Mornings on MainStreet Pilot Episode

In the pilot episode of Mornings on Mainstreet, Charles and Arcenio talk with Howie about what Mainstreet is, its Mission and Vision, and also recent projects and initiatives supported or spearheaded by Taos Mainstreet.

Mornings on MainStreet airs every third Thursday of the month on KNCE 93.5 True Taos Radio. This episode originally aired on August 6th, 2025.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We don't we're not gonna do Main Street for five or six years and then call it call it done. This is this is work that is done in in perpetuity. Really, the overall goal of the show is to help build the movement to really revitalize our downtown. Main Street Radio here on True Towns Radio. So the Main Street program was developed to start to address and really uh revitalize these historic deputys and historic neighborhoods throughout the country.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

It is important to show folks that the historic downtown of this district is very possible and people enjoy the amenities that exist in the embark on a pilot episode of what is to be a new monthly program here on KNCE.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Joining me in studio from Taos Main Street, Charles Whitson and Arsenio Trujillo. Good morning, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Good morning, Howie. Thanks for having us. Morning, Howie.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

So nice to see you again. I know you were in studio not too long ago. And Charles, I know you've been in over the years talking about Taos Main Street and uh all the work that you're doing in the downtown area. Um just in the last six months or so, I guess we kind of all decided it might be a good time to feature Main Street on a regular basis once a month. We're looking at a 30-minute program slash segment that will um focus on the work of Taos Main Street and um get a lot of the community, uh of course in the downtown area involved in the conversation. So Charles, welcome. Thanks for being here. And um I'm gonna start with you because uh you've been there from the beginning, Taos Main Street. I would love a little history and you know what Taos Main Street is all about.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Uh thank you, Howie, and I think that's a good place to start. So um I will start a little a little further back than just Taos Main Street um in the formation of the actual Main Street movement throughout throughout the country. Uh Main Street was a program started by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the late 70s. Um, some really smart folks uh saw saw a big problem on the horizon, and that we had a lot of traditional uh neighborhoods, historic districts, downtown throughout the country, rural and urban, um, that were experiencing a lot of a lot of decay. Um people were were leaving these these these neighborhoods, these these downtowns uh for the suburbs. We had the rise of you know suburbanization that was driving people kind of away from from historic downtowns. And we also had uh you know a lot of manufacturing loss happen at the happening at the same time. So these industrial centers and in historic downtowns were not only losing people that live there, but were also losing a lot of their economic and job base as well. So the Main Street program was developed to start to address and and really uh revitalize these these historic downtowns and historic neighborhoods throughout the country. Um Main Street uh came to New Mexico, I think, approximately in 1985. We're coming up on the 40th year anniversary of Main Street existing in the state of New Mexico. Um, so you have Main Street America, you have uh New Mexico Main Street as the state coordinating program, and then you have uh Taos Main Street as one of the local programs. Uh Taos Main Street uh I believe was started by by a group of volunteers in approximately 2019. I do believe, Howie, that you were originally involved in the case.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I was on a like exploratory board. I can't remember what we called it, but it was just uh yeah, getting underway, and uh it was a pretty big group. 20, 30 folks, I feel like, really started the the process. And um it was a daunting task, but here we are, six years later, and uh it's it's proving to be viable.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, absolutely. And uh, you know, that's that is a big list of people. We can't get into thanking all of them now, but but we can thank Howie for his participation. On behalf of that crew, sure. Yeah. And uh yeah, so every program has to go through what they call an accelerator process where a group of community members, volunteers, um, have to hit a series of benchmarks to actually gain accreditation from Main Street America to then become a Main Street program. So the official accreditation happened in August of 2019. I was hired as the organization's first director in January of 2020.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Then just in time for things to really change.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Just in time for a global pandemic to fall on the world. Um, so we had to kind of really shift what we were originally focusing on. But um, yeah, here we are five years later. Um, I think there's a lot of exciting things that that have happened and that continue to happen. And uh we're really excited about the idea to to host a show to really highlight not only uh Main Street as an organization, but but highlight people and community members and projects that are happening in the downtown that are really contributing to to revitalizing our downtown as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

