I had to apply for unemployment this year, and noticed that there are no parking meters in the street in front of the unemployment office. However, all the cars parked in these free spaces seemed to be owned by the immigrants who stand in the park looking for work — even though there are meters all the way to the Railyard.
I was wondering how much the city is losing in money and fines. I wonder how all the other people who work downtown who must park at meters and spend their tips or part of their paychecks feel. I know people who must go out every two hours to put money in a meter.



Rather than focusing on exploring crime, city deficits and employee furloughs, urban sprawl and lack of diverse economic opportunities, Mayor David Coss recently opened his re-election bid by attempting to enlarge his already substantial campaign coffers by disingenuously creating fear and panic in the city's work force.

A recent e-mail from Coss' campaign, "Living Wage Danger," claims mayoral candidate Asenath Kepler "does not support our living wage, thinks it's bad for Santa Fe." He implies she would reverse the policy and then calls for donations to get himself re-elected. The truth is that at her town hall meeting, Kepler said she opposed the last living wage hike believing it would cause more job losses.

"The jury is still out," she said because we haven't seen a recent New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research report (bber.unm.edu) analyzing the effect of the living wage on city jobs and businesses during the recession.



I am not one to judge matters of the heart, but for the former Holy Faith rector Rev. Dale Coleman to preach that gay marriage will destroy the sanctity of marriage, then run off with the church's parish administrator, Deacon Joan Garcia (both leaving long marriages), is the height of hypocrisy.



Sometime in June I noticed a sudden drop in gas mileage. I took my 2007 Prius in for a tune-up and had new tires installed with no change. Then a friend from Texas (an Exxon employee) asked why New Mexico had lower octane. We hadn't noticed. Not only had our octane been lowered to 86, but up to 10 percent ethanol had been added. I asked friends if they noticed a drop in mileage and all had. Manuals for both the Prius and our 2001 Jeep say 87 octane or more.

Prior to the lowered octane, I averaged 828 miles per month. I now average 700. I've lost 1,536 miles per year and pay $76.80 more based on $2.50 per gallon. Ethanol isn't green. Its production is worse on the environment than burning gas. Neighboring states have 87 octane. Why don't we?



I was surprised and disappointed in the lack of coverage The New Mexican gave to the weeklong activities of the Festival of Faiths. This was an interfaith communitywide event! I think it was important enough to have sent a reporter to attend the many enjoyable programs. It was attended by many different faith communities and is helping to bring understanding and communication to our city and surrounding areas.

I believe there was one small article in the paper. I am amazed that this newspaper can be so concerned with who they saw at some local eatery, but totally ignore a weeklong event that helps to bring understanding and peace to our City of Holy Faith.




I was very disappointed in your absences of news coverage of a very successful march against global warming. It was attended by hundreds of concerned people who marched from the CCA to the Roundhouse to join with over 190 countries all over the world to reduce CO2 emissions back to 350 parts per million. We are now at 387 ppm. If we reach 449 ppm, the Earth won't sustain us. People who attended the march spent hours beforehand making signs to carry. The feeling was festive and positive with a woman on stilts and larger-than-human puppets, lots of children and smiling faces. Too bad you missed it. Go to 350.org for more information.



So-called experts give various fallacious arguments for increasing our military presence in Afghanistan:

* Win the war against al-Qaida. al-Qaida left Afghanistan long ago and are quite happy in Morocco, Indonesia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc.

* Liberate the people from the Taliban. But Taliban are mostly from the Pashtun ethnic group who want to restore their rule in Afghanistan. The Pashtun make up nearly half the population so we're fighting the Afghan people.

* Support the Afghan government. There is no central government. The Bush regime installed Hamid Karzai as the president, but his administration had been incompetent and disgraced by a rigged election.

* Train the Afghan army in a year. Experience shows that it takes more like 10 years to train a poorly equipped, incompetent and undedicated group that is the Afghan army. President Obama should take a lot of time to decide on the troop level in Afghanistan.