Albuquerque and UNM: Losing Their Sense of Purpose and Identity
What’s going on at UNM? What’s happened to Albuquerque’s mayor? Why is the athletic department’s request to have a nearly $5 million debt “forgiven” being supported by a UNM Regent appointed by Governor Susana Martinez when the rest of the university is in penury? Why is Tim Keller seeming more and more like the former mayor — invisible and uninspiring, despite his flurry of good moves following his election victory? Who’s leading the substance and image of both the “town and the gown” these days?
The question that disturbs many of us is why have we had no leaders arising out of our population to help UNM and the city galvanize a definition of our future that both want to strive for? Recent presidencies at UNM have been as flat and unctuous as a bad musical that closed on opening night. The same could be said for the city’s leadership. Both places have been kept alive by the superior efforts of their personnel infrastructures. Absence and vacancy, combined with negativity, have infected our leadership elite, becoming impediments to novelty, to experimentation, and the drive to question and to innovate.
Is it possible that the troubles at UNM, once a great cultural and civilizing force in our region, have become a dominating metaphor for the city as a whole?
It seems a good bet. On the face of it, gutting the subsidy at UNM Press, let’s say, one of the school’s and the state’s most visible and acclaimed cultural treasures, and forcing it to cut its book production in half, while almost simultaneously considering “forgiving” the horrendously bad management practices in a non-academic failing enterprise like the athletic department, is a slap in the face to tens of thousands of alumni and all those who value higher learning. It has the same feeling of fiasco and scamming as the Albuquerque Rapid Transit’s (ART) virtual demolition of sensible traffic patterns on Central Avenue.
These alarming goings on have a tinge of the mysterious to them. The echoing silence generated by City Hall seems inextricable. Is something bad happening to Albuquerque’s heart and soul? “Are we finally losing what makes Albuquerque an empowering and inspiring place to live?”
It seems pretty clear that this stagnant moment in our history is not the fault of politics alone, not trickle down Trumpism, or the Montezuma’s revenge of eight nihilistic years of Susana Martinez as governor. Something else is going on. It’s looking bad for us. The wind has gone out of our sails. Poverty will do that to you. But that’s not the sole source, either.
Both UNM and Albuquerque have lost their sense of identity and their sense of purpose, two virtues that drove both town and gown to excellence from WWII through the 1990s, despite New Mexico’s chronic financial enfeeblement. When you lose your sense of purpose and identity, everything becomes flat, numbingly chaotic and dead in the water. You lose your way. UNM can’t really say what it wants to be in a public and accessible way. It can’t be that it strives to become a mediocre jock shop at the expense of its academic and cultural enterprises, can it? It can’t be that Albuquerque wants to give up on itself as becoming a great New Mexican city and finally succumb to those who co-opted so-called “progress” as a disguise for old fashioned land speculation and exploitation, can it?
But how do you take such mysteries apart? Can you use reductionist methods, dissect the problems and find out what’s really wrong? Chances are you can’t. If you are a Gestalt theorist, or a follower of 19th century American philosopher and psychologist William James, everything — from cities to people — is made up not only of parts but of something else that is more than the parts together.
Taking things apart won’t tell you about their essence. The troubles at UNM and in the city of Albuquerque are the same way.
The gestalt, the whole that is “more” than the sum of its parts, has become an essential part of complexity theory, ecology and systems thinking. When you study groups or individuals, that “more” might be called character or personality, or even “soul” or “heart.” In a person, that “more” is what is lost at death. In a city, that “more” is what resists dissolution even in times of rapid grown, demoralization and senseless change.
In Albuquerque, for instance, we sense our status as one of the crime capitals in the country with more auto thefts, burglaries, other property crimes and homicides per capita than almost anyplace else in the country is wrecking not only our image but our self-respect. We are aware, some of us at least, of the desperate plight of our homeless population, aware of our busted economy, our zombie sprawl. And yet, if we’re as bad off as the major media tells us, why would so many of us never imagine living anywhere else but Albuquerque and environs?
