In this episode of Reported, staff writer Katherine Lewin interviews Daniel Werwath, director of New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing and the developer behind the 100% affordable live/work artist complex at Siler Yard, on housing affordability and availability in Santa Fe. 

Reported

Housing Solutions

In this episode, Katherine Lewin interviews SFR staff writer Leah Cantor about her cover series, the first installment of which came out this week. This two-part series is all about affordable housing, or the lack of it, in Santa Fe, including how inclusionary zoning laws put in place years ago has partially created this current housing shortage in the city.  The second part of Leah ’s series on affordable housing in Santa Fe publishes next Wednesday, March 10th. 

Affordable Housing, or the Lack Thereof

Life happens really fast, and it often seems to speed up when something dark is afoot, at least lately. That’s what today’s episode is about: how quickly and devastatingly you call fall into debt.  Especially when you’re in debt—in New Mexico—to an installment lender.   New Mexico is one of the last states in the country to allow triple-digit interest rates on short-term, small-dollar installment loans—not to mention the fees and all the other costs tacked on by the mostly multi-state corporations behind the storefront lenders you see all over low-income neighborhoods. But there are people who are trying to do something about it in a bid to protect borrowers.  Namely legislators and advocates who are trying to move a bill through both the state Senate and House right now that would cap the rate at 36%, which is more in line with the majority of the country.  I interviewed two people whose stories epitomize what can happen when you’re exposed to debt during a vulnerable time.  I’m going to introduce you to one of them in this episode of Reported—a 34-year-old who slipped into thousands of dollars of debt in a matter of months. 

Trapped In Debt

Two episodes ago, we told you about a season we’d planned that looked back on New Mexico history by examining the terms of key governors. The season was going to be heavily reliant on research in the state archives, tracking down historians and recording tons of in-person interviews. Of course, none of that has been possible with public health orders in place. But before we pulled the plug, we gathered up enough material for two episodes. In Episode 7, we walked you through some of the origins of the state during the territorial period, New Mexico’s role in the Civil War and more. And speaking of pandemics, that’s what we have on tap for you this week—a snapshot of New Mexico in the years 1912 to 1919. What a time to be alive! Theme music: Lone Piñon Sources Professor Steve Martinez: Santa Fe Community College New Mexico Historical Archives New Mexico Historical Review  WASHINGTON ELLSWORTH LINDSEY By IRA C. IHDE * VOL, XXVI JULY, 1951 No.3

New Mexico Is A State Now and the Other Pandemic

If you live in Santa Fe, you’ve probably heard about Damian and Amy Herrera’s case. Damian came to the US from Mexico in 2002, hoping to make enough money to send his younger brother and sister to school. Like so many others, he crossed the border, bypassing the legal ports of entry. Damian made a life here over the following two decades. But he always wanted citizenship. But as often happens in immigration cases, things got complicated quickly. Theme Music: Lone Piñon

Perfectly Awful Timing

A couple of lifetimes ago, before masks, endless Zoom meetings and takeout only, we had big plans for the fourth season of Reported, the Santa Fe Reporter’s podcast.  Each week, we were going to explore a piece of state history through the lens of a New Mexico governor.  But like nearly all other things good and decent that existed before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic drove a stake through the heart of our grand idea. So, we scrapped the season on the governors. We did, however, manage to produce two episodes from that blown up season and we think this is a perfect time to dust off these two nearly lost pieces and let you give them a listen. After all, they’re all about state government and the philosophies that drive it. In case you didn’t know, our current state government has just embarked on the fifty-fifth Legislature amid unprecedented circumstances: no galleries, no busy hallways, threats of violence and more.  Katherine Lewin, the host and producer of Reported, interviews SFCC Professor Steve Martinez, who walks us through the origins of some of New Mexico’s mainstays—our state constitution, the beginnings of the Legislature and, of course, the feud with Texas—as well as the bright and dark spots of this time period before we became a state—slavery, voter suppression, American exceptionalism and the ongoing genocide of Native people.  It’s not actually the beginning, but we picked this point in time in the middle 1800s when New Mexico became an official territory of the United States as a place to start. 

