So for those of you in the Albuquerque Metro Area, I am sure that you at least heard about all the fall out from Paseo Del Norte closure, if not were affected by it.

For those of you not playing the home game, Paseo Del Norte is a major 6-lane crosstown express / freeway and one of the few river crossings linking the ever growing west side of town with the east side of the city. Back on Saturday morning there was a water main break that caused a sinkhole in the westbound lanes of Paseo, that resulted in the complete closure of the westbound lanes and 1 to 2 eastbound lanes until Tuesday morning, which resulted in a almost complete grid-lock of the whole city, even on a Saturday.

Well now, local goverment officals are seeing the Paseo Del Norte closure as a wakeup call that something needs to be done. Now since this is Albuquerque, it does not mean another bridge (or two) to cross the river, cus well, thats way too easy, even if it does cost money. No, since this is Albuquerque they are looking at ways they can just use a band-aid to fix the issues, then taking care of the root cause.

Now some of the ideas they have I must admit are kinda cool, but others are just plain stupid if not really unsafe. One of their "ideas" is to completely remove the middle concrete divider. Um, ya, cus nothing bad can come from that with cars going 60+ mph in different directions with just about 5 feet between them. lol.

I was kinda hopeing that this would spar a major amount of pissed off driver demanding that something be done, but it more appears that most Albuquerque drivers have just rolled over and taken it, which is really sad that we just take backups and grid-locked traffic as normal these days. But I guess some "wakeup call" is better then no wakeup call.

Normally I am not afraid of "Big Brother" if you know what I mean. I do not care about the Red-light cameras nor do I think they are recording our every move. I do not think cameras in public areas run by the government are a bad thing. So, normally I do not worry about big brother and all of that other BS stuff about the government spying on us. But that all might have to change with this news story from the Albuquerque Journal.

---

Program to Track Drug Sales By T.J. Wilham Journal Staff Writer     If you buy too much Sudafed at too many different drugstores, you could get a knock at your door.     Within the next few weeks, the Albuquerque Police Department will launch a new computer program that tells it who is buying over-the-counter drugs used to manufacture methamphetamine, and where they buy it.     If someone buys enough of a certain drug, the program will alert the police. From there, detectives will start an investigation into his or her activities.     Depending on the quantities purchased, detectives might simply approach the person or go as far as starting a surveillance operation.( Read the rest of the story... )

---

Now do not get me wrong, I really do understand the need for a program like this, cus God only knows how much meth is made in this city. I also understand, at least in theory, that the normal law-obeying person has nothing to fear from this. But what is left out of the story: How much meth is going to get you your very own police surveillance detail?

So, I am sure that I do not come close to buying enough cold drugs to even hit anywhere near the radar. Heck, I do not even remember the last time I bought anything with like Sudafed or anything that has ephedrine or pseudoephedrine in it. But if I had a large family (and I did all the buying) or if I was prone to colds or really bad allergies, I might find my self buying more then the normal amount of Sudafed type drugs, enough so that I might find my self with a APD surveillance detail on my ass.

I also wonder if ordinances, like the one the city passed in 2005 really do work. I mean, I could see if these were state wide rules / laws, but being that it is just one municipality, means I could go to Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Las Lunas, or Belen (or anywhere else in the state for that matter) and buy ephedrine like it was going out of style. I also wonder if laws like these really do work, or just force the meth makes to find "alternative" ways of getting there hands on ephedrine, like robbing a pharmacy.

If there is a major downturn in meth production and meth houses, then I might just have to start singing the praises of this. But until I see figures indicating otherwise, I am going to remain a septic of this program.

The following was an editorial in todays edition of the Albuquerque Journal. Ray Schultz, who is the Police Chief here in the City of Albuquerque and took over at a very bad point in the history of the department. He has done a good job of cleaning up the department and getting it back on track.

Now a lot of time, most bosses seem to be just worthless. I for one am lucky to have a boss who knows what he is going and is just an overall great guy. Same with Ray Schultz.

    Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz left the office Tuesday, but he didn't stop working.

    When a report of two men beating an elderly man at Sixth and Tijeras NE crackled over the car radio, Schultz figured he was the closest officer and responded. He cornered two suspects in the Downtown library and ended up making two arrests.

    Colorado fugitive Gary William Sparks has felony warrants for burglary and failing to appear in court on a drug possession charge. Anthony Pacheco failed to appear in court in Bernalillo County.

