Ready to Ride

Posted by Luke Henley in Santa Fe

Night Wave in action, photographed by Katherine Morgan

SFUAD students will soon have access to free transportation downtown, following the Santa Fe City Council’s Sept. 10 approval of a pilot shuttle project.

The program builds on the three-day Night Wave event held last summer. Night Wave was intended to provide a model for what project director Vince Kadlubek hopes will become a regular, city-funded infrastructure for a more vibrant night life in downtown Santa Fe. Even before this most recent decision to approve the shuttle project, Kadlubek said that the Night Wave Project had been receiving “really solid cooperation from the city,” which be believes signifies a shift to what he referred to as a “culture of yes.”

Mykki Blanco performing at Skylight, photographed by Katherine Morgan

The Night Wave weekend featured a wide array of concerts, late-night food trucks and shuttles. These events covered diverse genres and demographics, featuring everything from stand-up comedy to a heavy metal showcase at Evangelo’s. One of the weekend’s largest draws was a double-headline concert at the recently opened night club Skylight, which featured highly buzzed-about national acts: experimental EDM artist Pictureplane and the transgender hip hop MC Mykki Blanco. Throughout the three nights, food trucks were able to serve food and shuttles ran fare-free until 2 a.m.. Kadlubek said that downtown business reported on average a “200 percent increase” in business during the weekend.

Kate Noble, acting director of the Housing and Community Development Department, said that the Council resolution for the pilot shuttle program is intended “to provide better integration of students of SFUAD into the Santa Fe community,” adding also that with wider available transportation options students can “potentially get to jobs and be consumers” in the downtown Santa Fe area. Kadlubek agrees that “The university is a key” to the success of the Night Wave project and the overall initiative to provide a stronger night time economy for Santa Fe.

The shuttle service is scheduled to begin on Sept. 18 and will run every weekend from 6 p.m.-11 p.m.. According to a City of Santa Fe news release, “the pilot project will be conducted using existing resources and at no added cost to the taxpayer,” although Kadlubek said that in the future he hopes for increased funding in order to help provide shuttle service past 2 a.m. on weekends. According to surveys conducted by the Night Wave Project, 92 percent of those asked said that they would want this increase in the shuttle’s hours of service. In order to establish those hours, however, the city would need to approve increased funding for the initiative. To this end, Kadlubek intends to present the collected data in order to garner the City Council’s support for a city-sponsored program.

Support from the administration itself seems solid. City Manager Brian Snyder said in a press release, “This is an exciting opportunity. I know that Mayor Gonzales and our administration… are really looking forward to seeing this project get started. We are big believers in public transportation as a way to make our community more connected and get us closer to the vision of one Santa Fe.”