Updates
Monday, June 27, 2023
KOB 4 Covers Permanent Injunction
Thank you to KOB and reporter Griffin Rushton (who has followed our story since November!) for covering the permanent injunction! Read the full article on the KOB website.
Never forget that the City could build their massive building in the Open Space only if they could somehow prove in court that Albuquerque citizens were not the “intended beneficiaries” of the Elena Gallegos when it was purchased — an argument they tried to make but that the judge refused to entertain!
Monday, June 26, 2023
KRQE 13 Covers Permanent Injunction
Our celebration was awesome! Thank you to everyone who joined us! And thank you to KQRE and reporter Marilyn Upchurch for covering the event! Read the full article on the KRQE website.
Monday, June 26, 2023
PERMANENT INJUNCTION IS OFFICIAL
We did it!! We Saved the Elena Gallegos Open Space!!!
Thank you to everyone who supported us on this journey. Today, we are honored and ecstatic to announce that the judge has finalized the permanent injunction, and the Elena Gallegos Open Space will forever be protected from buildings and government development. From this day forward, the injunction will ensure that the City of Albuquerque can legally construct in the EGOS only the structures that are explicitly allowed by the deed: picnic tables, benches, open-walled shelters, barbecue grills, drinking fountains, horseshoe pits, volleyball courts, and restrooms. The Elena Gallegos, now and forty years from now and beyond, will be preserved and maintained as open space wilderness. Her perfect, beautiful land is our most valuable public resource, and the greatest gift we can leave our children and grandchildren.
Come celebrate with us TONIGHT, Monday 6/26/23, at 7:30 PM in the Elena Gallegos Open Space. We’re meeting in the Cottonwood Springs parking lot and will do a festive mini-hike at golden hour. And we’ll have popsicles!
Truly, today is a great day. We cannot overstate how rare it is for the “little guy” to sue his government and WIN! We saved the Elena Gallegos!
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Lawsuit Update #4
We have great news to share regarding our lawsuit! After our game-changing victory on May 16, the City of Albuquerque saw the writing on the wall that they were going to lose at trial, so they offered us a settlement that agreed to all of our terms for a permanent injunction, upholding the deed to the Elena Gallegos Open Space. We are in the process of negotiating with them for this permanent injunction right now. Our lawyer has written a draft of it (it reinforces verbatim the land-use restrictions in the deed (top of page 3)) and the City and our eighteen citizen plaintiffs have agreed to it. Next we’ll send it to the judge and await his review and signature.
This permanent injunction has always been our goal, so when it’s official, it will mark a complete, final, and amazing victory. We are happy, relieved, and grateful, but also feel compelled to share:
Achieving the injunction through a settlement, rather than taking our case all the way to trial and winning in court, feels bittersweet. Settling now, rather than waiting a year or longer for a court date, is clearly the smart, practical, and right choice. We’ll achieve the exact same permanent injunction we would have been awarded in court, while also saving tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
But settling also means that we’ll never get an official ruling from a judge that the City’s Education Center violated the deed. Our Parks & Rec Director (Dave Simon) and Open Space Superintendent (Colleen Langan-McRoberts) invested $330k in taxpayer dollars in plans for a building that was expressly prohibited by law. Our community confronted them with the deed on May 9, 2022, and rather than admitting their mistake, they lied, denied, avoided, cancelled all public meetings and opportunities for public feedback, and, in fact, doubled-down on their plans and proceeded as though the deed did not exist. When “Save The Elena Gallegos” was formed in October, they told reporters, individual citizens, and multiple local environmental and outdoor organizations that we were spreading misinformation. After our “Call the Mayor” Day in January, the official email response from the Mayor’s Office claimed that the Education Center entailed (direct quote): “NO violation of the deed. PRD would not propose to build a facility that would violate the deed.”
Except that they did. The Education Center violated the deed — point-blank. And a court ruling to that effect would have held our government officials accountable, not just for wasting so much public money but especially for the lack of integrity they’ve demonstrated since May 9 of last year.
Anyway — this permanent injunction, however it’s created, is a monumental victory. We took on our own government, and we WON! And we can’t wait to celebrate with our community as soon as the judge signs off.
