Welcome to the Taos Daily Weekly

Check the Weekly...daily.

Taos' Unique Charm

From a reader: " We would all like to preserve the existing charm and uniqueness of Taos
with its natural beauty and cultural heritage."

Ah, the ole cultural heritage lure. Which heritage are we talking about here:

40% high school dropout rate, women as property, gang banging, 13 year-olds getting pregnant (and when they deiver a baby don't even know thay were pregnant), cocaine, crack, heroin, alcohol abusers, drug murders, a DA's office that finds it difficult to prosecute, a brawl in a local bar on New Year's Eve involving 42 people, a hand-cuffed woman tackled by a local police office, and the woman needed to be taken to Albuquerque for medical attention, a police chief who picks ten year-old boys up by the throat, the same chief that has already cost the town close to $100,000 in damages, a mayor who overrides the advice of his own committees,and drives a HUMMER to flaunt what? his complete disregard for who and what we are here?

A high rate of poverty, a serious and neglected homeless population (and thank you, Pastor Nickell of the Baptist Church for helping with that!), bridge jumpers, bad roads, high taxes and fees for "services", no real master plan to prevent the gross building of condominiums everywhere (the one upside to that is that it keeps all these rich white people in one place for their one week vacation at their second or third vacation home), the complete and utter destruction of Kit Carson Rd from the Plaza light - now there's a good indicator of road repair management! - to the town line and coming soon - condos across from the Canon gas station, a Wal-Mart with the highest prices in the state, the highest gas prices in the state (we are a tourist trap) and as a touch of color a school board election with white people nepotism - and this is the SHORT list.

The anglo did not win the election for a seat on the school board, but garnered enough votes to make the race respectable.

The charm?

Cute adobes, some art and art galleries, and the scenery of the mountain and the gorge and the mountains. The "charm" of the Pueblo for the tourists

Yes, we live in a unique community.