Reimagining Albuquerque

After years of stalled progress, Downtown Albuquerque is starting to turn a corner. That shift is being driven in part by a set of new policies focused on vacancy enforcement, cultural activation, and coordinated investment—and Councilor Joaquín Baca is playing a central role in advancing all three.

One of the clearest signs of progress is the implementation of the Downtown Vacancy Ordinance, passed last year and now moving into its enforcement phase. As reported in Downtown Albuquerque News (DAN) on May 12th, city staff have begun surveying commercial spaces Downtown to determine which are active and which remain empty. Property owners with long-vacant spaces will face fines if they don’t take steps to activate or sell their buildings.

Those fines are working in tandem with a separate but related policy from Bernalillo County Assessor Damian Lara, who is ensuring that vacant buildings are taxed at their maximum allowed rate. As a result, some property owners are starting to feel financial pressure to either invest or move on. That’s the point.

Take the Kress Building, a long-vacant cornerstone property on Central. Owner Frankie Veronda, who lives in California, saw her property tax bill jump from just over $8,000 in 2023 to nearly $18,000 in 2024 under the new vacancy assessments. “It’s horrible,” she told DAN. But while the sticker shock is real, so is the reality that the building has sat largely empty for years.

Veronda insists she wants to restore it. “I think I can do it. I think I can rent it,” she said. “I want to do something with it, but I need help.” That may be true, and many residents can sympathize with the challenges of financing a historic rehab. But Downtown Albuquerque doesn’t have the luxury of waiting indefinitely. Holding on to a building without the capital to bring it to life may seem like a personal dream, but it has citywide consequences. When prominent properties sit idle year after year, it suppresses economic activity, degrades the pedestrian experience, and makes it harder for neighboring businesses to thrive.

This is where public policy comes in. Vacancy enforcement isn’t about punishing individual owners, it’s about shifting incentives in ways that prioritize the public good. As DAN put it, these fines and taxes are “meant to light a fire under the owners and motivate them to do something with the space or sell to someone who can.”

Councilor Baca and Assessor Lara deserve credit for taking action that isn’t always politically popular. Their willingness to push forward, even at the risk of backlash, shows a real commitment to Downtown’s future. Their message is clear: Downtown should be a place of possibility, not indefinite speculation.

Baca is also working to activate the public spaces the city already owns. His new bill, passed out of committee on May 12th, would require the city to host at least 12 events per month at both the KiMo Theatre and South Broadway Cultural Center—more than double the current average—and would streamline the rental process for local artists and groups.

As DAN reported on April 28th, Baca sees cultural programming as a critical ingredient in Downtown’s revival. “From a community standpoint, it’s been an utter failure,” he said of the KiMo’s underuse. With more frequent and accessible programming, these spaces could generate foot traffic, attract new audiences, and serve as anchors of civic life. For many local artists, the bill also promises a more equitable path to accessing city-owned venues.

Meanwhile, a new proposal to form a Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) is gaining traction. The BID would fund expanded cleaning and safety services, activate vacant storefronts through pop-ups and art shows, and create a dedicated voice for Downtown advocacy. According to DAN’s May 15th report, the plan would “roughly triple [cleaning hours] to around 700 hours and expand the cleaning schedule from weekdays only to seven days a week,” alongside other placemaking and marketing investments.

While BIDs are sometimes misunderstood, they’ve proven effective in cities across North America. When structured well and supported by the property owners they serve, BIDs can become essential partners in revitalizing downtowns, providing the focused care and coordination that city government often struggles to deliver on its own.

And while data is still limited, anecdotally, Downtown is starting to feel more alive. Bike lanes are increasingly filled with people on e-scooters or bicycles. More pedestrians can be seen enjoying patios, walking to events, and stopping into local businesses. The sidewalks, once quiet, now show subtle signs of momentum. When the KiMo does host events, the difference is noticeable: nearby bars, restaurants, and the food hall tend to fill up, and the surrounding area takes on a more energetic, welcoming feel.

A well-structured Business Improvement District would build on this progress—adding cleaning crews, public safety staff, and activation efforts that reinforce the sense that Downtown is safe, vibrant, and worth investing in. These aren’t silver bullets, but layered, mutually reinforcing steps that help change perception and lived experience alike.

Together, these efforts—vacancy enforcement, cultural activation, and the BID—form a coherent strategy for making Downtown Albuquerque more vibrant, functional, and inclusive. They recognize that a healthy Downtown is not a given—it’s something that must be actively maintained, invested in, and governed with intention.

Of course, a lot of work remains. Recent failures highlight just how fragile Downtown momentum still is. The city’s inability to get Jay Rembe’s proposed Downtowner housing project across the finish line at 2nd and Silver, despite it being shovel-ready and Downtown-zoned, underscores how easily promising developments can stall. Meanwhile, delays on transitional housing at 6th and Coal, a Bernalillo County project that’s languished for years, point to deeper coordination issues between local, county, and state agencies.

Getting more housing, at all levels, into the Downtown pipeline is essential. These new proposals from Councilor Baca are a start, but we’ll need more leadership like his if Albuquerque wants to compete with peer cities.

While we stall, cities like Tulsa, Lubbock, and Boise are pulling ahead and peer cities like Tucson and Salt Lake City are beginning to thrive, investing in their downtowns and seeing real returns. If we want a Downtown that thrives and not just survives, we’ll need not only better policies, but new allies on the Council who are willing to treat revitalization as the urgent priority it is.

Even as peer cities surge ahead, there are signs that Albuquerque can still catch up. Construction has now begun on the Central Avenue railroad crossing near the Alvarado Transportation Center, laying the groundwork for the long-planned Albuquerque Rail Trail—a project that could become a defining public space in the city’s core. If completed with care and ambition, it could connect key Downtown destinations, boost walkability, and become the kind of beloved, identity-shaping corridor that cities like Atlanta (BeltLine) and Indianapolis (Indy Cultural Trail) have used to reimagine their urban cores.

And unlike many of the cities cited here, Albuquerque already has key infrastructure in place, including the ART bus rapid transit system and the Rail Runner regional rail system. The bus system (and ART specifically) could be dramatically strengthened through the upcoming ABQ Ride Forward transit planning initiative and, if coupled with more investments into the Rail Runner, could give Albuquerque a rare opportunity to align transit, housing, and public space under a shared vision for growth. The challenge isn’t building from scratch—it’s maximizing what we already have.

With the right leadership on Council, we could take this even further—pursuing transformative projects like a Downtown Events Center, expanded housing incentives, or creative reuse of city-owned land. But those kinds of moves require follow-through and vision. The groundwork is starting to take shape. Now it’s time to build on it.

This momentum shouldn’t be taken for granted. The tools are on the table. The question now is whether we have the collective will to use them.