Saturday, June 3, 2023
KOB 4 National Trails Day Coverage
We’re grateful to KOB and reporter Griffin Rushton for featuring "Save the Elena Gallegos" in their coverage of National Trails Day, and for sharing the judge's May 16 ruling that WE THE PEOPLE of Albuquerque have standing to enforce the deed to the Elena Gallegos Open Space! Thank you, also to the 75 volunteers who labored in the hot sun today to maintain the Elena's beautiful trails! Read the full article on the KOB website.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Plaintiffs’ Motion GRANTED!
WOW!! We celebrate a BIG victory today!!!!
To our surprise and elation, the judge in our lawsuit has issued an order, granting us our motion for summary judgment in our favor that all eighteen of our citizen plaintiffs have standing to enforce the deed to the Elena Gallegos Open Space!! The judge has concluded that “a hearing is not necessary” because “the material facts are undisputed” and all plaintiffs “have demonstrated sufficient injuries in fact to give them standing to seek to enforce the restrictions in the deed at issue here.”
This order is GAME-CHANGING for our lawsuit. When we filed our legal complaint back in December, we anticipated that the issue of standing would be the most difficult obstacle we’d need to surpass… and now we’ve sailed right past it! The stage is set for a permanent injunction!!
Thursday, May 4, 2023
City’s Motion DENIED!
Today, "Save the Elena Gallegos" celebrates another victory in our lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque!
At our hearing, the judge heard arguments from our lawyer and the City's lawyer, then firmly *DENIED* the City's motion for summary judgment in their favor.
Our case will now proceed to a second hearing on June 6 (to hear OUR motion for summary judgment that our eighteen citizen plaintiffs have standing to enforce the deed to the Elena Gallegos) and hopefully, after that, to trial.
The journey ahead is long, but today we are one step closer to a permanent injunction!
Monday, May 1, 2023
Lawsuit Update #3
“Save the Elena Gallegos” has been assigned our first hearing with a judge in Bernalillo County's 2nd Judicial District Court, for this Thursday, May 4. The judge will hear the City's motion that citizens do not have standing to enforce the deed to the Elena Gallegos.
Assuming the City does not prevail in this first hearing, we've also been assigned a second hearing for Tuesday, June 6, at which the judge will hear OUR motion that citizens DO have standing to enforce the deed.
The City's announcement last Wednesday was a huge victory for us! But it has no bearing on our legal case. Our Parks & Rec Department invested $330k in taxpayer dollars in plans for a Visitor Center and had every intention of building it. Even though they've set aside their plans for now, their press release is not legally binding, and we can't know what they'll decide to do next year, or what the next administration will want to build. We will continue to fight for a permanent injunction that will protect the land forever!
Our community confronted Parks & Rec with copies of the Elena Gallegos Purchase Agreement and Deed on May 3 and May 9 of last year, respectively, and it feels fitting that, almost exactly one year later, we will finally get those documents in front of a judge!
(Check out our Facebook or Instagram for some amazing videos, recorded by John Mierzwa, of COUGARS in the Elena!)
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
CABQ Parks & Rec “Not Pursuing Elena Gallegos Education Center”
Today “Save the Elena Gallegos” achieved an amazing first victory! This morning, CABQ Parks & Rec issued a press release, announcing that they will no longer pursue an Elena Gallegos Education Center.
Tonight we celebrate! Yet our fight is not yet over. We will still seek a permanent injunction to protect the land from development, for all future generations.
Read our official statement, the City’s press release, and today’s media coverage here.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Lawsuit Update #2
Today, in our lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque, “Save the Elena Gallegos” filed a motion for summary judgment in OUR favor that our 18 citizen plaintiffs have standing to enforce the deed to the Elena Gallegos. This precious land belongs to WE THE PEOPLE of Albuquerque and the deed is OURS to uphold!
We’ve been silent on social media these last three weeks, but please know that much is happening behind the scenes and our hard work hasn’t stopped. We should have more updates soon. Thank you for your continued support!
Monday, March 13, 2023
We’re Now a 501(c)(3)!
