Latest news with #Castañeda
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Every Lobo makes a difference:' Family and friends celebrate UNM grads
May 17—The closer his brother got to the stage, the wider the grin on Javier Castañeda's face grew. "It's a great feeling. It's a blessing to be able to have him attend this school," Castañeda said of his younger brother, Jose Castañeda, who received his bachelor's degree in theatre on Saturday from the University of New Mexico. "Every day, he finds new ways to not just impress me, but our family, and just keep on going." The Castañeda family was one of thousands who celebrated this weekend as more than 2,000 students from the largest university in the state received their bachelor's degrees, with family and friends packing the Pit for UNM's spring commencement ceremony. "We are not the same university we were before you walked through our doors. Every Lobo makes a difference, every Lobo has an impact, every Lobo makes us better," UNM President Garnett Stokes told attendees. "We will watch with pride and certainty as you make your way into the world, but we also know that you are ready for it, for each of you has been well-prepared." Across its campuses, UNM counted 3,636 students receiving degrees as part of the spring 2025 class, including associate's degrees from its campuses in Gallup, Los Alamos, Taos and Valencia, according to a news release. Its main Albuquerque campus accounted for over 3,000 of those degrees, with 2,172 of those being bachelor's degrees, 487 being master's degrees, over 200 doctorates, 127 graduate certificates and 12 education specialists. Before the ceremony began, Cynthia Garibay described her feelings as a mix of excitement and anxiety as she prepared to walk the stage and receive her business administration degree. "It's also exciting to know you're on to bigger and better things," Garibay said. "I already have a full-time job, but they are looking to promote me, so this degree definitely helps." Before he made his way to the floor, Jose Contreras, an Anaheim, California, native who came to Albuquerque to study, excitedly pointed to a section of the crowd where 12 of his family members sat. They made the more-than 18-hour drive to watch him walk the stage. "I'm excited to just enjoy a meal with them, and just enjoy New Mexico for a weekend with them," he said. He also reflected on his time in college and the milestone just minutes away. "My favorite experience in college is, I think, this moment," said Contreras, who earned degrees in electrical engineering and Spanish. "Seeing everyone's faces from when we first started to now, I see all the years that have gone by, and I'm excited to just see this moment."
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Owner of historic Las Vegas hotels puts properties on market
Purchasing and renovating historic properties is nothing new to Allan Affeldt, as the Arizona-based entrepreneur has spent decades breathing new life into distressed buildings across the Southwest. But the latest chapter in Affeldt's career will serve as a departure for him, as he has made the decision to sell two landmark properties he owns in Las Vegas, N.M., The Plaza Hotel and the Castañeda Hotel. 'This is the first time I've sold [any] of my major properties,' Affeldt said, referring to the many hotels, restaurants and buildings he has bought and restored. 'It's bittersweet for us, of course, because we've spent so much time and effort on them,' he said, referring to his wife, Tina, and himself. Affeldt said he has owned the two properties for approximately 10 years and has completed the renovation work on both of them. It was always his long-term plan to sell the hotels when that task was complete, so this decision is simply the manifestation of that intention. The Plaza and the Castaneda both are debt free and are money-making propositions, Affeldt said, so he doesn't anticipate they will stay on the market long. 'It's a good time for a transition,' he said. Both properties are more than a century old. The Plaza Hotel was constructed in 1882, while the Castañeda was built in 1898. Affeldt poured millions of dollars into their reconstruction, returning both hotels to their former glory. The Plaza was bankrupt when he bought it, Affeldt said, while the Castañeda effectively had been abandoned for 70 years and was in danger of collapsing. Both properties are widely regarded as historic treasures now. The 70-room Plaza Hotel is located directly north of the Plaza in Las Vegas, its Victorian facade having borne witness to nearly a century and a half of daily life in the city. Dubbed 'The Belle of the Southwest' upon its opening, The Plaza was considered the grandest hotel in the New Mexico Territory for many years. The hotel is perhaps best known as the site where several pivotal scenes in the 2007 Coen Brothers crime drama No Country for Old Men were shot. The film captured four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The Castañeda, built in the Mission Revival style, came along 16 years later, becoming the first trackside hotel for famed developer Fred Harvey. The sprawling, 30,000-square-foot structure is highlighted by a 500-foot arcade on its east side, while the tracks of the main line of the Santa Fe Railway ran just a few feet from the hotel's entrance on the west side. 'The properties are much beloved in their community, and it was the daily thank-you's from people' that was the most enjoyable part of the experience of owning them, Affeldt said. 'People understand what a labor of love it is to save these buildings, and that gratitude is very rewarding.' When he purchased the two hotels and began work on them, Affeldt said he was very pleased and surprised to find a large community of highly skilled, old-world tradesmen already living in Las Vegas, including plasterers, glaziers and woodworkers. That allowed him to remain largely faithful to the original style of both properties when he was restoring them, he said. The plaster walls alone are a significant touch, he said, noting that, in most communities, he would have had no choice but to tear down the crumbling originals and replace them with drywall. 