I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Candidate Richard Romero said he opposed a modern streetcar system at NMI’s mayoral forum Wednesday night. Earlier this week, Richard Berry, who is against the idea, slammed Martin Chavez for, essentially, waffling on the issue. But until this week, Romero had not yet weighed in.
Incumbent mayor Martin Chavez and two-term State Rep. Richard Berry have been squabbling about what a streetcar actually is and whether it’s a worthy project for Albuquerque. On Wednesday night, the former state senate president pro tem made it clear that he’s against the idea.
Here’s what they each said about the streetcar proposal:
Romero: We need to expand the bus system first of all to all quadrants of the city. I am not a supporter of the trolley…in today’s economy…it’s a folly. …I don’t think we need it currently…I cannot support that given the economy and given
Berry: Public transportation is important. …I think there are things we can do to improve transportation with the dollars we currently have today. … I do not believe that spending 300 million dollars on a trolley, a streetcar, whatever you want to call it, is the best and highest use of tax dollars. We have infrastructure needs all over the city of Albuquerque that need to be handled first.
Chavez: … I absolutely do support a modern rail system for the city of Albuquerque if it’s voted upon by the public, it’s the right thing to do, I’ve never supported a trolley system that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about major cities acting like major cities. And building away from single occupancy vehicles. We can’t continue to build for single occupancy vehicles in this city if we’re going to be successful.
