Palindrome Clarification Letter
A Future Mayor’s Story, Los Ranchos, Dateline October 2023
The village of Los Ranchos has gained quite a bit of notoriety in the last year, both good and bad. The current Mayor is forging ahead with projects like they are essential to our survival as a village, and three other candidates are vying for the helm as Mayor as if change is the only cure; me being one of them. Some of the suitors are slinging mud to see what sticks, others are pushing ideas that might seem unlikely to succeed, and who wins the mayoral race is yet to be determined…. until November 7th!
I want to clear the air about who I am, what I do, and why I am running because other people are trying to define me, accuse me of wrongdoing, and to be honest, some are spreading offensive rumors about me.
I have been a village Trustee for two years this January. Before this time, I had never held an elected office. Over that time, Los Ranchos has gone through a substantial amount of trials and tribulations for such a small place. People are angry about a three-story mixed-use complex going up at the corner of Osuna and Fourth Street, they are livid about private land being developed at Guadalupe Trail and Chavez Road, and some have directed their rath at their elected officials, including a new one like me, for about a year and a half now. All of us are seemingly guilty, but some of us are less so than others in some people’s eyes. What is most apparent in talking to villagers is the anger and disillusionment with the current administration in Los Ranchos and worry that a future administration will be similar. Mine won’t be!
Besides being an elected Trustee of the village, I am a landscape architect and business owner for over 30 years. Landscape architects design spaces to make them more livable and hopefully more contextual within their environments. I have worked tirelessly to do that on the mixed-use project that was already in motion when I became a Trustee. Unfortunately, some people didn’t like that I was involved at all, because of a perceived conflict of interest. I want to clear the air that I have tried to make the best of an already problematic situation and all of my involvement was carefully reviewed by attorneys. Per their guidance, I recused myself when the Palindrome Project, as it is called, came up. I have never voted on that particular project. But some people didn’t like that either because they assumed that because of my involvement, I was unelectable. I want to clarify that this is false! I understand the legal ramifications and have followed village guidelines but, in the end, I am a Trustee and a landscape architect, and within my legal boundaries. I have been trying to help make the best of the project.
You may ask why I am even running for Mayor. I love the village of Los Ranchos, I love the lifestyle, I love the agriculture, I am particularly fond of the cottonwoods, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. I am not a career politician but sincerely want to serve for a term to make a difference in the community. Los Ranchos is a place currently divided. It’s like a tale of two villages, in a way. We are wildly diverse. We have everything from open spaces to the large estates on and around Rio Grande Boulevard, to smaller middle-class homes in the neighborhoods surrounding Fourth Street, to people who live in the village that are struggling to get by. I believe that unlike Albuquerque or Rio Rancho, in Los Ranchos we can become more like-minded about our village and community and that our residents need to be brought together. I believe that I can do that through a unique approach and lots of listening. I want to be Mayor because I think I can help to quell the anger, and gather people around some simple ideas that we can agree on, better than my competitors can.
My ideas revolve around building community assets that reach higher than we have in the past. These assets will help to define how Los Ranchos sees itself, and what the village aspires to. By assets I mean parks and usable open spaces that we can walk through and enjoy. Assets are civic places like a village hall that is more useable by the entire population, with amenities like free Wi-Fi. Assets are a combined AgriNature Center, Anderson Property and City of Albuquerque Open Space that function as one to educate and provide community gardens and maybe a cultural center. What is important about places like Los Ranchos is that residents and visitors alike see the culture through the important lens of civic pride. Community involvement through cooperative discussion, then planning, and thinking about the village will then become a focal point for strong community conversations about our shared future.