When the sun rises in Santa Fe, it saturates adobe and stucco walls, hand-worked stone cathedrals, the imperfect wobble of a mud town with old bones. In other cities, such as nearby Albuquerque, sunlight arcs from glass and steel towers, buildings are angular and purposeful, busy footfalls and elevator chimes provide tempo for wide-awake commerce. Santa Fe prefers to simmer out of its slumber, to lazily count tourism dollars that pour in from appreciators of lazy places.
But that's a lie. That's a vacation brochure promising nine holes of golf and a flamenco show. Sleepy, romantic Santa Fe is an economic strategy-and one that's not pulling in the premiums it once did. Santa Fe's market share of the destination tourism business has declined by nearly one third since the mid-1990s. Now historic Santa Fe has found itself, like an increasing number of communities, turning toward a dose of digital medicine and the modern, economic savvy that comes with it.
"The number one tourist destination in
Santa Fe, for years now, has been its Web site," says David Brownlow, a salty dog on the New Mexico Internet scene as president of the 10-year-old Studio X, a Web development and hosting company. Brownlow and his company maintain the City's visitor Web site
, and observe its regular traffic. While Studio X doesn't create the content-that's supplied by Texas advertising firm Maverick-finding a way to represent Santa Fe's allure in ones and zeroes is, according to Brownlow, a make or break gambit that's already on the verge of being too late.
"It used to be that you went and saw your travel agent and they would tell you about how charming Santa Fe is and give you a brochure and book you a ticket," he says. "Now people are doing research online and they have to be convinced through that interface to come here." In order to ensure the City doesn't fall further behind, argues Brownlow, Santa Fe's economic development and information technology departments must have the full backing of City leadership and understand they're working in tandem, rather than in competition, with the state as a whole. Somewhere in the mix, telecom companies and major service providers
like Qwest and Comcast have to be convinced to perceive investment in New Mexico as worthwhile.
In the meantime, Santa Fe's slow-moving adobe landslide into the future is being championed by the same locomotion that
drives most things around here: a loose band of innovators and committed individuals finding a way to make things work, even when common sense
says they shouldn't. That energy only lasts so long, Brownlow says, whose cautious optimism about Santa Fe's late-blossoming digital culture is tempered with the experience of watching many peers head for greener business parks.
Craig Fiels agrees. A senior economic development planner for the City, Fiels doesn't just rate online presence a factor in promoting tourism, he views it as key to the development of the city's economy, in tandem with ubiquitous broadband access to the Internet for Santa Fe's entrepreneurs and artisans.
"It's absolutely critical," Fiels says, "We are already a
couple years behind the curve and if we don't act now to improve our infrastructure, we may never catch up."
In speculative science fiction novels, places like Santa Fe take a
back seat to coastal urban sprawl and exotic population centers-who wants to set a dark-future, cyberpunk thriller in a short, brown town in the middle of nowhere? Yet given the long-standing presence of the Los Alamos and Sandia laboratories, as well as enterprises such as Santa Fe Institute and the National Center for Genome
Research, the techno-geek factor around here is discreet but high. It also has found an odd harmony with Santa Fe's spiritual and artistic communities.
"Nowhere else, when I'm fixing someone's system and my fingers are flying across the keyboard, would someone call me an artist," says Jason Schaeffer, a consultant with Straight Shooting Computing.
Behind Schaeffer, scattered throughout the
Santa Fe Baking Company, a half-dozen or more people have their laptops open, a slice of Santa Fe life cruising the Internet via the wireless waves of a public scene thanks, in large part, to him. "We set this stuff up as a community project," says Schaeffer, gesturing past the laptops to the broadcast antenna in the ceiling and a computer set up in the corner for free
use by those without a laptop. Schaeffer, a born populist, also is the founder of the New Mexico Gnu/Linux Users Group (NMGLUG), an organization dedicated to the open source ethic of software development. Proponents of open source disdain proprietary, corporate owned software and computer operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, in favor of democratically developed and user customizable platforms like Linux. To encourage others to try Linux, Schaeffer and NMGLUG are installing free computers
and wireless networks in cafés and other venues around Santa Fe. "A few places were trying to charge for access to wireless networks," says Schaeffer, "but wireless is all about freedom. Nobody pays for wireless."
