SWOPblogger

Do you want more of this in your city?






Neither do we.

Here at SWOP we have long advocated for:

* A clean environment in which to raise our families &
* A Smart Planned Growth Strategy for Albuquerque's West Side

I must admit, I live on the West Side, and I really like our community. But I would love it even more if we could have amenities like other communities do. Four years ago, we were the last street in the Southwest Heights ("make a right where the street ends" were the directions we gave our friends to get to our house"). Now there are tracks and tracks of homes that almost appear to hit the mesa, and it's close to getting there.

We moved there because it was affordable, and we needed a bigger house because we were starting a family. But now I realize why it was so affordable: No amenities, poorly planned roads, poorly maintained roads, broken traffic lights, no libraries, no parks, no community centers....you get the picture. I cannot help but get the picture. The selling point was, "oh but there will be." Although some parks have been built, we have yet to see the others realized. And it's becoming more and more time consuming getting to and from our house to our jobs across town.

A study just came out on Tuesday in the Santa Fe New Mexican that ranked Albuquerque 36th for its traffic congestion. ABQ drivers are delayed an average of 33 hours a year (almost a full work week). Ten years ago we were 30th.

This means that the drivers in the metro area, such as myself, have wasted an average of 21 gallons of fuel each year because of travel delays.

In Los Angeles, a metropolitan area with more than 12.9 million people, drivers are delayed 72 hours a year. How is it that in the Albuquerque metropolitan area we are at half that delay with only 800,000 people! That's outrageous!

This clearly shows that our city has not had the foresight for proper public transit oriented planning.

Along with the delays and consequent impacts on our standard of living, this unplanned urban sprawl is destroying our environment. One of the primary connections we make, along with many many others, is that urban sprawl and its associated high automobile gas emissions is a major detriment to our climate change crisis.

Despite what certain sectors of our community would have folks believe, we know that growth is going to happen. We can't change the fact that our population size is going to become much bigger. But we can plan for that increase in size in a way that protects our environment and that doesn't force people to spend unnecessary hours on end in their cars. As a city, we have a responsibility to insist that those (developers) who build the future neighborhoods of tomorrow do so with our water, land, air, and health in mind. A central question should be how we plan our city in a way that places the future of our climate (literally the ability of us to perpetuate our species) and the health of our families at the core.

It's time we stopped letting developers pressure our elected officials to permit this uncontrolled sprawl happening on ABQ's west side. A moratorium needs to be put in place immediately before any more high rollers come into our state and sell off tracts of homes without planning for the future of our environment.

We currently have two massive master planned developments in the works, Mesa del Sol in the south and the Suncal Corporation designs in the west. Both will get massive tax subsidies from us, the public. There are major issues involved with both of these developments that will impact the future of our city in a major way.

Currently, the Suncal developers are arguing that what they are planning is "sustainable" and that we should all jump on board with what their plans are. But let's be very clear: the Suncal development is a HUGE development that overlaps both the City and County, in an area that is completely undeveloped at the moment. It's crucial that it meet our needs as a city, and it isn't enough for Suncal to just expect us to take their word for how it will be developed.

That would be pretty silly actually. We need ordinances in place that require certain amenities in all future developments, period, especially those in which we are giving public tax money to corporations.

We're calling for a moratorium and proper community based planning that is transit oriented for all new development. Not to mention our need for workforce housing, small business, parks and permanent schools. In short all the things that makes life livable for our communities.

We support our city councilors who fight to negotiate development plans that are appropriate for our city.

Hopefully, in the future we won't be shamed when studies come out showing that we're competing with LA when it comes polluting our earth.

Oh, and by the way, in addition to being a victim of the unplanned development on the west side, I grew up in LA and in LA traffic, so I know what I'm talking about.

Thanks to Marjorie for editing this post! :)

Labels: Albuquerque Traffic, Climate Change, Development, Mesa Del Sol

PHRF Condemns Recovery Czar Edward Blakely and Mayor Nagin; Demands Blakely be fired immediately.

The People's Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) demands that Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council fire Edward Blakely for his demeaning statements and plans denying the basic rights and dignity of the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. "Blakely's statements in the New York Times yesterday, were totally inexcusable", say's Kali Akuno, PHRF Executive Director. "It is clear that he was brought here merely to finish the ethnic cleansing of New Orleans by making no provision in his plans for the Black working class majority that was and is the heart of New Orleans".

PHRF strongly condemns Blakely's gentrification and displacement schemes for the redevelopment of New Orleans that only favor the developers and corporate profiteers. We further condemn Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council for tolerating and approving his schemes. The privatization of the very office and position of Edward Blakely must also be condemned. Mayor Nagin should not have followed the footsteps of Governor Blanco and set up a private entity to manage and contract out public funds. These extralegal institutions and initiatives are wholly undemocratic and nepotistic.

Moreover Blakely slanders those of us who advocate the right to return for all those who want to return. Blakely claims we are "using people" for political ends. To the contrary it is the capitalist developers that Blakely represents who are using the people, by refusing to provide affordable housing; by refusing to open up the public housing projects and by refusing to grant any direct aid to the more than 50% of the New Orleans population that were renters. These actions are in place to facilitate a grand land theft from Black working class homeowners and to change New Orleans into a white majority city.

The Right of Return is a fundamental human right enshrined in several international treaties that the United States Government is a party to. The United States Agency of International Development (USAID) articulates the clearest statement and support of this human right by the Federal Government in its "Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy". Produced in October 2004 the report states, "USAID's interest in internal displacement is driven by humanitarian and development concerns as well as political and security considerations" (Summary, Page V). Further it states, "USAID advocates that IDP's should be granted the full security and protection provided for under applicable norms of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and national law" (Summary Page VI). This policy statement can be located online at www.usaid.gov (search Internally Displaced Persons Policy).

Edward Blakely, Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans City Council, and all the branches of Government interfacing with Katrina and Rita related IDP's must be held accountable to the standards outlined in the Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. To hold the US government accountable to these and many other human rights laws and policies, PHRF and a broad range of Gulf Coast community, civil, and human rights organizations will conduct an International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita August 29th – September 2nd, 2007.

In the interests of accountability and restorative justice, we demand that Blakely be fired immediately for his blatant disregard for the human rights of the displaced.

People's Hurricane Relief Fund
###

To read Ed Blakely's comments see:
New York Times
April 10, 2007
Steering New Orleans's Recovery With a Clinical Eye
By ADAM NOSSITER

Labels: Development, Gulf Coast, Katrina, New Orleans, Racism, Survivors

Good Ol' Boy politics alive and well in NM.

How can the public participate in planning when it's a pay to play kinda' game?

Friday, February 16, 2007

Developer Bailed City Out

By Dan McKay
Albuquerque Journal
The developer of Mesa del Sol picked up $80,000 in cost overruns on the controversial Tricentennial Towers late last year— a month before the city approved financing related to its project.
The timing caught the attention of City Council President Debbie O'Malley.
"What bothers me is that we have a large developer in negotiations with us ... essentially bailing the city out of a quandary in terms of money," O'Malley said Thursday. "I don't think that's very good policy."

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Labels: Albuquerque, City Politics, Development, Mesa Del Sol, Planning