|
|
|
|
Living In Las Cruces- Spring/Summer 2008
FEATURE
By Jenna Frosch
Mayor Miyagishima
District 1
District 2
District 4
|
|
Ken Miyagishima is no stranger to Las Cruces residents. Along with being elected mayor by one of the closest margins on record against incumbent Mayor William Mattiace, Miyagishima has lived in Las Cruces since 1971, graduated from New Mexico State University and has built a successful insurance and financial services business right here in Las Cruces. With 50.32 percent of the vote, Miyagishima took his post as mayor in December. Since then, he has held town meetings in each of the six Las Cruces districts to find out more about what Las Cruces residents want in their political leaders.
Here, Mayor Miyagishima and the rest of the newly-elected city council members, sits down to talk with Living in Las Cruces magazine about their plans for the City.
LLC: What are your top three priorities as the newly-elected mayor of Las Cruces?
Miyagishima: Strengthening our local economy, developing a process for healthy growth and becoming proactive on energy issues and managing our energy future.
LLC: How will each of these priorities be addressed in the next few weeks, months or years during your tenure?
Miyagishima: I plan to work with the Council, staff and public to develop consensus on a vision for our community, and to move forward with unified support. Lasting change is accomplished through mutual trust and collaboration.
LLC: Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez has made it a point to focus much of his energy on running his city as “green” and environmentally- friendly as possible, and recently it has become one of the top cities for green living. Do you, as mayor, have any plans to emulate the steps towards taking Las Cruces in that direction? What actions are most important to the city right now in regards to becoming more in tune with being environmentally friendly?
Miyagishima: I am absolutely committed to making our city more environmentally friendly, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it will benefit Las Crucens economically. I would like to move toward energy-efficient public buildings and work with El Paso Electric to promote consumer-friendly measures like off-peak electric rates and net-metering. I would also like to institute a formal conservation program for city operations and to revise city building codes for increased energy efficiency. In the longer term, we need to start taking advantage of our area’s abundant solar, wind and geothermal opportunities.
LLC: Where is Las Cruces headed in developing a viable, at-home curb recycling program?
Miyagishima: Most cities of our size have viable recycling programs, and we shouldn’t be the exception. Most recently we have been considering contracting with a private company to provide curbside pickup of recyclables at no cost to the city beyond an initial investment in the recycling bins themselves.
LLC: Throughout your tenure as a City Council member and during the election you stressed smart growth as opposed to developerdriven growth. How do you plan to implement that change and stress the importance of smart growth during your tenure?
Miyagishima: Many cities in the West and Southwest have faced growth challenges similar to what we are experiencing now. We want to take advantage of their experience, and the tremendous amount of expertise that has been gained in recent years in the areas of planning, resource management and the incorporation of the public into the decision-making process. Over time, we hope to develop clear ordinances that reflect a fair, coherent policy for new development in our area. The key to this process will be renewing our commitment to our own comprehensive plan and to the regional Vision 2040 effort.*
* Vision 2040 is the largest long range comprehensive planning effort ever undertaken in this area. It is a cooperative project that utilizes the resources of New Mexico State University, a national planning firm and dozens of sessions for public input to plan for our future growth and development. The City of Las Cruces, Doña Ana County and the municipalities of Hatch, Mesilla and Sunland are among the principal participants in the project.
|
|
