Lack of good urban planning contributes to problems such as dependence on automobiles, pedestrian deaths and degrading communities, panelists said Thursday during an off-campus public forum.
Panelist Sarah Kotchian, a UNM Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adviser, said barriers in the political and economic systems encourage urban sprawl because the tax system is designed to compete and not share revenues. She added that this system helps keep land costs cheaper, catering to developers.
"Our structure is not set up for cooperation," Kotchian said.
Other members on the panel at the Indian Pueblo Culture Center were Pat Baca, director of UNM's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Richard Brusuelas, director of the Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department and Jim Barr, an air quality professional. The group met to discuss the impact of urbanization and how the community can combat the problem.
Barr said the mix of new and old urban street systems won't let any holes through the structure, which doesn't allow people to go anywhere on foot or bike. He said this is what leads to such severe dependence on automobiles, increased traffic accidents and inability to walk anywhere.
Barr also argued that because the government planners won't consider putting a bike path straight through the street systems because they want to maximize profits for developers.
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Baca noted that New Mexico is high on the national list in pedestrian deaths. He said that people are getting killed crossing busy streets, which is assisted by factors such as poor lighting - a clear sign that the city is not doing its job.
Brusuelas said many of the communities have also become unlivable because they have been neglected by the city, thus impeding on people's safety. He said the quality of life has decreased due to things such as widening the streets, making traffic faster and causing safety concerns.
"I walk to work and sometimes I feel there's a conspiracy there to break my neck because the city won't maintain the sidewalks," he said.
Brusuelas said another problem is that developers come into an area, build structures such as shopping centers and then leave them empty when other shopping centers are built nearby.
He proposed that by doing more positive things, such as building schools where the abandoned shopping centers, would immediately benefit the entire community.
Brusuelas added that his department is trying enforce regulations, making sure things such as contaminated drinking water do not occur.
He suggested that the community itself is what needs to make change. He said his department is trying to get more people involved. One tactic Brusuelas said his department has used is the reverse press conference, where people from the community instead of officials, make presentations about what's going wrong in their communities.
Kotchian also agreed that community involvement is needed to help change the living and environmental conditions.
"The areas that have more voter participation had fewer environmental types of concerns," she said. "That's a strong indicator for 1,000 Friends and other advocacy groups that it really does make a difference is people are involved and know what's going on and participate in the decisions."
Kotchian added that everybody involved in city planning need to do a better job of listening to people's concerns before taking action.
1,000 Friends of New Mexico, a nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes planning for future growth, sponsored the forum.
