By Mike Cook
“The state of the city is strong,” Mayor Ken Miyagishima said March 2, as he reported on issues the City of Las Cruces dealt with in 2021 and his goals for 2022.
“This is a community where people care deeply about one another, whatever our varied backgrounds or status,” said Miyagishima, who, last November, became the longest serving mayor in Las Cruces history.
His speech was televised on CLCTV and delivered to a live audience at City Hall for the first time in two years because of the pandemic.
Here are excerpts from the mayor’s speech:
- Covid-19: “We’ve created health protocols to protect our residents. We have delivered and continue to deliver millions of dollars of support to local families, businesses, nonprofits, and vulnerable populations.”
- City Manager Ifo Pili: “He’s made clear that the purpose of economic development for Las Cruces is to lift everyone up. It calls for us to develop a local workforce with highly marketable skills. It means that we will actively recruit those new businesses that seem committed to our community, and only those that pay a living wage. It was Ifo’s insight to identify access to housing as a component of economic development.”
- Climate change: “One of our most forward-thinking initiatives over the last year has been to address a rapidly changing climate, one of the greatest threats to freedom and well-being our species has ever known.” The mayor said city initiatives include an electric vehicle policy and an ongoing water conservation program developed by the city Utilities Department.
- Public safety: “None of us on this council underestimates the need for policing in our community. We know the courage and sacrifices of our officers, and the vital importance of what they do. At the same time, we know that the personal experiences of each of us, and those of our families and loved ones, can make our expectations in a policing incident vastly different. Many of our police officers already feel under siege. Many of our residents’ fear mistreatment or worse. Hundreds of years of painful personal and familial experience – on all sides and of all kinds – are already fully present in times of crisis, long before the first 911 call is made, and an officer responds.
“Our police officers know this, and they would like for it to be different. In a city like Las Cruces, our police force isn’t an occupying force – our officers live among us as neighbors and friends. The path to optimal policing lies (in) considering our different backgrounds, fears, and expectations, and how life is experienced by all those involved.”
- Public health and safety: In a “much more comprehensive approach,” the mayor said, “One thing to consider is the vast range of situations currently handled by city police, and the possibility that not all of them are best addressed with a badge and a gun. Our hope is that personnel trained in social intervention will soon be taking lead on calls to assist people suffering from mental illness, addiction and homelessness, and to respond for child welfare checks and threats to commit suicide.”
- Community development: The continued development of the El Paseo corridor is a priority, the mayor said, including “traditional neighborhoods bordered by Lohman, University and Triviz … moderate-income housing and new commercial activity (and) connecting NMSU with Downtown.”
“As we move past the pandemic, there’s a pent-up energy moving through our community,” Miyagishima said. “There’s a dynamism reflected in the explosion of new local businesses, the full parking lots at our restaurants and stores. There’s an eagerness to get back together and back fully to work, in ways that have too often been frustrated over the past two years.”
