NM Ping
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Posted on 01/29/2009 8:26:30 AM PST by CedarDave
The Rail Runner route to Santa Fe has been convenient for commuters, but it has also been convenient for thieves.
Crooks have been targeting cars parked at the Rail Runner's Los Ranchos Station ever since the train began commuting to Santa Fe last month.
"Since the Rail Runner started continuing service to Santa Fe, we've had four or five break-ins in this particular station and one vehicle theft," said Detective Bill Webb.
(Excerpt) Read more at kob.com ...
Duh, you think? Pay $6 to take the train and pay a lot more to replace the broken window and stolen property. In response, Rail Runner officials have installed cameras and a full time security officer started patrolling the parking lot on Wednesday. All at taxpayer expense, of course. And they are discussing the idea of fencing the parking lot so that the thieves have only one way in and out.
PING for the NM list.
BTTT
Santa Fe is still the way I remember it.
I heard from a source in NM that Richardson is finished. he will be lucky to get a job at Taco Bell in Santa Fe or ABQ.
I think Hillary shanked him after he ditched Bill & Hill. Bill probably gave some investigator so documents about Bill’s flim flam deals. Do not cross the Clintons.
Richardson is governor until 2010 unless the fed’s come up with something. His future political career is likely done though like the Clinton’s he might be resurrected.
This is the station off of Paseo del Norte in ABQ. Los Lunas had the same problem when the original service came on line in 2006. Expect it has been solved the same way — a full time security guard.
In New Mexico there are NO prosperous stops though downtown Santa Fe is a ripoff stop.
NM Ping
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So I went to that station on googlemaps, and it looks like the middle of nowhere. How can you NOT have some kind of security system?
A little more follow up, the train travels up the Rio Grande valley which is home to Hispanics and some poor Pueblos (though some have casinos). Lot’s of graffiti as it passes behind empty ABQ warehouses then out to areas where backyards are inhabited by chained pit bulls and broken down automobile hulks.
Two of the Pueblos have requested that the train conductors announce that picture taking of their hovels through the train windows is prohibited. It’s a cultural “sensitivity” thing, you know.
“And they are discussing the idea of fencing the parking lot so that the thieves have only one way in and out. “
Fence? They want a fence....for protection....must be racists.
That's the beauty of the Rail Runner concept. Build a railroad where it's not needed but there's lots of room for growth!!!
“Look at all the cars! It’s like Christmas” to borrow a phrase.
Look at Dixie Yooper’s comment and my response. Stations located in prosperous areas?? What a joke.
Have you ridden the train since you returned from AZ?
So, providing security for a lot full of cars never occurred to them in the planning stages of this project?
I would LOVE to see to railroad try to enforce this. Naturally, the taxpayers will pay to settle the resulting lawsuit.
My original comment had to do with what the DC Metro system has done for each neighborhood every time a new station opens, which results in more car and home break-ins as well as car jackings.
Discussion here:
Rail Runner warns of taking pictures on pueblos (NM-Richardson's Railroad)
It would be a tossup in today's climate as to whether a picture taker would prevail. The tracks have been used by passenger trains for well over a hundred years. However they travel through pueblo lands which have a "no pictures" policy. The RR can make rules like no pets, food, drink on the train so I guess they could make one about picture taking, also, the First Amendment notwithstanding.
I know what you were getting at with your comment. And I did not to make it seem as if I was ridiculing you, but the assumption that these stations were located in prosperous areas. It would very likely be a true assumption except here in NM.
There are no prosperous areas where the stations are located. The railroad goes through very poor areas though there may be one future stop in Santa Fe that might be defined as prosperous. As for vehicle break ins, they have been occurring but not be riders but by local hoods seeing an opportunity with all the cars at stations and no or only minimal security.
What’s funny is, that was the first thing I thought about with respect to park and ride. Apparently, it’s just now dawning on these folks.
I don't know if that's the case. But having a Metro station nearby increases property values and spurs development. Look at, for example, the areas around the Friendship Heights, Courthouse and Clarendon stops.
There's a reason the property owners in the Tyson's are more than happy to have their property taxes go up in exchange for the Silver Line (I think?) opening three stops in the area.
That implies some sort of Logistic thinking... if the NMNG is any indication then NOBODY in state politics/employee could “logistic” themselves out of a paper bag with a compass. {Though they could if there were big, bright glow-in-the-dark arrows painted on.}
Thanks, I’ll take a look.
Sad, but true.
Well, good to know this. Next time I visit there in Santa Fe, I’ll take my bike on board the train, and just ride it over to the station... :-)
They also say they are going to get Wireless Internet on the trains, too. They may have it already, I don’t know...
The railroad won’t take it to court; it is supporting the tribes. They will get you and YOU will have to take it to court. And even if it is an illegal rule, you face the chance of getting arrested for failing to obey an order from the train crew. Or you could be charged with creating a disturbance and by doing so interfering with the safe operation of the train, etc. Not something for a casual person to disobey unless he’s willing to spend a lot of time and money fighting it. Of course, that’s the intended effect anyway: Intimidation followed by compliance.
I meant to prosecute.
They will get you and YOU will have to take it to court. And even if it is an illegal rule, you face the chance of getting arrested for failing to obey an order from the train crew. Or you could be charged with creating a disturbance and by doing so interfering with the safe operation of the train, etc. Not something for a casual person to disobey unless he’s willing to spend a lot of time and money fighting it. Of course, that’s the intended effect anyway: Intimidation followed by compliance.
That's when I sue for false arrest, violation of civil rights, and anything else a greedy lawyer can think of.
So what stops the same person jumping is his car and taking all the photos they want? I can name several roads that run through the very same pueblos. The pueblo police can’t be everwhere.
In fact I probably have some somewhere.
RnC
I agree with you, and the RR says so far passengers have complied. It is a complex issue since the pueblos have signs saying no photography and the RR is crossing pueblo land. However, the RR is a public conveyance on a right of way that has been traveled by the public since 1880. So it comes down to a conflict between taking photographs on private property (the tribes and pueblos) which is not a first amendment right and photographs from public rights of way (which should be protected under the first amendment). Depending on whether the courts rule the RR is still on Indian land with its tracks or on a public right of way, you could win or lose a court case. It’s a sticky issue, that’s for sure.
With the two pueblos in question (San Felipe and Santo Domingo) the tracks are extremely close to the houses. The interstate and state highways are some distance from the center of the pueblo which is why so far the other ones have not bitched. I-40 and BNSF (Amtrak) goes through the Navajo Reservation in AZ and NM, and the Laguna, Acoma pueblos in NM. I-25 and Amtrak and the Rail Runner go through Isleta, Sandia, Santa Ana, San Felipe and Santo Domingo pueblos.
As you said, it is unquestionably a sticky issue, and depending on the whim of a judge it is put before could go either way. I hope it never gets before the USSC, particularly if any Obama-picked justices are on it - as somebody said, tough cases make bad law.
Richardson is a cockroach. He could survive a nuclear blast.
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