'It has an organic feel to it that is virtually unique,' Affeldt said. Those authentic touches are important in a historic project, he said. 'They are to me and, I think, to our guests,' he said, adding that while there is nothing wrong with the use of contemporary materials, the restoration of original materials often generates an aesthetically and emotionally pleasing response among patrons. Affeldt, who resides in Sedona, Ariz., said at one point a few years ago, he was spending half his time in Las Vegas helping manage the two hotels, though he has whittled that down to one week a month in recent years. His plan to sell the two properties reflects his larger desire to simplify his life and focus on other projects, namely those related to social justice issues and philanthropy, he said. In particular, Affeldt said he is committed to focusing on the idea of building affordable workforce housing projects for parts of the country where working-class people have been priced out of their communities. 'This is a national crisis. This is the kind of thing I hear from my own staff,' he said, noting that even people who are making $20 an hour often cannot find decent housing in the communities in which they work. The reason for that, he said, is that housing has become commodified in the United States, he said, with too many homes winding up in the hands of investors. 'There's no place for working people to live,' he said. Affeldt said he hopes to find someone who is as passionate about historic preservation as he is to buy the hotels. He indicated a handful of potential buyers already have expressed interest in the properties. Affeldt said he intends to retain his ownership of his other historic Southwestern properties, which include the Legal Tender Saloon & Eating House in Lamy and La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Ariz.
Axios
11-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
How Chicago plans to help its most rent-burdened residents
Heavy rent burdens disproportionately affect Black and Latino residents on the South and West sides, according to census data released last fall. Why it matters: Rent-burdened people — meaning those who spend more than 30% of their income on housing — have a harder time affording other essentials and saving for their own homes, which further widens the racial wealth and homeownership gap. Axios is examining the issue as part of its yearlong Equity Matters series about metrics on several factors across racial lines, income levels and geography. State of play: Chicago Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda tells Axios that the city needs at least 119,000 additional affordable housing units. Zoom in: Some of the city's most rent-burdened neighborhoods, according to the 2023 data, include South Shore, Englewood and Garfield Park, where the percentage of rent-burdened households exceeds 67%. Some of the least rent-burdened neighborhoods include Lincoln Park, North Center, West Town and Logan Square, with percentages of 35% or less. You can find an interactive map with figures for every neighborhood here. Zoom out: While 45% of Chicagoans carry heavy rent burdens, our percentages trail the national average of 50% and all races do better than their national peers. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the national average rent remained about 20% higher than pre-pandemic levels despite declines in early 2024, Moody's data shows. Rent for the average Chicago one-bedroom costs $1,893 today, a 2.2% increase over last year, according to That would require a salary of about $76,000 to be considered affordable. The trends: Chicago housing has become less affordable across more neighborhoods and income brackets over the last century, especially in the last few decades, according to a WBEZ analysis. Potential solutions: Castañeda says her department is "funding new multi-family developments, supporting inclusionary housing through the Affordable Requirements Ordinance Chicago and investing in permanent supportive housing." The intrigue: City officials are also proposing a program called Green Social Housing (GSH) to finance and build sustainable affordable units, based on a model that's succeeded in the Washington, D.C. area. How it works: The program would require the City Council to pass an ordinance to create an independent nonprofit called a Residential Investment Corporation (RIC) to serve as the GSH developer. The RIC would use $135 million in city bonds approved last year to finance construction of GSH buildings at lower interest rates than private equity would charge, thus reducing construction fees and eventual rental costs. The nonprofit would partner with private developers to build the properties but retain majority ownership during construction and after tenants fill the building. This would ensure that a third of the units remain "permanently affordable," meaning always priced for low-income renters, while the rest would be priced at market rates. Once the buildings are filled, the RIC would refinance the project and repay the loan to the GSH revolving fund, allowing the money to be reinvested in the next GSH building project. The green part: Castañeda tells Axios the buildings would meet strict environmental standards and could incorporate things like electric heat pumps, solar panels and "passive" building technology that reduces heating and cooling costs. This, officials note, would require a green investment up front for lower utility costs later. What's next: A joint City Council committee on housing and finance is expected to vote on establishing the RIC this spring. If the proposal makes it through a full council vote, Castañeda says, groundbreaking on the first GSH building could start as soon as 2026, possibly on the site of projects that have stalled in Fulton Market or other fast-developing areas.
