30 years ago I opted for a general contractor license. I needed a quiet place to study. There were a few noisy preschoolers in my house who needed attention.
I discovered the Fogelson Library at the College of Santa Fe. It was perfect. Quiet, open, well-lit and scattered with students hunched over books and papers.
It’s really quiet now, dead quiet. But that will change on Saturday.
The public is invited to a Midtown Moving Forward Block Party hosted by the Santa Fe Art Institute and its Midtown Engagement Partners. This is exactly the kind of event with just the right organizations that should have happened three years ago. Better late than never, they say. And it looks like a lot of fun. And important.
Despite its name, one could imagine the art institute as a think tank for architecture and planning with a common thread running through it. With a 99-year lease, the corner of the campus is always relevant to everything that happens to the surrounding property. The managing director Jamie Blosser, an architect and urban planner by profession, is well suited to lead this engagement process.
The city has signed a contract with the University of New Mexico’s Design and Planning Assistance Center, under the direction of architecture professor Michaele Pride. She and Blosser knew that the criticism of previous engagements was that teenagers, low-income residents, people of color, and the Spanish-speaking Santa Feans were not engaged. You set out to change that.
They reached out to a variety of community leaders who represent a Santa Fe that is not seen enough.
And they’re throwing a party!
It starts at 10 a.m. in the Visual Arts Center, on the north side of the campus on St. Michael’s Drive, and lasts until 5 p.m. The forecast says a perfect autumn day. The first of four bands starts at 11.30am. The organizers ask people to check in and take a quick poll in English or Spanish to get a meal card for free food.
Mayor Alan Webber is due to give short speeches around 2 p.m. It’s a political season, but it should be free of politics. Midtown is in District 4, so councilors Jamie Cassutt and JoAnne Vigil Coppler could roam to greet the neighborhood residents.
The city sponsors the big day, but a Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts helps subsidize the cost. The Saturday event isn’t the culmination of the engagement process that Pride leads, but it’s an important piece of the bigger puzzle.
It will be especially relevant when there is good participation from those who care about the future of the Midtown campus.
A February report is expected with conclusions and possible narrative roadmaps suggesting development opportunities. The right voices are now leading and engaging. It is likely that development logic will emerge based on the successes of Tierra Contenta Corp. and the Railyard Corp. based, community-based non-profit development organizations that are able to sustainably develop long-term city assets without the burdens and whims of the chosen city policy.
Kim Shanahan was a Santa Fe
Green Builder since 1986 and Sustainability Advisor since 2019. Contact him at [email protected].
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