Diddling Around With Albuquerque

We (not the editorial we but we the people) had a municipal election yesterday.  A whopping 8% turnout.  Not sure if that's 8% of registered voters or just of those people of voting age living in the City of Albuquerque--aka Burque or just ABQ.  Not important.  It's a dismal number because most of us know that it's useless to vote for any of the politicians that were running.

Oh, sure.  We elect a new politician every now and then.  It takes them about a year to start doing the same damn things the old politician was doing, sometimes doing them even better (worse?) than the old one.  Case in point:  A couple mayoral admins ago, the city started converting perfectly good traffic lanes to bicycle lanes.  It's an if-you-build-it-they-will-ride-their-bicycles mentality.  When we finally got a conservative mayor into office, I expected this nonsense would stop.  After all, everyone continually complains about lack of jobs; and employers don't move jobs into a city just because their new employees can ride their bikes to work.  (Unless the employer is a totally Californicated liberal moonbeam microchipped dotcom 3D animation studio tofu for breakfast lunch and dinner type--and they don't give a flying rat's patoo about Albuquerque even with the bicycle lanes).

To be fair, movies are made in and around Albuquerque and New Mexico--a couple infamous TV series, too.  But I guarantee none of them want their people to show up for shooting on bicycles.  They roar into town with motorcades sufficient to carry a UN full of dignitaries, and convoys of industrial-sized wheels enough to carry on a major offensive in a third-world country.  Not many bicycles, though.

In case you were wondering, I'm telling you the nonsense of converting traffic lanes to bicycle lanes is continuing, depriving residents who do actually need to drive to work of both sufficient roadways and sufficient parking, sometimes in front of their own houses.  Since Albuquerque has never seen its way clear to outlaw overnight street parking, which would make the city look a lot better to outsiders, suddenly taking away on-street parking spaces is problematic at best, a slap in the face to local residents, and a pander to the bicycle lobby.   (I respect anyone who can pedal a bike more than a block at Albuquerque's altitude, and don't suggest we should deprive anyone of the opportunity to do so.  Let's just be smart about it.)

Another interesting diddle is the transit service.  This consists of the bus system and the Richardsonian (not architecture but former Gov. Bill Richardson) commuter train called Rail Runner Express, for which the State of New Mexico is and will be grandly paying for years to come.  The bus system has three subdivisions, that I can see:  The normal bus routes, the so-called Rapid Ride (faster? No.), and the on-call system for disabled and elderly.  Collectively, the bus systems is known as ABQ Ride.  As far as I can tell, the bus system is under-utilized and not particularly convenient.  Sure there are peak times when the buses are full, but then there are times during any day you can see an ad-wrapped bus scooting up the street with nobody on board, convenient for nobody but the lawyer who bought the ad.  (They sell ad-wrap advertising to cover the windows and keep you from seeing this, I think.)  So now the mayor wants to start a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) by taking more than the usual bike lanes from Old US 66, aka Central Avenue, the city's only iconic business thorofare.  It's feature controlled signalling for cross traffic, special bus stations in the medians, and other golly-gosh fru-fru.  Believe me.  That's what the Rapid Ride (vapid ride?) was supposed to have.

Meanwhile, the Rail Runner was supposed to stimulate TOD (Transit Oriented Development), and hasn't.  The only thing that developed is a drain on the treasury.  And everybody goes ga-ga for these improvements every time they're introduced and nobody ever . . . EVER . . . thinks about the cost of maintenance and depreciation of these systems once they're built.  Only the best way to get federal funding so some connected contractor can have a new Porsche and his crews can have a job for a few months one year.

I'll keep my vote to myself.  Thank you very much.

©2015 C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com

The Winter State Fair

The New Mexico Legislature is meeting again.  I like to think of it as the Winter State Fair.  Unlike the late summer event that takes place in Albuquerque, the winter version happens in Santa Fe at the capitol building we refer to as The Roundhouse.  It's either because they built it on an abandoned railroad yard or because of the punches thrown by legislators from one side of the aisle to the other.  Either way, more people go to Santa Fe to see the special events and have fun and games than go to Albuquerque in the summer for the carnival rides and beer.