A few days ago, “Save the Elena Gallegos” was granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, which means all donations made to us (from November 2, 2022 onward) are now TAX-DEDUCTIBLE — yet another reason to donate to our GoFundMe if it’s within your means!
Thank you to John Mierzwa for another beautiful photo taken in the Elena Gallegos.
Sunday, March 5, 2023
Petition Reaches 11,000 Signatures!
We just surpassed ELEVEN THOUSAND signatures on our petition, of which 7,406 come from Albuquerque residents. Thank you for such abounding love and support! Let’s keep going and save the Elena Gallegos!!
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Lawsuit Update #1
We have our first development in our lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque.
On Thursday 2/23/23, the City filed a motion for summary judgment in their favor on the grounds that:
1) Our 18 citizen plaintiffs cannot enforce the deed to the Elena Gallegos because citizens are "not the intended beneficiary of the deed." (!!!! Yes, our own government is making this claim!)
2) Our lawsuit is “premature." While the City admits that the deed contains specific prohibitions, the deed does not explicitly prohibit “feasibility studies,” which is all the City has completed to date.
We are underwhelmed by this filing (to say the least!) and plan to disprove them in court. WE THE PEOPLE of Albuquerque are the intended beneficiaries of the deed. If not us, then who??? And the City can claim that we can’t enforce the deed against their “Feasibility Study” ONLY if they can ALSO claim that they have no intention of actually building the building described inside it. Which would mean the City gave a $250k taxpayer-funded “no-show” contract to Dale Dekker (a major campaign contributor to Mayor Keller) and his architecture firm Dekker/Perich/Sabatini — which would be a whole different betrayal of their citizenry!
Our fight continues, and we’ll keep you posted every step of the way. Thank you for standing alongside us to save this beautiful land! We are very close to 11,000 signatures on our petition!
And this is a photo of Winston the Boston Terrier, living his best life in the Elena Gallegos! Winston was born to Cat Simms and Albert Simms III in Taos and adopted at 8 weeks old by Mary and David Metz of Albuquerque. Yes, he’s (sort of) a descendant of THE Simms family, so of course he feels a calling to the Elena Gallegos!
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
City Announces, then Suddenly Cancels, “Stakeholder Meetings”
Boy do we have whiplash from the last 48 hours!
Late on Monday night 2/13/23, “Save the Elena Gallegos” was alerted to a last-minute press release from landscape architecture firm Groundwork Studio. The press release shared that Groundwork was contracted by CABQ to host four public “stakeholder” meetings to discuss the proposed Education Center, and the first one was the next day (!) at noon on Zoom.
We blasted out the news on our social media and Google Group and our community leapt into action. Many dozens of us registered to attend; it was our first opportunity to give “public input” on the project since May 14, 2022 (when Open Space Superintendent Colleen Langan-McRoberts hosted a public “Walking Tour” in the Elena Gallegos of the proposed sites for the building).
Then, on Tuesday 2/14, at exactly 12 noon, just as the first meeting was set to start on Zoom, all four meetings were suddenly and unceremoniously cancelled, with no explanation provided. We assume, but haven’t been able to confirm, that the cancellations were related to our lawsuit.
The City of Albuquerque is required to engage with the public on taxpayer-funded projects through proper channels of communication. The City must hold public meetings where citizens can give input, and these meetings must be announced: with at least 14 days prior notice; in English and Spanish and through diverse channels; on social media, in local newspapers, and in physical signs and mailers posted in and sent to the communities most impacted; and with a way to request ADA accommodations, such as an ASL interpreter.
As far as we can tell, these “stakeholder meetings” were announced only with a quick blurb on KOB the night before and as a single line item on the Open Space Alliance Board’s Event Calendar. They weren’t announced on any of the City’s social media feeds; on the CABQ website for the Elena Gallegos; nor on the D/P/S site for the project.
Was the City trying to sneak these meetings past us and exclude us from participation? Why are they so afraid of our public input??
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
TEN THOUSAND SIGNATURES!!!
Today we reached 10,000 signatures on our official petition, of which 6,612 come from Albuquerque residents. WOW!!!!! Thank you to everyone who helped us achieve this incredible milestone! Together we are going to save the sacred and beautiful Elena Gallegos Open Space!
