05/08/2026
“The financial danger of Blackstone buyout of PNM entails has been amply documented. I wish to focus on the threat to New Mexico’s culture.
My husband and I have owned used bookstores in Santa Fe for 38 years. Yes, small mom and pop stores like ours are an important part of culture.
Not only bookstores, but also feed stores, boot repair shops, panaderias, print shops, local restaurants where families gather on Sunday afternoons, paperback exchanges, resale shops and thrift stores are a necessary part of a vital local economy.
Our state has already lost huge numbers of such places. My husband used to count the bookstores that came and went in Santa Fe since we first opened in 1988. After counting more than 40 such closures, he stopped counting.”
In small towns these losses are felt even more than in Santa Fe. A locally owned mom and pop shop can be the anchor for a neighborhood. It can be a place where people stop and chat, where neighbors meet or where one can spend time browsing.
During our years of renting commercial spaces and paying commercial PNM rates, we have often worked in spaces that were not well-insulated. Drafty open spaces work for businesses like ours, but double or quadruple our utility rates and many more of us will disappear.
Then are the places that are usually included in any list of cultural resources: local art centers, theater groups, galleries, museums and performance spaces. Often, these institutions are located in old warehouses, abandoned schools, banks or churches. Utilities comprise a huge chunk of their budget.
