Joe Schepps ran a nearly full-page, personally paid ad in the Sunday, June 2, newspaper titled “Do You Hear What I Hear,” calling for the installation of sound cameras around the city in an effort to eliminate “the horrendous sound invasion of our once wonderful city.” I want to commend and heartily thank Mr. Schepps. No coherent, functioning culture on Earth would tolerate the deafening roar of unmuffled and amplified engines of cars and motorcycles now roaming the Santa Fe.
The noise constitutes intentional personal assault on each of us. Outdoor dining is unpleasant in many parts of town. I join Schepps in calling upon the mayor and City Council to address the problem and spend the necessary funds. A vehicle emissions inspection program also should be implemented to identify offending the vehicles directly and not allow them to be registered and licensed.
Tom Luebben
Santa Fe
No benefit
I wonder what Jennifer Jenkins will report to the owner and his company. Nearly 70 people signed on for the Zoom city planning meeting, but not one supported the project being proposed on the site of the former Empire Builders Supply on Cerrillos Road. Chief among complaints were parking issues, traffic and the look of this monstrous four-story building in a neighborhood of one-story buildings. Many compared it to the garish appearance of Capital Flats. Though called multifamily housing, we learned most of the 151 units will be 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments, hardly suitable for a family. And the cost of these rentals will be “market value” — hardly affordable to anyone working in Santa Fe. I hope Jenkins is honest with the owner. I hope she says no one believes the project will benefit our community.
Rosemary Zibart
Santa Fe
Fighting for service
Veterans in New Mexico and across the country face numerous barriers to health care. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing to slash its reimbursement rate for emergency air medical services in February 2025, adding one more barrier for those who have served our nation. VA’s proposal would force air ambulance bases to close, causing devastating loss of critical medical care for veterans.
The bipartisan VA Emergency Transportation Access Act, which is being championed by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., would ensure that a review process be conducted before any cuts happen — ensuring Veterans aren’t left without access to lifesaving care. This would ensure the VA develops a fair reimbursement rate that allows air ambulances to remain in operation. We want to thank Heinrich for being a voice for veterans and supporting the VA Emergency Transportation Access Act. We urge the rest of Congress to support this bill.
P.J. Amartey
SOAR Campaign
Washington, D.C.
Don’t shield Big Oil
For years, many oil and gas producers have abandoned their old wells, leaving the burden of cleanup costs to the rest of us. Thankfully, the Department of the Interior has updated its rates for oil and gas drilling on federal lands, mandating that producers set aside sufficient funds to clean up their own messes. But Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is leading the effort to protect Big Oil profits and shift the cost back to the public.
New Mexicans already bear the brunt of the industry’s pollution, and we don’t want to return to spending our tax dollars on capping their abandoned wells. We thank our U.S. senators, Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, for their long-standing support for oil and gas leasing reform. We urge them to vote against Daines’ bad-faith bill and vote, once again, with hardworking New Mexicans who overwhelmingly support the Department of the Interior’s new commonsense rules.
Paige Knight
deputy policy director
New Mexico Voices for Children
Albuquerque
PERA terror
A 0.5% COLA, really? They are kidding, right? A 3% inflation this last half year for household staples, $1,000 increase in costs, and the Public Employees Retirement Agency is compensating retirees with something like $12-$15 per month? Really? Home insurance went up like 10% earlier last year, another couple of hundred dollars. Car insurance went up another couple hundred dollars.
If one can ferret out reality of funds and debts from the scarcely informative public documents provided from PERA, the retirement fund has roughly $11 billion in assets and $6 billion in debt, as of a year ago (debt to whom is unclear, probably financial institutions). Debt is about a third of what was being reported mid-2015-19, roughly $15 billion back then. It appears PERA is reducing its debt by pinching the COLA due to retirees. Who is that serving?
Brian Woods
Santa Fe
Consider the words
To combat a tendency to sell short the learning of the prospective Republican candidate for the presidency, consider his recent remark, “I have wounds all over my beautiful body.” Surely he references the title character in Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus: “Look sir, my wounds. I got them in my country’s service.”
The fit, of course, is not perfect, given that Donald Trump avoided the draft by baring his alleged heel spurs to an alleged foot doctor. Of course, some of his less learned followers might regard those wounds as proof of his divinity. As for that “beautiful body,” one needs only reflect upon the often shown photo of Trump in tennis clothes, displaying his substantial rump.
The Santa Fe New Mexican observes its 175th anniversary with a series highlighting some of the major stories and figures that have appeared in the paper's pages through its history. The collection also includes archival photo galleries.
