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The former Santa Fe Suites at St. Francis Drive and Zia Road has been converted into housing for the homeless and those who can’t afford market rental rates. (Mark Oswald/For Journal North)
During the pandemic, Santa Fe has made a strong effort to help some of those most vulnerable to COVID-19 – the homeless.
When they’re not on the streets or camping in open spaces, homeless people can be housed in shelters. Like nursing homes, where early outbreaks of the novel coronavirus arose in the U.S. – and where COVID then continued to ravage older populations – homeless shelters are “congregate housing,” group living situations that can provide fertile ground for disease transmission.
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Streetlights such as this one on Agua Fria have been installed around town for a test run to show what impact new LED lights might, or might not, have on Santa Fe’s ‘dark skies.’ (Mark Oswald/For Journal North)
The Journal North has long been a supporter of measures to promote “dark skies” by muting and shielding lights to help provide better views of northern New Mexico’s spectacular night skies.
As soon as plans to switch out all of the city’s existing street lights with new, much more energy-efficient LED lights appeared on a City Council committee agenda, we called on city leaders to follow the lead of other cities and make sure that the LEDs installed here are the right kind that don’t spread glaring blue light and instead focus the light downward with “warmer” tones that reduce light pollution.