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It's possible to enjoy what other cities have to offer while still wanting to live in Albuquerque and work to make Albuquerque its best self.
Correct. Other places can be examined to find out what they do which makes them successful/crime-free/etc and then people in Albq. can try to take elements of that and apply it back home.
(I'm not saying we need to model ourselves after the Mormon Church ... Definitely NOT saying that)
Quote:
Originally Posted by jiminnm
And, those people have much more money than us in the ABQ area.
Albuquerque can look at other cities all day long, but the fact is the only way we will change our city is to change ourselves.
You got it wrong. There is definitely an advantage to be had by looking at how other places do things, and to figure out which of those things would be appropriate to utilize in Albuquerque. Coming up with these answers on your own is unlikely, but looking for inspiration at other places that are models of success is smart.
Why is the GDP of Salt Lake City two times larger than that of Albq? what's driving their GDP? This is a fundamental question.
Because they sought out businesses to locate there and in surrounding communities, while ABQ sought out federal government spending. The federal spending here was OK while it lasted, but it didn't establish any long term benefits for the local economy.
SLC also benefits from all the tech companies in surrounding communities. Also, do not underestimate the positive impact of the Mormon Church, both attitudinal and economic.
Spent all of last week in Salt Lake City: highly impressed. With everything.
But the whole time I was there I was wondering why Albuquerque couldn't do some of the things that SLC did. Excellent light rail, a bustling downtown (even at 9 PM on a Wednesday night), events with music and bands on the common plaza (and packed, and beer and wine and food trucks as well, compared to the rest of the state, Salt Lake City is minority Mormon and the bar scene in SLC is thriving), indoor downtown shopping mall (an urban trend from 20 years ago but still thriving in SLC), clean, friendly, secure. Neighborhoods (even poorer ones) seemed to be a step up in maintenance, upkeep, appearance, and overall vibe.
Salt Lake City is smaller than ABQ in population (though you'd never know it from looking at it), though the metro populations are similar. Even have the mountains to the east like ABQ, the flagship state university is in town in both SLC and ABQ, and I saw a Salt Lake City Bees minor league baseball game at their ballpark south of downtown where they played...Albuquerque. A lot of commonalities.
Drove back and landed in ABQ yesterday....before going home I had dinner at the Andaluz and walked around downtown (didn't want vacation to end), and just got a bit disappointed in walking around. Salt Lake City was downright thriving and cosmopolitan in comparison.
It was most likely "bustling" because of the summer twilight concert series taking place while you were there. Otherwise, most of the time, downtown SLC goes to sleep after 5pm. The mall sucks life away from most of downtown which is not very walkable...it's no secret to those of us familiar with SLC.
The mall in Salt Lake City's downtown wasn't built 20 years ago, it was opened in 2012. Many people actually blame it for Downtown Salt Lake City not having the foot traffic of even a place like Downtown Boise. Downtown Salt Lake City also shares some of the same problems as Downtown Albuquerque in terms of homeless people and vagrants as well as competing with suburban areas for business activity and office users.
Albuquerque can look at other cities all day long, but the fact is the only way we will change our city is to change ourselves. Feeling inferior to other places is one of our biggest flaws. Feeling like we aren't good enough is one too. Outdated perceptions and worn out ways of thinking about Downtown Albuquerque are the biggest thing holding it back from truly blossoming.
Downtown Albuquerque is actually at the best point it ever has been since the 1960s. There's an awful lot of cool things going on and lots of people working to help it reach its potential. Albuquerque already has commuter rail and will have the nation's best BRT line up and running soon. We need to focus on making sure these things are successful rather than looking at what other cities have with envy.
When I had relatives in town they described our downtown as a "cute little downtown". They had no complaints and liked the area. And these are people used to visiting the downtown areas of many large cities so they have something to compare it to.
The Mormon Church not only backed the mall in downtown Salt Lake, they also paid for it.
