ABQ needs basic services, not a soccer stadium

When it comes to deciding on spending public money on such amenity projects as a new soccer stadium, we are like preadolescent children who have come into money, but are unable to make commonsense decisions. Our parents are encouraging us to put the money away for college or spend it on a need. Instead, we spend it on something shiny, which is initially appealing, but fades to disinterest.

It was 20 years ago that the voters of Albuquerque were given the opportunity to decide on spending $25 million to scrap the old Dukes’ stadium and build a new, modern park. We were then, as we always seem to be, facing stark challenges in basic services.

Full disclosure, I’ve been to Isotopes stadium many times. It’s a great park. But the reason I opposed it then, and oppose the soccer stadium now, is that we’re not even close to having our basic services covered. After the question was settled in 2001 and the stadium built, few probably gave any thought to what else could have been done with that money if it had been devoted to basic services. I wonder what our city would look like now.

What if we had invested that money on homeless resources, outreach and research to find ways to stop what Albuquerque has become? Take a drive south of the freeway and east of 12th, and look at our city. It looks like a KOA campground morphed into a giant malevolent being and barfed all over Downtown. I’ve been watching this city from the perspective of public safety since 1985. The city has never looked worse.

What if that $25 million had been invested in law enforcement — we had put that money into professionalizing and hiring only the best to become police officers — worked with the other elements of the criminal justice system to find progressive evidence-based crime-fighting tactics based on community engagement. Would we be facing the backlash of the anti-law enforcement movement? Would we be facing the unbearable pain of blazing grim new records in homicides?

I still know and respect many of the professionals in the Albuquerque Police Department who can check our own downward spiral into the crime drain. They only need the port side on the 11th floor to give up their childhood dreams of running a police department and leave it to those who know what they’re doing.

I’ve been around here all my life and I love this city. But Albuquerque is mean and violent and should not have a political administration that doesn’t understand crime, favors the bad over the good and doesn’t know how to spend your money. For some reason, we have political leaders who think that we can get a professional, urbane city by spending money foolishly. Maybe if we had invested that $25 million into basic services over the past 20 years, we could have had that city and a thriving private sector that could have paid for Isotopes Park without public financing. We’ll never know.

Now, Albuquerque has another chance. Let’s apply some common sense. If the market could support two professional venues, the soccer stadium would already be here. Until then, let’s fix our basic services and become the great city we all want.