Outright Lies by Today's Journal

Today’s Journal completely misrepresented a Westside Coalition of Neighborhood Association’s meeting last night. It said that the Coalition supported Councilor Cadigan’s bill to put limitations upon future TIDD tax incentives to developers. Not true!

In fact, the coalition rejected Cadigan’s bill. It voted to reject greenbelt TIDDs entirely, especially the one requested by SunCal which would give the CA corporation hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to develop its 55,000 acres on Albuquerque’s Westside.

My fellow Albuquerque citizens, no matter what the developers say, costs for police, water, environment, etc., for SunCal will be bourne by you and I.

Furthermore, we are at a crucial crossroads.

Thirty years ago, Albuquerque developers and politicians talked about a lake beneath the city that was virtually endless. For years, most of my friends, educated people, repeated this myth.

Fifteen years ago, we learned how small the lake was and how fast we were pumping it down--eight feet per year. But, the developers and politicians, said, “Have no fear. We will take plenty of water from the Rio Grande.” Thus, the San Juan/Chama myth was born.

The San Juan/Chama myth is now being repeated by those who want to double the size of Albuquerque in a few decades.

It was repeated last night by a misinformed man at the Westside Coalition. “San Juan/Chama will meet the needs of this development,” he said confidently.

Another person suggested that “the world is full of salt water” (another 'pipe' dream).

Common sense demands that we ask:

1. How much longer can we draw down our aquifer?
2. What if the drought continues? We are growing at a rapid rate.
3. The city has already granted a huge TIDD to Mesa del Sol. What about its thousands more homes and their future demand upon our water?
What about the proposed Black Ranch development (tens of thousands more homes)
What about other developments?
What about Rio Rancho, other communities and Native Americans’ future demands upon the Rio Grande aquifer?

We need to wake up. Water (not oil) is the most important scarce resource.

Look at Georgia, turning brown, fighting lawsuits with Florida as drought dries up the river systems that also feed into Florida. Florida is losing industries, jobs and whole ecosystems RIGHT NOW because of overdevelopment in Atlanta, and if the drought continues, Atlanta will just flat be out of water.

If Albuquerque further stimulates our insane level of development by offering hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to make California developers richer, we are courting similar disaster.

It makes no sense and, BTW, the Journal need to print a retraction.