Power shifting to city’s south side
It still amazes me that many wellinformed Santa Feans can’t point out Tierra Contenta on a map or have never driven around its new urbanist neighborhoods, some of which are coming up on their 25th anniversary. Mostly, those people are like me, transplants who live in City Council Districts 1 and 2 — in other words, the north and east sides of town.
Some of those now-exclusive neighborhoods are often where generations of Santa Feans now living in Districts 3 and 4 resided before the monsoon of gentrification swept down Alameda Street. Districts 1 and 2 vote the most. It is where implicit power has resided for at least the 30-plus years I’ve been paying attention to city politics.
Those days of power and influence are on the verge of ending. It is a welcome sight. It bodes well for solving the current housing crisis. It also bodes well for shaking up our thinking on what restrictive and exclusionary zoning has done to perpetuate systemic discrimination in the 21st century, both in Santa Fe and beyond.
Historically, Districts 3 and 4 vote the least, so how can city power be shifting? Because, as noted in last week’s Building Santa Fe column, there are the seasonal elections, and then there is the biweekly voting that happens at City Council meetings among nine voters, four of whom come from Districts 3 and 4. Mayor Alan Webber, who has loudly voiced his concerns for south-side issues, makes five. Done deal.
Hopefully, we can present housing issues and major housing developments to the City Council in a way that votes aren’t Supreme Court-style squeakers. As a group, the council is a pretty collegial bunch compared to many, if not most, of its predecessors.
Webber helps by exuding perpetual charm and only mild impatience and petulance at strategic moments. And he’s smart, so consensus is possible, but given that Districts 3 and 4 are where the wide-open, shovel-ready land is mostly located, they hold the future for satisfying many of our housing needs.
Nearly 2,000 potential lots in the last undeveloped phase of Tierra Contenta are in District 3. So is the vast, largely vacant acreage south of Tierra Contenta bordered to the west by N.M. 599 and to the south by Interstate 25. That huge triangle mysteriously managed to become one of the city’s five Opportunity Zones designated by former Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration and authorized under President Donald Trump’s tax plan.