At UNM we know that cantankerous and even obnoxious presidents, with non-existent social graces, terrible tempers and no feel or sympathy for the mission of a major research institution have left the school adrift. We know that money woes and penny pinching across campus have threatened the faculty and made learning more difficult. But, still, all of this has not diminished the general affection we feel for the institution, or at least some of us still feel.
One of the reasons you don’t give up on a city or a university in hard times is that they are much more than their bad parts, and much more than their goods parts and their bad parts combined. We love Albuquerque and remain loyal to UNM because of their whole natures. The feeling that we wouldn’t live anywhere else is not accounted for by our weather, our museums, our cultural diversity, our mountains or even New Mexican culture. The “more” is best seen, I think, in an expression one hears from almost all true New Mexicans. Ask someone in passing how they are doing and if they have a New Mexican soul they’ll probably say, “fine, and you?” And they’ll mean it. The “more” in our city is the undeniable though intangible cordiality and gentility of our people, and the sense of community that they create and maintain over the generations. As we grow, that spirit may be harder to find, but it’s always there.
Part of the secret of not allowing your inner strength and identity to wither is taking the responsibility to maintain your own definition of yourself and persistently and forcefully resisting all outside efforts to weaken and demoralize that inner core of strength. What worries me about UNM and the city is that it seems sometimes as if there’s a mood of bafflement that leads to despair and the desire to just throw up our hands and walk away. But giving up on ourselves is the ultimate cop out. Our Gestaltic sense, our sense of the whole, tells most of us that our heart and soul are still intact. And William James shows us, in practical ways, that a person, or a group of people, can save themselves from the dissolution of despair and apathy by accepting they’re in trouble and asserting their free will and ingenuity to find a way back to the road of a purposeful and positive life. This is what the “pragmatism” of William James is all about: acceptance and innovation, finding ways that work — pragmatic ways — to get back on the path of true identity and potential.
I wonder what would work for the city and the university, separately and together, nowadays? We do have models for both, models from the past. In Albuquerque during a twenty-five year stretch from the 1970s through the 1980s, citizens and elected leaders, as well as experts from the university and rural parts of the state, came together in what I remember as vigorous and intellectually rewarding working groups that explored goals for the future. It is out of these groups that the foundations for a culturally and environmentally rich city were laid: open space acquisition and preservation, fine public museums and library systems, a commitment to honoring cultural diversity, an amazing music infrastructure, historic preservation, ongoing comprehensive planning, Bosque restoration and the maintenance of local agriculture, the creation of “urban forests” in parking lots and medians, and the proliferation of volunteers and NGOs who give of themselves for the sake of all of us.
The university, for decades under inspiring early leadership and the influence of design professionals and architects who valued regional culture along with with a clear-headed, responsible faculty, formed not only an image of the university as a uniquely Southwestern place, but also worked to help fulfill two paradoxical goals — one, to be a national-caliber research institution that served the educational needs of a richly diverse local population in one of the poorest states in America; and two, to embrace local and regional culture, realizing that by doing so the university would not become “provincial” but rather a pioneer in diversity and the values of inclusion.
If we were to create thinking groups and goals commissions in the city and the university today, I wonder if they could overcome the polarization of current politics that makes every difference an act of war and the fear of confrontation that comes with trying to do good thinking in a battle zone. I wonder if they could actually explore differences and find some consensus about our vision of the future, what kind of city and university we want to strive for, what sacrifices to make and what opportunities to embrace in the spirit of dynamic progress and self-respect.
Right now it feels as if both the city and the university are little better than flotsam and jetsam, rudderless and without the sense of purpose that individuals and groups need to thrive. This sorry state must not be allowed go on much longer, or both institutions will lose their spirit and allow temporary mediocrity to become a permanent given never again, perhaps, to be transcended.
*Nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it
(Images derived from Eugene Kim and Free ABQ Images)
New Mexico First’s Statewide Town Hall on Higher Education is meeting tomorrow. Would you be interested in joining? http://nmfirst.org/event-details/higher-ed-workforce
New Mexico First will host a statewide town hall on higher education and workforce development April 10-11. Our state is rich in education and career opportunities but also faces challenges. New Mexico First is working to overcome those challenges by researching barriers to student success and convening a statewide deliberation on solutions.
Join us: Community members • Business leaders • Students • Educators • Tribal representatives • Government professionals • Energy professionals • Healthcare professionals • Elected officials
Topics: Town hall participants will focus on key issues surrounding higher education in New Mexico: Student success and completion (community college and four-year); Leadership, governance, and finance of the higher education system; Workforce integration and alignment; Healthcare workforce and Energy workforce.
Dates: April 10-11, 2018
Times: 8:30 AM-5:00 PM
Location: Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid, 5151 San Francisco Rd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109
Registration fee: $100* REGISTER TODAY
We have student and need-based scholarships available!*
We have a limited number of registration waivers for students and those that have a financial need. Student scholarships may provide travel and accommodations. Please go to our registration page to learn more.
Overview
New Mexico First will host a statewide town hall on higher education and workforce development in spring 2018. Our state is rich in education and career opportunities but also faces challenges. New Mexico First is actively working to overcome those challenges by researching barriers to progress and convening a statewide deliberation on solutions.
New Mexico has ample opportunities, but must overcome barriers. Jobs in healthcare, education, energy, agriculture and STEM-related fields are abundant, but positions remain vacant. State tuition costs are some of the lowest in the nation, yet enrollment has fallen, and student loan default rates remain high. Higher educational institutions grapple with how to efficiently produce the graduates needed to fill industry demand despite considerable workforce pipeline barriers. These barriers include our state’s low high school graduation rates, poverty, a shrinking working-age population drawn to other states, and other barriers to entering and remaining in college and New Mexico’s workforce.
The town hall will begin with data-driven analyses and informed resident deliberations. It will result in consensus-supported direction and actionable policy recommendations for education, community, business and policy leaders seeking optimal alignment of education and the workforce, as well as statewide economic prosperity. When education and workforce align, New Mexico communities and families will thrive.
Topics
Town hall participants will focus on key issues surrounding higher education in New Mexico:
Student success and completion
Community college
Four-year university and beyond
Leadership, governance, and finance of the higher education system
Workforce integration and alignment
Healthcare workforce
Energy workforce
Who Should Attend?
Community members
Business leaders
Educators
Tribal representatives
Government professionals
Energy professionals
Healthcare professionals
Students
Elected officials
What Happens at the Town Hall?
Our town halls are not typical conferences with a series of presentations. There will be a roundtable discussion and speakers at the beginning of the event to help set context, but the bulk of the town hall is comprised of small group discussions among participants who care about the future of the state and want to create practical recommendations that will lead to progress.
Prior to the town hall, participants will receive a background report that will outline the key issues and serve as a basis for the discussions held during the town hall.
What Happens after the Town Hall?
The recommendations will not sit on a shelf. Immediately after the town hall, the New Mexico First implementation team will develop a plan to advance the town hall’s platform with policymakers.
Perhaps the Albuquerque Metro Area is not the place to go to for examples. The growth at all costs paradigm originates from it and all local governments follow mindlessly into the abyss. The Pueblos and acequias have wise, comfortable, and reasonable cultural values that are anti ethical to the obsession with the present. Good planning is not possible against such arrogance, greed, ambition, and status seeking, as the Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly is buried in strident defamation as if it threatened the very soul of the city, for only attempting to cajole a proper response to its regional water plan, which has been buried under a thick mat of bureaucratic corruption. We need to be happy with much less. We will smile a lot more if we do.