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
The Paper Interviews CABQ Parks & Rec Director
Thank you to The Paper and reporter Gwynne Unruh for a comprehensive article covering the City’s Education Center and the efforts of “Save the Elena Gallegos” to save the wilderness. Ms. Unruh gave CABQ Parks & Rec Director Dave Simon ample opportunity to defend his development vision for the Elena Gallegos… and yet this interview drove 100 new signatures to our petition in the last twenty-four hours! Read the full article on The Paper’s website.
Monday, January 23, 2023
UNM’s Daily Lobo Covers “Save the Elena Gallegos”!
Thank you to UNM’s newspaper The Daily Lobo and reporter Maddie Pukite for a thorough article on “Save the Elena Gallegos.” Read the full article on the Daily Lobo website. We are grateful for this opportunity to reach UNM students and the UNM community!
Thursday, January 12, 2023
“Call the Mayor” Day a Success!
Thank you to everyone who participated in “Call the Mayor” Day! By midday, the Mayor’s phone lines were overwhelmed, and his aides began simply tallying our callers as ‘no’ votes against the project. We also received dozens upon dozens of messages from supporters, letting us know they called in, and our social media posts on the event garnered hundreds of likes. Suffice to say we are confident we had a strong turnout and made an impact!
If you missed it, it is never too late to call and email the Mayor’s Office on ANY day and express your opposition to a building in the Elena Gallegos! Every citizen voice counts!
(Screenshot is from an amazing video of a mama bear and three cubs in the Elena Gallegos, recorded by John Mierzwa!)
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Petition Reaches 9,000 Signatures!
Today we surpassed NINE THOUSAND signatures on our petition, of which 5,827 come from Albuquerque residents. Truly amazing. We are grateful beyond words!
Friday, January 6, 2023
Next Wednesday, January 11 is “Call the Mayor” Day!
If you are reading this, we please need YOUR participation! We’re declaring next Wednesday, January 11 to be “Call the Mayor” Day, on which we please ask all “Save the Elena Gallegos” supporters to CALL and EMAIL Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller to express opposition to the “Education Center.” Learn more on our new January 11 tab!
Parks & Rec says the project is in the “public input phase” — let’s give Mayor Keller our public input!!!
Monday, January 2, 2023
Elena Gallegos is Critical Habitat for Deer
Recently, “Save the Elena Gallegos” connected with Albuquerque wildlife enthusiast and photographer John Mierzwa, who shared with us these beautiful deer photos he took in the Elena Gallegos and taught us about the importance of the land as a critical habitat for deer. He writes:
“I have spent countless hours watching wildlife, especially deer, go about their days unimpeded in the unspoiled Open Space. Deer especially utilize the Elena Gallegos because it is less steep and rugged than immediately surrounding areas. During the rut (when does are in heat and the deer are mating, roughly mid-November through mid-January) there are always many deer mating in the ‘flats’ of the Elena Gallegos. Deer are less vulnerable to the many area mountain lions while in the ‘flats’ vs. in the surrounding steeper areas, which is another reason why so many utilize the Elena Gallegos for mating. Any construction or large structures in the Elena Gallegos will almost certainly adversely affect the deer population.”
We always knew that the Elena Gallegos was the BEST place in Albuquerque to observe deer, and now we know why! Thank you, John!
Our Parks & Rec continues to push for PROHIBITED development in the Elena Gallegos and yet has done NOTHING to evaluate the potential impact on wildlife. Deer depend on the unique geography of the Elena Gallegos for survival. A building will drive them out of the Elena Gallegos and into a less safe breeding ground. We MUST keep buildings out of this sacred land for the sake of our beautiful deer!
Thursday, December 29, 2022
The Paper Covers Our Lawsuit!
Thank you to local independent news outlet The Paper and reporter Gwynne Unruh for covering “Save the Elena Gallegos,” and for our favorite headline yet — yes, our movement is THOUSANDS strong! Read the full article on The Paper’s website.
The Paper also previously covered “Save the Elena Gallegos” back on November 17. Read the previous article here!
