Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM
Shannon, Dan, James & Whiskey
In "Lonely are the Brave," a movie made from the book, "The Brave Cowboy", by Edward Abbey, Kirk Douglas rides his palomino, Whiskey, across the Albuquerque west mesa toward DukeCity, in Bernal County. It was filmed in 1961 and today the western horizon looks much the same. The ancient volcanoes, lava flow and City open space bound the western edge of the city. But this is changing. Developer SunCal hopes to build beyond the volcanoes.
Parnelli Gonzales at Clearly New Mexico called it an earthquake:
In Albuquerque, the ground opened up and swallowed three supposedly unbeatable Democratic warhorses - and most significantly two powerful committee chairmen. All three of them were beneficiaries of a Roundhouse culture fueled by copious gratuities from lobbyists and gobs of campaign money from industry special interests. All three of them were roadblocks to reform.
Contrast this with the sad little sour grapes tone in the Albuquerque Journal story last week about the South Valley losing seniority where City Councilor Ken Sanchez said Dan Silva's departure will be a "huge loss."
But within the same Journal story is this: State Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, said another change could come from the newly elected legislators' ideologies. He pointed out that Griego and Chavez won on platforms that identified Silva and Taylor as being too cozy with business interests and criticized the incumbents' support of tax breaks for SunCal, the developer that purchased the old Westland Corp. property on the West Mesa. "I think you're going to see a more populist direction of resources," Garcia said, adding that he thinks grass-roots community issues will get more attention.
All I can say is, 'What would Whiskey think?'
Parnelli Gonzales at Clearly New Mexico called it an earthquake:
In Albuquerque, the ground opened up and swallowed three supposedly unbeatable Democratic warhorses - and most significantly two powerful committee chairmen. All three of them were beneficiaries of a Roundhouse culture fueled by copious gratuities from lobbyists and gobs of campaign money from industry special interests. All three of them were roadblocks to reform.
Contrast this with the sad little sour grapes tone in the Albuquerque Journal story last week about the South Valley losing seniority where City Councilor Ken Sanchez said Dan Silva's departure will be a "huge loss."
But within the same Journal story is this: State Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, said another change could come from the newly elected legislators' ideologies. He pointed out that Griego and Chavez won on platforms that identified Silva and Taylor as being too cozy with business interests and criticized the incumbents' support of tax breaks for SunCal, the developer that purchased the old Westland Corp. property on the West Mesa. "I think you're going to see a more populist direction of resources," Garcia said, adding that he thinks grass-roots community issues will get more attention.
All I can say is, 'What would Whiskey think?'
7 Comments
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Comment by Inky Ink, Inc. on June 8, 2008 at 10:16am
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A bit of dialogue from the film between Jack Burns (Kirk Douglas) and Jerry Bondi (Gena Rowlands):
Jack Burns: A westerner likes open country. That means he's got to hate fences. And the more fences there are, the more he hates them.
Jerry Bondi: I've never heard such nonsense in my life.
Jack Burns: It's true though. Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead! Do you know what I mean?
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Comment by Dave on June 8, 2008 at 2:57pm - This movie was shown during last year's Friday films on Civic Plaza. Fun to watch a movie filmed in Albuquerque in a public space with lots of other ABQ folks. The movie had a sad ending, as I fear continued over-development will have for us.
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Comment by Laura on June 8, 2008 at 4:07pm - That's one of my favorite movies in the whole world. The Abbey book kicks ass, too.
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Comment by jim on June 9, 2008 at 8:47am -
The dream of economic growth is an overpowering myth, despite the fact that constant growth on a planet of limited resources is impossible.
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideaology of the cancer cell" - Ed Abbey
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Comment by John Hardy on July 3, 2008 at 6:26pm
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Once upon a time, a fellow offered a woman a million dollars if she would sleep with him. She smiled and thought about it for a minute and said yes.
He then said, well, how about a hundred dollars? She frowned and said, hell, no. Who do you think I am?
He concluded, I know what you are. We're just dickering about the price.
Many years ago, the County declared that every acre could hold a house. Land is to be built on, they said, not agricultural. So now, we're complaining that people want to build?
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Comment by cc on August 20, 2008 at 9:23am -
Take Paseo del Volcan exit off I-40 and turn right - go north 5 miles or so to the road to the Petroglyph/Volcano day use area. It's all open space that whole 5 miles ( then you get to Double Eagle airport just across from the Day use area).
It's soooo beautiful out there because there are no developments!
From the book, Albuquerque: A Guide to its Geology and Culture pub by NM Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources:
p. 137
"A far-sighted woman named Ruth Eisenberg is singularly responsible for the preservation of these volcanoes. In the late 1960's whild undertaking a UNM class project researching the ownership of the volcanoes, she diescovered that they were privately owned, and for sale. ..."
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© 2008 Created by chantal
once land is "developed," be it with a big box store, a housing community, a parking lot, or whatever, it is nearly impossible to go backwards and "undevelop" it--it will most likely never be natural again. once the space is designated as "developed," then the only thing that changes is the type of development on said site. it is my fervent wish that developers were required to follow a code of ethics similar to that of doctors and other healthcare workers, i.e. "first, do no harm." the amount of power anyone who calls him- or herself a "developer" has is far too great in this country, as they become the de facto arbiters of the environment that the rest of us are forced to live in.
having said all this, i believe that the entire atrisco land grant sale was criminal on myriad levels. this particular land will always be better off left alone--there is more than enough development going on in and around the city to make up for leaving it as it is (and too scant natural resources to sustain such a development). i know very well this will not happen, as i am neither suncal nor a developer (and obviously i would make a very poor developer), and it hurts me to think about the future of this site.