V.B. is right, Albuquerque is in crisis, certainly, but it’s everywhere, it’s global. We are in the death throes of the petrochemical age and the neoliberal, capitalist global order. Economic inequality, the loss of traditions, old certainties, and of nature itself, the latter our deepest problem, pushes us globally into a terrible epoch of anxiety and anger. We a rudderless species. It is a dangerous time. We are in critical need of a new way of doing things. Perhaps the most obvious problem is the hideous imbalance of economic equality. In this country, three men, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett, have more wealth than the bottom 50% . Six men in the world, according to Oxfam, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Amancio Ortega, Mark Zuckerberg, and Carlos Slim Helu, have more wealth than the bottom half of humanity. This is a morally corrupt and insupportable state of affairs. Any child can tell you that if people are desperate economically, and there are literally millions in this country, they are more likely to do desperate things, as witnessed by the high crime rate in Albuquerque, for example, or the national opioid crisis. This is not a “left” or “right” perspective, this is a common sense, human perspective.
The issues facing us are deep and complex, but one step we can take, collectively, is to redress the problem of economic inequality. What do we need to do this? Deep, compassionate thinking and serious action. The rest will flow from there. Let’s get on with it.
The ART project on Central went a long way to bust up any Gestalt for Albuquerque. It used to be an interesting easy way through town with trees in the median and no stupid looking “Camels” in the middle of the street that can’t shield a bus rider from wind, sun, or rain. Longer term there is the seeping poisoning of the groundwater from arsenic, jet fuel, Ethylene Dibromide, radioactive emissions in the air from Sandia Labs and the culture of militarism and atomic bomb production. It’s not a healthy place to rear or educate children. No wonder young people don’t stick around. They’re smart to leave.
V.B., Bravo for so brilliantly portraying the “mysterious malaise” that seems to have infected UNM and Albuquerque. As a fourth generation Albuquerquean, and one who spent forty-eight years of my life at UNM, I too am as distressed and puzzled as you are about these conditions. As you and others in reply have surmised, parts of the problem include poverty, income inequality and political polarization. But there seems to be some underlying (or overarching?) lack of community spirit or even a hardness that has crept onto UNM and our city. Walking UNM’s campus recently I felt a dreariness, almost a numbness–most certainly a lack of direction and excitement– that was in marked contrast to the spiritedness of 15-20 years ago. Have individualism and consumerism become so excessive that they have dampened the cooperative and compassionate feelings we must have for successful institutions designed to promote the common good?
I certainly don’t have the answer but thoughtful and insightful essays such as yours may serve as a stimulus for additional insights, and most importantly, remedial actions.
Mayor Keller’s Honeymoon Is Over
Posted on April 23, 2018
V.B. Price is an icon in Albuquerque’s media industry, is considered a longtime progressive and successful author, is a former Albuquerque Tribune columnist and is a widely respected city hall political observer.
On April 8, 2018, V.B. Price wrote a column entitled “Albuquerque and UNM: Losing Their Sense and Purpose and Identity” and below is the link to the entire article:
https://mercmessenger.com/albuquerque-and-unm-losing-their-sense-of-purpose-and-identity/
The article is a sweeping and critical look at what is happening to both the University of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque when it comes to leadership and what is happening to both UNM and the City.
The article is an insightful read, especially given the fact VB Price advocated for Tim Keller’s election.
Two of the many paragraphs stick out to City Hall observers when V.B. Price penned:
“… What’s happened to Albuquerque’s mayor? … Why is Tim Keller seeming more and more like the former mayor — invisible and uninspiring, despite his flurry of good moves following his election victory? Who’s leading the substance and image of [the city] … these days?
…
Right now it feels as if both the city and the university are little better than flotsam and jetsam, rudderless and without the sense of purpose that individuals and groups need to thrive. This sorry state must not be allowed go on much longer, or both institutions will lose their spirit and allow temporary mediocrity to become a permanent given never again, perhaps, to be transcended.”
THE HONEYMOON IS OVER
The V.B. Price article is a clear signal that Mayor Keller’s honeymoon period is over.
The traditional time considered a “honeymoon” period for any new Mayoral administration is 5 to 6 months.
