If the often-proposed Downtown sports/events arena is to be built, Rails Inc. makes these recommendations:

• No Public Parking:  We believe there should be no available parking at this facility except for emergency vehicles, transit, handicapped vans and the vehicles of the performers themselves. This is not as screwball as it might sound. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is beginning to catch on in the West. We've got the Rail Runner. We're on our way to modern Streetcar service.

  And events like the Balloon Fiesta have given us some experience in Park-And-Ride logistics. These factors, along with lots of secure bicycle/scooter spaces, should render ridiculous any perceived need for private automotive access or parking for the facility.

• Advanced Building Techniques
  • Safe: The destruction ofthe World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Building has taught us a lot about attack-resistant building techniques. Let's make sure we adopt the best of these; the up-front cost will not be outrageous compared to the obvious benefits available.
  • Green: Green building techniques include, but are not limited to, Cool Roofing and Green Roofing (light-colored surface and living plants), and solar panels on same. Maybe even a wind turbine or two (?). Net-metering procedures could be worked out with PNM, and related grants might be available.
  • Smart: Attention needs to be paid to factors like insulation, solar orientation, ease of maintenance and repair, ease of evacuation, and the twin concepts of advanced air handling and the temperature differential between the North and South faces ofthe building.

We believe that emphasis on the above will not only lead to benefits ranging from lower operating costs to energy-and-transit-related bragging rights, but will go a long way toward our possession of a public facility we can all be proud of; as opposed to a white-elephant eyesore already obsolete as it's built and just waiting to be torn( down again.

For more information along these lines, contact us or "google" topics like Biomimicry, Green Building and Transit Oriented Development. Or contact the authorities in Dallas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Calgary, Edmonton and other Western cities already moving down this "road". (End here).

This is important. Please feel free to contact us.

RAILS Inc., (505)268-2884, www.nmrails.org

Contact us for more information.