    While Schultz was getting ready to pull out his cuffs, other officers who heard the chief was taking a call showed up. Many folks question if their boss could do their job; APD officers got a front-row seat as the chief demonstrated.

    After library patrons stopped, waved and said "hello, Chief," Schultz says Sparks told him "this place sucks. I have been here for an hour, and I get busted by the chief. I am never coming here again."

    Good. Let's hope he also tells his friends.

It is just another reason why I love Police Chief Ray Schultz (in the non-sexual way) and what he has done not only with the department, but also with the city. He does not just put his time in the office, he also goes out and works a beat too. He does what any other officer in the department does in addition to being cheif of police.

I for one hope too that these two low-life fugitives tell all their friends about how great our police and the police chief are and that they stay away from our great city.

I have figured out that the City of Albuquerque would not know planning if it bit them on the ass. I mean really, look at this city. Our bus system is joke, our roads are way past congested, I am not even sure they know what land use is and our impact fee system is a freaking mess. They think a planned community is just sprawl and rapid unplanned growth.

Take for example an article in the Westside Edition of the Albuquerque Journal from Friday March 9, 2007. The article was about how Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is trying to plan for the future and work with a developer of a new Westside master planned community to make sure that land & money for schools will be there, so they can have real schools in place.

For once in APS’s history, I think they are trying to plan for the future and not play catch up like they have for the past 10 years or so. But the City of Albuquerque which I think is just pissed cus Quail Ranch was annexed by Rio Rancho in 2003 so they will not see the tax base does not see it that way.

This agreement had been delayed once before because some of the Albuquerque city councilors had voiced opposition to the agreement. Councilors Debbie O'Malley, Michael Cadigan and Martin Heinrich said in a letter that "Albuquerque Public Schools should not assist the developer of Quail Ranch in avoiding sound growth management and development practices called for in the (city's) Planned Growth Strategy,"…"APS should not support non-sustainable draw-down of our common aquifer. APS should not ignore the traffic congestion on the West Side that it will significantly aggravate if it chooses to support the development of Quail Ranch."

Um, I’m sorry, but when did it become APS’s problem to deal with traffic congestion or our aquifer. Um, cus its not there issues to deal with, it’s the cities. Yep, last time I checked it’s the city’s job deal with growth and traffic and aquifer type crap, not the school districts. Also these dumb asses need to realize that schools do not create these problems, lack of planning and lack of infrastructure on the part of the city and state does.

Really by not building schools in the area where there is new home development, that would make traffic worse as you would force the area residents to commute to these schools instead of having them in there area. But not according to the Albuquerque City Council who also said in there letter, "By agreeing at this time to provide schools in Quail Ranch, APS will become a primary force for rapid unplanned growth,"…"New schools foster new development."

So I am guessing that the city council is not getting the point behind “Master Planned Communities”, which is that they are planned down to the very last detail including roads, schools, parks, and community centers. I think the city council does not like Master Planned Communities because it makes them look bad. LOL.

See the City of Albuquerque for what ever reason has relied on the developer to build the cities infrastructure. That is why when you goto the Westside you see so many roads that go from 4 lanes to 2 lanes back to 4 lanes again, cus the developer of the property is only responsible for his/her portion of the road, only on there half of the street, which is why only half of a lot of Westside roads are built. So really the city created this mess them selves. Which is why I think they don’t like master planned communities, where all the roads within the community its self are complete to full build out.

Anyway, case in point, the city does not know the difference between planning and there asses. As I have said before, the city did not even have a planning office until 1975. If you look at the parts of the city that were built pre-planning office and the parts that were built post-planning office, the parts that are pre-planning work a lot better then the new parts.

Anyway that just my bitch for now.

So in this mornings Albuquerque Journal, "Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez said Tuesday that he'll pull the plug on the city's traffic camera enforcement program if legislators pass a law (SB780) requiring the city to share some of its fees ($74 of $100) with the state."

Crack me up this does. (Done in my best Yoda voice). Anyway, what really cracks me up is that the reason why this program is a civil violation is because the criminal violations must be witnessed by a police officer. Also a few years back the city tried to get the state to change that, but they did not and/or could not, forcing the city to make it a Civil Violation. So ya, city tried to make it a criminal violation, which would have required the city to send the money up the ranks to the state.

Now if SB780 passes, and the city is required to pay the state $74 per citation, it will force the program to become supported by the taxpayers to the tune of $5 million a year where as now the program is self funded by the fines them self’s.