New Mayors need at least 5 to 6 months to complete a transition, hire their staff and make appointments and prepare a budget that is required to be submitted every April 1 to the city council for the upcoming fiscal year.
The first 5 to 6 months of any elected officials term usually sets the tone and the direction for the entire remainder of the term.
The people appointed to key executive positions help the Mayor set the trajectory for the entire term assuming they are around for the four-year term.
Mayor Tim Keller has now been on the job for a full 5 months, he has appointed most if not all of his Directors and has submitted his first budget to the City Council for budget hearings and final approval.
The tone and picture of the Keller Administration is coming into clear focus.
Mayor Keller has received kudos for the appointments of experienced city hall people like former New Mexico Treasurer James Lewis as Senior Public Safety Advisor, Lawrence Rael as Chief Operations Officer, Attorney David Campbell and former CAO for Mayor RJ Berry as Planning Director and APD Chief Michael Geier as Interim Chief, who retired from both APD and the Rio Rancho Police Department, with all 4 appointments considered safe and not generating controversy.
Keller has also received kudos for the appointment of numerous woman to key executive positions such as Sarita Nair as Chief Administration Officer, Alicia Manzano as Communications Director, Nyka Allen as Aviation Director, Shelle Sanchez as Cultural Services Director, Justine Freeman as Deputy Chief of Staff, Mary Scott as Human Service Director and Ana Sanchez as Senior Affairs Director.
There have been two stumbles with the appointment of 41year old City Attorney Estaban Aguilar, Jr., who was solicited by the Keller Administration to apply after the application process closed and the appointment of the City Clerk, with the first nominated candidate withdrawing her application after media scrutiny of her finances and tax problems.
City hall insiders believe that Keller’s inner circle are all the executives he has appointed to key positions and who he brought from the New Mexico Auditors Department when he was elected Mayor.
The most common criticism from City Hall insiders is that Mayor Keller has surrounded himself mostly with people with little or absolutely no city hall experience, which is a common complaint with any new Mayor.
Another complaint from city hall insiders is that the Keller appointees do not really know nor understand what they are doing with the biggest common denominator seeming to be that that they are in the same age group as Mayor Keller, who is 40.
THE TONE HAS BEEN SET WITH DECISIONS MADE
In his first five months in office, Mayor Keller’s biggest accomplishments can be listed as follows:
1. Appointing a new interim police chief who is a retired APD commander and former Rio Rancho Police Chief and who by all accounts is doing a good job thus far. However, there has been no announcement of a national search for a new chief as promised by Keller during the campaign. APD insiders are suggesting that the Mayor has already decided to keep Interim Chief Geier and make him permanent and that there will be no national search for a new chief.
2. Replacing the APD command staff. The “new” command staff is more of a reflection of APD’s past. The “new” command staff are not outsiders at all but have been with APD for some time. The new command staff do not reflect a new generation of police officer fully committed and trained in constitutional policing. All the previous commanders have been shuffled around with a few retiring. There has been an elimination of the positions of Major which was created a mere 3 years ago by the previous administration. The new reorganization of APD under Keller is a remarkable look alike to what existed under Chief Schultz.
3. Attempting to salvage the $129 million ART bus project, the failed legacy project of his predecessor. Mayor Keller is calling it “turning lemons into lemonade” and trying to secure the $69 million federal grant funding from congress that probably will never be appropriated by congress. Major problems have been identified with most if not all of the buses, but the Keller Administration to date has declined to cancel the $25 million-dollar contract with the bus manufacturer.
4. Negotiating and approving an $8 million settlement with the Albuquerque firefighter’s union, ending a pay raise dispute that dates backs to 2011 when the Berry Administration was at impasse with virtually all the City Unions. The settlement was made so quickly after Keller assumed office that the Albuquerque Journal made the charge that the case was settled as Keller’s way of paying back the union for its endorsement and financial support during the Mayor’s race.
