Downtown revitalization was top of mind this year

If you’ve lived in Albuquerque for any length of time, you know a discussion of Downtown always includes one word: Revitalization. It’s been the case for so long that you’d be excused for responding with an eye roll. 

2024 was no different.

I returned to my hometown this year — after being away for about eight years — and was curious to find out if much had changed in the city’s center. I’ve had some experience navigating it and writing about it, having previously lived in East Downtown for several years, walking to and from a job near First Street and Central Avenue. Back then, I even used the much-maligned pedestrian tunnel underneath the railroad tracks at least once a day. 

I’m generally an optimistic guy, but it seemed like things had deteriorated. I set out to see if others felt the same, and wrote a three-part series for City Desk ABQ early in the year. I began by asking if it even matters anymore — mattered that the city and others keep dedicating significant time and resources toward Downtown revitalization.

Reporters are always looking for a good quote, and Ernie C’deBaca, the longtime president and CEO of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce, gave me one.

“Downtown is really the heartbeat of a city and it reflects the face of the city,” he said in February. “It reflects the mood and culture and vibe of the city. It’s important that our Downtown is a place where people can come to feel safe, get a good meal and get a good show.”

That perspective would be shared by others, including City Councilor Joaquín Baca, who has spent much of 2024 pushing a variety of initiatives meant to improve the area he lives in and represents. 

You can read that first story of the series here: Downtown Albuquerque: Reboot — Why does Downtown matter?

Out of those initial interviews, I discovered one of Downtown’s biggest revitalization roadblocks is its glut of shuttered and deteriorating buildings. Leba Freed described it this way: “The greatest problem Downtown has is the vacant buildings. It thwarts business. People don’t want to pass by vacant buildings. When a building is vacant, it blights the whole Downtown.”

Freed owns two Downtown properties and her family has been a part of the core for decades. I asked Bernalillo County Assessor Damian Lara to chime in on a potential solution that was being touted as a vacancy tax. You can read what he and others said in the second story in the series here: Long vacant buildings irk officials, business owners — Is a “vacancy tax” one solution?

I also set out to highlight what was already working, which gave people optimism that could be built on. I talked about it with FUSION theatre company director Dennis Gromelski, DowntownABQ MainStreet director Danielle Schlobohm, ABQ Artwalk founder Gabriel Gallegos and the head of the city’s Public Art Urban Enhancement Division, Sherri Brueggemann. 

Those conversations resulted in the final story of the series: Pockets of hope, a field of potential: City’s center looks to revitalize once more.

Since then, of course, City Desk ABQ reporters have written many more stories about Downtown, including its crime issues. Three fatalities during one August weekend seemed to represent a significant setback that piled onto an already widely felt sense that the area is unsafe. Any momentum toward revitalization efforts at that point went back to square one, many felt.

It was a letter published soon after in Downtown Area News that caught my eye as an important one. Sarah Kennedy, co-owner of Downtown’s Dry Heat Comedy Club and a resident of the core, wrote: 

“The events of last weekend are a blow to the neighborhood’s reputation. The news stories generated — egged on by the “if it bleeds, it leads” philosophy used by most media outlets — carry the dark message all over the metro area,” she wrote. “Those stories bring with them comment sections full of people calling Downtown awful …  reinforcing this idea that it’s scary, dissuading people who might visit and by their sheer presence breathe a bit of life into the area. It’s a vicious cycle, and a weekend like last weekend furthers it.”

But it was Kennedy’s advice to her fellow Burqueños that I found most profound.

“These tragedies are heartbreaking, and it would be understandable for many to want to retreat, to avoid Downtown after dark, to stay home, and to leave the streets empty,” she wrote. “But if we do that, we risk condemning this neighborhood to more darkness … That is something we simply cannot afford.

“That’s why … I’m asking you to lean in, not away. Downtown doesn’t need more avoidance, more fear or more abandonment. It needs more life, more light and more community. It needs you.”

You can read her full letter — “Following the tragedies of last weekend, we should all show up for Downtown” — here.