So the only way to keep the taxpayers from funding this program would be to would be to increase all fines by $74. Mayor Chavez said "One hundred and seventy-four dollars for a red-light ticket (on the first offense) is way too much, and I think the people of Albuquerque would agree," which is why Chavez would pull the program if SB780 passes and I agree with Mayor Chavez that $174.00 is way too much for a first offense red-light ticket.

Now what also cracks me up is there is a push to bring the city’s fine schedule inline with the states. Well, if I saw right (which I would like to think I did) the State of New Mexico's fine for a first offense red-light ticket is 15 dollars. Hell, I spend more on gas per week then that. LOL. $15 dollars is not going to get me to think twice about trying to beat the yellow, and maybe run the red.

But $100 dollars for the first offense is sure as hell going to me think twice about anything. I don’t have $100 dollars sitting around (ok, that I am willing to part with) for something stupid like running a red-light. I think someone who was at the forum on the red-lights cam's said it best "If you can't pay the fine, don't do the crime." DAMN RIGHT!

Also as part of the article the city disclosed how the fines are split up. Of a standard $100 fine, here is the break down according to city officials:
   $14.00 - Pays company that owns the equipment.
   $15.65 - Funds the hearing office.
   $18.00 - Processes the fines.
     $9.60 - Pays officers to review the citations.
     $3.75 - Startup costs.
   $36.00 - Program expansion, program education and projects like the meth team.
     $2.00 - Repairs and maintenance.
     $0.87 - Personnel costs.

Now as I have said here before, I support the Red-light / Speed Cam Program in Albuquerque. I think it’s the best thing to happen here in long time. Really, I do. Now I wish we could figure out a way to use these cams to catch more people doing things they should not. Now before you start screaming 1984 and crap like that, just remember that these things catch people who are doing what they should not be. So do not go screaming big brother and that they are taking away our rights which is what a disc jockey (Lee Logan) for 106.3 The Range did, cus you have no right to speed and/or run red-lights. If you think you have that right, show me where it is in the State or Federal Constitution and/or the Bill of Rights! I dare you! Really, I do!

So one must assume that the people who don't like the camera programs in Albuquerque are the ones who are speeding and running red lights. It’s the only logical thing since the program does not cost taxpayers nor law-biting citizens anything. Nothing, nada, zip, Zero!

So if you don't do the crime, you will not have to pay the fine.
It's as simple as that, and really that is simple.

Below is what I posted in response to a post over on "Duke City Fix" about the city council meeting tonight, and how the "Councilors unveiled a plan last week to cut millions of dollars from animal-shelter upgrading, the BioPark, Balloon Fiesta Park improvements and other projects proposed by Mayor Martin Chávez in a $160 million capital program."

Now granted, I really think we need most of what Marty wants, I really do, but also I can not support such stuff when we have crap like Paseo / I-25 / Jefferson and so on that this 160 million could fix right now! So read on, its kind of like a small novel, but so is most of what I post right?

"Lets take that 160 million to be spent on junk we don’t need and use it to fix our rush hour issues...Like Paseo / I-25 / Jefferson...Our bus system which goes nowhere...Westside roads...um everything else. Normally I would be all for a streetcar, but not when it goes up Central. Sorry to all the Nob-Hill / UNM / Downtown / Old town people, but we are not serving the mass of the public by going up central with anything but a regular bus line. Also, if we had a bus system that worked well, then I would support the streetcar, but right now, I am forced to drive cus I can not get from my NE Heights Apartment to UNM and then to my office (Comanche & I-25 area) when I need to. Therefore I can not support the street car. Also, why must the regular bus line stop every 1/10 of a mile? I mean really? I am not saying that every bus line needs to be like the Rapid-Ride, but lets make stops every half mile or so. That way, people really only have to walk about .25 miles in each direction to reach a bus stop. Also, bus need to be a heck load more frequent then they currently are for the regular lines. What we need is a way to get people to and from the Westside with out using there cars. I would support a Streetcar going from the Westside to the Journal Center area via a major existing river crossing, then downtown / UNM area, then to the airport. It does not have to be in that order and can in the future have spurs that go places (Like Nob Hill, Old Town, NE Heights, North Valley, and so on), but I think that really should be the plan to start out with. Then from the streetcar, you would use buses to get to and from your start / end points. I will tell you right now, that there is only so many roads we can build before all hell breaks loose. Look at any major metro area, and you will see what I mean. Also, this morning was a great example of why we need to move away from the car and also why mass-transit should be moved to its own road system. Rush hour was a big cluster bomb since Paseo was closed due to a roll over. If we had a train / streetcar / dedicated bus lane that was not in the general traffic lanes, the mass-transit would have moved right along passing everything. Anyway, I will get off my planning high horse. But that is my 25 cents."

