Commentary:
The City of Las Cruces has made a lot of noise over the last few years about "going green," smart growth," and becoming an "outdoor travel destination." Which makes the City's announcement to extend Mesa Grande Drive from SR70 to East Lohman so shocking because it's totally contrary to these goals. Now this won't be just a road mind you rather it opens up vast new areas of the East Mesa's raw, unspoiled, and beautiful desert to development all the way from the far north to the distant south and the terrible sprawl, traffic, and air pollution that goes with it.
Many note the ever-worsening traffic in Las Cruces and the reason for it which is massive sprawl. People live farther and farther from where they work and shop and thus crowd local roads to get from one side of town where they work to the other side where they live. And this massive sprawl is draining the life out of and causing the severe blight of the old city which is now full of partially-abandoned old commercial corridors like Solano, El Paseo, West Picacho, and South Main which, ironically, the City recently announced that it wants to reinvigorate and bring back to life. Well, you don't do that by facilitating even more sprawl development on the City's edges which robs the old areas of businesses, jobs, and residents! So I call this a terrible "exurban sprawl and old city blight" policy by the City because the two are interconnected; the sprawl is causing the blight.
If the City really wants to build a road it would be far better to extend Madrid or Spruce from where they end now at Triviz and Telshor, respectively, over to Roadrunner and east and thus relieve the terrible traffic that is currently all funneled into only two corridors SR70 or Lohman. It can readily and affordably be done by going either over or under Interstate 25 and then over the Telshor Dam. Now that would dramatically improve life and traffic for all Las Crucens as well as helping reinvigorate the steadily deteriorating and blighted old city.
And let's talk about the environment and the City's goal to be an outdoor travel destination- well how can this happen if the formerly beautiful outdoors is covered with sprawl development and the formerly clean air polluted from auto exhaust? Las Cruces already has poor air quality issues and promoting even more sprawl development only worsens it. Just think of our views of the Organ Mountains permanently obscured by a thick film of smog! And our local desert and its fragile ecosystems and wildlife are already imperiled and this new road announcement further reduces habitat and causes the die off of native plant and animal species. To lose our precious and irreplaceable natural heritage -and the reasons people visit here- for just more sprawl is simply wrong.
And environmental destruction and bad air quality caused by sprawl are not just abstract concerns rather they are very bad for our human health. Sitting in cars and heavy traffic for long distances and constantly breathing bad air leads to obesity, heart disease, shortened lifespans, and even death- and who wants that?
So, given all the negatives and lacking any positives of the "exurban sprawl and old city blight" policy by the City, does Las Cruces really want more sprawl?
Sincerely, Tom Reavey Jr, Mayor's Community Service Citation Recipient