Thursday, December 22, 2022
KOB 4 Covers Our Lawsuit!
Thank you to KOB and reporter Griffin Rushton for this segment! Read the full article on the KOB website.
Thursday, December 22, 2022
KRQE 13 Covers Our Lawsuit!
Thank you to KRQE and reporter Dominic Brown for this segment! Read the full article on the KRQE website.
Thursday, December 22, 2022
We’ve FILED!!
Today, "Save the Elena Gallegos" filed a lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque to uphold the Deed which protects the Elena Gallegos Open Space from development. So that our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren may inherit a world that still has wilderness!
For the two co-founders of “Save the Elena Gallegos,” this lawsuit has been far more time-consuming, stressful, and overwhelming than we could have imagined. But we’re encouraged to keep going every time someone from the community reaches out to let us know that they, too, are devastated by the prospect of a building in the Elena Gallegos. Thank you for loving that sacred land as much as we do. We are heartened to know that we have both the law and the people of Albuquerque on our side!
Sunday, December 18, 2022
“Save the Elena Gallegos” Follow-up on KRQE 13!
Back in October, KRQE reporter Jessica Barron was the first journalist to share our petition with Albuquerque viewers. This weekend, she ran a follow-up segment on “Save the Elena Gallegos.” Thank you to Barron and KRQE 13 Local News for the coverage! Read the full article on the KRQE website.
We are only one or two days away from filing our injunction! Please send us all the good vibes, and watch this space for important updates!
Thursday, December 8, 2022
“Leave Elena Gallegos Open Space as it is”
The Albuquerque Journal published an awesome “Letter to the Editor” today, from local realtor Giulia Urquhart. Ms. Urquhart is not associated with “Save the Elena Gallegos,” but we’re sharing her letter here because she eloquently articulates many of our community’s concerns.
The Journal ran an article on the City’s proposed Education Center back on April 10, 2022, but journalist Jessica Dyer failed to mention the crucial legal argument at stake, which is the clear restrictions in the Deed to the Elena Gallegos that the City’s project would violate. We would love for the Journal to run a follow-up with more complete coverage that includes the Deed!
Saturday, December 3, 2022
Petition Reaches 8,000 Signatures!
We are amazed and grateful that we’ve reached EIGHT THOUSAND signatures on our petition, from Burqueños in every zip code in Albuquerque. Thank you so much for your support. Let’s get to 10,000 signatures!!
Behind-the-scenes, we’ve been working tirelessly to finalize our legal complaint. We should have big updates soon!
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Corruption Within CABQ Parks & Rec
We invite all Burqueños and all supporters of the Elena Gallegos to please go watch/read this Larry Barker/KRQE investigation into an illegal misappropriation of public money that happened within our Parks & Rec this year. We’ve also posted a recap of the segment on both our Facebook and Instagram pages and to our petition.
Parks & Rec Director Dave “Jumbotron” Simon is the main driver behind the planned PROHIBITED development of the Elena Gallegos. We cannot allow this man to win! Imagine being so corrupt that a news story announcing an injunction against you is only the SECOND worst news story in your Tuesday!
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Lawsuit Announced on KOB 4 Local News!
Our upcoming lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque was featured on KOB 4 Local News. Thank you to reporter Griffin Rushton for this opportunity to reach viewers across Albuquerque! Read the full article on the KOB website.
We are moving forward with filing an injunction against the City of Albuquerque, to uphold the Deed which protects the Elena Gallegos from development, and our lawyer has told us to prepare to spend $30k to $60k over the next year. Any sum of money you are able to contribute is deeply appreciated and will go toward covering these substantial legal fees. Please also share the link to our GoFundMe (www.gofundme.com/f/saveelenagallegos) with your friends, family, neighbors, and communities.
We’ve also partnered with an eco-friendly fashion fulfillment platform called Ink Blot to sell T-shirts and tote bags with our logos on them. You can learn more about our merch on the new ‘DONATE’ section of this website.
Thank you for your continued support and care. We believe victory is possible and that we can still save the Elena Gallegos from prohibited development!
