Kenneth Miyagishima reflects on 16-year tenure as Las Cruces Mayor

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- When the November 7 Municipal Elections in Las Cruces wrap, the city will have a new mayor.

Kenneth Miyagishima, the city's longest-serving mayor, chose not to run for re-election. His last day in office is December 31.

Reflecting on his time in office, Miyagishima told ABC-7 his win back in 2007 came at a challenging time.

"I had barely won by 80 votes. And uh, my predecessor was very well-liked and was not expected to lose, and I was kind of surprised that I won. And there were a lot of people that were not happy. People were coming off the boards in protest, saying you're not my mayor and I'm going to resign off the board," he said.

"A lot of businesses also thought that because I always believed in making sure that our developments, our neighborhoods had a little bit more connectability, walkable paths, good schools or locations for schools... because in the past developers would just give the schools the land that they didn't really want, and a lot of times it was in a flood zone. So I wanted to change the trajectory of how development was done in Las Cruces. And so it was also tagged as anti-development," he said.

Miyagishima said back then, in 2007, the city was growing at an unsustainable pace, about 6% to 7% growth a year, but there were no amenities. "It was just really just houses built, just one after another after another. There were no parks. There were no walkable paths to connectability. And there really wasn't a systematic growth about it," he said.

Asked what the biggest challenge is to being mayor, Miyagishima told ABC-7, "trying to convince my colleagues what I think is the right path to take," he said.

"You know, I've always been concerned with the drug problem here in Las Cruces. And when and I was able to, you know, in fact, I never had done this, reach out to state representatives around the state, letting them know that I don't think New Mexico was ready for to legalize cannabis or marijuana.
But then when the governor called a special session, I knew was she had the votes. And this is where that, you know, as mayor, I only have one vote on that council," he added.

Miyagishima also fought efforts to raise the minimum wage, which many people criticized him for.

And just recently, an issue he's backing, concerning a collaboration with New Mexico State University to establish a tax increment development district, that could attract new business along University Avenue hit a roadblock.

City council members said they needed more information before they could sign off on an agreement with the school.

But Miyagishima said he hopes the project takes shape in the future, saying it would be good for the city.

But for now, he's planning on spending more time with his family, and continuing to work on his business.

Asked what advice is for the person taking his job, he told ABC-7, "I thought when I took over as mayor from being a city councilor and being a county commissioner that I was ready to go, I learned. I thought, geez, there's a lot here, more to it than meets the eye. And so even that was a learning curve. So I think it's just more important to just listen, listen to the staff, the senior management team," he said.