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2013 MAYORAL RACE
Candidates spar on jobs, APD KOAT televises debate ahead of Oct. 8 election by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
Sergio Jiménez / Daily Lobo Erin Chavez, a graduate student in community and regional planning, poses for architecture professor Steve Borbas during the Park(ing) Day event in Downtown Albuquerque on Friday. The event is meant to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into open spaces where the public is invited to practice figure drawing, African drumming and yoga.
Fleeting parks pop up Downtown by Chloe Henson
news@dailylobo.com @ChloeHenson5
Red balloons floated over a parallel parking space filled with chairs and tables Downtown as UNM students converted the space into a seating area last week. CityLab, along with the Student
American Society of Landscape Architects (SASLA) and the American Planning Association of UNM (APAUNM), hosted Park(ing) Day at the intersection of Fifth and Central Friday as part of a global program. According to the Park(ing) Day website, the event is an “annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists
Talking points
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collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places.” The three groups who participated in Park(ing) Day in Albuquerque had different themes for their spaces. For example, the APAUNM laid a turf with a chair at
see Park(ing) PAGE 3 Breaking Bad
Candidates continued to compete with each other on how to make Albuquerque richer and safer in a televised mayoral debate Sunday afternoon. KOAT hosted the first televised mayoral debate of this year’s election cycle. All three candidates attended the event. The issue of excessive violence of officers in the Albuquerque Police Department took center stage in the debate yet again. Mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli said that during Mayor Richard Berry’s administration, the number of police officers employed by the department has dropped by about 200 from when he was chief public officer. Dinelli said there are also fewer officers on duty around the city now. “When I left the Albuquerque Police Department as chief public officer, we had 1,100 police officers and the department Education
was growing,” he said. “It was the best trained, best equipped and best staffed department in Albuquerque. Now, of those 920 officers, less than half is patrolling the streets.” Dinelli said APD has “serious problems.” He said that despite policy changes by the incumbent, the United States Department of Justice is still investigating the department for its excessive use of violence. In February, the DOJ launched an investigation of APD following a number of shootings by APD officers during the past two years. The investigation will explore the use of unreasonable force by police. APD also increased its 911 response times during Berry’s administration, Dinelli said. He said this was a poor decision by the mayor, and that he will work to have police respond to emergencies more promptly if elected. “Response times are very critical,” he said. “Response times can be the difference between the life and death, especially in violent crimes. And I believe that
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Downtown
Why vote for me ?
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“In the two years before I took office as mayor, we lost 22,000 jobs in the city. In the last 12 months alone, we’ve gained 7,000. We’re adding jobs, and that’s good news … Albuquerque’s adding 75 percent of all the jobs in New Mexico so we’re on the right track.”
“In the last three years, the FBI crime rate in the city of Albuquerque is the lowest crime rate in the last 20 years. I’m proud of my police department and I’m proud of my officers and I work with them every day.”
“Albuquerque has a wonderful reputation. If you talk to people around the country, even around the world — and I’ve traveled around the country and around the world being the head cheerleader for our community — people have a very, very positive outlook about Albuquerque.”
“We are going to take the research that comes out of UNM and to commercialize that research. We’re looking at a site along Broadway and Central to create an enterprise zone where people can take research that they come up with. We’re creating a very robust workforce.”
“We want to make sure we’ve got great public sector investments. Currently, we have a $25 million Convention Center upgrade that will help us attract business investment … We’re bringing Bus Rapid Transit to Central Avenue as the next logical step to public transportation.”
“We took over during some very difficult times. We didn’t cut services to the city, we didn’t lay off workers, and we didn’t raise your taxes … We’re going to continue to work on your behalf, and we’re going to continue to build bridges.”
“We’ll invest in our infrastructure and also in our neighborhoods. The goal is to expand our economy, and the way we’re going to do that is by adding new industry into the Albuquerque area and go after growth industries.”
“Our streets are not safe. As mayor of Albuquerque, I will reorganize the Albuquerque Police Department. We’ll put more police on the streets. We’ll change cop management. Most importantly, we will make sure we bring down those response times.”
“Albuquerque has a reputation for being a violent city. That’s what we have to be realistic about. The department of justice is probably the biggest black eye in Albuquerque’s history. It’s having a great impact in being able to track jobs.”
“I believe that the fact that we have so many young people leave Albuquerque is very indicative of the fact that we have failed leadership in economic development in the last four years … Education is the number one impact in being able to track jobs in the Albuquerque area.”
“We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a major commitment in the downtown area. ENERGIZE ABQ does just that … We will invest in the Downtown area. We will try to identify to identify the kinds of industries that we can attract.”
“I was born and raised in this community. I love my city and I love it very deeply. I know that we can do better than we have over the last four years. We have to ask ourself this question: Is Albuquerque better off than four years ago? … To me, the resounding answer is no.”
“We have the Wild West here. People in Europe, people in this country that do not know what the Wild West is want to know about it. Why don’t we have major events every other month?”
“I would have 1,200 police officers in my department. I will install a chief locally from here who the officers will respect and who will respect the officers. That chief will have to lead these officers to regaining the trust and respect of the community.”
“Absolutely, it’s not the image that we want to portray to the rest of the world. We have to combat that … Crime is up in every single category. Somebody’s going to get killed in Albuquerque. We have to change it.”
“College isn’t for everyone. College is a wonderful thing … but a lot of people can’t afford college. I want to start trade schools. I want to combine with CNM and charter schools. If you want to drop out of school, drop into a trade school.”
“It’s not just Downtown that you see vacant store fronts. It’s all over the city … I talk to the Downtown merchants. I go to the Downtown restaurants. I patronize them. They are hurting for business. We’ve got to bring business into the city, and under my plan, we will get businesses.”
“I am not backed by any political party. I am not a politician. I am one of you. This is your chance to stand up with me and try something new to change and reform this city. The first day I take office, the process will start. I’m standing here with my rock, and my rock is your vote.”
Richard Berry
Pete Dinelli
Paul Heh
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 118
September 23, 2013
issue 26
Pipeline pipe dream
Even playing field
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