Our history is the oldest, most complex and most glorious in this country. What’s magical about Santa Fe — why we’re proud to call Santa Fe home — is how many cultures come together with mutual respect to form the foundation of our city. That history must not be erased; from the tremendous contributions of Hispanic residents to the enormous resilience of Indigenous people, this history is woven into the fabric of Santa Fe.
This blending of cultures makes our home unique. But it’s not without historic and current tensions. Two years ago, honest, deep conversations and a true effort of peace and reconciliation found unity around retiring the Entrada — a community high point. Last October, a small group of violent protesters toppled the Plaza obelisk — a shocking low point. One process showed the best of Santa Fe; the other was simply not Santa Fe. It was flat-out wrong — and I said so at the time. It continues to cause pain across our city and flies in the face of everything we want for our city. We must move forward and heal. The governing body unanimously voted to begin a project called CHART — culture, history, art, reconciliation and truth. It represents grassroots democracy and offers a long-overdue conversation to bring together our community’s diverse voices. It’s a challenge: Together we can do the hard work of determining how we face our history, understand it, honor it and tell the stories of all of Santa Fe, together. The future we want depends on us facing our past.
Homelessness
Homelessness is stressful for everyone — people experiencing homelessness and the surrounding community. In Santa Fe, our values tell us that not one person should be without housing. Housing is a basic right. During the pandemic, cities around the country were seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases and deaths among homeless populations. You can’t “shelter in place” if you have no place to shelter. I’m proud to say that because we acted fast and stood up an emergency shelter on the midtown campus, Santa Fe had zero reported deaths from COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness.
We’re implementing Built for Zero, a program with the Community Solutions organization designed to end homelessness. With their help and with $2 million of our CARES Act funds, the city helped purchase Santa Fe Suites to provide housing for unhoused and housing-insecure community members, including veterans. That’s a model we can replicate. We must continue our work with Built for Zero until we reach the standard of housing for all. We’ll work on continued solutions for permanent housing for unhoused Santa Feans. This includes workforce housing, affordable housing, emergency rental assistance, emergency housing and housing specifically for community members who are experiencing homelessness or who are precariously housed. Our response to homelessness also includes mental and behavioral health services to help people get back on their feet if needed.
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is our greatest challenge. I don’t believe in growth for growth’s sake. My goal is smart growth. That means a blend of housing that supports existing neighborhoods and creates new, mixed-use developments. As we grow, we must solve two challenges: ensuring everyone who works here can live here, and having a plan for water and growth management. That’s why the current budget includes $200,000 for a growth management study.
In the last three years, we’ve issued permits for roughly 2,500 new housing units with 3,000 to 4,000 more units in the pipeline, in every part of the city. We put over $6 million into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This means more families can access down-payment assistance to buy their first home or apply for rental assistance to keep a roof over their head. These were the largest investments into the Affordable Housing Trust ever. I’m committed to addressing affordable housing and ensuring people can afford to live and work in Santa Fe. The future of Santa Fe runs through our Community Development and Land Use departments. Our land-use code needs an overhaul to provide for more mixed-use neighborhoods. Our permitting process needs to continue to become more customer-friendly. We’ve got vacant city-owned property that we will make available for affordable housing. We’ll also build the 1,400 units already approved, including on St. Michael’s Drive and with Stage 3 of Tierra Contenta.
Spending and budget
I’m proud of the fiscal year ‘22 budget we just passed. It’s arguably the most progressive and aggressive budget in Santa Fe’s history. I’ve always believed the saying: If you show me your budget, I’ll tell you about your values. Our budget reflects Santa Fe’s values to take care of workers, our community and our environment. We invested in city employees by ensuring a 4 percent increase in salaries, and we increased the minimum wage at the city to $15 an hour.
The budget will keep our parks clean and our streets safe. We have $2 million to fix the Bicentennial Pool and capital funds to build a south-side pool. We have money to fill COVID-19-caused vacancies so the city is fully staffed. We’re providing the resources our police and Alternative Response Units need, and we’re addressing the root causes of crime to keep Santa Fe safe. We need to continue to address poverty and inequity in Santa Fe. We’ll do that by strengthening our living wage, bringing more good-paying jobs, and expanding our guaranteed minimum income project that provides $400/month for those families bettering themselves with higher education at Santa Fe Community College and in need of short-term assistance.
Child care is a necessity so people can work and make a living. We must ensure every family that wants or needs child care can pay for it. And we’re going to eliminate childhood hunger in Santa Fe by expanding our farm-to-families food initiative. No one should go to bed hungry in our community.
Growth, natural resources, environment, including parks and medians
Climate change is an existential threat. It requires leadership and a swift and pragmatic response. I’m proud that we developed our own “Green New Deal,” a 25-year sustainability plan that will lead us to carbon neutrality by 2040. My administration also put us on track to have 50 percent of Santa Fe’s electricity powered by clean energy by 2025. We’re on an aggressive path toward 100 percent clean energy. We’ve started to switch all of Santa Fe’s city fleet to electric vehicles, we’re updating 9,000 streetlights to energy efficient fixtures (the equivalent of getting 10,000 cars off the road) while protecting our dark night sky. We’re exploring ways to get to 100 percent water reuse, and I supported a resolution calling for 40- and 80-year water planning to keep us focused on our water future. I put $200,000 in our budget this year for the city’s first comprehensive growth management study, focusing on how to grow in a way that creates livable neighborhoods, preserves our natural resources and ensures affordable housing for all.
As we come out of COVID, small things make big statements. We’re picking up abandoned shopping carts. We’re grooming our medians. We received $1 million from the state for park improvements. Our trails are the pride of Santa Fe. It all matters. I believe Santa Fe will be the most sustainable city in the country. For the work my administration has already accomplished, I’m honored to have earned the endorsement of the Sierra Club.
Police, public safety
Public safety is the first job of the mayor. The way to have a safe and secure city is to prevent the causes of crime and violence. That’s why my administration created a Department of Community Health and Safety: Health and safety belong together. For community health, we just broke ground on the long-overdue Southside Teen Center. We show our young people we value their lives when we invest in them. Our response to homelessness shows how social services and law enforcement can work together. We’re solving human problems in a humane way. The Alternative Response Unit (ARU) is an innovative example of that approach. It teams up a police officer, an EMT and a social worker to help people struggling with mental and behavioral health issues. They’re not criminals; they need our help. Next year we’ll double our commitment to the ARU — because it works.
The police have the toughest job in America. Here’s my commitment: We need more officers. We need to pay our officers more. We need to give them the best equipment and training. We need to make it possible for our officers to live in Santa Fe, so they live in the neighborhoods they’re keeping safe. Our firefighters and EMTs are also remarkable first responders. In COVID, they’ve fearlessly taken on the job of keeping people safe, not just from fire but from disease. Let’s acknowledge the remarkable service of all our first responders and give them our thanks.
