Taos has been my lifelong home, and I love many aspects of it. I also travel a lot, and when I travel I see ingenuity that I find lacking in Taos.
As near as Questa and Española are laws against those obnoxiously loud Jake Brakes on semi trucks. In Salida there are radar speed-signs that say “Thank You” when vehicles are traveling at the speed limit. Alamosa has numerous sculptures along the streets. There are ubiquitous bike-paths elsewhere. Even Fairplay, Colorado, population 724, has beautiful bike-paths. In Alaska I crossed a 600-foot long bridge over a huge gorge that is solely for bicycles and pedestrians.
In Crested Butte the parking meter attendant uses a three-wheel electric-bike; in Taos they use a large 4x4 pickup. There are places that use Teslas for police cars because they are less expensive to operate. Vail and Aspen have used Saabs as police cars, and surely they use less gas than the big SUVs and pickups Taos uses. Many places use LEDs for their traffic-lights because they last longer and use far less energy. Not here.
I drove the main street through Taos the other night, and counted 34 non-functioning street lights. Taos’ five closest larger neighbors (Alamosa, Española, Los Alamos, Raton and Santa Fe) all have recycling, and we just CLOSED our recycling center.
Taos has always been resistant to zoning, but should corporations really be able to come here and construct something as discordant as the new Tractor Supply store?
Ian Wilson lives in Arroyo Seco.
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