New Mexico is full of gems to offer the world

The other morning, I made my usual thrice-weekly bicycle ride down the terrific paved bike path from south of Corrales to Barelas, alongside the wonderful riverbank Rio Grande Bosque State Park.

Toward the end of the ride, I wheeled past Albuquerque’s gem of a biopark, with its fascinating aquarium, and on down by the fairly recently rebuilt and much-used Tingley Lakes and a well-kept zoo, arriving finally at my usual breakfast-and-turnaround point, Barelas Coffee House, a local treasure.

I sat down to green chile stew with my longtime bike partner, Ted Martinez, accomplished former president of what’s now called CNM, his brother Clarence, and well-known local businessman and philanthropist Ed Lujan, another local treasure.

Later, the four of us walked over to the nearby National Hispanic Cultural Center so Lujan could give us a private visit to the soon-to-open Torreon there and, inside, its breathtakingly fabulous wrap-around frescos which stirringly depict the sweeping history that stretches from ancient times to New Mexico.

Through all this, I was struck by several realizations and thoughts. One was that the fairly new Tingley Lakes ought to be renamed for former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, who was responsible for them. (Clyde Tingley did great things for New Mexico in years past, but enough other sites already bear his name).

Once, Ted Martinez and I were enjoying our habitual breakfast at Barelas when an entering Chávez, then running for re-election for mayor, walked past our table. He knew that Ted and I were not supporting him, but he stopped a moment anyway.

Making small talk, I said to him, “Mr. Mayor, when you get back in there, do you think you might give Ted and me the concession at Tingley Lakes for “Ted and Fred’s Bait Shop”? Chavez didn’t even laugh. But Ted and I still think he deserves to have these great lakes, and maybe something else, named for him.

And it came to me, too, the other day, that the Torreon and perhaps even the world-class National Hispanic Cultural Center, itself, ought to bear the name of the wise and generous Ed Lujan. Neither of these local treasures would ever have existed without him.

And, finally, I began to dwell on what a (turquoise) jewel Albuquerque — with all its amenities, including our growingly great number of fine restaurants, our theaters and Opera Southwest, Old Town — is in the (precious silver) crown of New Mexico.

If we can’t sell that — to our own people and to prospective job-builders who might come here — we’re not very good salespersons.

We ought to be proud of what we’ve got here, and we ought to promote it better.

And we ought to make it better.

Albuquerque and New Mexico ought to start right now to investing heavily in infrastructure and economic stimulus.

We ought to invest deeply, too, in our children and their children — by backing education, from early childhood (with a constitutional amendment taking a small portion of the income from our huge and burgeoning Land Grant Permanent Fund), through the public schools and CNM, to our often unappreciated great research university, the University of New Mexico.

And let’s stand up and cheer: We are New Mexico!