Immediate return

I’ve been following with much interest the recent letters and opinion pieces regarding the midtown campus, Railyard, innovation park, etc. and have wondered why there has been no mention of the recent new public asset the city of Santa Fe acquired last year that adjoins our Northwest Quadrant. I’d suspect that fewer than 2 percent or 3 percent of our local citizenry even knows what or even where Santa Fe Estates is. With all the talk about the need for inspiring economic development in our business community, it seems more people would want to know the details and potential fiscal impact of strategically developing these 228 acres and how it could benefit our local economy immensely and almost immediately. Allowing our local builders, architects and all the related trades to build much-needed, quality housing inventory sounds like an immediately achievable objective. I’d be surprised if our local banks wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to play a role in bringing back our economy in a healthy and sustainable way. Construction has been one of the few bright spots for Santa Fe’s economy, and it still takes builders 60-90 days to simply pull a building permit!

Unlike the slow-played efforts at the midtown campus, where it sure seems like a black hole of an investment for the citizens of our community, there are much better options we should all know about. This publicly owned project has been a slow bleed and is not looking any better than it did when it was acquired by taxpayers. A more informed citizenry needs to start running the numbers on this deal. And more people need to get involved in watching over the processes that have allowed things to go this far without attentive stewardship and trained fiscal management behind the decision-making.

Michele Davenport Santa Fe