Mayor Berry: time to get the basics of government right

There it was in today’s Albuquerque Journal business section, yet another business having trouble with burdensome regulations in Albuquerque. Said Roy Solomon, developer of the Green Jeans Farmery, a new development that is struggling with permitting issues at the City, “I’m not going to do another project in this town, ever, ever again.” Ouch.

Worse, this is not the first time a businessman has said something similar about Albuquerque. According to an Albuquerque Journal story from February, Suzanne Lubar of the City’s Planning Department said of the City’s zoning structure, “Nobody has a true sense of what’s allowed and what’s not allowed…It’s not very predictable. I had developers calling and saying, I will never do a development in your city again.”

Of course the zoning and land use planning issue are not the City’s only problems, taxes are on the rise (again), the minimum wage is one of the highest in the nation in real terms, and then there are the recent high-profile violent crimes.

The big “solution” from the Mayor of our City is to foist a costly new bus system on the City’s taxpayers and a long list of businesses in the Central corridor that oppose the project.

Perhaps our City should get the basics like public safety and permitting done in a manner that helps rather than hinders the economy before it embraces a massive and expensive redevelopment of Central Avenue? How about it Mayor Berrry?