Letter to the Editor: Do We Need An Arts and Culture District Plan?

Published July 26th, 2024 at 8:00 am

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Submitted by Fred Hashimoto, former Corrales Village Councilor

I like Corrales art. We have Corrales artists’ paintings and photographs on our walls and sculptures on our fireplace, purchased art for gifts and have attended and supported Music in Corrales concerts at the Old Church.

However, the proposed Arts and Cultural District (ACD) Plan is dismissive of key issues and self-serving.

Its interests are “economic impact in job creation, business development, business creation/expansion, leveraging of private-sector reinvestment, or enhancement of the community’s economic environment,” visitors and tourists, and being “an arts and entertainment destination.”

Thank you, but village finances have been generally robust with even a several million-dollar rainy-day fund in Santa Fe.

Well, what about residents’ quality of life?  Who wants to live in a destination site for visitors and tourists?  During the Comprehensive Plan committee’s work earlier this year, what we “love about Corrales” includes peacefulness, night skies and no street lights, tranquility, slower-pace-of-life, and our historic small-town character.

For the survey’s question “Challenges to Our Quality of Life in Corrales” over the next 10 years, almost two-thirds of the respondents (or about 1300 people) cited “increased traffic.” Neighborhood noise, lights and speeding traffic are disliked. Visitors and tourists flooding into the village can impact all these negatively. The 86-page plan superficially mentions and then dismisses resident’s quality of life and traffic.

The ACD Plan was crafted by New Mexico MainStreet and Corrales MainStreet (CMS). CMS serves at the pleasure of the village, which pays for both directors’ salaries and gives free office space.

These two MainStreets are formulating an “integration” plan for the four recently acquired properties in the residential/commercial district on Corrales Road.  In that plan, prepared–with prior input from Village Hall–and presented by Amy Bell and Mainstreet on June 25, was a 20,000 square foot “Event Center.”  This is 25% larger than the regional Multi-Use Facility with an amphitheater, which was rejected by the public and MUF committee earlier this year.

The ACD Plan’s big push is for more and more indoor space, including for performing arts.  No space needs assessment exists.  MainStreet walks hand-in-hand with Village Hall.

Having MainStreet do all the village planning short-circuits a fairer, more transparent process of hiring independent architects and receiving Council and interactive public input.  The plan does not consider the public as a stakeholder. “Public input” is mentioned only three times in the plan.

This 86-page plan was made available on uncommon web pages to the general public on July 18.  Village Hall intends to vote to “approve” the Plan on August 18. This does not seem appropriate because as we all know, community communications in Corrales are very slow. This is just how things are in our laid-back village. Most residents have not the slightest notion of what might be coming down the pike. Many months were required for the public to understand what the MUF was about. Hopefully, the governing body will allow a several months window for the public to learn about and assimilate the plan’s contents before making a final decision on it.