What's going on, Albuquerque?

Morning Fix: A Whole Lot of Rooty Tooty

    •   After $1M fine for sexual harassment and discrimination, Albuquerque IHOP gives "Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity" a whole new meaning.

   •   World champion pool player Jeanette Lee, The Black Widow, whacks local firm right in their pool cue.

   •   Police union survey shows the cops hate the Chief and Mayor more than I thought possible.

   •   Last month was best ever for ABQ Ride with 1,237,344 passenger boardings. That's a 5.3% increase in ridership YOY. Well, something's working.

   •   ABQ owns around 2200 pieces of property in the city…and seems to be stuck with them. For a map, scroll down to page 3 in the PDF link.

   •   Last year New Mexico exported $442M worth of goods to ISRAEL, our state's second biggest trading partner. What an amazing number!

   •   Doctor says drug overdose deaths in NM twice the national average. In access to treatment programs we are next to last.

   •   New hospital wing at UNMH only garners 3 out of 5 votes for support at the Bernalillo County Commission. UNM already has the money…just looking for a little love.

   •   Lowe's hiring 300 more phone customer support personnel. $10M in industrial revenue bonds given credit.

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Comment by ramon t on November 14, 2012 at 8:45am: Re: The Union. Meh...If a Union wasn't complaining about Management the world would end tomorrow.

Re: Bus ridership. That is good.

Re: Israel. That is very Interesting. Who is #1?

Re: Hospital. Why does UNMH have so freaking much money lying around? Where did it come from?

Re: Lowe's. More jobs is always a good thing.

Comment by Hunter on November 14, 2012 at 9:26am: Ramon, re UNMH. Check out your property tax bill or your landlord's if you rent.

Comment by Izquierdo on November 14, 2012 at 9:33am: I Hop: I hope they learned their lesson; Albuquerque land: If UNM hadn't owned much of the land around it, it might not be in existence today; Former President Popejoy was an expert at selling and trading land; Cops: This time I'm against the union; Jeanette Lee, Whacker: She must be related to Bruce.

Comment by Hunter on November 14, 2012 at 9:34am: The City doesn't know how many properties it owns? Even properties that are tax exempt are sent tax bills. Are they just piling up in a drawer? As a last resort I'm sure the County Assessor could create a listing in a matter of hours.

Comment by ramon t on November 14, 2012 at 10:02am: Hunter - According to my tax bill I paid $565.42 in UNMH tax. Is a portion of that supposed to be slated for further expansion or is that supposed to be used for current operations?

Comment by Phil_0 on November 14, 2012 at 10:56am: I believe they also secured more funding from the state and from UNM's overall budget.

Comment by Aaron Greenwood on November 14, 2012 at 12:36pm: I followed Jeanette Lee from the late 90s to about 2007. She is an awesome pool player, one of the very best in the world. She is a very intense individual during a match. I've seen her make impossible shots. They call her the Black Widow for reasons her opponents understand. Hope she gets her money.

Comment by Hunter on November 14, 2012 at 1:59pm: Ramon - Here's a good summary from the last time this was on the ballot.

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/231053287581newsmetro10-23-08.htm

Note that the mil tax is voted on only every eight years. I'll leave it to you to decide whether a major capital project is within the intended scope of the tax. My personal feeling is, like with City projects, major capital initiatives should be voted on separately. As it stands now, spending the money seems to be totally at the discretion of UNMH so it could be for indigent care or salaries for Billy Sparks and Ryan Cangiolosi.

Comment by shotsie on November 14, 2012 at 2:34pm: It's very interesting that property owners get stuck with paying for indigent care in Bernallio County, instead of, say, businesses who don't bother to pay for insurance for their employees. So, we taxpayers indirectly support all these low-wage employers like, say, Papa Johns...

Anyway, with ObamaCare becoming the law of the land, a very good side effect is that the need for ER services for minor stuff will go down when people are required to provide insurance (or their insurance is federally subsidized..) Maybe we can shift some of the money to doing something useful like re-building the zoo...

Comment by Johnny_Mango on November 14, 2012 at 2:40pm: Have any of you been to the UNMH emergency room? Or for that matter, ANY emergency room? It is possible to stay on a gurney for a couple of days because beds are short. I can't remember the exact designation but UNMH is the only major trauma center of its kind in New Mexico. It was the shortage of places to put ER patients that prompted the hospital to seek more beds. As to Sparks and Cangiolosi, this project is supported by Mayor Berry and the Chamber of Commerce. There does seem to be a real need.