The Beginning of the Land Enchanted

 There have been so many heartbreaking stories of small businesses failing or barely making it during the pandemic. Driving through Santa Fe, you really can’t miss the darkened windows or curbside only signs accenting downtown stores and Southside markets. Even harder to see are the ones that have completely closed, some with tables and chairs or office equipment still scattered around in the rush to leave and forgo rent or a mortgage that could no longer be paid.   But there’s a small silver hot dog cart called Roque’s in the parking lot of Big Jo True Value Hardware on Siler Road. Armando Pacheco, hot dog chef extraordinaire, has made this small business sing in the face of all the closings with a unique slate of offerings, a couple of which he described at the top of this episode.   Armando took over running the cart from Roque Garcia this winter. Roque has sold hot dogs on the Plaza for nearly three decades and will hopefully be able to return in 2021. But Armando is planning on opening his own cart in Albuquerque this year, called Chicano Dogs.   For now, keeping Roque’s going means a lot to Armando—it’s his retirement plan and what he normally does during the summer when he’s not working in the solemn halls of the Capitol during the legislative sessions, copying bills and getting them on the right legislators’ desks. The pandemic pushed him to work the cart even this winter, and it’s turned out to be a boon for him—and for anyone lucky enough to try one of his delicious hotdogs. 

The Hot Dog Guy

For generations, families across the US and Canada have struggled to get someone, anyone, to pay attention to the growing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. In the last few years, high-profile cases of brutally murdered Indigenous girls have brought the problem into the national spotlight and the pages of the national newspapers. Despite more attention on this complicated issue, states have struggled to address it. The problems are rampant—communication breakdowns among tribal, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and there’s little to no national or statewide data collection that would even begin to define the contours.  New Mexico is not exempt from any of that. It’s among the states with the highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, according to The Urban Indian Health Institute, which has a comprehensive but outdated report.  Last year, the New Mexico Legislature finally decided to do something by setting up a state task force, combining the work of the Indian Affairs Department with law enforcement agencies, advocates and survivors and family members.  This group, now called the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force, recently released a report, after a year of work. The state’s first attempt led to a sobering conclusion: that a lot more work needs to be done by the task force and by legislators—especially around data collection from law enforcement agencies. But of the 23 law enforcement agencies the task force queried, only 11 sent cases with race and sex included and the researchers were only able to analyze data from three police departments and two sheriff's departments. For this story, I spoke with Representative Melanie Stansbury, one of the co-sponsors of the original bill that set up the task force, about her impressions of the report and what could come next. I also interviewed New Mexico Sentencing Commission Deputy Director Douglas Carver about his work on race/ethnicity collection in the state. 

What Can Data Do?

Music: Lone Pinon Read more at www.sfreporter.com 

Military Gear Swap

Santa Fe has been described as a tale of two cities: the one in the north and the east, and the one in the south. The Southside, with a capital “S”, which is also my beat here at the Santa Fe Reporter, is the most densely populated in general, and also has the most young families and middle to low-income households, including immigrants and nonwhite people.  It’s also home to the city’s sewage treatment plant, several asphalt and gravel companies, and the airport, just to name a few of the polluting industries down here.  But one company, in particular its application for an updated air quality permit with the New Mexico Environment Department, has sparked a fight that started in late 2019 and has carried over into the latter part of 2020. That company is Associated Asphalt. It makes asphalt for roads and highways across the state, often in contracts with state and local governments.  Back in March, just after the first pandemic lockdown started, I wrote about the fight between Southside neighbors and the company. Associated Asphalt wants to consolidate its operations, which are currently in two spots, into one of those locations on the west side of Highway 599. It also wants to be able to operate 24/7.  So here we are, eight months later, and the permit is still in limbo, except now the Southside residents worried about the plant have two lawyers, Maslyn Locke and Eric Jantz from the New Mexico Environmental Law Centerand an air quality expert, Mike Schneider, on their side.  I interviewed Maslyn and Eric for this story. Excuse some of the background noise—working from home and outside of a studio means you can hear a bit of me typing notes and my dog obnoxiously chewing a bone.

