There are two serious issues that I just wish Albuquerque’s City Council would just drop entirely. The first is the “Isaac Benton Preservation Act,” also known officially as R-12-69 which would expand City Council from nine members to 13. This conveniently comes at a time when left-wing Councilor Isaac Benton has been redistricted out of his seat. If there were a compelling case for adding councilors, that should have been made BEFORE the recent redistricting, not afterwards. No compelling case has been made for the additional expense associated with four additional councilors, staffs, potential upgrades to Council chambers, and (presumably) another round of redistricting to create a 13-seat map.
Another issue of “leave well enough alone” comes to us from none other than Councilor O’Malley and involves the reconstruction of the intersection at Rio Grande and Candelaria. The plan has rightfully generated opposition. Although I don’t live in O’Malley’s district, I drive through this intersection multiple times per week.
The simple truth is that this is one of several recent projects that are designed to make Albuquerque less driver-friendly (the Lead/Coal and Central “traffic diet” come to mind as others). We can blame/thank our friends in Washington who, while running trillion-plus dollar deficits, apparently have $1.5 million to throw at a perfectly good intersection here in Albuquerque. This roundabout is a classic example of government waste. City Council should listen to the opposition and stop this wasteful project.
From my point of view, Albuquerque’s City Council is all about finding ways to spend more and more taxpayer dollars on Agenda 21 type programs. Europeanization of our city with all of the roundabouts, bike trails, exercise parks, driver-unfriendly zones and building restrictions often come at the expense of private property rights and free enterprise. Adding four more councilors with their staffs, consultants, board members and commissioners and their staffs would increase City Hall by scores of new highly paid bureaucrats all of whom would have to be housed in “adequate facilities”. The initial cost along with recurring expenses would run into millions; and all of this for the “Isaac Benton Preservation Act”. We are quite capable of spending ourselves into bankruptcy without adding more government employees to speed the process. It seems to me that spending our resources on the infrastructure requirements of growth is a priority over living like Europeans or preserving one man’s ego.