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.
Next up: Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education member Kate Noble.
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. So, what do you see that the city is doing to contribute to teen culture, and how would you support those programs?
There's some actual programs like [City] Teen Nights that go out in the summer with a little bit of funding. The fact is, you're right, and we have a demographic problem … and if we don't make it vibrant for young people, we could be out of trajectory for Santa Fe to really just be a retirement community for workers to come in during the day to serve food and do landscaping and various different service-sector jobs, which is honestly part of the reason I'm running for mayor—because I want to make sure we don't do that.
It's great that you're being proactive about this, and in some ways Meow Wolf is actually born out of some local kids who felt there wasn't enough to do, and that we are, in particular, directed towards old people and tourists. So, there used to be youth mural contracts—I don't know what the city is doing now around art in particular and music beyond the children-and-youth programs like Teen Nights and that sort of thing, but I think it would be interesting to explore more cultural programming, particularly through the arts commission, that would direct things to a younger demographic.
What programs or initiatives would you create that would support and improve teen culture in Santa Fe?
I would ask the teens what programs should be created for teens. I really think that it's not a great model for a politician to say I know everything and I know what to do, but rather to ask the the people who are the actual experts in the arena. And I think we do need to look at where all city programs, including health and children and youth programs, are directed and [where] resources are directed to see if we're really hitting areas of great need. We have a lot of assets that are drawing younger professionals, particularly in terms of the outdoors, whether it's mountain biking or rock climbing and things around here, and making sure our teens have programs to take advantage of that would be a good idea, certainly arts and music. We could do some broadcasting categories where people of all ages are applying to engage.
What did you do as a teenager in your free time?
There was an under-21 dance club when I was a teenager in Santa Fe, and that was really fun for the very short time they existed. Man, did I love being able to go out in the evenings and dance. We used to very regularly on Friday and Saturday nights go to the Plaza and find out where a party was, and then often a party train, lots of cars, went to a party. That was fun, and the best part of the evening was often actually just gathering on the Plaza, because then everybody was together. There were no boundaries; there were to cliques; there were no groups. Of course, you probably spent more time talking to your friends, but anybody could show up, and you would see anyone who was basically a teenager at that time, and I loved that. I loved having a gathering place where you could just go running into whomever in town.
I also did a lot of theater, and being a part of theater productions was really, to me, like having a family outside of my actual family, because we spent a lot of time on a lot of evenings doing rehearsals or making sets, building things, and whatever the nuts and bolts of putting a theater production together was. And we always wanted more places to see music and dance shows that could be under-21, but that was pretty few and far between, so it was mostly going downtown to the Plaza or hiking up mountains or going to the theater.
For Alan Webber's responses, click here.
For Joseph Maestas' responses, click here.
