Council Watch

Chris Blewett, director of Transportation and Planning Services for the Mid-Region Council of Governments appeared before the Council to answer questions about the transportation alternatives study completed early in May. Councilor Martin Heinrich asked Blewett which action would be more effective in dealing with the Westside's traffic problems, completing Unser Boulevard or extending Paseo del Norte.

Blewett avoided a direct reply, saying that the plan to extend Paseo through the petroglyphs didn't offer a lot of "congestion relief, particularly in the long term." Blewett said the extension would relieve parallel arterials for a short term, but relief "would be gobbled up downstream," particularly at the Paseo and Jefferson intersections with I-25. Heinrich thanked him for "very delicately answering these questions."

The sponsor of the bill, Council President Michael Cadigan, asked if extending both Paseo and Unser would be more effective than extending Unser alone. Blewett said yes. Cadigan noted that road-blocking accidents in the area left residents with no alternate routes.

Supporters said the city should grab the $3.3 million in state funds, that Ventana Ranch had over 3,000 suffering commuter families, and that neighborhood streets were carrying too much traffic.

Opponents said citizen input had been ignored, litigation would ensue, and Sally Mayer, Craig Loy and Tina Cummins, the three realtor-councilors, should recuse themselves. Benishi Albert of the Sage Council said the road would destroy 50 petroglyphs, the road's estimated cost had gone from $12.5 million to $23 million and, that contrary to statements by State Senator Joe Carraro and Mayor Martin Chavez, all New Mexico Native American groups opposed the road.

Gomez said the monument contains artifacts dating back 5,000 years. Griego read a list of 25 Native American groups, including the National Congress of American Indians, that opposed the road. O'Malley, mentioning her Mescalero Apache ancestors, said Native Americans had a different view of land: "It's not real estate, it's not a commodity to be traded." Then Winter, the swing vote, said he would support the road because Westsiders "deserve what everybody else has."

Griego moved an amendment to acknowledge that Native American groups opposed the construction. Councilor Craig Loy took that "as an insult to myself." The amendment failed 5-4, Griego, Gomez, O'Malley and Heinrich supporting.

Gomez proposed an updated environmental impact study. Cadigan said the Paseo extension would receive no federal funds and thus does not require an EIS. The same councilors voted down that amendment 5-4.

I used to think, well, those poor Westsiders didn't realize they got lower home prices because the infrastructure was so lousy, but let's pay the tab for what they saved on house payments so they won't sit in traffic jams turning into carne seca. But a close reading of the report indicates the Paseo extension will only relieve congestion in the immediate vicinity for about five years.

In other words, we're degrading a unique treasure and paying almost $20 million for a giant, temporary, asphalt Band-aid.

Meanwhile, local media characterized the MRCOG report as concluding there is "no reasonable alternative to extending Paseo through the petroglyphs!" What the report actually says is that there are no reasonable alternate routes specifically for building a connecting road from the current Paseo dead end to Unser. It also says the Paseo extension would shave less than a minute off travel time from Ventana Ranch to Downtown. But the report's overall conclusions are quite different.