City Councilor Martin Heinrich encourages Albuquerque residents to patronize their local grower’s market. “Local grower’s markets provide numerous community benefits. They preserve local farmland, keep dollars circulating locally, and provide some of the freshest items you can find,” said Heinrich.

Locally-grown items do not have to travel as far to get to your table, thereby allowing farmers to pick produce at the peak of flavor, which also preserves produce nutritional content. Shorter travel distances also save fossil fuels. Unique items can often be found at grower’s markets such as heirloom tomatoes, and heritage breeds of meat and fowl. Much of what is sold at grower’s markets is grown naturally, humanely, or organically.

Councilor Heinrich recently broke ground on a relocated market in his district, the Alcazar Grower’s Market. The market is located near the Ta Lin International Marketplace, close to the intersection of Central and Louisiana. The market is open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 7am to noon.

This week at the Alcazar Grower’s Market, Raven of Black Bird Pies was selling sweet potato and coconut custard pies. Raven uses either organic or locally grown produce in her recipes.

Faustino Pat Luna of Luna Farms offered traditional New Mexican fare such as onions, dried chiles, and pinto beans, in addition to some of the season’s first tomatoes.

Another vendor sold crisp English cucumbers, with tangy lemon cucumbers expected at the market soon.
Honey comes in varied colors and flavors, sold by Hay’s Honey and Apple Farm. The well known beekeeper also sells candles, honeycomb, lotions, and ready-made gift boxes. Visit the Albuquerque-area Grower’s Market nearest you.

Today, for the first time in a decade, the United States federal government has raised the nation’s minimum wage, up 70 cents to $5.85 an hour. Next summer the national minimum wage will again be raised by 70 cents to $6.55 and again in 2009, when the current legislation’s increases will top out at $7.25 per hour.

However, the City of Albuquerque’s own minimum wage will stay one step ahead of each raise due to legislation sponsored by Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich and approved by the Albuquerque City Council on April 20th, 2006. Ordinance 06-20, the Albuquerque Minimum Wage Ordinance, requires the City of Albuquerque to enforce a minimum wage of $6.75 per hour beginning on January 1, 2007, followed by a raise to $7.15 after one year and finally to $7.50 on January 1, 2009. An employer who pays at least $2,500 annually for an employee's health-care or child-care benefits receives a $1.00 per hour reduction in the minimum wage requirement.

“It makes me proud that Albuquerque is still a leader when it comes to valuing hard working people. I hope future councils will continue that leadership and ensure that everyone in Albuquerque who works and plays by the rules receives a fair wage,” said Martin Heinrich, sponsor of the Albuquerque Ordinance.

At the time of the Albuquerque Minimum Wage Ordinance’s passage last year, only three other cities in the United States had adopted wage ordinances affecting private business: Santa Fe, San Francisco and Washington, DC. Other cities in recent years have adopted ordinances affecting only businesses with government contracts (i.e. The City of Los Angeles, CA) and others have adopted minimum wages above that of the state or federal minimum, only to see their respective states raise their overall wages to that city’s level or above.

For more information, please contact the Office of Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich, District 6, at (505)768-3152 or via email at mheinrich@cabq.gov.

The City of Albuquerque has been ranked first place nationally for its percentage of land devoted to open space, as highlighted in the below article printed in the New Mexico Business Weekly on Monday, July 23rd, 2007. During his tenure as an elected official, City Councilor Martin Heinrich has seen through several measures adding to that standing, bringing Albuquerque's total amount of open space to one quarter of our City's total land acreage. Albuquerque's Hawkwatch Property (pictured above) is an example of sensitive Open Space protected through Heinrich's Council actions.

"We're really proud of our open space heritage – it's such an important component of our quality of life and is why people choose to live here. Not to mention, it sets us apart from other cities throughout the nation and around the world," says Heinrich.

Councilors Heinrich and Benton recently introduced legislation to dramatically enlarge the Gutierrez Canyon Open Space in Albuquerque’s East Mountains.For more information, please contact the office of City Councilor Martin Heinrich at (505)768-3152 or via email at mheinrich@cabq.gov.

Albuquerque No. 1 in open space
New Mexico Business Weekly - 3:02 PM MDT Monday, July 23, 2007
A study released Monday by the Trust for Public Land indicates Albuquerque devotes the most land area by percentage to parks and preserves of any large city in the country.

Jacksonville, Fla., ranks first in total acreage and on an acres-per-capita basis, with 131.4 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. However, when parkland is measured as a percent of the total size of the city, the leader is Albuquerque, with more than one-quarter of its land protected as public open space. (In both cities, however, not all acquired parkland is yet open to the public.)

The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit that works to protect parks and open space.

The results were based on an eight-month study by the Trust for Public Land's Center for City Park Excellence, the nation's leading source of data about urban park systems. The most recent year for available data is 2005.

The center releases new numbers annually and posts them on the Web at www.tpl.org/cityparkfacts .

City Councilor Martin Heinrich is proud to announce the opening of the Alcazar Street Growers' Market, located one block east of Louisiana on Alcazar Street between Central Avenue and Zuni Road, alongside the Talin International Marketplace. The market began operation on Saturday June 30, 2007 and will run every Tuesday and Saturday from 7:00AM to noon until October 30th, 2007.

The Alcazar Street Growers' Market is the oldest growers' market in the city and was previously located at the Caravan Night Club before relocating to Alcazar Street in a partnership with the Talin International Marketplace. The relocation is part of a broader plan to bring positive development to the area once occupied by the former Blue Spruce Bar, an establishment that was shut down by the City of Albuquerque and then purchased for redevelopment. The long-term build-out plan for Alcazar Street includes streetscape improvements (complete with permanent road open/close fixtures) and infrastructure that will incorporate Alcazar Street as a public space for activities such as festivals, cultural events, growers' markets, and other similar community functions.

Growers' markets in Albuquerque are a critical part of the city's economy and diversity, providing goods that are raised and sold by New Mexicans and helping to foster good neighbor relationships between local growers and buyers. Each market is unique, reflecting the particular character of local cultures, soils and climates that are found throughout the state. For more information about other New Mexican farmers' markets, visit http://www.farmersmarketsnm.org/locations.htm.

Special appreciation goes to Victor Limary (Owner of the Talin International Marketplace), Raven Rutherford-West of Blackbird Pies (market co-coordinator) and Ken Hayes (market co-coordinator) for their tireless efforts in helping to make this transition a success. They, along with many others, have helped to make the Alcazar Street Growers' Market an important component of successful revitalization around the Central and Louisiana intersection, in the La Mesa and Trumbull Village neighborhoods.

For more information about the Alcazar Street Growers' Market, please contact the market's coordinator, Raven Rutherford-West (243-0719) or Javier Benavidez (768-3152), Assistant to City Councilor Martin Heinrich, District 6.