Questions for Santa Fe City Council candidates –2012
From: The Santa Fe Downtown Merchants
Association.
To: All City Council Candidates
We noticed that there was no mention on your web
site of Santa Feʼs largest industry – tourism.
The members of the Santa Fe Lodgers, Gallery and
Merchants Associations did a survey in 2011 and found
that we pay our employees over $134 million dollars last year.
Our members collected over 45 million dollars in
gross receipts tax. Most of this money came from
tourists. You all had ways to spend money but nothing on
the other side of the ledger, income. WHY?
Our associations want to protect and nurture the most
important part of our economy, our cityʼs income, the tourist.
We have problems and projects we would like to see addressed in downtown Santa F
All of these are meant to make Santa Fe more attractive to tourists.
Where do you stand on each of these:
“Security”.
Just a few years ago downtown had a “beat”
policeman. This policeman made tourists feel much more
comfortable in our city. We regularly hear complaints
from tourists about the threatening behavior of
vagrants. We need to protect Santa Feʼs income and have
police presence for at least 14 hours a day.
Patti’s Response:
I have worked with previous Chiefs of police to get a
prominent police presence in the downtown area. I
advocated for the first officers on bicycles, who we
initially stationed in the Plaza area (recall Cecile?).
It is my understanding that a few of the Southside
Councilors wanted more coverage in their districts, so
perhaps that was the rationale given for shifting our
downtown patrol.
I will continue to press for a prominent police
presence in the downtown to keep our visitors and
residents safe.
I also voted to strengthen our “Solicitation Ordinance”
to help our officers maintain a panhandling free
downtown, and I introduced the “Buskers Ordinance”
to provide for a licensure system for street performers,
that also limited the location of such performances in
the downtown area.
“Fundraiser Arts and Crafts Fairs.”
Three of the summer seasons best weekends are
given to out of town vendors.
Our retail and gallery members detail the losses that they
sustain from this abuse of the Plaza and Plaza periphery.
Their losses are in the 10 to 30% range.
Tourists also complain about the loss of being able to
visit the pleasant space that is the Plaza and the poor quality
of the merchandise (arts and crafts?) being sold.
The City of Santa Fe spends over $18,000.00 per
event in financial support for these out of town vendors.
This comes in the form of reduced fees and overtime
to city employees for things like police, fire and
sanitation. This doesnʼt include the extra expense in taking care of the Plaza sod.
We would like the City to stop spending our tax dollars supporting
vendors from out of town and
out of state. We have come up with several places
that these fundraising events could move, the Water Street parking lot,
East De Vargas Street or the Railyard
Area. The out of town and out of state vendors should
not be given our tourist industryʼs center.
The trees on the Plaza are stressed by the vendors
and other booths placed directly on the tree roots. The treeʼs are
being stunted and their lives shortened. We would like all use by vendors and
other booths be taken off the tree roots.
Patti’s Response:
I support the recommendations that came from the
Plaza Roundtable to try and mitigate the impacts of
Plaza events.
Outside of the three-four main events that need to
continue to remain on the Plaza (Fiesta, Indian
Market, Spanish Market, and Pancakes on the Plaza),
we should strive to relocate other markets or fairs to
other appropriate locations. These secondary events
should also bear as many of their associated costs as
possible.
Most importantly, all events on the Plaza should be
set up so as to limit their impacts on our natural
landscape, in particular, our trees.
“Publication boxes.”
The Plaza has over 40 different publication boxes.
They are unsightly and ruin the historic visual aspect of the Plaza.
The tourists notice these; it takes
away from what Santa Fe is known for, its visual ambiance.
City staff claims to be working on this problem but it has
been more than a year since they began.
Patti’s Response:
I support the most recent efforts, which are working
their way through the Land Use Department, to limit
the amount of, and placement of publication boxes.
Currently, there are areas in the downtown where the
proliferation of these boxes is an impediment to
pedestrian traffic. With regard to the presentation of these boxes,
I would ask the Historic Design Review Board to weigh in on this issue,
as it has on the design of park benches, and other structural features in the Historic
Plaza.
“The 7ʼ3” tall electric utility box.”
The 2008 bond issue included an upgrade of electrical and watering systems
on the Plaza. Specifically, the bond funded putting the utility boxes in
at “grade.” Instead the City installed a third monolithic box on the historic
plaza. The City did not follow its own ordinances and
never took the design before the Historic Design Review Board,
a citizens board assigned to protect the historic nature of Santa Fe
from this sort of attack. We would like the City to keep the commitment
it made in the bond issue and put the boxes at or below grade.
Patti’s Response
The installation of the unsightly electric utility box and
its companion transformer, installed by the City, was a
most unfortunate and costly mistake. Their design
and installation certainly should have come before the
Historic Design Review Board. If that had taken
place, I am almost certain we would not be having this
discussion of how to improve a bad situation.
The least costly “solution” offered by staff to reduce
the utility box to 4ʼ3”, is really not a solution, and the
$100,000 offered up in the recent CIP Bond is not
enough to put the boxes at or below grade. The cost
estimate to bury the boxes is over $400,000, and
under grounding comes with functional uncertainties
(the utility boxes must be water-free and maintain a
certain levelness).
“Crumbling curbs and sidewalks.
A tour of San Francisco Street will immediately show
the unsightly and unsafe aspect of curbs and sidewalks downtown.
The curbs have crumbled in many places,
the warning mats on curb cuts are loose, and
nowhere is the painting of the curbs current.
Patti’s Response:
Just as I have advocated for and procured funds to
upgrade and replace the flagstone and cement on the
Plaza itself, I will continue to pursue funds to make
improvements to the downtown sidewalks and curbs.
As you know the sidewalks in front of a business
establishment are the responsibility of the business
owner, however, we do have a small sidewalk fund
that could be used for some of the maintenance and
repairs.
I also pursued the procurement of a small 4-wheel
plow to keep our downtown sidewalks cleared of snow
and ice in the winter season.
“Bogus going out of business sales.”
Our Associations have drawn the Cityʼs attention to
misrepresentations on the applications of several
downtown businesses that have applied for “going out of
business” sales. In most cases the applicant, a
business partner of the applicant or a family member have
re-entered business at the same address. The City has
refused to do anything about this. The constant stream of
going out of business sales stresses the legitimate businesses and causes
mistrust in customers who are mostly tourists.
Shopping is mentioned as one of the top 3 reasons
people come to Santa Fe. We want our shoppers and
our businesses to be protected from unscrupulous businesses.
Patti’s Response:
I continue to support the tightening up of any laws
regulating distress merchandise sales in the historic
districts. As you know we have added new penalties
and rules around the advertising of these sales, in the
hopes that this would deter previous practices by
businesses that were perpetually “going out of
business”. There will always be individuals that try
and get around the rules; however, City staff has been
charged with tightly enforcing our current rules. I am
open to suggestions, as how to deter those that
abusing the current system. We, of course, need to
be mindful of the City Attorneyʼs cautions against
violating first amendment rights.