Well, somebody pays for it, actually, but cities are beginning to think of it as an imperative infrastructure cost. Increasingly the thinking in economic development circles is communities without
widespread, always available, bandwidth for communications will lose out to cities that have gone the extra mile to provide such ubiquitous service.
"Albuquerque is really going after tech jobs and businesses," says that city's mayor, Martin Chavez. "We want clean, high-paying jobs, not dirty old factories." Last month Albuquerque introduced free, wireless Internet service on its Rapid Ride bus service as part of a plan to position the city as a leading contender for digital era businesses. "If you're going to attract the kind of businesses that we want, they have to be able to see themselves here, to know that we offer the lifestyle their employees want," says Chavez. "It is key to our economic development."
It's also the key to Santa Fe's economic
development plan, which has the support of many City staffers. The City's leadership, however, has yet to be gripped by digital fever.
"We have just approved capital expenditures to keep our internal infrastructure on budget," says City
Councilor David Coss, "and I know that more development is something myself and the other councilors would like to see, but I think the energy here is coming out of the economic development department and our ongoing arts and culture industry meetings and out of our own information technology staff."
Broadband access and wireless nodes blossoming like fruit trees
does help a city's development prospects, agrees Steve
Whitman, a senior economic development
planner who works alongside Fiels for the City of Santa Fe.
"It's just gaining recognition as a key quality of life component, the whole idea of fiber optic cable and wireless networks being a part of basic infrastructure," says Whitman. "I think in a few years,
of course, it will be the assumption."
Santa Fe's economic development plan, as it happens, was prepared by tech-heavy analysts from Angelou Economics who run their numbers game out of tech-heavy Austin, Texas. The plan, nonetheless, doesn't focus on Internet technologies, infomatics and World Wide Web daydreams. The arts and culture industry ranks first on Santa Fe's list of promotional priorities. The definition of arts and culture is broad indeed, expanding to include anything arguably "creative"-including Web design and many digital technologies-but on a very basic level the equation is: No museums equals no tourism.
Promoting and encouraging the creative economy, however, could bring recognition to digital media and information workers as well. The City recently granted a $50,000 contract to a team comprised of New Mexico CultureNet's Alex Traube and NetMan's Sam Levy to create, operate and bring to independent profitability an arts and
culture Web portal. Levy also is the current chairman-elect of the
New Mexico Internet Professionals Association. Now that City money is going-at least in a small way-to where the City's mouth is, Levy is anxious to see a ripple effect.
"Digital culture in Santa Fe is struggling to maintain its foothold," he remarks via-naturally-e-mail. "New media, Internet and digital/design related companies probably get most of their revenues from out of state. These are often small businesses without large advertising budgets who can run into some significant barriers in getting the word out to the world that they're here."
The Web portal Levy is tasked to create will help, according to Kris Swedin, director of housing and economic development for the City.
"The portal will eventually become a way to showcase and deliver the full spectrum of design talents
that are going to be
showcased this year for the first time at Santa Fe Design Week [June 23-26] and that's a huge event. Eventually, it's our hope the portal can be a way for clients and buyers to find services and artwork online." Swedin calls Design Week the embodiment of Santa Fe's economic development plan, tying together the business, art and technology efforts as well as conservation design.
"Digital designers are drawn to the quiet beauty of Santa Fe and really do want to remain here," Levy continues. "What they are sorting out right now is how to promote their businesses, work with leadership and run their companies so that they can stay in
business in the land of great sunsets."
Santa Fe, according to Whitman, is committed to funding the program until it gets off the ground. At that point, in theory, it will be the entry point into art and design in Santa Fe and the exit point for out-of-state sales over the Internet. It's one step that addresses one part of a big picture. But creating widespread, even ubiquitous, digital access could be even more key. Without it, many residents won't be able to take advantage of interfacing with the arts and culture portal. More importantly, he says, small offshoot businesses won't get off the ground.
"That overall infrastructure is critical to us," says Whitman, "and it's not in our budget."
