Critical Action in Santa Fe Today: Time Correction and Guide for What to Do

SFUAD is at a crossroads. We can push forward quickly and miss an opportunity to address gentrification and inequity in Santa Fe, or we can do something special. Let’s do something special. Plus more on NYT’s Planet Issue.

Yesterday, I posted about today’s City Council meeting today, but the time I had been given for the meeting was not correct. The correct time is 7pm tonight. Below I provide the call to action from our ally, Chainbreaker Collective. It does an excellent job of framing how important today’s decision is.

This is one of those times when it is essential for YOU to move beyond being frustrated and angry at the direction of our nation, state and city and taking some time to take action for equity. Please read on and act TODAY.

Human Nature or Capitalist Greed.  Just a quick note on Monday’s blog. I referenced the NYT’s Sunday magazine’s article about Losing the Planet. While excellent in many ways and both a timely and important clarion call (I should say yet another call), as Naomi Klein very clearly delineated in a response to Nathaniel Rich’s NYT piece, the reason we have failed to implement necessary changes to address climate change is NOT human nature. Nathaniel Rich posited that it was human nature and human’s inability to address immediate conditions when they require sacrifice and that it is human nature to put off sacrifice for today and leave it to other future generations to make the sacrifice.

As Klein points out, Rich draws this conclusion without any other examples of human nature having this propensity and entirely ignores how indigenous populations for centuries lived in harmony with the earth, respecting the need to nourish it and live in balance. She also points out that the real reason we failed to heed the call of scientists in the 1980s is that our burgeoning understanding of the implications of climate change coincided precisely with the explosive growth of globalization, neo-liberalism and the spawning of a capitalist drive to control government and the media, all in the quest for immediate short-term profits at any cost to the planet. The oligarchy initiated a multilateral strategy to undermine science, to subvert possible binding international agreements and to promote pro corporatist policies and treaties such as the Canadian Trade Agreement and NAFTA to handcuff any and all efforts to respond to climate change.

Who is really to blame has much to say about how we move forward. If, as Rich suggests, it is human nature to blame, then perhaps the planet is already lost, as it is unlikely we can re-engineer human nature in the time we may have. But if the problem is capitalism then we can find hope in the array of anti-capitalist movements spreading internationally.

I will provide excerpts and go more deeply into Klein’s article in a future blog, but if you want to read an excellent piece, click here.

Expand Outreach & Input on Santa Fe University of Art & Design. City Council Decision Time. Wed. Aug 8, 7:00pm. City Hall. 200 Johnson St.  TODAY!!  Call/Email Today. Attend Tonight

From Chainbreaker Collective:  What happens with the SFUAD property will have deep and long lasting impacts on Santa Fe, particularly the surrounding neighborhoods. It has the potential to increase displacement pressures and deepen Santa Fe’s gentrification problem. However, with mindful, equitable planning and forethought, it can work to heal our city’s divisions and begin to solve the housing and equity crisis we face. Policy makers have stated repeatedly their commitment to an equitable process. A lot of work has been done toward that goal, there is still plenty of work to be done and many questions to ask.
 
“How would the Report be different if people of color and low-income people were better represented?” 
“What is missing from the Guidelines that people experiencing homelessness can contribute?” 
“What would people who are directly vulnerable to displacement think about the development plans?” 
“What do youth and families with children have to add to the story about a development that will largely impact future generations?”
Let’s answer these questions together. Chainbreaker wants YOU to be part of moving Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD) campus forward toward equity TONIGHT at City Council! Councilor Villarreal has made amendments to the resolution that will take the SFUAD process to the next stage in a way that allows for true community partnership, collaboration and equitable participation.
Come make your voices heard for an #EquitableSFUAD!
The City Council will decide on the resolution this Wednesday, let’s show up and support the City Councilors who represent Santa Fe’s values. Let’s move forward with Equity!
There are four very simple ways that you can be a part of #EquitableSFUAD right now!
 
1) Understand the Issue
Chainbreaker members have created this analysis of the city’s progress so far. Having a solid analysis of the issue is the first step toward moving forward. Read the Analysis here
 
2) Forward this Email and Share on Social Media
Use these hashtags:
#EquitableSFUAD
#DevelopmentWithoutDisplacement
3)   Contact the Mayor and Your City Councilor TODAY–Contact info below.
4) Attend Tonight’s City Council Meeting
Together, we can build an equitable Santa Fe!

Contact Information.  Even if you can’t make the meeting on Wednesday, calls and emails will have an impact.

Below is contact information on all the City Council members and our Mayor.

Mayor Alan Webber:  (505) 955-6590. mayor@santafenm.gov
 Again, it’s important that we thank Councilors Villarreal, Ives, and Abeyta for pushing through these crucial amendments to show that we support this move.
Then.. 

Join us at City Council and pack the room in support of these amendments and for equitable planning in Santa Fe!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 8, 7:o0 PM8,C ity Hall, 200 Lincoln Ave8, Santa Fe, NM



Categories: Economic Justice, Community & Economic Development, Local-State Government & Legislation

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1 reply

  1. The City Council made their priories clear, they believe that we need even more Fast Food Restaurants. they gave lip service to Chainbreakers, but they really do not comprehend the problem. They are just too out of touch. They get wined and dined by the business interests, none of them care about the “little people.” They have already aliened most of the community, they made it clear they have nothing but contempt for low income people. You really ought to look at how this is covered by our limited local news sources. The very same ones that patronize and belittle the “little people.”

    There is nothing new here or innovative. Developers already have their sights on the SFUAD Campus. They will do the same old green-washing, and sustainability PR nonsense, while figuring out how to get the city to subsidize them. The only predictor of future behavior is the the past. This is really like watching a train wreck. Each and every one of them is owned by the real estate and development industries.

    It is always Groundhog Day around here! The people who could have been involved are too beaten down to even contribute to this. A lot of my friend are either dead or work too hard to participate. The number of people who moved to outlying areas,have not been counted either. In Santa Fe an unheated mobile home out in the sticks, is many peoples retirement plan. A friend of mine died from diabetes in a camper in Santa Fe. That is how the community treats it’s members. I see homeless, sick and mentally ill people all of the time, while people gush over the wonderful Foundations, religious groups and charities. They are still humiliating people, while posting themselves on Social Media.

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