I can predict two things with certainty:

1. Only about 10 percent of the bills introduced will be passed.  That's a good thing.  Only about 1 percent of the bills intruduced will probably have anything to do with real state business.  The rest of them will be things like naming the State Spinach Salad, or funding a study of whether it's shorter to drive to Santa Fe via I-25 or Highway 14.  Once the study establishes the shorter route, there will be heated debate as to whether they used the right kind of ruler.
2. It will cost New Mexico citizens more tax money.  I'll grant you that Republican Governor Martinez has kept her promise on taxes for the most part, but that doesn't mean those pesky little hidden taxes won't keep cropping up.  Things like increased tuition at state colleges, for example.

Other things that I can predict with confidence:

• There will be at least one constitutional crisis, as legislators are actually forced to read a copy.
• There may be a second crisis as it is determined that the legislature doesn't own a copy.
• At least one Democrat will call a specific Republican a bad name.
• At least 75 percent of the Democrats will call all Republicans a bad name.
• There will be livestock.
• The legislature will spend at least one afternoon debating who will clean up after the livestock.
• The Democrats will find undocumented workers to clean it up at less than minimum wage.
• The Democrats will propose several bills to raise the minimum wage.
• Global warming or climate change will be mentioned at least once in conjunction with each of the following: Oil and gas exploration, gas prices, jobs, education, beer, teacher pay, Republicans, the rich, the poor, green chiles, the homeless, Obamacare, Social Security, bean burritos, Medicare, minimum wage, baseball, beer, and, if they can get it all in, tamales, posole, enchiladas, sopapillas, and beer.

Because New Mexico has a citizen legislature, it only meets for one or two months a year.  This is also good.  It limits the damage that can be done and prevents the politicians from thinking of it as a real job.  This year, the Winter State Fair will go on for 60 days total.  Watch this page to see how many of my predictions come true.

© C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com

The Price of Conservation

Or: Why did I turn off that sprinkler?

Here's a [link] for you "hug anything that Nancy Pelosi likes" folks.  It seems that water conservation is paying off (or failing to pay off) in good old Burque.   

It's paying off if, like me, you think that we of the Rio Grande Valley should not behave as though water is an unlimited resource.  It's clearly not.  Yet, for the years I've lived here, Albuquerque has boosted most of its prosperity from expanding urban sprawl and population--cut short by the Great Recession, which hasn't ended despite what the feds say.  City Quirky citizens have succeeded in reducing water consumption by so much that the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA--not to be confused with AMAFCA and MRCOG, a couple of our other interesting "authority" types) isn't taking in enough money!

So, to make water conservation pay off for the ABCWUA, they are "thinking about" raising water rates.  Now, whenever I hear about a political entity thinking about something that involves getting deeper into the pockets of us tax- and rate-payers, I know we've already lost the inning and probably the game.  It's like saying the Democrats are "thinking about" running somebody for president in 2016.  It's like saying the IRS is "thinking about" collecting taxes this April.  

The ABCWUA will want to soften the blow, of course.  So they announce the thought process to begin approximately 6 months before they know they'll actually impose the increase.  They will, undoubtedly, point out that those who conserved have been reaping the benefits of lower water bills, so they will just start paying closer to what they were paying before they conserved.  What a reward.  It's like your doctor saying you should eat better and keep your cholesterol low and you won't have a heart attack, but then telling you they are short on funds so they're going to do a bypass anyway.  They'll just charge you less for it.  

What about Me!?  I never had to conserve when asked, because I always conserved.  So I didn't reduce my bill.  I've been paying the same amount for water since Bill Clinton didn't have sex with That Woman.  (I think That Woman is Bat Woman's sister.)  I use six gallons of water to wash my car--two buckets.  I have low-flow toilets.  (Don't ask if my gut is low flow, too.)  So now me and so many of my friends are going to reap the coveted double reward:  Never got one for always conserving.  Now I'll pay increased amounts to compensate those who did get one for conserving.  Sounds more like the good old double screw to me.

