Parking Meter Politics: The Blue Meanie

Let me add my voice to the chorus protesting against Town Manager Oscar Rodriguez’s parking meter scam. Downtown merchants, shopkeepers, clerks and artists, all of whom are trying to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse during this desultory month of January are affected. For the last couple of weeks the economy on Taos Plaza and in the Historic District can best be measured by the absence of cars, plentiful parking spaces, and the return of madness in the form of meter maid in drag, Robert Molina—the blue meanie.

Since fiesta in July, I have been visiting the Plaza four or five times a week and observing the trickle of tourists and the presence of local folks working hard to hold on to their economic identities. For six months, whether due to broken parking meters or the accidental harm inflicted on Mr. Molina by a tourist backing out blindly on the Plaza last year, there was no parking meter enforcement.

In January, despite a Plaza more than half empty, I got a ticket for $20. I don’t mind paying, considering I’ve received six months of free parking, whether at the Catholic Church free lot, the Dunn House, or the Plaza itself. But now Officer Molina is back and going after locals and tourists with a vengeance.

Sure, if you’re a friend, who works in a shop, he’ll go in and warn you. But if Molina does not know you or if he doesn’t like you, he’s rude. Twice, on recent occasions, he refused to allow a local to put her quarters in the meter in lieu of the $20 charge. When merchants have “zero sales,” it’s tough to swallow a $20 parking ticket.

To me, the absence of trained community policemen, who should be hospitable not hostile, is embodied by the presence of Molina. Molina himself represents the hostile face of Manager Oscar Rodriguez, who apparently holds the folks in the Historic Arts and Culture District in as much contempt as he does the County Commissioners who offered to subsidize the airport project. (We’ve heard enough about the way Chief Weaver has turned the outlaws loose on the sign man.)

Maybe Mayor Cordova and Councilor Abeyta will throw Rodriguez under the bus as a political ploy. Maybe they will join him down there. Downtown parking meters and the new penalties for a famished meter are symbolic of a bitter town administration, which is engaged in attacking the very economic lifeblood of the arts and culture community. Rodriguez and Molina may be pawns in this election battle but by following orders they have joined in what can be considered cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on the Plaza workforce. Now we all know why employees at Town Hall suffer in silence under the iron fist of the itinerant professional from MIT.

Contrary to a Taos News letter writer, I urge the mayor-elect in March to dump the manager and send Robert Molina to charm school. A little art on the walls or lip service to high culture does not make up for shouts of divisiveness aimed at the County, while doing the Mayor and Council’s dirty work…going after those who can least afford the freight.

I remember when merchants were grateful that Molina represented the only uniform presence on the Plaza during weekends because the Taos Police Department was understaffed. I thought he might make a good chief. Ironically, Robert was only trying to be helpful when an SUV whacked him last summer. But he’s back, apparently recovered, and now he’s the Big Molina, he’s going to put the big hurt on you if you’re not a friend or forgot your quarters.

Selective ticketing and rude behavior is no way to treat a Taoseno or a Tourist.

By the way, I fully support Judge Dickie Chavez in his bid for re-election. The Mayor and Town Attorney are sending out what one might characterize as Robert Molina in a skirt, to run against the long-standing muni judge. Though Dickie has occasionally and allegedly violated the constitutional rights of defendants, he’s human and he’s got a heart and he’s one of us. All you have to do in Judge Chavez’s court is be polite and respectful and he’ll smile like Santa Claus or giggle like Judge J.C. Montoya in the barber shop lo’ these many years ago. We don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire like Rudy and Darren, who can’t stop shooting themselves in the foot with an O-Rod or a Molina. Course Father Fred supports O-Rod so you know what that means.

You can’t make this stuff up.