OP/ED

Couts: Agreement With Mr. Devolder On Bicycle Safety

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By SHERRILL COUTS
Los Alamos

I’d like to add a little bit to Mark Devolder’s article, which could be subtitled with a paraphrase from his text: “Why you couldn’t pay me enough to ride a bicycle in Los Alamos County.” (link)

Mr. Devolder hits many nails on the head, but I’d like to add a few more. In the spirit of his article, applying makeup with the aid of the rear-view mirror while in motion in morning rush-hour traffic is also double-plus uncool. Mr. Devolder mentions his motorcyclist friend. That’s my theme here, but the hazards are the same for bicyclists, too.

In decades past I was an avid motorcyclist, Read More

Devolder: Bicycle Safety

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By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

Los Alamos County/Public Works has requested input to a POLCO survey on bicycles. 

As a long-time motor vehicle driver in Los Alamos County, you could never pay me enough to ride a bicycle in Los Alamos County.

The following are a variety of vehicular issues which affect bicycle safety:

  1. It is a poor driving decision to pull into an oncoming traffic lane in order to pass a bicycle.
  2. Many minivan drivers are typically distracted with cell phones or disciplining kids in the back seat.  The driver’s focus may not be on bicycle traffic.
  3. Los Alamos County drivers are notorious
Read More

Op-Ed: In Response To Drag Queen Story Hour Arguments

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By JOSHUA CHAPMAN
Los Alamos

Let’s talk gay.

As a gay man who grew up in Los Alamos, it was hard for me to understand what LGBTQ+ culture was because there was no exposure.

Let’s talk about the divide that has occurred due to Drag Queen Story Hour. The divide was already there, but this event has emboldened some individuals to speak their little blessed hearts out against an innocent event.

So let’s talk about being LGBTQ+ in 2023. Granted I can only speak about being gay, white, and CIS-Gendered, but I’d love to hear other perspectives. In 2023, it is legal for same sex marriage. In 2023 it is legal for Read More

McCall: ‘Let The People, By Their Actions, Decide On Solutions To Problems’

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By Gene McCall
Los Alamos

I lived in Los Alamos during the summers of 1964 and 1965, then came permanently in 1969.

I have seen many changes in the county and in the Laboratory during my time here.

I found much with which to agree in the recent letter by George Chandler, and a few things with which to disagree. George is a friend, and I will not emphasize the points of disagreement, but I will, simply, express the opinions of another long-term resident. The phrasing may be a bit stilted, but I agree with Winston Churchill who said, “A preposition is not a word to end a sentence with, but that is a rule Read More

Op-Ed: Drag For Kiddies?

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By ANDY FELTON
Los Alamos

I was recently made aware of the Los Alamos County Library’s Drag Story Hour, featuring plans to host “Lil Miss Hot Mess” and the reading of If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It. The event is sponsored by the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, a so-called feminist organization that “expose[s] the danger of misogynist ideology and mobilization.”

In the spirit of exposing misogyny, we should first recall what the term means. Misogyny derives from the Greek terms Misos, meaning “hatred,” and gunē, meaning “woman.” Therefore, the functional definition would Read More

Ozment: Who benefits?

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By CAT OZMENT
Los Alamos

Who benefits from development policy that allows for increased building heights and decreased parking requirements?

Even the “intellectual and skilled human capital the lab needs” will benefit from service industry and retail staff, County employees, mechanics, teachers, health care providers, and other critical members of the fabric of our community having the option to live in the same town where they work.

Instead of worrying that some people may have to choose between their “toys” and their extra car, I am worried about those in town who right now have to choose Read More

Op-Ed: Modern Climate Science Is Junk Science

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By Stephen McLin
White Rock

Most of us are keenly aware of numerous climate prophecies appearing in the media. In some ways they are recycled versions of the old doom-and-gloom outlook borrowed from economics. These climatic predictions are based on computer simulations that have enormous shortcomings, including a glaring lack of agreement with long-term climatic observations.

Kevin Trenberth, former head of modeling at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., has implied on numerous occasions that these modeling simulations contain significant uncertainties Read More

Op/Ed: ‘Devoted To Parking’ – Policies That Hurt Our Town

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By STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Alamos Planning and Zoning Commissioner

This is the second op-ed I’m writing on downtown revitalization, an issue that is coming before Los Alamos County Council Tuesday, May 2.

My focus here is urging Council to accept the Planning and Zoning Commission’s unanimous recommendation on gently reducing parking mandates.  (The first op-ed looks into the issue of building heights.)

If residents of Los Alamos are tired of the drab/depressing downtown with its ocean of empty parking lots and vacant buildings, and want to see that area instead filled with housing and retail, Read More

Skolnik: Housing In Los Alamos – No, It Really Does Not Have To Be This Way

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By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

I commend Stephanie Nakhleh for her exceptionally insightful and well-written pieces on housing.

Ms. Nakhleh makes many important points in her articles. Among the most important for me, someone who has spent a lifetime working in public policy, is:

Our housing shortages are NOT inevitable; rather, to a large degree they stem from a failure of our County Council and its housing policies.

The Planning and Zoning Commission has outlined a number of measures that can be taken to begin to ease some of our misguided housing policies:

  • one is to ease limitations on building
Read More

Fear Of Heights: We Need True Pro-Housing, Anti-Blight Leadership

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By STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Alamos Planning and Zoning Commissioner

Questions for Los Alamos: do you like the way Downtown Los Alamos looks? Are you good with exorbitant commercial and residential rents? Do we love empty storefronts? Are the vacant buildings downtown something we should just learn to live with? Is it cool that more and more people who want to live in Los Alamos are forced to commute? Do we want the town to remain inaccessible to teachers, nurses, firefighters, dry cleaners, restaurants, cafés, and daycares who want to live or operate their small businesses in town? Are we sure that Read More