Where's that leaky hose?

©2013 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com

Traffic Calming

An Op-Ed piece by City Councilor Roxanne Meyers published in the 3/28/13 Albuquerque Journal (about a so-called roundabout) got me thinking about this strange phenomenon we call traffic calming, and how our city has pursued some street alternatives that are incomprehensibly inconsistent with a reasonable goal of growing our city economy.  While there are more policies with specific goals in mind, I’d like to mention three that I think fall under this category.

The first is a trend that I began to notice during the Baca mayoralty in which street lanes are either reduced in width or eliminated altogether.  In some cases, bicycle lanes are added – via striping – but in general the area of pavement available to motor vehicles is reduced or eliminated.  Examples are Indian School between Wyoming and Pennsylvania and Morris north of Candelaria, both lane reductions.  I understand that it is green policy to promote bicycle use, but note how many bicycles actually use the allotted space compared to motor vehicles!  I have to wonder if this is a good or proper allocation of resources, when we should be more concerned about having a vibrant city with quick commutes and thriving businesses where people can get to their jobs in a timely and non-frustrating manner.  Slowing down traffic by eliminating lanes is not only counter to this, but it logically has to produce substantially more potential air pollution as a result of slow running (cars are more efficient at 40 mph than at 20mph) and increased stop-and-go traffic.

The second trend is what I call SpeeBuRBoo (Speed bumps, road blocks and one-way.)  Some of the most beautiful residential streets in the city have been reduced to ugliness by grotesque bands of bloated asphalt that only serve to throw the occupants of cars going above 20mph into the headliners and by amoeba-like shapes of concrete and curb topped by huge arrows, red slashed circles, and the stationary equivalent of orange visibility vests to keep residents and visitors alike in perpetual confusion and need to re-Google their routes.

Finally, there are the “roundabouts.”  Back in the day, we used to call these traffic circles.  In big cities, and I mean BIG cities, traffic circles historically have been part of grand designs for parks and vast open areas.  In theory, a vehicle in the circle could keep going around counterclockwise in perpetuity without ever having to yield to another vehicle, as depicted so memorably in one of the Vacation movies.  Therein is the humor.  Sticking a “roundabout” in the existing space of a small, non-vast intersection becomes hysterical as drivers attempt to figure out where other vehicles are actually coming from and going to in a confined space with less room than allowed a bumper car in a street carnival.  Both of the last two trends have got to have negative effects on the quality of life perceived by visitors and those businesses and individuals who might relocate to the Duke City. 

I realize there may be safety arguments for all of the above and more, but I say, “Educate.”  Using one of many possible metaphors:  Train the dog to heel rather than using a choke chain!  But education arguments are for a different piece.

Budget Better Left Undone

NM gov plans special legislative session next week – BusinessWeek

I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, no legislation is good legislation, even when there is no budget. The fiction is that the state will grind to a halt. The fact is that our government will continue to spend money faster than a Vegas drunk (see Harry Reid) even without the budget.

In the mean time, the Albuquerque Journal points out that it might be better to just wait. In today’s editorial, they suggest that maybe reconvening in April when more revenue projections are in, would be the ticket.

That is juxtaposed with an editorial about the winter meeting of state governors in DC. A kernel of truth is there, and I hope our legislators see it. Fact is that New Mexico should be selling off assets to balance the budget.

Start with the Railrunner Express. This albatross is no good for New Mexico, but could be good for private enterprises. Warren Buffet just bought BNSF (see Passenger Rail), on whose former tracks runs the “runner.” Maybe he’d like to bid on Railrunner. Maybe even buy back those tracks for which I believe NM paid $50 million. (We won’t use more than a third of the mileage this century.)

The next to go should be the New Mexico Space Port. And then any real estate owned by a school district that isn’t being used – now!

Instead, I’m sure, the legislature will meet on Wednesday and raise taxes. Business as usual in NM.