Los Alamos Needs A County Government With A ‘Can-Do’ Philosophy To Help Small Business Thrive

BY ROBERT DAY
Los Alamos

I appreciated the editorial by Allen Saenz published September 24 on the Los Alamos Reporter. page (https://losalamosreporter.com/2024/09/24/a-call-for-change-in-los-alamos-county-leadership/). It confirms many of the concerns that I have regarding Los Alamos County’s lack of support for our business community. I have had my permanent address in Los Alamos for over 70 years and have seen our town proceed from having a thriving business community with a wide variety of stores to a few stores of very limited commodities. This erosion seemed to begin in the 1980’s and proceeded on a downhill path ever since. It appears to have been advanced by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) being able to rent space at very high rates, thus driving up the rent for small businesses, and the County putting roadblocks in the way of  business development. 

Saenz listed many of the recent roadblocks, but I have been hearing about others for a number of years. For example, what appears to be arbitrary signage restraints have kept some businesses from opening for months, and have cost the owners thousands of dollars in rent while the business could not open. In other words, since the County would not approve the sign on the store front, the business had to remain closed.

A number of years ago, a small business owner related this story to me.  The County asked him when would be the worst time of the year for the County to do major road maintenance on Central Avenue. He said the July/August timeframe would be particularly bad. So, the County did the maintenance in the July/August timeframe. This may have just been an unavoidable  scheduling issue, but it shows a disregard for the businesses of this town.

Another case is that of the Unquarked/Sirphey restaurant. Unquarked was a very popular restaurant that wanted to move from a location in Central Park Square to the old location of the Blue Window Bistro. It appears the County imposed arbitrary restrictions upon this business that kept it from opening. It gave the impression that this local business was being unfairly targeted.  Councilor Derkacs voted to sustain the County Board of Appeals’ stop work order.  Our Councilś action has resulted in many court hearings and legal fees.  On October 24, 2023, our District Court Judge ruled that the County violated this business ownerś due process rights in every phase of the stop work order appeal. 

On September 12, 2024, our Council voted to change Trinity Drive in such a way that would restrict automobile traffic and make bicycle traffic easier. Restricting flow on Trinity Drive will make travel to downtown restaurants and stores more difficult during lunch time.  This will adversely impact the viability of these businesses.  The proposal was presented to the Transportation Board but no formal consideration or official vote by the Board was allowed.  Only the proposal generated by the County was allowed to be presented to the County Council.  Our Council approved the Trinity Drive change with Councilors Reagor and Ryti opposed.  

For an issue that affects the entire town and every commuter who drives down Trinity, there should have been several public notices for at least 2 town hall meetings for the upcoming Council vote.  The process appeared to be rushed and secretive.

I mountain bike routinely on the Los Alamos trails. I do not bike on the road very much because I consider it to be more dangerous than biking on trails. However, if I have to bike from the downtown area to the Quemazon trail, I do not take Trinity Drive because of the danger with vehicular traffic. I take Canyon Road because it has good bike lanes, has less vehicular traffic, and is set-up for a better combination of automobile and bike traffic. So, it seems that it would be better to concentrate on making Trinity Drive safer for automobile traffic (since we need good traffic flow to accommodate the commuters coming to work here) and Canyon Road safer for a combination of automobile and bike traffic.  

My conclusion in all of this is that Los Alamos needs a County government that will have a “can do” philosophy in helping small businesses thrive. Our County has one of the highest per capita incomes in the United States and we are somewhat remote, so it seems that we should have a vibrant business environment. We need change in the way Los Alamos County does business with business.