Water, growth - Marty’s Achilles’ heel

V.B. Price had an excellent editorial in the New Mexico Independent today lauding the return, for many in this country, to personal financial restraint and responsibility. He says for far too long, people in this country have bought into the disastrous false reasoning that debt equals wealth. Price goes on to explain how this type of thinking is directly related to our natural resources and the way cities plan for growth:

Growth has been achieved by water debt, by dedications promising to secure water rights after subdivisions are built and sold, and by buying water from hard-up rural New Mexico, the water agriculture needs if it is to economically prosper by providing more locally produced food.

...What has happened to the financial markets over the last twelve months is a perfect analogy for what could happen to water in New Mexico over the next decade — enormous water debt choking the economy, paper assets disguising vanished plenty, a bubble bursting that brings down the housing market and the construction trades.

There’s no federal reserve that can create more water. There’s no congressional action that can magically fill reservoirs like stuffing banks and businesses with cash. When the water goes, that’s it..

Mayor Martin Chavez was recently cited in the New Mexico Independent as stating:

The question, he said, isn’t whether the development should occur, but how it will occur.

“I’ve never supported growth boundaries because we already have them,” he said, listing the river on the west, the mountains on the east, and the pueblos on the north and south.

“The question isn’t whether we grow,” he continued, “but how we grow, what goes in that space, and that’s what I’m committed to — really good planned growth that’s sustainable. I think that’s going to be very important to our future.”

The Independent's Marjorie Childress picked up on the absurdity of this statement in her title for the post, "ABQ development will continue westward until rooftops hit the Rio Puerco, so says mayor." Scot Key at Burque Babble implored mayoral candidate Richard Romero to pick up on this "comedy gold":

Dude...you can't let comedy gold quotes like those from the Feudal Prince above waltz right by! Not only does it have the "Rio Puerco" implication, but here's a guy who is claiming to be committed to "really good planned growth"!!!!!!

Dude, Richard...while typing this I can look out my South Valley window and scan up the Mesa (within ABQ city limits) and see some really piss-poor, butt-ugly, as close to unplanned growth as you ever wanna see! Complete with inadequate infrastructure and services (unless you count a Walmart)! And now Feudal Prince dude wants it to go all the way to the glorified arroyo wash known as the Rio Puerco?

Chavez' idea of "really good planned growth that's sustainable" differs from the average, educated Albuquerque resident with no financial ties to developer interests.

His most recent example of smart growth strategy was to veto a bill by the Albuquerque City Council which would have prohibited TIDD's being used for development in Albuquerque's "greenfield" or city fringe areas. In other words, Marty is not only in favor of unlimited sprawl on Albuquerque's West Side, he's for the taxpayers becoming financial partners in that venture. Marty's support of Suncal and the fast tracking of the local TIDD ordinance came without one word on our city's water.

Price's analogy of water debt is perfectly suited for the mayor and his past history of "really good planned growth." He's been playing fast and loose with our precious commodity and when there's a "water crash" down the line, Rio Puerco Marty will have already slithered into political irrelevance.