Reimagining Albuquerque

For years, exclusionary zoning, NIMBYism, and procedural obstruction defined local politics in New Mexico. But in 2025, voters across the state sent a clear message: the era of NIMBYism is fading, and housing reform is winning.

In Albuquerque: Housing Reform Still in Play

City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, a vocal champion of reforming Albuquerque’s racist, exclusionary zoning code, easily won reelection despite loud opposition from anti-growth activists led by NIMBY candidate Jaemes Shanley. Backed by Pete Dinelli and other notable anti-growth voices, Shanley’s candidacy was positioned as a cynical referendum on Fiebelkorn’s leadership on housing and zoning reform. Her victory reinforces that Albuquerque voters increasingly see abundant housing, safer streets, and zoning modernization as civic necessities and justice while rejecting culture-war issues.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tim Keller led the field in the mayoral primary but heads to a runoff, keeping the city’s housing future in contest. Keller has consistently supported practical zoning reform and administrative streamlining to build more homes. His challenger, Alex Uballez, failed to distinguish himself on housing, retreating from by-right reforms to citywide zoning and instead leaning on unfunded inclusionary zoning mandates that risk stalling production and deepening scarcity. Albuquerque’s choice in the runoff will shape whether the city continues building on recent reform momentum or reverts to process-heavy paralysis. A win for Darren White would likely halt progress in Albuquerque for four years as the candidate has been mostly antagonistic to systems change or zoning reform.

The city’s council runoffs will be just as pivotal, if not more so. In the southwest, long-time anti-housing stalwart Klarissa Peña faces growing scrutiny over her mismanagement of public funds and her role in the Route 66 Visitor Center controversy, wasting tens of millions of dollars of public funds on a weed-covered, shuttered structure on the West Mesa. Her challenger, Teresa Garcia, offers a forward-looking alternative who could reshape the balance of power on the council. In District 1, the departure of anti-housing Councilor Louie Sanchez following his failed mayoral bid will open up an opportunity for new leadership. Both Stephanie Telles and Joshua Neal represent steps toward a pro-growth mindset, but Telles goes further by pairing reform with a clear equity lens.

Voters in New Mexico’s largest city now have the chance to cement a realignment already underway. They should vote for Keller, and give Albuquerque a council capable of governing and not one mired in high-school politics. On December 9, the city has a chance to retire the politics of obstruction once and for all — and send Garcia and Telles to City Hall.

Las Cruces: A Model for the Southwest

Farther south, Becky Corran’s reelection signals strong public approval for the city’s Realize Las Cruces zoning overhaul, one of the most ambitious land-use reforms in the Southwest. The new code legalizes homes and neighborhood businesses citywide, cuts red tape for construction, and brings Las Cruces to the forefront of practical, inclusive planning. Corran’s leadership shows what’s possible when progressive values meet pragmatic, pro-growth governance.

Corran’s win signals to leaders across the state and in the Roundhouse that the time for ending exclusionary zoning has arrived in New Mexico. Corran’s district, a largely suburban area of Las Cruces that stretches along the foothills of the Organ Mountains, demonstrates that support for reform isn’t confined to dense urban cores. Even in the suburbs, and even among single-family homeowners, moving beyond single-dwelling zoning is a political and moral win. There is simply no justification for maintaining racist, segregationist zoning practices — other than racism itself.

Santa Fe: A Test of NIMBY Gravity

In the capital, Mayor-elect Michael Garcia inherits a city mid-stream in a long-overdue land-use rewrite. His early votes on the Land Development Code modernization as a city councilor suggest a willingness to move away from Santa Fe’s deeply exclusionary past, modestly opening space for duplexes, triplexes, and small-scale infill. Yet Garcia also flirts with left-NIMBYism and economically perilous inclusionary zoning ideas that, without serious public investment, risk deepening the very shortages he pledges to solve. Reformers will need to push him, and the council, to ensure Santa Fe’s land-use overhaul truly embraces abundance.

The Broader Picture

From Albuquerque to Las Cruces, the political winds are shifting. Candidates who pair equity with pragmatic housing supply solutions are winning; those clinging to nostalgic obstruction are losing. Voters are showing that compassion and growth can coexist and that solving our housing crisis means saying yes to homes, density, and opportunity.

Across the country, voters are making the same choice. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom, fresh off a series of YIMBY legislative victories, saw Proposition 50 pass, reaffirming California’s commitment to abundant housing and zoning reform, and delivering him another win. In New York, voters went even further. In one of the boldest city actions in decades, voters overwhelmingly chose to strip away local vetoes and councilor deference that have long stifled new housing. For years, “local control” has been used as a euphemism for exclusion, a way to block homes, growth, and opportunity. Yet when these reforms are put directly to the public, voters choose progress. As Nolan Gray and other urban scholars have pointed out, when the question is framed clearly, should every community make room for housing? — Americans almost always vote yes. Ending local obstruction isn’t just sound policy; it’s politically popular.

The lesson for New Mexico’s leaders is simple: the politics of abundance have changed. Ending single-family zoning is not only good policy, it’s popular. Across the state, voters are rewarding those who embrace reform and rejecting those who stand in the way. It’s time for lawmakers, city councilors, and state legislators alike to act on what the public already understands: New Mexico’s future depends on legalizing homes everywhere.