Richard Romero has worked in Albuquerque for the past 35 years, serving as a legislator in the Senate and as a teacher and principal in local high schools.
Daily Lobo: My first question is regarding renewable energy and sustainable energy in Albuquerque. What plans do you have for future developments to make Albuquerque a more sustainable city, using different sources of energy?
Richard Romero: I think we are at a crossroads here in America and, in particular, in New Mexico. We really need to move in that direction rapidly. We are ideally situated. When I become mayor, one of the first things I am going to do is to see if we can’t zero out on our energy use by getting into photovoltaic sun collectors. … We have to buy and establish what is called market share. In other words, small businesses could begin to feed into it and begin to sell the retrofits, so to speak, with the city and begin to grow that business. … We need to do whatever we can to move it in that direction.
DL: Tell me your ideas for reducing crime in Albuquerque.
RR: I am one of those that thinks crime is out of control. … What we have to do is this: We need to get more police officers out on the street. We need to implement community policing. We need to get police out there, out from behind desks and into the community. Gangs are really a problem. We really need to address the issues of crime in a more comprehensive way. … Crime is a measure of the health of the community. Crime is up, dropouts are up and unemployment is at record levels. The health of the city is not good. We truly are sick. We really have to do a better job. Crime is a big issue that needs to be addressed.
DL: What do you see is the role of the University within the city?
RR: The University is key to any economic development. We have to engage with the University — work with the Board of Regents, with the president. They are really the key to economic development. We have the brightest minds here. There is no reason that we can’t tap into that to help work on issues like crime, water (and) energy sustainability. We need to work with the University in ways we have never worked with them before, in collaborative ways instead of in an adversarial role. We need to break the barriers down.
DL: What is your vision for the economic development of Albuquerque?
RR: Small business development is important to me. We need to do a better job of working with our small businesses. We need to ask them how we can help them and make them grow and prosper. These are home-grown businesses that grow roots in our community. They tend to stay with us. They will not desert us. They will stay with us and grow. We have thousands of small businesses here in Albuquerque. If each one would just hire one individual, then we would have people off the unemployment list. We should patronize our local folks and give them the business. They are struggling. They are fighting for their lives here in Albuquerque.
DL: In what ways do you think you can engage the community?
RR: Open and transparent government is my signature issue. I want to operate very openly. I think that is what the public wants, and I think the public is fed up with some of the stuff that has been going on with public money. It is something that needs to change.
The full transcript of this interview is available at See the full interview version
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