{"id":1715,"date":"2007-05-14T10:25:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-14T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/newspaper-takes-comprehensive-look-at-growth\/"},"modified":"2007-05-14T10:25:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-14T16:25:00","slug":"newspaper-takes-comprehensive-look-at-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/newspaper-takes-comprehensive-look-at-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Newspaper takes comprehensive look at growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> began on Sunday a five-part series examining the community\u2019s rapid growth. The first two articles have been well-written, and the series appears to be a comprehensive look at the controversial topic.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It comes in advance of next week\u2019s vote by the Las Cruces City Council<\/a> on whether to approve The Vistas at Presidio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On Sunday<\/a>, the Sun-News ran an article looking at the bigger picture of growth \u2013 what\u2019s happening and why, and whether the growth is good. Today<\/a>, the newspaper examined the question of whether there\u2019s enough water to sustain the city\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A couple of points stood out to me.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Government services must keep up with growth<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s article, a couple of numbers emphasized the city\u2019s struggle to keep up with the change. More than 21 percent of Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> residents live at or below the federal poverty level, but a 2006 study found that only 12 percent of the city\u2019s 26,000 housing units are affordable to low- and moderate-income families. The city would need an additional 3,700 affordable units to meet the need, the report found.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This reveals a difficult problem: Many low-income people live outside the city because they can\u2019t afford to live in it. That means they\u2019re often in substandard housing and lack basic assistance they would receive in the city, such as public transportation, which would make it easier to find work and access health care and education.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Those numbers, in my mind, illustrate why severe child abuse, which left seven children dead in Do\u00f1a Ana County a few years ago, is generally a greater problem in the communities around Las Cruces than it is inside the city limits. Low-income people in those areas, in general, have more stress because they have less assistance and it\u2019s harder for them to rise above their poverty.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I remember sitting down with District Attorney Susana Martinez in 2005 to discuss the child abuse deaths, and listening to her describe most of the homes where the children were killed as she showed me pictures: dirty clothes and dishes in piles all over the place, broken toilets, animal feces on the floors and other signs of families that were overwhelmed to the point that they couldn\u2019t take care of basic needs. It\u2019s usually desperate people in desperate situations who end up killing their children.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The reality is that child killers must be jailed, but the problem of severe child abuse must be dealt with in a comprehensive way that includes increasing affordable housing and other services. As the area grows, this is becoming increasingly difficult but also more important.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Urban development will replace agriculture<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s article illustrated a basic truth playing out across the West: Urban growth is going to replace agriculture. The Mesilla<\/st1:placename> Valley<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> is in the middle of a shift to an urban area. Much of its agriculture will vanish in the next couple of decades.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The main factor that leads to such a shift is water. The state engineer is appropriating no new rights around here. Water for urban development comes at the expense of agriculture. In many instances, farmers can make more selling their land and water rights than they can by farming, so they get out of the business, and their chile crops are replaced by walled-in neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> area isn\u2019t in the midst of a water crisis. Unlike El Paso<\/st1:city> to the south and Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and Santa Fe<\/st1:city> to the north, local governments in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> have done little to focus on water conservation, and there\u2019s lots that can and will be done in the future as the city grows. In addition, a lot of water \u2013 90 percent of the surface water from the river \u2013 is currently used for agriculture and will be a big source of water to accommodate future growth.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Regardless, the supply of water is not unlimited. This area must become more conscious about water use and conservation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Sun-News series runs through Thursday. Check out the series\u2019 home page<\/a>, which includes a number of links to studies related to area growth and development and other interesting information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Las Cruces Sun-News began on Sunday a five-part series examining the community\u2019s rapid growth. The first two articles have been well-written, and the series appears to be a comprehensive look at the controversial topic. It comes in advance of next week\u2019s vote by the Las Cruces City Council on whether to approve The Vistas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}