Remember the 2017 Albuquerque Mayor’s race, the one with all those candidates and the 40, count ’em, 40 public forums? Here’s the BB look somewhere amid all that veritable overflow of democracy four years ago.

Uh, that’s not gonna happen four years later.

Instead, at least on its Wiki page, the race has four declared candidates, and everything seems to suggest it’s really a two-current office holder race between the current Mayor and the current County Sheriff.

Whether due to pandemic, number of candidates, or good common sense, it’s unlikely we’ll be experiencing anywhere close to 40 public forums this go-round. 40 was a bit excessive. Still, it’s a shame because with 40 forums, we had the chance to hear/grill candidates on more varied topics than crime, what are you going to do about crime, what about the crime problem, and crime.

Here’s the invitation graphic for one 2017 forum (note number of attending candidates and location):

Yeah, crime was one of the “tables” in this 2017 forum, but there was also a table on “active transportation.” All eight candidates had to answer questions on things like bike lanes, ADA violations, and transit. One wonders if current Mayor and current Sheriff will say word one about, e.g., ADA violations in the 2021 campaign. And that’s a shame.

So, inadequately filling in this likely gap, BB asks:

• What does current Sherriff think about bike lanes, ADA violations, and transit?
• What is their position on reducing pedestrian injuries/deaths?
• What will they do about A.R.T.?
• Are they conversant with the term “Vision Zero” and have they ever considered traffic violence as a crime (because…crime)?

I throw these questions out only to the current Sheriff because we’ve had a chance to see what current Mayor thinks/does on many active transportation topics over the past almost four years. We’ll dive into some of those mayoral thoughts/actions in coming pre-election days. Spoiler alert: It will not always be pretty, even though “pretty” has been a paradigmatically central concept to current Mayor’s first term. This Administration is all about “pretty.”

Given the probable lack of 40 forums this go-round, we’ll keep asking active transportation questions here and kindly urge those who get a chance to actually ask candidates stuff, particularly current Sheriff, what they think about, say, Complete Streets. BB also kindly asks that current Mayor be grilled asked about how they think Administration has done in addressing active transportation issues since taking office.

Thanks in advance for doing so, media, et. al. as occasional digression from all your many required questions about crime, stopping crime, what about the bad people doing crime, and crime.