So those are my thoughts on this. Also, in the short term, I really think we need to take that second Rapid-Ride line they are trying to start, shove that down Montgomery / Montano (all the way from one side of the city to the other), then take the regular city buses that go up and down Montgomery right now, and move them on to the I-25 frontage roads all the way from Tramway on the north to Lead / Coal on the South. That would go a long way towards improving the bus / mass-transit system in this city.

So due to Google.com and the NMDOT, you can now see what our freeways are doing speed wise. Google.com has intergraded traffic data from the NMDOT into there Google maps stuff. Now this is not just for Albuquerque, but for 30 metro areas. It’s a color based system. Green means everything is moving fine, yellow / orange means traffic is heavy, but still moving. Red means it’s bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. If there is no color, I have assumed that it means there is not enough traffic to worry about.

About 6^th months ago I saw them putting put the speed sensors on I-25 and had hopped that the NMDOT would do something like this so that we as the consumer could see the data in realtime to make decisions about our commute home.

Now this is a new system, as Google just launched this on Feb 27^th. I for one am excited about this, and hope Google grows the system to not only show traffic speeds, but also locations of traffic cams on the interstate (no they don’t fine you if you speed) and would allow you to look at the camera image.

But for now I can look and see if I-25 is a cluster fuck, just like it was today during evening rushhour as shown by the image at the left.

So recently there have been a lot of corporations moving and/or building operations here in the Albuquerque Metro Area.

First it was Eclipse Aviation, which started delivery in 2006 of its low-cost VLJ (Very Lite Jet), announcing that their headquarters and manufacturing plant will be located in Albuquerque.

Then it was Tempur-Pedic mattress factory who announced they would build their second factory in Albuquerque.. The new factory is now the largest mattress factory in the world at just over 800,000 sq. ft.

Then it was Culver Studios announcing that they are building Albuquerque Studios in the new Mesa Del Sol master planned development.

Right around the same time that Albuquerque Studios was announced, Lionsgate Films announced they are going to build a film studio in Rio Rancho.

Also, Gap Inc. recently moved its Corporate Shared Service Center (CSSC) / Corporate Office to Albuquerque.

Now, Tesla Motors announced Monday that it has picked Albuquerque as the site for its first factory to build a fully electric sedan.

It sure sounds like Albuquerque is starting to move up in the world. Now only if we can move up our transportations systems then everything would be good. Never less, it sure is an exciting time to live in the Albuquerque Metro area.

So one of our local TV news stations, KOAT, did a test to see which route is faster from the Westside to downtown. Now I am sure what ever route they said was best probably had the most traffic on it today then at anytime in the past. They have done this test 2 other times before back in 2003 and 2005. But I must say I have to take issue with there little test.

Being someone that grew up with the scientific method in there family, I find great fault with this test. First off, they only run the test once for that year period. The whole point of the test is that I can repeat the test with the same results. Now I am not saying what they have done is complete shit, but really they should have run the test everyday for one week, then avg'ed the time. If they ran the same test for every weekday for one week, and came out with the results they did, then I would have much less issues then I do.

Another problem I have, is one of the routes they took had a good amount of road construction on it, which is part of the reason why it did not come in with a good time. In the past and with this years test, they never have taken road construction in to account for road times. When big road projects are running, most people try to avoid the area best they can, which puts pressure on other parts of the city, thus increasing drive times thru out the city.

Second, the test was done with 4 different people, which means you have 4 different driving styles to deal with. Every person does not drive the same, even if they are told to drive the same way. It is built into our minds how we drive and that is a very hard thing to break. So one person might let other people in, another might not. It all could effect the time.

Also, they only did the morning rush hour drive. Why not do the evening rush hour and show us how bad all directions are? Also, since they only ran the test once, they started at 7:30am. What about seeing if it makes any difference to start at 7 or 8am or something like that? There are many different things that can affect your commute.