It's not in Stan Valdez's budget either. Valdez is director of
Information, Telecommunications and Technology for the City of Santa Fe. "We did request some funding from the Legislature," Valdez
says, "but we didn't get out of committee." The $800,000, sponsored by State Sen. Nancy Rodriquez, D-Santa Fe, would have been in addition to the department's freshly approved fiscal 2006 budget of $3 million. Although the new budget looks impressive, Valdez says it's an 11 percent drop from 2005 and contains zero funds for capital outlay or new service initiatives. Only "mission critical" efforts-like Valdez and his team of more than 20
programmers, analysts and technicians working around the clock to support and maintain the City of Santa Fe's mainframe, networks, servers, telephone system and radios-are covered in the basic budget.
"For the size of the community, we're still underfunded and understaffed. Every year we ask, but this City Council is not going to approve any expansion positions, the funding just hasn't been there." So in their spare time, Valdez and his colleagues think about broadband infrastructure. "Obviously without that kind of high-speed connectivity in the city our economic development initiatives are not going to go very far," says Valdez. In order to complete the goal of installing a secure and high-speed network just for City agencies which, among other things, would provide overdue redundancy and security for emergency services communication, Valdez hopes to partner with other agencies and private businesses to compensate for the funding shortfall. "If we bring in the State, the schools and some commercial entities that want to ride on our fiber, it will help pay for a good network citywide."
But there's still a problem at the city limits and the state line. In 1998, New Mexicans had to tussle with US West to keep the company on track to bring high speed megabit service to the state. Now the corporation is bigger-Qwest ate US West in 2000-and so are the bytes. New Mexico is now waiting for gigabit service, 1,000 times more bandwidth than is currently available. Such a pipeline would likely have a central hub in Albuquerque, with access zipping up copious fiber along I-25.
It's the kind of meaty bandwidth a city could start planning its own infrastructure developments around. It's also the kind of meaty bandwidth corporations stay
mum about.
"Qwest doesn't tell us what they're doing. They consider all that proprietary information, which makes it kind of hard to plan," says Valdez.
Indeed, when questioned by SFR, Qwest public relations representative for New Mexico Vince Hancock says: "I can't really give you too much information. There are some things we're going to be rolling out in New Mexico but what they are I can't say and when they'll come to your capital I can't say."
That's typical telecom talk according to Brownlow, who looks forward to a day when there's more competition for New Mexico's high-speed needs. "I think poor Qwest is involved in their own survival at such a fundamental level that we can't expect much," Brownlow says. "Aside from the wire they own, they aren't worth anything." One step Valdez is taking, and can wrangle into his budget because of the obvious savings, is to switch the City's entire phone system to an Internet-based telephone system. Once the system is in place telephone service will operate through the City's own broadband account without the additional cost of traditional phone service.
Such service, known as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), is the current direction of technology and companies like Qwest are scrambling to make sure they remain major players. "We do have a consumer VOIP service, hopefully available, ah, very soon," says Hancock.
"We're jumping into VOIP," says Schaeffer, wearing his Straight
Shooting Computing business hat. Indeed, on a very minor level, Schaeffer has already outfitted the Santa Fe Baking Company with a free telephone riding on the same waves the casual crush of Web surfers is using. Though Straight Shooting's business success with VOIP will depend on large contracts, like City and business systems, Schaeffer sees
the real success of technology in terms of day-to-day use by regular people.
"The City isn't going to provide wireless for everybody in Santa Fe," says Schaeffer, "but let's say everyone in a neighborhood pitches in just a fraction of the cost and bam!-the whole area is wireless. If neighborhoods all over the city started doing this, how long would it take to begin to bridge all those hotspots?" Looking around the Baking Company and the faces behind all the laptops, the hippy earth mother, the
hip-hop teen queen, the bicycle gear guy and a half-dozen recognizable Santa Fe characters, Schaeffer's ground-up, techno-democracy feels possible. The sun is shining, iPods are glinting in the light, and the future is now.
But the confident tone of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez is a reminder that, while neighborhood initiatives and people power are swell, the stakes are serious. Under Chavez, Albuquerque has blanketed its downtown civic center plaza with free wireless. "What you see is people out on the plaza with a laptop, drinking coffee, enjoying everything about the city," says Chavez. As for the rumor that Albuquerque is about to receive the fabled gigabit pipeline and leave the rest of the Southwest trailing on the other side of a digital divide, Chavez laughs and says:
"Maybe yes, maybe no-I'm not talking."
