Just a week before election day, all six City Council candidates for District 6 who participated in a Monday night forum agreed that Albuquerque needs to focus its economic strategy on small businesses.
"Small business is the engine that drives the train," Shane Canfield, an Independent, told an audience of about 20 at UNM's Woodward Hall. "And Albuquerque is that train."
Joining Canfield were Democrats Linda Doran, Martin Heinrich and Dona Upson, Republican Johanna Tighe and Green Bob Anderson.
Notably absent was Javier Martinez, a UNM senior also running on the Democratic ticket. In a statement, Martinez said he received a dinner invitation from a group of immigrant women from the La Mesa neighborhood - in the heart of District 6 - which he chose to attend instead of the forum.
The UNM Planners Network and the Southwest Organizing Project co-sponsored the event.
"District 6 is right next door to campus," said Javier Benavidez, a UNM master's student in community and regional planning and one of the event's organizers. "It's good for this community to see first hand the workings of an election. But more than that, as the student group that put this together, we have a real interest in issues like planning and economic development."
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The candidates were given a list of three questions before the forum, all related to city planning and economic development.
Heinrich said he supports neighborhood associations' involvement in revitalization projects for the district.
"But revitalization fails if all we're doing is gentrifying the neighborhoods," he said.
Encouraging small business growth along Central Avenue, Heinrich added, and "cracking down on nuisance businesses," would restore Central as Albuquerque's centerpiece.
Anderson said one way to restore economic equity to Albuquerque's neighborhoods would be converting the State Fairgrounds into a park for families. The conversion, he said, would generate revenue for the low-income neighborhood surrounding the fairgrounds.
The candidates agreed that too much of Albuquerque's economy has been driven by industrial revenue bonds.
"IRBs are a package that gives a business a break for owning property for over 20 years," Doran said. "But we don't want to go so far that there's no money left in the coffers for basic services. We need to shift the tax burden more fairly between newer and older parts of the city."
Industrial bond revenues are used to finance the construction of manufacturing or commercial facilities for private users. They are used by government entities to give companies access to low-cost funds for constructing new facilities.
Answering audience questions near the end of the forum, the candidates again agreed - this time in opposing the proposed Bernalillo County-Albuquerque unification.
"Like the others, I believe unification will work someday, but for now, I oppose it," Tighe said. "In going door to door, I've been hearing that voters just don't understand what all this means."
One major point of contention among the candidates regarding unification was that the proposal would eliminate elections for city and county sheriffs and clerks.
Unification "would get rid of several redundant positions, but this plan doesn't allow for that," Upson said.
The District 6 seat, left open by Councilor Hess Yntema's choice not to seek re-election, will be decided at the polls Oct. 28.