Alienation: Class and Culture
(drafted in frustration)
In Taos, no matter how hard one tries to be objective or indifferent to indifferent things (as the Stoics would say), political bullies and/or social do-gooders stir up the passions when they run rough-shod over the populace. One never knows whether the bandidos are motived by greed, incompetence, or just ignorant.
Luis Reyes and the Trustees at the Coop aka “the Barrio Cruz Alta gang,” want to raise rates and spend money on Luis’s failed projects or on travel to New Orleans, et al. Except for the fugitive do-gooder, Peter Adang, who has fled, we hear all the eligible trustees will run for office. The Trustees take pride in ruining the Coop and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorneys at the PRC hearings to cover up their crimes against community. Sin Verguenza!
Today, most voters ignore the political process, due to political alienation. The hospital bond election is a case in point. What was the turnout? 10% of eligible voters? Despite having had lunch with HCH CEO Bill Patten, I don’t understand the issues. A few million dollars for maintenance and repairs of the building sounds like a Band-Aid when the real problem concerns the complex changes in federal subsidies and the subsequent affect on the way medicine is practiced. Patten himself seems unusually well suited to the job aqui en Taos. But Taos has its own peculiar culture wherein office politics and incompetence tends to derail the best-laid plans.
I abstained from voting “Yes” because Teresa Trujillo alienated me. She’s the partner of KCEC trustee Manuel Medina and a political hustler. She and Manuel enjoyed, I hear, traveling to New Orleans on the Coop’s dime. I didn’t vote “No” because Bill Patten and Bob Silver convinced me that the problem was way too complex. I do believe Taos needs a superior “urgent care facility” but cannot support a full service hospital. Without drastic changes in federal and state policy or an economic influx of wealthy newcomers with insurance policies I just don’t see how it will work.
Meanwhile, the Taos County Commissioners have neglected their duty by not protecting their constituents from “higher taxes.” Taxes have risen dramatically since 2007 and 2008 on property and steadily on the cost of goods sold i.e. GRT for special interests. Property values have gone down while property taxes go up.
The decline of the agriculture exemption and increasing cost of water rights, due to raids by Abeyta signatories like John Painter and Palemon Martinez and the Town of Taos all spell doom for the historic acequia culture. The Commissioners have tacitly approved the raid. The Town claims it wants to turn acequias into museum exhibits. You can’t save the acequia culture by destroying it.
Exhausted by the battles, the natives have surrendered and passed the baton for governing to the Anglo careerists and do-gooders, most of whom have no real connection to the authentic Taos except in their patronizing way. The folks in charge at Town Hall don’t know or recognize their own historic neighbors and/or primos.
(Councilor Judi Cantu, of all people, suggested Meliton Struck introduce himself, during the recent election, to an important man in the neighborhood, Eloy Jeantete. Eloy is Meli’s in-law of some forty years or so. Eh?)
I watched a town meeting on TV where Taos Pueblo’s Richard Archuleta reminded Manager Rick Bellis that he had appeared three times at the town’s invitation only to be ignored by Bellis. Richard is Taos Pueblo’s longtime public spokesman, Powwow organizer, and current WarChief.
The Native Hispanic voters have been historically discouraged by their own primo vendidos. Now the high cost of living in an increasingly Anglicized culture creates distance between residents as the Town alienates locals by hiring increasing numbers of outsiders. Who wants to attend meetings about the local arts and culture district or future of the Plaza, managed by newcomers, who insult the one or two natives present?
Bellis and Barrone produce concerts that feature mainstream and popular bands from across America instead of focussing on the unique culture of Taos, which was or even still is a historic draw. Taos needs to maintain both the new “demographic” and the historic “demographic.” Under Blankenhorn’s chairmanship at the commission, we felt a chill grow and the enthusiasm for the operation of the Old County Courthouse dampen despite our voluntarism. The old girl has become, again, neglected. Sure the Commission has “plans” but they had “plans” for an “art and artifacts review committee” that became a victim of Blankenhorn’s lack of leadership (in comparison to former chairs, Gabe and Dan).
The County, at least, has honest people like Treasurer Susan Trujillo who could teach the Town a thing or two about saving money, and like her honest colleagues, how to follow the procurement code. Susan and staff members have all helped to turn the County around from an organization with no “cash balance” to one with about “$7 million” in reserves. Plus they pay the bonds in a timely manner and their bill for the Complex; pick up the slack when the Town and Coop fail at E911, or when the state and town fail with the Ancianos program. The County employs a smart no-nonsense manager and a brilliant attorney as well as lots of honest staff members.
Why didn’t Bellis and Barrone learn anything about the local culture during their tenure at the County? Like how to include the voters in their decisions? Hey, you might not like the way things went with La Martina’s but it was public. A commissioner had to pick up the pieces of the LUDC when Bellis left because he never finished the job.
Bellis prefers outsiders, newcomers, people natives have never met. He obviously holds the historic culture of the community in disdain. And due to neurosis, Bellis can’t tell fact from fiction. Due to faulty memory, Attorney Lopez can’t remember who his relatives are or what they do. Barrone, Mr. Work Gloves, the nuts and bolts guy, like Hahn a onetime community do-gooder, union man, and small business activist, drank the Kool-Aid Bellis peddles.
Recently, my right-wing Trump like friend accused me of being against “good projects” like Smith’s. Barrone told me about the Smith’s deal, off the record, the day after he got elected. I thought redevelopment a good idea. But Barrone and Bellis didn’t hire a planning director to plan the project. Your supposed to master plan major projects, hold public meetings, and follow the code. But Bellis, Barrone, and Hahn, too, apparently distrust the code, whether it has to do with “procurement” or “planning and zoning.
”Why does the Town see the public, as does the Coop, as the enemy? The local people, like Pontius Pilate, have washed their hands and now they stay home on Election Day. Never have so few at Town Hall discouraged so many.