“A Rat Year is a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find.”
Yes, another few months since i’ve had it in me to comment about anything occurring here in the Enchanted Land. For me, and for many of you, too, this really has been a year of Renewal. From the end of long lasting personal relationships to the hard work of meeting new people and forging new relationships, this year has been unique in many ways.
Coachella was the way that i started off my summer. I went alone and had an amazing, almost transformitive experience. It was almost like the kind I had at local outdoor events like Junebug, but in a different way. As the year progressed, it became clear that the way that those of were used to having our social interactions has changed fundamentally. Clubs that had been around for ten years have closed their doors. Outdoor events that were destined to be massive in their scope were closed down a few short hours into them. Production companies have been crushed by the law and now everyone is afraid to go out, especially if the dreaded “under 18″ crowd is present.
Walking down central a few Friday nights ago my friends and i ran into a few of the kids who had just been kicked out of club 7 after APD and Bernalillo county sheriffs officers raided the club in a attempt to find the owners and workers red handed distributing drugs to its patrons. Instead they found a club filled with the almost out of high school crowd half naked and supplying their own drugs. Instead of a bust worthy of re election, an embarrassed Marty chavez and his Party Patrol Goon Fun Breaker Squad wasted hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars busting their own children in a culture that went from exploring the mind and the meaning of existence to exploring their own hormones. The sad debacle turned into a which hunt which is still going after the owner of the club for “building code violations” and minor liquor license offenses that occurred months prior.
After siting back and watching the drama unfold from the next door Blackbird Beauve, I could only sadly giggle at the situation. Law Enforcement seemed to be just as sadly ignorant as the children dressed in lingerie were. Albuquerque kids, who had been given *something* to do besides the goody goody events that their disconnected adult taskmasters deemed “fun” looked frightened and freaked out. The law enforcers present ejected children who had basicly no clothes on into the street, then proceeded to wreck the interior of club 7 looking for what they thought was some kind of drug production/distribution facility.
Ridiculous and Idiotic dont even begin to describe what both law enforcement thinks going on and reality.
I have to be honest, its hard for me to get too worked up about the entire situation. In a few short days i’ll be heading to Burning Man in northern Nevada. Unfortunately, however, I know that im going to have to come back to reality and watch, sadly, at what Albuquerque is turning into.
There was a point a few years ago when I was happy to be living in this city. It seemed like for the first time that we were on the track to becoming a *real* liveable city like san fransisco or chicago, and not another carbon copy of the Phoenix and Las Vegas suburbs, but clearly this is not the case.
Somewhere along the line this place started to become stunted. Crime is through the roof as transients are allowed to wander the streets, shipped in from other cities and dumped here to panhandle all day long. I was robbed at gunpoint while walking into a pizza place just last november, my ex girlfreind had her car window shot out, and another freind had her car broken into and her brand new radio and ipod ripped out of the dashboard.
Affordable homes are still a dream for anyone who wants to live less than 20 minutes from anything in town, otherwise you’re doomed to a carbon copy home an hour away on the edge of the high desert or doomed to live into an ever expanding ghetto stretching from tramway in the east to coors on the west side.
As sour as the situation in this city sounds, I always believe that there is an opportunity to grow and change the course that we are collectively on. Change is never an easy thing to make happen. Fundamentally, our culture in Albuquerque needs to grow in every way possible: Economically, culturally, socially. We need to start taking action at the polls in local elections: Start voting and think about the kind of person you’re electing. Realistically, who gives a crap if the person you’re electing has the D or R label next to their name? If they act like a facist and are a part of the democrats, do you really want to vote a person who hates fun, and bends over backwards to bust it while the city is awash in crime to be in charge of things?
I sure as hell don’t.
I participate in elections because i believe the people i elect are there to serve me, not to tell me what the fuck I can do on a Saturday night, and where I can do it. Like most of you i am a grown adult and can make my own choices.
Think about this year, this year of renewal, hard work, and activity, and then envision what you want to see Albuquerque look like in the next year, the next five, and the next ten. Think about where things are today and how they got here. It isn’t until you see a vision of what you want, like safe, secure venues where anyone can go to hear the music they enjoy and drink the drinks they want, or see themselves living in a safe and friendly city that has open and progressive values along with solid economic and educational opportunities that we will be able to allow these things to happen.
