Daily Lobo new mexico
Monday, April 25, 2022 | Vo l u m e 1 2 6 | I s s u e 3 4
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Marginalized communities in Albuquerque, Santa Fe fight environmental racism
Santa Fe asphalt consolidation appeal results expected this summer By Megan Gleason @fabflutist2716 Areas with people of color, lowincome residents and immigrants have historically been forced to endure environmental racism around the U.S., but New Mexico locals are fighting against it. Santa Fe’s Southside and Albuquerque’s South Valley continue in their efforts against unjust environmental decisions that disproportionately affect marginalized groups. In Santa Fe’s Southside, Associated Asphalt and Materials received a permit from the New Mexico Environment Department last summer to consolidate its two plants — located on both sides of Highway 599, north of Airport Road — to only the west side of the highway. However, Miguel Acosta — who is the co-director of EarthCare, a nonprofit dedicated to ecological health and social justice — and Tierra Contenta resident Linda Marianiello started conversations against this consolidation in early 2020 after the permit was requested in December 2019. Acosta and Marianiello are
still at the forefront of the fight against these operations, and a virtual public meeting was held on Tuesday, April 19 to go over updates on past, current and future happenings. Acosta and Marianiello started to organize a legal team in February and March 2020. The appeal against the asphalt consolidation permit was submitted in August 2021, and proceedings started in late February. The team just finished closing arguments on Monday, April 18 and doesn’t expect a decision until summer. One of the group’s legal representatives, Maslyn Locke, New Mexico Environmental Law Center attorney, explained the future timeline at the meeting: the appeal goes to a hearing officer first, who has 30 days to make a recommendation, and then to the Environmental Improvement Board, who will deliberate and decide what happens next. This is why they likely won’t get a decision back until July at the earliest. “The department has issued a permit, despite the fact that Associated Asphalt Materials will be violating ambient air quality
John Scott / Daily Lobo / @JScott050901
Litter lies on the side of the street in front of a fenced-off array of storage tanks in the South Valley of Albuquerque on Sunday, April 24.
standards, and that the environment department really did a lot of gymnastics to explain away some issues that existed in the air dispersion modeling that were either
contrary to law or can't be verified, really, by anybody,” Locke said. This consolidation would impact Santa Fe’s Southside specifically, which is predominantly
home to a population of lowincome residents, immigrants, and people and families of color. Similarly, Albuquerque’s South Valley is made up of a majority of Hispanic individuals, and in 2019, the median household income was nearly $10,000 lower than the overall New Mexico median household income. Albuquerque’s South Valley community has been fighting for years against spreading industrialization in their home. Indeed, just last year, Albuquerque’s Environmental Health Department issued another air pollution permit in the Mountain View neighborhood, adding to many other requests and permits that have taken place in the South Valley. “Mountain View residents living in a historic residential and agricultural community next to the Rio Grande in the South Valley are fed up with being the dumping ground for decades of a dirty industry that no one else wants,” Gwynne Ann Unruh reported for The Paper. In the meeting, Richard Moore,
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Albuquerque Animal ‘Not Yet and Yet’ showcases graduate art, emphasizes process Welfare Department seeks donations for incoming surge of kittens By Nell Johnson @peachnells
By Zara Roy
@zarazzledazzle ‘Tis the season to care for cats and canines, and the Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department is holding a virtual puppy and kitten shower through April 30 to accrue much needed supplies to accommodate for the nearly 2,000 kittens and 400 puppies they expect to take in during the warm months. In previous years, “kitten season,” the time of year in which the shelter gets their vast majority of incoming orphaned or abandoned kittens, has only extended through summer months. But increasingly warm winters have greatly widened the window during which these animals are reproductively active. Last year, the shelter rescued 1,500 kittens between April and October, and they are expecting up to 2,000 this year from February
to October, according to Nicole Vigil, senior veterinarian at the Animal Welfare Department. “Our shelter is seeing up to about 2,000 animals in a year. That’s a sad but true reality that we’re dealing with in our community, and part of that is puppies and kittens, so we need the help from our community,” Vigil said. The items needed to sustain the shelter through this period include things like formula, litter and heating pads to help keep animals of varying ages and medical states alive. Desirée Cawley, marketing manager for the Animal Welfare Department, said these items are used up incredibly quickly, and having these items can be a matter of life and death for the kittens which come into the shelter as young as hours old. The shelter also highly encourages anyone with the extra time
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For second-year University of New Mexico Master of Fine Arts students, the juried graduate exhibition “Not Yet and Yet” has been more than just an opportunity to showcase their work at a museum; the exhibition, which opened on March 11 and consists of MFA and Graduate Art Association artwork, ushered students back into an in-person art world. Since they began their study at UNM amid quarantine in fall 2020,
remote critiques and the inability to interface with their peers’ art directly made things difficult, according to GAA member and artist in the show Eleonora Edreva. “Some things are physical and you want to be there; you want to see it. Having the opportunity to show work together in person has been really wonderful. Art has energy with it. Having things in a space together is really important,” Edreva said. In order to bring this exhibit to life, the GAA selected juror Nancy Zastudil to make studio visits and select pieces for installation.
Zara Roy / Daily Lobo / @zarazzledazzle
Visitors walk through the main forum “Not Yet and Yet,” a juried art exhibition.
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“We wanted to prioritize New Mexico artists … She’s been very involved in the art scene around, so we thought she would be a great fit,” said sofía méndez subieta, a GAA member whose work is featured in the exhibit and who stylizes her name with lowercase letters. The UNM Art Museum took care of the installation process after the GAA dropped off the art, according to Edreva and subieta. A shade resembling Pantone’s 2022 Color of the Year “Veri Peri” was chosen for the accents. Marlene Tafoya’s acrylic print “Price List” and Alyssa Eble’s painting “Day Off” hang on the purple walls. Although there was an MFA exhibition organized by the GAA in 2021, Edreva said it didn’t receive as much attendance as it could’ve due to the pandemic, and studio visits weren’t conducted in person. Evdreva said hosting the exhibition at the Art Museum has also allowed for a larger audience. Edreva, whose work prior to the pandemic centered around scent, said art takes emotions that feel immaterial and transforms them into interactive, tangible things. Their
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Grad Art page 3