OP/ED

Ozment: Who benefits?

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By CAT OZMENT
Los Alamos

Who benefits from development policy that allows for increased building heights and decreased parking requirements?

Even the “intellectual and skilled human capital the lab needs” will benefit from service industry and retail staff, County employees, mechanics, teachers, health care providers, and other critical members of the fabric of our community having the option to live in the same town where they work.

Instead of worrying that some people may have to choose between their “toys” and their extra car, I am worried about those in town who right now have to choose Read More

Op-Ed: Modern Climate Science Is Junk Science

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By Stephen McLin
White Rock

Most of us are keenly aware of numerous climate prophecies appearing in the media. In some ways they are recycled versions of the old doom-and-gloom outlook borrowed from economics. These climatic predictions are based on computer simulations that have enormous shortcomings, including a glaring lack of agreement with long-term climatic observations.

Kevin Trenberth, former head of modeling at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., has implied on numerous occasions that these modeling simulations contain significant uncertainties Read More

Op/Ed: ‘Devoted To Parking’ – Policies That Hurt Our Town

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By STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Alamos Planning and Zoning Commissioner

This is the second op-ed I’m writing on downtown revitalization, an issue that is coming before Los Alamos County Council Tuesday, May 2.

My focus here is urging Council to accept the Planning and Zoning Commission’s unanimous recommendation on gently reducing parking mandates.  (The first op-ed looks into the issue of building heights.)

If residents of Los Alamos are tired of the drab/depressing downtown with its ocean of empty parking lots and vacant buildings, and want to see that area instead filled with housing and retail, Read More

Skolnik: Housing In Los Alamos – No, It Really Does Not Have To Be This Way

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By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

I commend Stephanie Nakhleh for her exceptionally insightful and well-written pieces on housing.

Ms. Nakhleh makes many important points in her articles. Among the most important for me, someone who has spent a lifetime working in public policy, is:

Our housing shortages are NOT inevitable; rather, to a large degree they stem from a failure of our County Council and its housing policies.

The Planning and Zoning Commission has outlined a number of measures that can be taken to begin to ease some of our misguided housing policies:

  • one is to ease limitations on building
Read More

Fear Of Heights: We Need True Pro-Housing, Anti-Blight Leadership

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By STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Alamos Planning and Zoning Commissioner

Questions for Los Alamos: do you like the way Downtown Los Alamos looks? Are you good with exorbitant commercial and residential rents? Do we love empty storefronts? Are the vacant buildings downtown something we should just learn to live with? Is it cool that more and more people who want to live in Los Alamos are forced to commute? Do we want the town to remain inaccessible to teachers, nurses, firefighters, dry cleaners, restaurants, cafés, and daycares who want to live or operate their small businesses in town? Are we sure that Read More

Devolder: Electrical Safety

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By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

When a house burns down and the exact cause cannot be determined, it is usually attributed to an electrical problem. There are a variety of older and newer homes in Los Alamos County, which are provided with lighting fixtures and lamps of various types. For example, some fixtures or lamps utilize 110-volt bulbs, and some fixtures or lamps utilize light-emitting diodes (LEDs).  With age and use, lighting fixtures and lamps can present some electrical safety problems.

Some time ago, I was changing out a bulb in a lighting fixture. I happened to look at the base of the 110-volt Read More

Op-Ed: Suggestion For LAPS Calendar Solution

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By SHARON SEITZ
Los Alamos

Dear School Board Members, LAPS Staff and Los Alamos Community,

Please accept the following HB130 solution for LAPS:

  1. MINIMAL 23-24 Calendar changes approved by April 18, 2023 that won’t bear additional costs.
  • HB130 requires 1140 Hours of student instructional time.
    • Add 78 hours (1140 – 1062 current) for Elementary
      • Use 2 hours on Wednesday afternoons (currently Professional Development, no students) and rest continues as Professional Development.
    • Add 25 hours (1140 – 1125 current) to High School
    • NO CHANGES to Middle School (1170 current hours, which is well
Read More

Williams: Transparency In Government

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By GREGORY WILLIAMS
FOG Board Member & Past President

Public officials and employees love transparency in the abstract. In reality: not so much.

Transparency in government is a crowd-pleasing election promise that gets set aside in practice. It happens in part because openness takes effort. It takes a daily commitment by public entities to provide access to records, to inform the public as to what is going on, and to allow participation. Transparency also invites scrutiny, and not all public officials and employees want that.

Open government also suffers because public officials often Read More

Op Ed: Revamp New Mexico’s Colleges Of Education

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By MANDI TORREZ
Think New Mexico
(2020 New Mexico Teacher of the Year)

Quality teachers not only raise student performance through skilled instruction and engagement practices, but the best teachers are also capable of transforming lives.

Developing such excellent teachers requires exemplary foundational training that is hands-on, practical and that addresses the many challenges teachers will face daily in their classrooms.

This is why we must enact House Bill 460, to ensure that new teachers are equipped with the best research-based practices throughout their preparation. The bill Read More

Op-Ed: Concern With Limited Access To Valles Caldera

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By SETH GAYNER
Los Alamos

I am writing to you about access to the Valles Caldera National Preserve. I have lived in neighboring Los Alamos, NM since 1999 and am concerned about the very limited access to the preserve, even as a local. The Preserve does not operate as an NPS unit, rather it continues to operate as it did when it was a Trust. Furthermore, management does not listen to safety and access concerns when raised by visitors or staff, and is working to limit access to the preserve even more rather than expand it.

There is a management plan in place to provide more access to the cabin district. While Read More