Since 2013, Albuquerque’s Living Cities Integration Initiative has been working on creating more jobs and prosperity in Albuquerque, from the ground up. Here’s where Albuquerque stands.
Written by Josh Stuyvesant
It may start with an idea. It may evolve around resources. But it always comes down to capital. So goes it for Albuquerque. So goes it for the businesses that we need to employ more of our own, raise our GDP, and increase our sustainability, viability, and quality of life. Moolah, dough, dinero. It was this tender topic that a dozen and a half volunteers took on at the Capital Development table under the guidance of Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Riordan and co-chair Bill Bice of the Verge Fund.
To laymen like myself, the intimidation factor of lending seems fierce. What are you going to owe someone who gives you what you need when you need it? But, intimidation aside, my conversation with Jennifer lent some very interesting and personable explanations regarding the relationship between moneyman and business owner. Importantly, she pointed out that capital takes on multiple forms; it is not always in money form. She also said, “What we found is that we have really strong leaders in this space of capital, people who are willing to make some creative and unique investments in Albuquerque to support our low-income communities.”
What it comes down to is access. We’ve talked about it before in this series—there are whole sectors of this town where folks are not aware that they are, in fact, in business with other sectors, where the textbook entrepreneur would never call herself such, where even if there were access to a creative loan fund, more rural-type businesses wouldn’t go for it.
She spoke a lot about how lenders must fill the gap. It’s not just about creating a loan fund for the sake of creating a loan fund, but doing it in a way that harbors growth in places that are ripe for it. The opportunity is in being creative lenders, so that we cultivate more live/work/play communities like Nob Hill, where, as Jennifer says, “we have small businesses incubating and growing, where the community, the region, and the nation look at us and see something prolific, and where the collective impact model proves results.”
Talking to Jennifer, it all seems as though everyone is intertwined: consumer, business, and lender alike. And because of Living Cities, filling the gaps is a distinct possibility. “There were 150 people, but then it’s all the spokes of those people’s wheels that are going to make a huge impact—everyone telling the same story in a collective way, removing egos and agreeing to the fact that we all own the solution.” There you have it, Albuquerque. Let’s get rolling.