Santa Fe is already behind but, according to Traube, it's on the right track. "The economic development department in Santa Fe is pushing hard in all the right directions," he says. Unlike Chavez, Traube sees technology as a tool that equalizes economic
opportunities, not one that creates competition. "Look around," he says. "Digital isn't a culture, it's a reality. It's just the way we do things."
Except when we don't.
Hot Spots
Dreams of municipal wireless aside, a growing number of Santa Fe businesses view providing free and easy Internet access as a necessary service. Rumor has it that a parabolic dish search from the ski basin reveals hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots in downtown Santa Fe. What follows is a list of verified, free wireless in public locations.
Annapurna, 903 W. Alameda St., 988-9688
For aficionados of contemporary cyberpunk literature, there's no better way to fold space/time than surf the Web while getting your chai on in an atmosphere of Ayurvedic bliss.
Atomic Grill, 103 E. Water St., 820-2866
Night owl data-demons can stoke the fires of their never-ending quests from the downtown patio of this nuclear age grill, complete with snacks.
Aztec Street Café, 317 Aztec St., 820-0025
King of the all day hangout session and the slow, caffeine burn, the 'Tec is an ideal spot to hunker down for a long stretch at the keyboard with intermittent people-watching breaks.
Backroad Pizza, 1807 Second St., 955-9055
How about a dose of progressive culture with an iPod loading session, a bottle of suds and a slice of pie? BRP is the counterculture surfer's hotspot of choice.
Borders at Sanbusco Center, 500 Montezuma Ave., 954-4707
Hey, some people are just happier if their digital media is surrounded by copious old tech, like books, magazines and CDs.
CD Café, 301 N. Guadalupe St., 986-0735
Hanging tough at the outer circle of downtown's wired rim, this is a good spot to keep up the cool factor while simultaneously getting some actual work done.
Cruz Jewelry and Cafe, 618 Canyon Road, 986-0644
Old world jewelry, a shady patio and information age online access.
Hilton of Santa Fe, 100 Sandoval St., 988-2811
A comfortable and professional lobby chock full 'o airborn information.
Hotel Eldorado, 309 W. San Francisco St.,988-4455
What to do when you're meeting with venture capitalists but you don't even have enough money for an office yet? Arrange a high-powered hook up in the data-rich environment known as the Eldorado's "main concourse."
Hotel St. Francis
Elegant yet casual, with the option of chasing downloads with high tea or a selection from the full bar.
Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, 982-1200
Native American owned, globally connected.
Inn of the Anasazi, 113 Washington Ave., 988-3030
There's not much extra real space for digital hitchhikers to loiter in, but the virtual environment is plentiful.
Inn of the Governors, 101 W. Alameda St., 982-4333
Sure, the antenna is in the lobby and the service is really for hotel guests, but if you're sitting in the corner of the courtyard the Inn shares with Del Charro, you can read the New York Times online with a Bloody Mary and an omelette, just like home.
Meridian Espresso, 728 Old Santa Fe Trail, 989-9252
A sunny, downtown corner for flashing your tech at tourists and locals alike.
Santa Fe Baking Company, 504 W. Cordova Road, 988-4292
With a free Internet telephone and status as the town's open source headquarters, the BC is where to blend with the serious culture hackers and Web slingers. Digital dilettantes beware.
Starbucks, 191 Paseo de Peralta, 982-2770
Reliable house o' java and e-mail no matter where you go.
Steepings, 112 W. San Francisco, Unit 214, 986-0403
Surf the 'net while sipping a smoothie made with potent energy boosters, and you'll feel like you're actually surfing.
The TeaHouse, 821 Canyon Road, 992-0972
Managing to exude a mature hipness, the flavors of the World Wide Web weave between exotic tea selections at this homey, yet high tech hangout.
Travel Bug, 839 Paseo de Peralta, 992-0418
From maps and global positioning units to built-in desktop machines and hi-speed wi-fi, whether geographic or cyber, the Travel Bug is all about knowing your location in space.
Tribes, 139 W. San Francisco St., 982-7948
Nestled between blocks in downtown Santa Fe, Tribes is a discreet surfer's paradise.
Zélé Café, 201 Galisteo St., 982-7835
Two levels of caffeinated info-pleasure at the service of downtown denizens.
