Chad Ortiz, owner of Ortiz Printing & Santa Fe Sales, speaks with DiAnna Ruiz about an engraving on Thursday at his shop on the corner of Jay Street and Third Street. Ortiz followed in his father’s footsteps and continues to offer printing and engraving at the shop that originally opened in 1928.
Karyn West of A Cake Odyssey on Second Street puts the final touches on a wedding cake Friday. "We're happy here," she said of the business, which has been in Santa Fe for nine years after nearly 20 years operating in Albuquerque.
Maria Salvidrez, of the Ramblin' Cafe on Second Street, prepares a plate of tamales, rice and beans at the restaurant Friday. The family-run business has been operating nearly 20 years.
Chad Ortiz looked over the counter and out the doorway of his printing shop in the Hopewell Mann neighborhood at a string of houses across the way.
He pointed to one that he said used to be a site of drug deals, crime and police raids. But now, he said, a nice young couple has moved in and renovated the place, and the troubles of the past seem to be gone.
“It’s the new blood in here turning it around,” Ortiz said of that home and other places throughout the central Santa Fe neighborhood, where the push and pull of gentrification has both energized and worried those who see Hopewell Mann as a test case for the city’s future.
With the city turning its attention to Hopewell Mann, Ortiz said he’d like to see officials encourage more business activity in the neighborhood and devise ways for young people looking for affordable housing to put down roots there.
Chad Ortiz, owner of Ortiz Printing & Santa Fe Sales, speaks with DiAnna Ruiz about an engraving on Thursday at his shop on the corner of Jay Street and Third Street. Ortiz followed in his father’s footsteps and continues to offer printing and engraving at the shop that originally opened in 1928.
Mayor Alan Webber has said he wants to see the business and residential communities within the boundaries of Hopewell Mann play a role in shaping a vision for the community’s future. One preliminary idea is to create a collective community investment fund to buy buildings and create ownership within the neighborhood.
Though the city has not yet formalized a plan for the area, it did put together a fact sheet highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the neighborhood, which sits within the triangular boundaries of Cerrillos Road, St. Michael’s Drive and St. Francis Drive.
The strengths: a strong cultural identity; multigenerational households with long ties to the city; a central geographic location; varied transportation options; a number of businesses and community nonprofits that serve as worthy partners.
The weaknesses: a high percentage of renters, suggesting significant rates of mobility; high unemployment and crime rates; rising housing costs that outpace household income. Two potential threats, the one-page document says, are a lack of internet access and concerns the corridors bounding the neighborhood are heavily trafficked and poorly designed — making them dangerous to navigate by foot or bicycle.
It’s an area where you can find both colorful murals and graffiti spray-painted on trash cans; where you can see children playing and discarded drug needles and trash in the alleyways; where businesses range from restaurants to a radio station to a nonprofit serving disenfranchised youth.
On the surface, it may be a neighborhood of contradictions. But many say it is an anchor for family, friends and faith in the future.
Several business owners and representatives of advocacy groups that have set up shop in the area say they see a lot of potential for developing the neighborhood into a larger economic hub and helping its residents along the way.
But they caution such growth should not come at the expense of gentrifying the neighborhood.
If more economic activity “is code for gentrification, then no,” said Sarah Ghiorse, executive director of the nonprofit NewMexicoWomen.Org, housed in a studio in one of the industrial complexes on Second Street.
Hopewell Mann, she said, is a “deep community with historic roots. It should be maintained and accessible and affordable to young families and longtime residents.”
Melynn Schuyler, executive director of the nonprofit YouthWorks, which offers teens and young adults education and training opportunities, said her group deliberately migrated to the Hopewell Mann area to help “the people we serve.”
YouthWorks moved from Cerrillos Road to nearby Llano Street, also in the Hopewell Mann neighborhood, last year. But it is keeping its Cerrillos Road site with the goal of reopening it sometime next year as a workforce training locale for culinary arts, replete with a kitchen and a cafe serving the public at large.
That plan speaks to the potential for other expansive ideas to attract people to the area and provide work and opportunities for neighbors, she said.
“We didn’t want to move out of the neighborhood,” said Schuyler.
“Everybody’s trying really hard to find their best pathway. … There is a feeling of camaraderie,” she added. “You can walk down the streets, be down and out, and people will help you.”
Maria Salvidrez, of the Ramblin' Cafe on Second Street, prepares a plate of tamales, rice and beans at the restaurant Friday. The family-run business has been operating nearly 20 years.
The neighborhood has issues with homelessness and crime. Some of the worries are about lower-level offenses, such as graffiti, open drug use and, oddly, the theft of trash bins.
Ernesto Salvidrez, who has co-owned the Ramblin‘ Cafe on Second Street for nearly 20 years, said while he loves the people of the neighborhood, he’s seen car break-ins and smashed windows.
If the city does push to provide more businesses and jobs in the neighborhood — “It might be a good thing, it might not,” he said — he’d like to see an increased police presence and video surveillance.
For his part, Chad Ortiz said there is crime everywhere in the city, and Hopewell Mann is no worse than other parts of town.
Jim and Karyn West moved their business, A Cake Odyssey, to Second Street nine years ago after nearly 20 years in Albuquerque.
“We’re happy here,” Karyn West said. They said the neighborhood provides an opportunity for fledgling businesses, since rents are relatively cheap. Both think more economic opportunity would help improve the area and provide jobs.
Karyn West said the neighborhood has been “really good to us” but noted much of their business comes from the internet rather than walk-in customers.
Karyn West of A Cake Odyssey on Second Street puts the final touches on a wedding cake Friday. "We're happy here," she said of the business, which has been in Santa Fe for nine years after nearly 20 years operating in Albuquerque.
Seconds after she made that comment, three customers walked in to order cupcakes and cakes.
The Wests said they like the “old-time, working-class” Santa Fe the neighborhood exemplifies.
In some ways, the voice of Hopewell Mann is locally owned radio station KSWV, rooted on Taos Street and providing daily commentary, news briefs and old-time hits. It’s been in the neighborhood for decades.
Station co-owner Estevan Gonzales said development of the nearby midtown campus provides an opportunity to create more affordable housing that addresses “inclusivity and social equality to help preserve our families and culture” in the area.
He said he’d like to see continued investment in multimodal transportation systems, especially biking and walking trails and the creation of Community Development Block Grant funds, which could provide money to help with affordable housing and transportation needs to vitalize the neighborhood.
But there’s a balancing act to be performed, he indicated. He said any development should come with “an eye on preserving our families’ ability to stay” in the neighborhood.
Gonzales sees Hopewell Mann as a place where “people look out for each other. “It’s beautiful. It’s friendly,” he said.
It’s also in the midst of transition, the kind in which strengths and weaknesses will do battle. Those who love Hopewell Mann acknowledge the winner has not been decided.
