Mayoral candidate Alan Webber at a rally in favor of ranked-choice voting | Matt Grubs
SFR recently met with a trio of Santa Fe Prep students—Alex Mazur, Vickie Hsin and Oliver Lehman, all 16—who are working with the Convergence Project, a teen-run organization dedicated to creating opportunities for youth. Both they and we were curious about how a town famous for catering to older demographics might impact a younger generation from a cultural aspect and how an incoming mayor might support existent or new initiatives.
SFR will present the teens' findings over the next several days as we lead to the March 6 election day in Santa Fe. Candidates are presented in no particular order.
First up are answers from Alan Webber:
Arts and culture of Santa Fe seem to be directed towards an older demographic and tourism, which leaves many teens saying that there is little to do for them. What do you see that the city is doing to contribute to teen culture, and how would you support those programs?
People who grow up here leave the city frequently in order to find a future they're more excited about—partly because of a normal instinct to not always want to live in one's hometown, but we also want more people to be able to choose to come back and/or stay if it works for them. The issue is not just arts and culture, but also how can someone make a life here that involves their age group in ways that makes people feel relevant, listened to, engaged with, and have purpose in sticking around to make Santa Fe part of their future.
People my age in the city shouldn't wait until teens are ready to leave before saying, 'How can we engage you so that you don't leave?' It should start now, when teens are trying to create their own opportunities for people all across the community to feel as if they can participate. But more than arts and culture, politics, sustainability issues—to make people feel that they matter and are important here. I think that the city is aware of the problem; there are a lot of people who want to know what to do about it. The truth is, you should tell us what you think would make a difference for you.
What programs or initiatives would you create that would support and improve teen culture in Santa Fe, and how would you fund those programs?
If we're talking specifically about teen culture, summers are critical; for people with learning issues or who are starting their educational experience from a deficit, gains made during the school year are lost during the summer, and the city has a responsibility to work with school districts to prevent that from happening. We ought to have lots of opportunities for internships, in partnering with companies, businesses and organizations so that young people can both get some job experience but also partner with schools so that the job experience combines with summer learning.
After school is a huge issue for a lot of young people in Santa Fe. Where do you go, what do you do, how do you not get into trouble, how do you find a productive experience that you can put onto your resume if you want to go to college and say that you did something with your time that made a difference? We can certainly use young people more effectively as volunteers in our community, and tap into the energy, idealism and passion that is part of being young. I think we need to be teaching and encouraging young people around the city to think of themselves as entrepreneurs in training; a mayor and city government can help do that by offering internships, coaching classes, informal video channels from a network of the country's best entrepreneurs to help inspire people to try things at a young age, so that they're empowered to do them. The city needs to be focused on a conversation with young people, not by telling them what to do but rather by finding out matters most to them and trying to enable that through every part of the community.
What did you do as a teenager in your free time?
I grew up in St. Louis [Missouri]. My parents didn't have a lot of money, so I would work summer jobs, one of which was restocking camera film every morning for a shop my father worked at. I also worked at Washington University, writing a curriculum for kids my age to learn about environmental issues; in particular, the nuclear power plant issue in California along the San Andreas fault. I would research and write up drafts for the professor to turn into a case study.
I didn't go to summer camps, which were unaffordable, but St. Louis is a big baseball town, so I played a lot of summer baseball, equivalent to Little League. I was on a swimming team, so I had swimming practice to go to every day, and I played ping-pong in between practices at the community center.
Maybe the question behind the question is: How did what I did growing up make me think about what I would like young people to be able to do here? And the answer is I'd like for young people here to have the opportunity to engage in sports and be healthy. We have a very large issue in Santa Fe and New Mexico where people's lifestyles are not healthy, who live without physical exercise and the opportunities to join sports teams. We have a lot of people, who, if they wanted to go on a date, wouldn't be able to afford to do so, because of our weak economy and lack of jobs for people of all ages.
The very simple way that I think about it: the technology that we have today makes everyone the center of the experience, everything is user-centric. The way city government works is not user-centric. Within the whole system, the mayor, the council and various departments, the rest of the people of Santa Fe are on the outside, looking at the government. The real model we should have is that you are in the middle, telling us what you need to have a better experience, to make you feel valued and that the town is a place worth living in, while we ask and help you with what you want to do, what you are interested in, and how you want to accomplish your goals instead of telling you what to do within set parameters. It won't happen overnight, this user-centric model, but it's the right thing to do.
