Albuquerque is a high desert city in the heart of the southwest. It resides in the shadow of an 11,500-foot mountain range, and is fed by the Rio Grande. With architectural regulations keeping corporations from blocking the mountains with tall buildings, city planners have been forced to build out instead of up, what resulted is a city with half a million people in it, spread out over an entire valley, and up onto a mesa, spanning the full length of the mountain range shadowing it. Albuquerque balances on a fine line between rural country town, and big metropolitan city. It has a downtown district, outlying neighborhoods, and sprawling suburbs, but it is the only major settlement in its region, and the nearest town is nearly one hundred miles away. This leaves it in an interesting mix of rustic food culture, rooted in local farming, as well as the inner-city food culture, which is based around the cheap, familiar, and filling foods that you would find in any other major city center.
If that alone isn’t strange enough, the city has begun to grow relatively quickly in the past few years, and as that has happened, local housing prices have begun to fluctuate. Certain neighborhoods have gone in and out of style, and the density and location of new businesses has changed quite a bit as well. A great example of this is the rise and fall of the Nob Hill area. Now, Nob Hill was once the heart of Albuquerque. It was the place to hang out. Every weekend, the streets would be packed with lowriders, and the sidewalks would be packed with pedestrians, looking to go into shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, what comes with trendy areas, is high rent.
As Burqueños realized that it was not an affordable place to live, they ended up moving elsewhere. Elsewhere being new developments in Rio Rancho and the west side. As this happened, foot traffic slowed,
and businesses died. Now, nob hill is relatively barren, every day of the week. This can also be partially attributed to the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project, that blocked the streets and sidewalks for around a year. Regardless, business is not strong enough in nob hill for shops and restaurants to stay open. In the past year alone, Rustic Star, Zacatecas, Last Call, Nob Hill Bar and Grill, Frost, and Street food Asia have all either been bought, or have been forced to close their doors in Nob Hill for good.
This is leading to new “trendy” restaurants and shops popping up in other places. Usually along major roads or in industrial districts. These new establishments are often a little more expensive, and are built around the same industrial chic that they are in other cities. Think Zendo, The Modern General, Prismatic, and Salt and Board. Guess what, these places are totally surviving. For many, they make bleak areas come alive, and they offer something different from the same four blocks of central that everyone has been going to for decades. This is how gentrification begins, and this is how it grows. We’re lucky right now, we have the space in Albuquerque to expand without severely damaging the local culture that is already here, but so did Portland, and that didn’t turn out so well did it.
If you're interested in reading a more detailed snapshot of New Mexico's rich agricultural history, Check out my colleague Marcos' blog here: losmontoyas.home.blog/
If you're interested in getting involved in revitalizing Albuquerques local farming, check out my colleague Isabel's blog here:
I want to take this opportunity to talk about water in the southwest. This is a topic I am extremely fascinated by, and passionate about. So, why is water the life force in New Mexico communities? Well, we live in a region of the United States where water is scarce. We only have a handful of small rivers and small aquifers to feed 127,000 square miles and over two million people. That means it must meet the demands of our urban water uses, and our rural agriculture. This is an enormous task for such a small water volume. To top things off, our water sources do not originate in this state, meaning that there are several states ahead of us pulling water out of some of our most valuable water sources. Water is the life force of New Mexico because it is valued in every household. This scarcity and high cultural and practical value is what contributes to the constant fighting for it. It is such a finite resource that when even the slightest bit of water is diverted, irrigated, or polluted, the effects show up all the way down the line.
Take the Cochiti dam for example. Before it was built in 1973, water flowed freely in the Rio Grande through Albuquerque. During every monsoon season, the river would flood into old town, giving the cottonwoods along the banks enough water to grow. After construction of the dam, water was regulated to a specific rate of flow, which kept it from flooding its banks any farther than the ditches and jetty jacks along its banks. This lack of water now keeps cottonwoods from growing in the Bosque. The ones that stand today will be the last ones to stand, unless the flow is increased in the future. New Mexico’s water system is completely interdependent, and changing a single thing will have an effect on the entire thing.
This endless fighting for water has led to some serious issues within the state. It mainly relates to water law. Most of the water law in this state was written during the early nineteenth century, when New Mexico was a rural state with a small population, made mostly of rural farm land. Those water regulations were designed to fit a small community, with relatively limited water needs. Now in a state with two million people located in several large cities, the water needs have surpassed the water resources. Farmers can’t get access to groundwater, as there are strict regulations on well use, our aquifer is depleting faster than it is replenishing, and as of right now, both of our main water recourses in central New Mexico are contaminated. Our arid communities rely entirely on their limited water supplies, and what little water they have is being poisoned and running out. Nothing about the way we use water in this state is sustainable, and if we continue down this path, there could soon be little left of this southwestern oasis we love.