"The mall, which opened a little more than a year ago, is the centerpiece of a mixed-use development that was financed entirely by the church, which spent, by any estimate, hundreds of millions of dollars. Although the combination of commerce and religion in this case may seem unusual, business leaders and developers credit the mall with spurring new business and enlivening what had been the faded core of Salt Lake City, home to 189, 900."
You got it wrong. There is definitely an advantage to be had by looking at how other places do things, and to figure out which of those things would be appropriate to utilize in Albuquerque. Coming up with these answers on your own is unlikely, but looking for inspiration at other places that are models of success is smart.
Why is the GDP of Salt Lake City two times larger than that of Albq? what's driving their GDP? This is a fundamental question.
I'm not saying we shouldn't look at other cities for solutions or ideas and things that might work here, I'm saying nothing will change in Albuquerque without our collective mindset as a city changing. Plenty of people here have come up with proposals and ideas that would make us better, only to have them shot down, picked apart and criticized to death.
Look at anything good that happens in Albuquerque or gets proposed and watch it be killed or criticized by a good portion of the city. A downtown ballpark, downtown arena, convention center hotel, new tallest building, streetcar, etc. All those were proposed and could've been built in Downtown Albuquerque, some of them 20 years ago. Albuquerque would've been a national leader and at the forefront of downtown revitalization if not for our defeatist attitude, naysaying and criticizing among the populace and the timidity and weakness of our city leadership.
My biggest problem is with looking at other cities with envy or in thinking that we aren't good enough. Albuquerque has plenty of strengths we can build upon and is plenty good right now. It has lots going for it and lots going on that will change it for the better. We could be much better and have much more going on if only we let ourselves reach our full potential. That's why I said we are our own biggest obstacle.
Instead of allowing people to trash Downtown Albuquerque we need to defend it as a place that is beginning to come into its own and thrive. It has plenty of cool things to see and do. It has had plenty of successes lately and more to come that are in the works. Never in my lifetime has it had so much going on or as many people living here and visiting it. That's in the past 4 decades.
We are going to have another opportunity to give our downtown a big shot in the arm coming up later this month. That's when the proposals for the Civic North RFP will be revealed. It's expected that they are going to involve a new performing arts center of some kind. We can't let our past track record on big projects happen again, we have to try to make it happen.
As for GDP, Salt Lake City's metro GDP per capita is $72,850 versus Albuquerque at $48,254 per capita. That's $24,596 more per capita for Salt Lake City. It's a lot more but nowhere near twice as much. Let's deal with facts not hyperbole here, okay?
If Albuquerque had the same population as Salt Lake City with our current productivity our metro GDP would be $58,158,000,000
If Albuquerque had the same productivity of Salt Lake City with our current population we would have a metro GDP of $66,505,000,000
Salt Lake City - $87,801,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 1,205,238 population = $72,850 per capita
Albuquerque - $44,051,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 912,897 population = $48,254 per capita
Salt Lake City is an overachiever and even outperforms the country as a whole by over $12,000 per capita. I don't think Albuquerque should feel too bad compared to Salt Lake City.
In fact, there are plenty of cities which Albuquerque beats in this measure.
Albuquerque's metro GDP per capita is much higher than our closest peers of Tucson and El Paso, as well as higher than such fast-growing and successful Western cities as Boise and Colorado Springs.
El Paso - $29,033,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 845,145 population = $34,353 per capita
Tucson - $39,034,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 1,027,502 population = $37,989 per capita
Boise - $33,604,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 710,080 population = $47,324 per capita
Colorado Springs - $32,683,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 725,438 population = $45,053 per capita
We should focus on growing our GDP per capita to match the U.S. as a whole, then we can try to become an overachiever.
On the state level, New Mexico's GDP was the third-fastest growing in the first quarter of this year, which is the most recent figure available on the state level.
New Mexico's GDP per capita is higher than the fast-growing and successful states of Arizona and Florida.
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