5. Proposing an $88 million-dollar police expansion program over 4 years. The Keller Administration is proposing to increase the number of sworn police officers from the current 878 positions filled to 1,200, or by 322 sworn police officers, over a four-year period and return to community-based policing. The Keller Administration proposed 2018-2019 provides for increasing funding of 1,000 sworn police to 1,040. In order to get to the 1,040 figures by this time next year, APD and the Police Academy will need keep up with expected retirements and will have to hire at least 162 new officers either as new recruits or as lateral hires which is a taunting and not a likely task. No specifics have been announced regarding new recruitment incentives.
6. Commitment to implementing the Department of Justice reforms. Keller has met with the Federal Monitor and appeared before the Federal Court assuring them both that APD will implement the mandated reforms, something the City really has no choice but to comply with in order to get out from under the consent decree. During the last three years, the Berry administration and APD command staff resisted the reforms. You can anticipate the reform process will take at least another three years to implement. Thus far, significant progress has been made by the Keller Administration with a stronger commitment to implement the agreed to reforms. The Federal Monitor is now providing “technical assistance” to APD and APD now has a compliance bureau.
7. Signing a city council-initiated $55 million dollar a year tax increase contrary to Mayor Keller’s promise not to raise taxes without a public vote. The revenues raise will go towards the projected $40 million deficit and 80% of the revenues from the tax will go towards public safety. On the campaign trail, candidate Keller said he would raise taxes only as a last resort for public safety but only with voter approval. Keller making the promise as a candidate was at best idealistic and at worse being foolish just to garner votes to get elected.
8. Announcing implementation of major changes to the city’s DWI vehicle forfeiture program. The changes were quickly announced within a week after a federal court ruling in a pending case. APD will continue seize and impound vehicles at the time of arrest as they do now with repeat drunken drivers arrested in their own cars. Changes to the policy will provide more protections those who were not driving when their vehicle was seized. A major change in policy is that the city will not seek to take ownership of the vehicle and sell it at auction unless the suspect is convicted. What the changes in the new policy means is that unless the actual owner is sitting in the front seat of their car drunk, the city will probably not be initiating vehicle forfeiture proceeding nor seeking boot agreements from the car owner.
9. The Keller Administration is committing $1.9 million to address a backlog of more than 4,000 untested rape kits and implementing a testing program. The rape kit backlog was identified by Keller when he was the State Auditor. It is critical that the backlog of rape kits be processed for felony prosecutions. All too often, DNA evidence and a victim’s testimony are the only evidence available to obtain a conviction for rape and child sexual abuse. DNA evidence found in rape kits is the type of evidence used to identify and convict rapists, especially serial rapists. All too often, DNA evidence results in a conviction of an innocent defendant being thrown out and another criminal identified.
10. Signing what is widely considered a symbolic decriminalization of pot ordinance. The City Council enacted an ordinance requiring APD to issue citations and $25 fines for small amounts of marijuana, but pot possession is still a federal felony. APD officers already have a wide discretion in making arrests and pot possession has always been a low priority.
Some progress has been made with reducing property crime rates for the first quarter of this year as compared to first quarter of last year so as to make it premature to list this as a major accomplishment.
Offsetting the reduction in property crime rates is the homicide rate.
Not a week goes by that another murder is being reported.
As of April 21, 2018, Albuquerque has had 23 homicides since January 1, 2018.
The Keller Administration has yet to announce any economic plan nor what its approach will be taking towards economic development.
No plans nor goals to turn our economy around that are any different from the previous administration have been announced.
ANSWERING THE QUESTION
V.B. Price asks “Why is Tim Keller seeming more and more like the former mayor — invisible and uninspiring, despite his flurry of good moves following his election victory?”
The answer to the question is that many believe Mayor Tim Keller is slowly morphing into a photogenic version of his Republican predecessor, more concerned about public perception, appearing before friendly audiences and crowds, and offering no real change and no substantive leadership direction.