Monday, November 14, 2022
“Save the Elena Gallegos” Featured on KOB 4 Local News!
Last Sunday’s rally was featured in a quick segment on KOB 4 Local News. We are grateful for this opportunity to reach viewers across Albuquerque! Please know that the City’s proposed development violates not just an “old purchase agreement,” but also the literal Deed which governs the land. Both documents are available for download here if you’d like to read them for yourself!
Monday, November 14, 2022
Petition Reaches 6,000 Signatures!
This past weekend we SMASHED our goal of 5,000 signatures and blew right past it to SIX THOUSAND! We are still in shock, and can’t believe we get to say that we’re now aiming for TEN THOUSAND signatures! Thank you to everyone who has signed and shared our petition.
Sunday, November 13, 2022
Rally was a Success!
Our rally this morning was a great success! We had a substantial turnout and are so grateful to everyone who trekked up to the trailhead to show their love for the Elena Gallegos. The weather was beautiful, our rally was peaceful, and we had a lot of fun connecting with Albuquerque's running community. You can view more photos from the rally on this Instagram post or this Facebook post.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
RALLY to Save the EGOS!
Sunday, November 13, 2022
9 AM to 12 Noon
Elena Gallegos Open Space -- Pino Trailhead
Let’s do this, Albuquerque!
Albuquerque's Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a 10 mile run through the Foothills next Sunday, inspired by the (now canceled) La Luz Trail Run. This run is a commercial event (which is exactly why Cibola National Forest officials canceled its previous iteration), which unfortunately is exactly in keeping with CABQ Parks and Rec Director Dave Simon’s vision of transforming the Elena Gallegos from a wilderness preserve to a “prestige” commercial tourist destination. We believe this new Foothills Run is Mr. Simon’s sneaky way of driving more big events and government programming to the EGOS, so that in the future he can argue that he needs to develop the EGOS and build buildings there in order to facilitate all these events. We also believe that he is using next Sunday's run as a chance to test out his plans for a satellite parking lot in the Pino Arroyo and a shuttle system up to the EGOS (run participants are being asked to park in a nearby Albertsons parking lot and are being bussed up to the Open Space).
The race begins at 8 AM and we are coordinating our rally to time with the race's end. Please plan on parking on nearby neighborhood streets and walking up to the EGOS (there will be no car access on the 13th), and please either bring your own homemade protest sign.
To be clear: we are NOT protesting the race; we are protesting Parks and Rec's planned PROHIBITED development of the EGOS. We are coordinating our rally with Sunday's event because it's an opportunity for us to bring more awareness to our cause and to add more wilderness supporters to our ranks. The EGOS belongs to everyone and we are excited to share her pristine beauty with Albuquerque’s running community!
Please invite friends, family, and neighbors to this rally! And please keep sharing our petition; every day we inch closer to our goal of 5,000 signatures. We are moving forward with filing an injunction against the City and will soon be launching a crowdfunding campaign to cover legal fees.
Thank you for all your support and for helping us save this beautiful land!
Monday, October 24, 2022
Petition Reaches 4,000 Signatures!
Just a quick update to celebrate reaching 4,000 signatures on our official petition yesterday! Please continue to share our petition with friends, family, and neighbors and help us get to our goal of 5,000 signatures!
We have big announcements coming in the next week — we’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign — so please stay tuned. And thank you, again, for all your support.
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Petition Reaches 3,000 Signatures!
WOW! We’ve reached 3,000 signatures on our official petition. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Every day we receive new supportive messages from Burqueños from all neighborhoods, who love the Elena Gallegos and want to keep her wild.
We’ve set a new goal of 5,000 signatures so please continue to share our petition with your friends, family, and neighbors!
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
“Save the Elena Gallegos” Featured on KRQE 13 Local News!
Wow, that was fast! In just four short days, our petition reached 1,000 signatures, attracting the attention of KRQE 13 Local News. Thank you to reporter Jessica Barron for giving us this opportunity to reach viewers across Albuquerque. Read the full article on the KRQE website.
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Change.org Petition is Now Live!
Our official petition is now LIVE on the change.org platform. Please sign and share at change.org/saveelenagallegos!
