Why I support the Business Improvement District.

William R. Keleher

I love Albuquerque. I grew up in Albuquerque. I have lived here my whole working life. My wife and I raised our family here.

Albuquerque is a great place, but it could be better. One thing that can be improved is downtown Albuquerque.

Why should it be improved? First, because we all deserve a great place to live, and a strong downtown is part of that.

Second, when people travel to a new city, they want to go downtown. That is where you experience a microcosm of the whole city; it’s where you see the people, hear the music, look at art, and try the food. Visitors and residents want to be where the people, food, music, and art are. It is the heart of any city.

Third, it is important for Economic Development. When site selectors come to Albuquerque they want to see downtown, because a vibrant downtown will be important to their hiring and retention. Currently, they are not impressed. We need to make that better.

The way downtown Albuquerque property owners can make a strong downtown is by working together. We can pool resources and decide on a few things we can do to improve downtown – and then do them.

Downtown property owners are very clear: They want a better image for downtown. They want people to feel safe downtown. They want a cleaner downtown filled with people enjoying downtown. We can make downtown a place where people, music, art, food and everything else, prospers.

If we don’t do it, nobody else will. We need to work together, and the BID gives us property owners a way to gather our resources and make downtown cleaner, safer, more vibrant, and more interesting. And that will help downtown for the benefit of the city, the state and the future.