Indications that the Keller Administration is seeking to avoid controversy include the use of press releases to announce major policy changes or decisions, using the Mayor’s FACEBOOK page to make policy announcements and do controlled videos of the Mayor with an emphasis on photo ops and social media communications.
In politics, when you do not want to take the heat and want to do damage control you issue a news release to dodge the press or send out subordinates to take the heat, and respond to questions, which is what we got from Keller’s predecessor for a full 8 years especially with APD and the ART Bus project.
News releases and social media communications also give the advantage of not having to explain the rational nor reason for a decision with no questions asked by the media nor public with any negative comments or posts on FACEBOOK that can be quickly deleted and critics “blocked”.
The Keller Administration announced by press release Mayor Keller’s decision to make major changes to the DWI vehicle forfeiture program and the City Council ordinance to decriminalize pot.
Another approach in dealing with the press is not to make the Mayor available for comment, not to return media phone calls and not to say anything at all to avoid going on the record and to avoid controversy and avoid full transparency.
The Keller Administration did not issue any kind of press release and had no fanfare nor witnesses when Mayor Keller signed the City Council gross receipts tax increase, a tax increases he said he would not support without voter approval thereby breaking a campaign promise.
From a public relations standpoint, it appears Mayor Keller attends all the obligatory ribbon cuttings, dedications and social events and appears to enjoy them all and making a good impression with his comments.
Mayor Keller has taken photo ops to a new level by attending protest rallies to speak at, attending marches, attending heavy metal concerts to introduce the band, running in track meets and participating in exhibition football games as the quarterback and enjoying living his high school glory days.
KELLER’S MANDATE FOR CHANGE
High crime rates, public safety, the Albuquerque Police Department, the Department of Justice reforms, the economy and increasing taxes were the biggest issues debated in the 2017 Mayor’s race.
During the last eight years, Albuquerque has fallen to the bottom and in many cases dead last of every meaningful ranking in the country, including economy, jobs, crime, education, real estate, desirability, and traffic.
Even though Albuquerque is the largest city economy in the State, New Mexico is number two in unemployment and number one in children living in poverty.
Under the command leadership of Suzanna Martinez and former Mayor Richard Berry, New Mexico and Albuquerque no doubt have become shipwrecks.
At the very least, the State and City are in distress, rudderless and without the sense of purpose and little better than “flotsam and jetsam” as described by VB Price.
In 8 months we will be rid of Governor Susana Martinez and she will quickly join Mayor Richard Berry into political oblivion.
Mayor Tim Keller was swept into office with a 62% vote landslide giving him a mandate for change.
Mayor Tim Keller has his plate full with all the problems he inherited and many that were created by his predecessor.
Obviously, the Keller administration still has time on its side to make changes and make a difference, but 4 years does indeed go by fast, something many would dispute in the age of Donald Trump.
Mayor Keller has yet to take any substantive advantage of his mandate and voters are not seeing the sweeping, visionary change he promised.
Notwithstanding, voters are expecting results and they are impatient after eight years of failed leadership, high crime rates and a poor economy.
CONCLUSION
The trajectory indications from the transition period, the media relations, the executive appointments made and the accomplishment are that Albuquerque is set to have another uninspiring, low key approach to government filled with extensive photo ops, ribbon cuttings and social media communications.
The Keller Administration is still in its infancy, but the tone and direction it is taking does not represent visionary change and frankly not much of change at all, especially with APD management.
Tim Keller wanted the job as mayor, he knew exactly what he was getting into and he made a lot of promises to get to the 11th floor.
The voters also knew what they wanted when Mayor Keller was elected and that was a leader who would make sweeping changes and deal with our high crime rates and our economy in an aggressive manner.
Mayor Keller needs to move faster and be more aggressive on the difficult issues the city is facing, especially when dealing with APD, our crime rates and our economy.
Otherwise, Mayor Keller’s first term just may be his last, and it will be viewed as Mayor Berry’s third term in office with not much to point to as far as real accomplishments in the areas of reducing crime and improving the economy.