"Maybe the merchants in Chama are having a bad season is because the people who run the railroad are inflating the number of passenger riding the rails? Like they did last year." This is a quote from Bob in an earlier post in this thread. I would like to ask him if you know this for a fact then say so. If you’re sitting around thinking about how to stir the pot stop it. I don’t know who you are but I do know that if you don’t have hard cold facts about what is going on with ridership at the CATS then all you’re doing is trying to flame what is going on there.
The town of Chama has a very unique social and economic structure. It is a place of haves and haves not. As most of you know the entire county is considered one of the most economically depressed areas in New Mexico. Chama is a tough place to own a business not only due to the ups and downs over the past few years with the railroad but it also has some severe problems with its local government and their desire to keep outsiders from starting new business or improving on the ones that are there. There is a moratorium on new sanitary sewer hookups in Chama, this in itself stifles growth both from a new business standpoint but also no new homes can be built, thus curtailing population growth in the town proper. This insures that only certain people can be elected to the town council and thus they are able to control what does and does not happen in the town proper. We all need to realize there is a lot more to this economic problem than the railroad and gas prices. To blame the railroad is easy, it’s large, it has had problems and it’s a good target due to the diverse group of people who are involved with it. There are a number of local people who are never mentioned in any of the boards that are just as much to blame for the economic ills of Chama but that is not something to be discussed here. The purpose of this post is to make all of you aware that there is more to this than the railroad and its past, present, and future management companies.
John Deck
