District 3 public meeting June 15 Thanks to all that attended and especially to the ones that dictated the format of it. It was perfect and Gandara’s attempt to make the closing statement was as pathetic and uncaring as she is. Thanks go to Frances for standing up and cutting her off. These councilors attempts to dictate and not represent our community needs to be exposed. Please forward if you wish. Rob
Dear Councilor Graham, cc Mayor Miyagishima, In 1967 a songwriter by the name of Arlo Guthrie came out with the ballad “Alice’s Restaurant”. In that song he describes being prosecuted for the crime of littering. The prosecution presents a stack of photographs with circles and arrows and a detailed explanation about the crime scene on the back of each one and then notice the seeing eyed dog seated next to the judge and realized the hearing would be a typical case of American blind justice. Yesterdays community meeting of the residents of your district, with respect to the city at large, was just such a charade. All the destructive and lessening of the quality of life evidence for the residents was offered but the Las Cruces voters will be blind to their pleas for help as they close their eyes to those residents reality and only see the word homeless attached to the Go Bond low income housing funding that will be built and destroy their lives even further. There is not one example in the entire nation that shows such a facility lessens the homeless problem. It just funds the further expansion of the government subsidized homeless industry, ie Community of Hope. Henry Young of the Gospel Rescue Mission can further enlighten you on this subject. If you are (and I hope you are) a reader I suggest the study done by Megan Ravenhill “The Culture of Homelessness”. You being the junior councilor along with your district are being thrown under the bus because the bottom line is that those other Councilors do not want such a facility in their district and that includes Councilor Gandara who definitely does not want the increased problems such another facility would cause in her district.. They only want to feed off the emotions of their constituents that really do not actually care about those on the street, they just don’t want to see them in their neighborhood and will vote accordingly to pass the Go Bond because it has that attached to it which in all reality will do nothing for the population it proposes to serve beyond a roof. The Council (except for the Mayor) is just after the federal dollars it will bring which just exacerbates the problem by deferring responsibility. Obviously the complete lack of resident authority oversight issue is huge and they just blame the Feds. It’s not their fault. If one takes the federal dollars they are complicit. I hope you listened to your constituents that came out in mass to cook in the sun at yesterdays meeting and can find advocacy that can help you save their neighborhood. No child in Las Cruces should have to call their grandmother to meet her half way after school because she feared the interactions she is confronted with as she walks home from Las Montanas Charter High School. No resident should have to fear letting their child play in the front yard or walk alone over to a friends home. Take low income housing off the Go Bond and lets build Las Cruces better so we do not need such housing. If actually wanting to house people purchase or rent the Old Kmart at Telsor and I-70 and staff it with psychiatric and addiction specialists and partner with the business community to help with jobs programs but keep the federal dollars out. Seattle has found this large open floor plan type facility to be helpful but unfortunately no where near an answer because the more services you offer the more will come to take advantage of them. Will you vocally stand strong for your residents or just use them as the sacrificial lambs to appease the rest of the Councilors pathetic agenda? Rob Wood Mayors Task Force on the Homeless Coalition of Conservatives in Action 575-635-0803