We're looking forward to it as well. We're speaking with Charles Whitson from Taos Main Street. We have to take a quick break, got a couple of spots and then some good news, good planet. When we come back, we will pick back up where we leave off here on True Taos Radio. Charles, that was a great um background you gave us on how Main Street even came to be and um the issues it's addressing uh uh across the country. So here we are, Taos Main Street, now five or six years old. I'm gonna read to you the mission statement from Taos Main Street.org, the website of Taos Main Street, preserving the history and building the future of downtown Taos. Very um specific yet very broad, and uh lots can can be read into that and worked from there. So, Charles, you want to just kind of give your interpretation of this mission and kind of what it means to you and if if it accurately um you know describes what house Main Street's trying to do?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Uh yeah, so simple simple statement, but uh really big mission at the same time. Uh and I think that does encapsulate really what we are trying to do. Main Main Street programs have always intersected uh or or have existed at the intersection of of this idea of historic preservation and community and economic development. So those that those two things really don't have to be at odds with each other. They can really they can really coexist and intersect um quite beautifully. And that's that's a lot of the essence of of Main Street work. So, you know, preserving preserving historic uh the historic built environment is actually uh a very viable form of economic, uh, economic and community development, giving, giving old buildings um new life, new uses, making sure that the the character of downtown is preserved through the built environment. And also helping trying to help preserve activities, traditions, events, things like that that really make downtown vibrant and make downtown unique, um, make downtown a place where people feel welcome and included and and a place where they want to spend time. So we really want to preserve all of those things while building new things for the future. So new, new activities, um, new events, new uh maybe new economic outlook on downtown, new, new businesses, things like that all also contribute to to downtown's vibrancy.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

No small undertaking, but essential nonetheless. I happen to live in the downtown area in the historic district, and I have for many years, so I've gotten to see kind of an evolution. Um there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions on what should be happening in downtown Taos, and I'm sure House Main Street is hyper aware of this, and um it's a lot to juggle and a lot to be sensitive to. Um, you talk about uh um traditions and preserving the history. I think of Taos Fiestas as a great example of an event that happens in downtown that's been going on probably for a hundred years. Taos Plaza Live, a kind of a new addition to the downtown scene in the last probably 20 years. And um great examples of activities that happened in the downtown area. Obviously, a lot more to discuss around um the businesses, like you said, um nationally industry leaving downtown areas to go where there's more space and more affordable um space. Um let's talk a little bit about um some of the initiatives and some of the work that Main Street has done. When I was involved at in the early stages, there was a conversation about um around the holidays, um just bridging um the communities and just getting businesses to connect with uh putting Farolitos on the roof, the um the bag lights and luminarias. I I always get mixed up on if it's Faralitos or Luminarias, but um I would say it was a successful project, right? It was just uh Main Street's role was I think to just kind of connect folks who made those uh Farolitos available at a reasonable price, and the business owners to getting them on their roof. You found some folks to kind of install them. Um is that a good example of uh and a small example of what Main Street can do?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Sure. That that is absolutely uh an example of of a of a project that that we took on sort of in our earlier days. Um and and I'd like to back out for just a second and really, really talk to, you know, when we talk about the mission, you know, you generally the the the qu the top of mind question is like, well, how do you do that? What does that actually look like? Um and so in order to do that, you know, as as uh sort of mandated by Main Street America and New Mexico Main Street, you really have to develop, you know, community transformation strategies. So that's really kind of the core of our work that really ensure that we're working broadly um across across several ro several really important areas in in the community. Um Main Street programs, you know, are not really supposed to just be downtown event organizations that just do events downtown. The the mission is really larger than that. So we've outlined three really mutually enforcing strategies that guide our work. So we'll we'll talk just briefly about the strategies and then some key initiatives under each strategy and and how we work and how we're actually advancing.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

