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Thursday, May 16, 2019

Puppy Dogs And The ABQ Crime Wave Plus Feeling Forgotten In The Bootheel 

Mayor Keller (Sorber, Journal)
ABQ Mayor Tim Keller found a welcome diversion from the crime epidemic this week in a visit to the Animal Welfare Department where he heard of the department's success in improving response time to calls. But escaping the crime wave that now shadows his administration is always a short reprieve--in this case an extremely short one.

It was last Friday that Keller held a major news conference to announce, among other things, that 50 state police officers would aid ABQ cops in patrolling the streets and that the city's Nob Hill area, where a UNM baseball player was recently shot to death, would receive more police attention. So what happens next? Well. . .

Hours after those announcements Nob Hill experienced one of its largest robberies in memory, with $30,000 worth of jewelry ripped off from the Lilly Barrack store.

Owner Jaime Leeds says she's fed up with the crime and is calling for a change. "We need more officers, the mayor needs to quit saying crime has dropped. I have been in this location for 14 years, but only within the last three has it been so bad. I can't keep up, small businesses can't thrive in this." Neighboring businesses in Nob Hill agree. They want the city to get more boots on the ground. "The bike patrol as it currently stands is insufficient," said Robert Steinberg, owner of Stone Mountain Bead Gallery. "That's a lot of territory for two guys. There should be eight guys, ten guys, a lot more than two. 

Much like former Mayor Berry's spin team, this Mayor's PR mavens have him doing all sorts of photo ops that have nothing to do with crime, hoping he will not be overwhelmed by the #1 issue. That's a losing battle until the brazen break-ins and murder are halted for good at places like Nob Hill. Even the puppy dogs know that.

HOPING FOR HALL

Republicans who were hoping that former GOP State Rep. Jimmie Hall, defeated in an upset in 2018 by Dem Melanie Stansbury, might try for a comeback in 2020 will be disappointed. The 71 year old, who had held the ABQ NE Heights seat since 2005, told a group of R's recently he is out of politics and out of the state. He says he is moving to Oklahoma to spend more time with his grandchildren.

Freshman Stansbury has become a symbol of how the far reaches of ABQ's once deep red NE Heights have taken on a bluer hue. With Hall opting out of a retry, the odds improve that she takes a second term.

TODAY'S FACTOID

“New Mexico has the nation’s highest combined percentage of residents covered by Medicaid and Medicare,” said HSD Secretary David R. Scrase, M.D.

CLARIFYING

ABQ Attorney Jody Neal-Post, who wrote favorably here Wednesday of the constitutional amendment regarding bail, clarifies:

I did not support nor vote for the bail amendment. I felt the Brown court decision was sufficient and I do not prefer to constitutionalize every point of law. However, the bail amendment is our law now, and I do strongly support following the existing law.

BOOTHEEL HURT

A reader writes:

Greetings from the Bootheel, Joe.

Has Santa Fe forgotten about us? Rural communities are struggling with a lot of the same problems you are, but unlike with Albuquerque, nobody's paying attention. We're facing crime down here too, our unemployment rate is higher than it should be, we're losing important industries, and we get almost none of the aid and attention lavished on the two major cities. Where is our help? Politicians here have viewed rural communities the way Australians viewed the Outback: go in only if you must, only briefly, and never go alone. How do we get Santa Fe's attention? 

The last we looked State Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, probably the most powerful lawmaker in the legislature, represented the Bootheel area. What say you, John Arthur?

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019
 
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