Berry has fielded interest from officials in Calgary, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia, too.
Before that, he owned an Albuquerque-based construction company.
Berry’s second term as mayor ends on December 1, 2017, and he’s not seeking reelection.
Was this by design or something that grew out of other areas?
It was and is a priority.
But we know that what we do has to be intentional.
We want to confirm were overlaying policy with the notion that we are a livable age friendly community.
We need to check that that were putting age-friendliness and livability in place in whatever we do.
We also createdABQ Together, which is our dialogue about the city’s future.
What does a livable community look like to you?
We want a community without barriers, as much as that’s possible.
One barrier, for example, is transportation.
Transportation in general is just important.
Infrastructure in general is important.
Bridges and highways need to work.
We’re making it so people can get where they need to go by using public transit.
Were incorporating accessibility into service routes and transportation stops.
There are really several reasons why ART is so important.
1: Its an economic driver.
We can already document $300 million since we started construction.
We have an urban core but we dont have an urban corridor.
Or people with cars who dont feel like driving all the time dont have to drive.
Theres a population, including folks age 50-plus, that want to live in the urban core now.
Were creating a place where livability can happen.
Albuquerque does already have a spectrum of transit services.
We provide a half-million rides a year through our Sun Van services.
We have bus services that connect with other main bus lines.
In addition, we’ve brought in some world class consultants to verify were super walkable as well.
We run Launch to Learn, one of the best summer learning programs.
You’ve earmarked resources into developing and expanding the citys multi-generational centers.
What are multigenerational centers and how do they fit into livable communities?
We built our first multi-generational center in 2002.
That wont happen while Im the mayor but were putting the foundations in place.
These really are wellness centers, and it’s important that they’re multi-generational.
One success story is the “Teeniors” program.
The centers also act as a place for the communities to gather and discuss and make decisions.
Thats where we go out and have a lot of our public meetings.
Your time as mayor ends this year.
What would you like your “livability legacy” to be?
That we got better, that we were already good, but we went from good to great.
It’s a good to great story.
I believe that the city of Albuquerque has one of the most robustdepartments of senior affairsin the country.
I run into people all the time who would do more if they knew about the opportunities out there.
Folks in this category bring a breath of experience, lots of life lessons and a lot of wisdom.
