABQ metro area. Friday, the stock of Amrep, which owns thousands of acres in Rio Rancho and is a major residential builder there, hit a new 52 week high on the NYSE. ABQ's political gridlock has expedited growth there. All the talk about infill, downtown redevelopment and attracting major new industry within the city limits is mostly talk. (Rio Ranchos's Intel announced more hiring plans Monday). What is happening is the formation of a Dallas-Ft. Worth here. All the government paid economists, think-tank spinners and politicos can argue otherwise, but on Wall Street they're betting on it with their money. Who do you think is right?

Right about what Joe?  Right that more and more new homebuyers are getting suckered into huge personal investments in outmoded suburban homes in Rio Rancho.  So what? 

The insistence that we equate the success of homebuilders in Rio Rancho or Los Lunas with some Albuquerque shortcoming is infuriating.   It's calculated to build support for an assault on those measley but highly threatening attempts at land use planning and infrastructure financing - Albuquerque's Planned Growth Strategy and impact fees.

The developer talking point goes like this:  The "No Growth"  attitude is driving investors away.  Albuquerque City Council is "anti-business".  In the minds of the Right, this will culminate in designation of Albuquerque as a People's Republic. 

Implications?  If people are swayed by the notion that impact fees hurt growth they may be repealed.  That the evidence is scant or non-existent probably won't matter.  That the "growth" that would be affected, if it could be affected, is sprawl housing won't matter either.

Who does this serve?  If we take Joe's suggestion and Follow the Money we see the homebuilder lobby standing right there.  Proud and powerful.  Ready to take on impact fees again at the Legislature.  And behind them, in the shadows, are investors in land deals that provide homebuilders with wholesale product. 

Coco

 

Corrales Uranium

The Albuquerque Journal covered this nuke victory news about a Corrales company's uranium mining application for four sites near Crownpoint and Churchrock in northwestern New Mexico.  Hydro Resources, a subsidiary of a Dallas company, Uranium Resources Inc. is seeking the permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  The NRC judge has ruled in favor.  Surprise surprise.   

The Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining are fighting it based on potential groundwater contamination from the uranium mining process called in-situ leaching. 

Multiple jurisictions make groundwater protection highly problematic.  While the Navajo Tribe has banned uranium mining and processing on Tribal lands, it doesn't sound like these sites are affected.  Not too surprising since Navajo ancestral lands, which extend far outside the present reservation boundaries, are in multiple "checkerboard" ownership.  And there are legal issues of whether or not the ban will apply to "allotment" lands owned by individual Navajo.

The President of  Hydro Resources, Craig Bartels of Corrales, is dismissive of concerns and all lawyered -up.  He's been after this for years.  And the price of uranium is up - Getting it requires you discredit your opposition. 

Craig Bartels of Corrales, president of Hydro Resources, said Monday his company would not pollute the groundwater.  He accused the law center of milking the issue for fund-raising purposes.
   

He says he won't pollute then casts accusations against those concerned.  I'd give him about a 3.5 on the believability scale of 1 to 10.  Coco      

Suerte del Sur

Check out the comment thread on this article about Gerald Peters in the SF New Mexican from a week or so ago.  Great! 

And this is an Even better story about how the Santa Fe County Commission approved Peter's new subdivision - largely because he threatened to sue the County.  There are over 100 comments ranging from rational to raging.

Juicy paranoid stuff!

Gotta love the Santa Fe New Mexican for providing the online forum.  Wish the Albuquerque Journal understood the value of such a thing - of something other than money.    Coco

Bubble Blogging

Los Angeles Times writes about real estate blogs like this site:   Housing Bubble 2 in which a recent post: How Houses Eat Money  generated lively debate about improvements and home value.

New Yorkers have Curbed real estate blog.  The San Francisco Real Estate Blog has west coast insights.   Grow a Brain blogger Hanan Levin started a real estate blog that morphed into this blog about everything.  (He's also looking for a woman).

New Mexico's selection of real estate blogs is thin.  Great New Mexico Homes is one realtor's site and her blog list includes none of her competitors in New Mexico. 

New Mexico Magazine has a list of blogs in the State that's pretty extensive but also shows what discussions we're not having about growth and development.

Blogging blind,  Coco

    

Five Shotgun Blasts

Sunday morning  3:5oAM.   

They sounded close - like under my fucking window.  Definitely on my street.  I'm on my feet before I'm awake,  tripping over the dog, fumbling for the phone.

Fifteen minutes later two police cars are driving slowly down my street spotlighting houses and yards.  Inspecting our stucco?  I think about opening the curtains and dancing, but best not.  Finding no one waving a gun around they speed off. 

Don't know about you but those Crown Vic engines roaring around really make me feel safe.   I hear them retreat, some distant sirens and then nothing.    Still.  Quiet.  Dead.

No way I can go back to sleep.

Somebody's gonna find somebody dead tomorrow somewhere.  Coco

Governor Saves a Nuke Deal

The proposed Eunice Uranium Enrichment Plant was hung-up when the feds said they wouldn't enforce the part of Company's agreement with the State that said they had to take their nuke waste out of New Mexico.

This could have killed the deal but our Governor saved the day.  The kinda misleading headline of the Albuquerque Journal Story - Deal Would Limit Nuclear Waste

State officials late Friday announced a tentative deal to rescue a plan to ensure that New Mexico does not get stuck with waste from a proposed nuclear fuel factory.
    Details of the agreement were not made public, but a statement from Gov. Bill Richardson's office said it would allow state government to enforce a deal requiring waste from Louisiana Energy Services' proposed plant to be removed from New Mexico.
    "This agreement sharply limits the project's waste storage and disposal," Richardson said in a statement issued by his office late Friday afternoon. "It also allows the state to enforce the agreement, not just the federal government."

Big fucking deal.  They'll put it in trucks and drive it 39 miles across the border to the new nuke waste facility in Andrews Texas, probably. 

If the Governor had NOT "rescued" the deal, would the whole thing have stopped?   If so, we can call him pro-nuke.  If not, so what? 

And why SHOULDN'T New Mexico have to deal with the nuke waste it generates?  Let these folks answer.

Bury it in their yards.

Coco