Goodbye 2015!
Personally and privately I had a great year but in terms of the community, Taos Friction will be glad to see the year 2015 vanish into a plate of BBQ, courtesy of the mayor’s gustatory claims. Perhaps Mr. Barrone’s marketing and landscape teams from Denver will introduce Southwester Sushi or Rocky Mountain Oysters as the new public delicacy next year. Maybe the Mayor will introduce his Denver team to the multicultural imagery aqui en Taos.
Most of you, according to Facebook, apparently like the proliferation of Walmart-type Christmas decorations on the Historic Plaza. The town fathers claim they close “the town square” more frequently today because the historic traffic flow has become a danger to society. (The only person who ever got hurt was meter maid Robert Molina, who some say is considering a run for town council.) Robert should fit right in with the mean spirited members of the council, who ceaselessly undermine local business by limiting pedestrian and vehicular traffic in an already slow slow retail economy on the Plaza and who gutted the planning department.
According to the rumors, the Town has stabbed the community coffee business in the back with a new Starbucks stir stick out there next to our newest “Dollar” store across from Walgreen’s. We only have rumors to go on since the Barrone/Bellis team shares little with the council or public, according to council members.
Barrone’s public relations efforts or photo ops do little to slow the crime wave or the decline in retail business. Empty parking spaces at the Kachina Lodge and other motels present a sad commentary on the decay and decline of visitor traffic in the historic district. I suppose everyone is staying in B&Bs and private vacation homes.
We know the restaurants are busy but don’t know about the rest: nobody issues press releases except about their obsessions as concert and lighting promoters, while also competing with a rather lively private club scene.
The town took a year and a half to recruit out-of-town employees for the planning department and marketing department so they could “invent” a new culture or graft visions of “tacky plastic” onto the organic history of the community? Visitors, historically, come to Taos and return to Taos in order to enjoy the history, landscape, and subtle spiritual feeling of the valley, the adobes and undulating terrain, below the Sacred Mountain adjacent to ancient but living culture at Taos Pueblo. (It took weeks for a prominent member of the Pueblo to get an audience with the Town Manager re: promoting the powwow.)
Meanwhile, the mayor is going to keep that carbon footprint growing, help out the Coop in its time of need, and light up the fabled dark skies.
Municipal Elections
Taos Friction predicts a low turnout for this year’s municipal elections. Plenty of current and former candidates are considering. But the voters are so discouraged by the Barrone/Bellis cabal that “apathy” and “discouragement” are the watchwords. Why bother?
Most candidates are waiting to see who drops the dime on “commitment day.” According to El Mitote, the following have either picked up packets or have yet to rule out a run for council: Bobby Duran, Fred Peralta, Andrew Gonzales, Meliton Struck, Pavel Lukes, Cyndie Spray, Robert Molina, Jeff Northrup, Darien Fernandez, and Jerome Lucero.
(The controversial David Cortez has left town to work in Iowa for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign so he’s out. Now the off-duty copper, Maggio, won’t have to threaten Young Cortez with trespassing charges at the KCEC public meeting room for Bernie Sanders. This group of Sanders advocates is particular about its supporters. Little bit of fascism catch your fancy, Maggio? Hey, David’s a character. We have too few.)
Opposition Research
The race for council, regardless, promises to be spicy, maybe even “dirty.” The Chicano Chamber has sent off several 100-page packets to a variety of “regulators” regarding the Town’s “violations of the procurement code.” The Mayor (s) and Council (s) policy of “covering up wrongdoing” has cost taxpayers a ton of money just as the wild diversification and excessive spending at the Coop is costing the members mucho.
Neither the Town nor the Coop has announced something like a “business plan” or a “vision of community.” They both play the game behind closed doors according to “ad hoc” or impromptu policies. When things don’t work they hope to get bailed out by members or tax payers, just like Holy Cross Hospital and El Prado Water and Sanitation District. Hey, according to the news, Louis Bacon behaves similarly but at least TSV is his write-off of choice.
Sooner or later the decades of corruption reach critical mass and, “crime will out.” I’m just saying or maybe asking. But I’ve seen the documents.
P.S. Luisa, we still love you. Just sing “Rescue Me” and we’ll send search and rescue with a life raft.