Targeted Pollution

This week on Reported we’re highlighting the life of a New Mexican who, despite living on multiple front lines of the pandemic as a healthcare worker, a student, and a mother, has managed to both further her career and her education.  Stephanie Solis is just 20 years old with a four-year-old son, Aiden. She’s stepping toward her goal of becoming a nurse, while working as a home health aide. She lives with her mom and younger brother, who is 15—the same age she was at Capital High School when she got pregnant.  But Stephanie still graduated and started her secondary education and career, with the help of Lauren Whitehurst and the Mother Tongue Project.  Normally every year the Santa Fe Reporter publishes multiple essays from the Mother Tongue Project, an organization that creates and supports academic literacy skills specifically for young parents, mostly girls. The essays are written by teenaged mothers from Capital High School, and Stephanie was one of those writers before she graduated in 2018.  But this year, because of the pandemic, only one of those essays will be published on our website, and the author didn’t want to be recorded. But we still wanted to highlight a New Mexican who’s living many of the struggles hundreds of thousands of people across the state are struggling with right now: the possibility of getting sick, little help from the government, no childcare and financial problems.  So in episode two of Reported, the Santa Fe Reporter’s podcast, we’re catching up with Stephanie two years after graduation and the publication of her Mother Tongue essay, to see how far she has come and what life is like for a young woman who isn’t even old enough to drink and yet is on multiple frontlines in the pandemic. I spoke with Stephanie over the phone while she was at home one evening, so you will definitely hear her son Aiden in the background. Music: Lone Pinon

Multiple Frontlines

The Soldiers Monument, a 150-year-old anchor of the Santa Fe Plaza, is mostly gone. On Oct. 12, Indigenous Peoples Day, dozens of people pulled on a tow strap and a chain tied around the monument and pulled it down in two pieces. All that’s left is the base, which is now boarded up and awaiting whatever comes next.  The monument, known more commonly here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as “the obelisk,” has ignited fights over what it truly means for decades, and multiple mayors in recent years have promised to consider removing the statue from the plaza. Basically, it’s dedicated to Union soldiers who fought in the southwest—defending it from Confederate armies. But it is also dedicated to these same Union soldiers who slaughtered the regional Indigenous peoples in the so called “indian wars”. So, yeah, it’s complicated.  Finally, what maybe was a long time coming, came. Protesters pulled the obelisk down and so much has happened between Oct. 12 and now, Nov. 18, . The city seems divided into factions—some people believe pulling it down was the right thing to do. Others really don’t. This week’s  Santa Fe Reporter cover story looks in-depth at what’s happening now to move on;  the police response then, versus now; what another city did with a similar problem and more.This is Episode 1 of Season 4 of Reported, the Santa Fe Reporter’s podcast. We’re glad to be back after a lengthy break, bringing you all sorts of news you can use and compelling New Mexico stories for your ears.  Music: Lone Pinon All of our coverage about the toppling of the obelisk: https://www.sfreporter.com/tag/plaza/

Obelisk Down

 https://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2020/05/27/summer-tourism-outlook/ 

What's Left of a Santa Fe Summer

Like all businesses during COVID-19, the Santa Fe Playhouse has had to switch up its plans for 2020 and perhaps even 2021. Robyn Rikoon, the artistic director for the Santa Fe Playhouse, speaks with host and producer Katherine Lewin on Fiesta Melodrama and more. 

Pandemic Playhouse

The Development of Midtown

Welcome to Reported, the Santa Fe Reporter’s podcast digging into the stories and investigations the newspaper knows you’ve read but wants you to hear. This show is all about independent, in-depth journalism in the alt-weekly style.

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Reported

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