These things are what piss me off about the tests that KOAT has done for the past few years. Now I also think it speaks volumes about our rush hour traffic that we have to have a TV news station do this. I think if everything built out to the traffic volumes that we have, then we would have no need for this type of test. Now granted, nothing in this city is built out to traffic volumes it should be except in a few places. In the 80's and early 90's there was a massive increase in infrastructure building. The 80's saw someone with vision who thought up Paseo Del Norte. At first it was only 3 lanes in each direction from Coors to 2nd street, and then 2 lanes each direction from 2nd street to Jefferson. Now in 20+ years, the only thing to happen to Paseo west of the river was bridge over 2nd street, and adding one lane each direction from 2nd to Jefferson.

Am I the only one that sees a problem with this? Also in the past 20+ years we have only added one new river crossing when growth on the west side has expanded at ever incrasing rates! There are days when I think this city did a better job of planning with no planning office. Before the 1970's, the City of Albuquerque did not have a planning office, which just amazes me some days. But when you look at the parts of the city that grew with out a planning office (East side) and the part of the city that has grown with a planning office (west side), its just hurts my mind.

Anyway, so that is my bitch for today. Yep, still on this planning kick....

Bellow is a edited version of a memo I sent out to my company:

---

On Monday February 5, 2007, the Albuquerque City Council passed a ban on talking and/or texting using a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle when in the city limits. On Wednesday night, February 7, 2007 City of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez signed the ban into law. This ban takes effect immediately. One provision of the law is that cell phones can be used so long as they are used with a hands free device.

This will be a huge change from what we are used to, one that I am sure will take time to get used to. For the first 30 days, if you are caught using a cell phone with out a hands free device, officers will be giving verbal warnings. For 30 days after that, officers will be giving out written warnings. After the 60 days is over, if you are caught using a cell phone with out a hands free device the first ticket is 100 dollars, and each ticket after that is 200 dollars per ticket.

It is still legal to use your cell phone with or with out a hands free device while operating a motor vehicle to call emergency services like 911.

---

So its been done. I think we are one of only a few large cities that have a cell phone ban.

My only problem is that it takes effect immediately. As soon as they can get it posted on the city website (I am gussing 8am Thrusday, lol) it is in effect. Um, this is not some small thing that can be put into action right away. The city needs to be educated, and I mean more then the news. I would say 75% of my company does not read or watch the news. Also, teenages, who this law will really effect do not really watch / read the news all that offen. I think this is something that needs PSA. Hey, maybe this is what we can spend that 5.1 million we have made from the red light cameras for. LOL

So one of our Senators in the New Meixco legislature, William Payne, a Republican from Albuquerque, "introduced legislation Monday to force the City of Albuquerque to post flashing yellow beacons at 15 intersections where cameras are mounted to catch motorists running red lights or speeding. The beacons, if flashing, would alert the motorists that the traffic light would turn red before they passed through the intersection, Payne said." according to the Albuquerque Journal.

I am sorry, but I laugh at this. Do we really need a yellow light for the yellow light? I thought the point of the red light cameras was to help stop red light runners (which it has). Now I think this idea to have flashing beacons to tell if you will or will not make it thru the light before it turns red is stupid. All its going to do is give the public something to try and beat, which in mind is not healthy.

Now if we are going to do something stupid like this, why not do what they do in Mexico. In Mexico (at least the parts I've been in), when the light is about to turn yellow, the green light flashes about 3 to 5 seconds before changing to the yellow light. Now to me that makes a hell of a lot more sense then having to build whole sets of flashing beacons at lights. Really, all it should be is a simple logic update to the lights to make them flash a few seconds before changing to yellow.

So lets see, savings to the general public (tax payers). For the beacons, about $5,000 to $10,000 per approch, with 2 approches per intersection with red light cameras, that is about $10,000 to $20,000 per intersection. For all 15 intersections that would cost around $150,000 to $300,000. For the logic upgrade, my best guess is that it would be aroud $500 to $1,000 per intersection since the logic upgrade would effect all directions. So for all 15 intersections, it would cost around $7,500 to $15,000.

Now there is still one option we have not looked at, and this is always an option when you are talking about value engenering. That is the "do nothing" option. Now this option would not cost anything and like the name says, it would do nothing.

Really, I am a fan of the red light cameras as they do their job. Also now since they catch people who speed, they do more then there job and I am ok with it. Its not big brother watching, its not the goverment going too far. Its a city trying to keep there city safe and catching people who are breaking laws.