That sounds great. I appreciate that. And I know I might have jumped the gun about talking about one of these three uh components.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yeah, no, no problem, Howie. It's there, there's a lot to take in here. So um first, first our first strategy is simply vibrant, inclusive civic space in in the downtown area. Um, we're really honed in on making sure that people feel welcome, people feel included, and we're really focused on three sort of key demographics um in our activity of how can we get these groups of people downtown on a more regular basis. So that's that's simply youth, families with children, and our elders that are that are here and aging in place. Um the second strategy has is is is a more of a an economic type of strategy, and that's that's a dynamic, diverse, and creative economy in our downtown. Um, we want to ensure that you know there there is a lot of uh diversity within our downtown economy. Um we know based on some some trends that we're seeing unfold right now that that tourism may be a challenging sector of the economy in in the next few years. Um and it's possible that that tourism will will fluctuate maybe more than it that has in the past decade or two. Um so we want to to make sure that the downtown economy is healthy, it needs to be dynamic, it needs to be diverse, um, there needs to be good reasons for local people to go downtown and engage in commerce. Um, and it really should be a place where there are really a really good base of jobs as well. So downtown should be a great place to live, a great place to shop, a great place to work. And finally, uh the third strategy actually has to do with tourism. And really, we're looking at it at ways to ensure that tourism is actually contributing to our downtown being a vibrant civic space, and it's contributing to our downtown having a dynamic, diverse, creative economy. We know that there's a lot of resources that come into our community through tourism. Um, and and we want to we want to really start ensuring that tourism is is really contributing to the community's well-being in that way, and that there aren't just a select sort of group of industries or people that are benefiting from tourism, but the community is largely benefiting from tourism. So that's sort of the three overarching strategies. And then we we develop plans, activities, projects, all within those strategies to advance them and move them forward.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Uh it sounds so simple when you put it that way. I know again, it's no small undertaking, um, but essential. And the economic development and um the business community, I know is an important part of it. Having been in business in this town for, you know, as a sole proprietor for over 20 years, I understand the challenges. And um my business is not located in downtown, but of course a lot of businesses are. And um it just it just gets me wondering about uh how downtown areas are used by people. Because I I know there's probably community members who avoid a downtown, not just in Taos, but anywhere because of the bustle and because of the congestion that is inevitable when there's a lot going on in an area. So I guess finding the businesses and um or it's kind of establishing and letting businesses evolve uh isn't a ch a challenge in and of itself, like what kind of businesses work in a downtown area. Obviously, tourist businesses do. I think of restaurants and I think of uh you know, I what comes to mind is like gr grocery shopping, and I guess technically nothing in the downtown area. There's I know Smiths and Sids nearby, but um that kind of thing. If I find myself in New York City, you know, in the in in a big downtown area, there's food food vendors on every corner, you know, that kind of thing. So um how do we uh how do we get communicate to businesses or encourage folks to start a business or to uh keep a business in Taos? I know you have a lot of uh programs and uh opportunities for folks to kind of learn more, but is that a kind of a starting a starting point getting getting people in the business mind?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Sure. So uh you raise a you raise an interesting point and interesting question, and one that is maybe not all that easy to address. So uh a few things that that we think about when when it comes to this, there there's a bit of a chicken and an egg scenario. You know, do you try to recruit a bunch of businesses to downtown that are going to be focused on serving resident demand, or do you engage in trying to bring residents downtown more regularly to then allow the creative entrepreneur spirit to kind of recognize that that opportunity and then maybe maybe change or develop a a business model that that's more suitable to not only serving tourists, but also serving serving residents as well. So we we think it's the second version of that chicken and egg scenario. It's we need to do better at bringing residents and community members downtown on a more regular basis and then allow the the savvy entrepreneurs in our downtown to really capitalize on that. So keep them there. Yeah. One of the things that always that always pops out to me is is just I I don't want to say alarming, but I'm gonna say alarming statistic is is in one of our last economic reports, um they they have a stat that's called retail leakage. And that that essentially says how much how much of our what percentage of our dollars leaves our community for for the retail sector. And the last economic report put that put that number at over 65%. So that's that's more than 65% of retail of money being spent on retail broadly in Taos that we're exporting to Espanola, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Amazon. That number is never going to be zero. But if we could even start to chip away five or ten percent of that retail leakage, that translates into millions of dollars that that circulate in our local economy. And each dollar, each each individual dollar that's spent in the local economy on average gets spent an additional six times before it sort of leaves the economy in in air quotes.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

I mean, we obviously have been advocating shopping local, right? I know it's like a catchphrase now and a little bit of a buzzword, but uh really does make a huge difference. And I think about stores like the mountain shops in town on the plaza and how the prices are competitive. You know, I purchased the shoes I'm wearing right now from excuse me, from uh, you know, TMO and uh it it was no different. It was a great experience. I got to try them on. And uh, you know, it's like I know people know this, but it's just such simple steps that can be taken to uh keep the money here. And like you said, if it just multiplies sixfold, uh once the money's spent in the community, it's kind of a no-brainer. Let's just keep it going and encourage folks to um open up these businesses or just certainly keep the ones that are there. Right? It I know there was a time not too long ago where a lot of businesses were closing up. And um it's nice to see that a lot of those empty spaces are now filled again. But um I guess it's kind of like this this evolution and it can forever change. And I know on the national lever, at the international level, it's gonna affect things here as well. But we can get into that probably another time. Um so all right. Well, let's let's bring it back to Main Street and how Main Street can um kind of help beyond letting folks know about these numbers and and know about the stuff. Is there uh anything that you have in place or envision that will help uh develop the economy in the downtown area?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Absolutely. So again, I'm gonna I'm gonna do three quick parts here sort of related related to each of our strategies. So if we we go back to the first strategy and we're talking about vibrant inclusive civic space, the a few of the areas that we're currently working in, um, one is is capital improvements and technical assistance. Um we through our through our accreditation, we do have access to capital outlay uh funding from the state and a really robust technical assistance program where the state pays contractors to come in and work with Main Street, work with other organizations or other businesses in the district to actually help them revitalize and build more vibrant and civic spaces in their respective areas. So how that looks, um, we secured, we secured a million dollars of capital outlay for the plaza improvements. Um the town took off, took on the first phase of that project in and really fixing some of the underlying infrastructure under the plaza itself, addressing some drainage issues. The county's gonna step in and take on the next part, which is gonna be, you know, some simple stuff. No, not not drastically changing the plaza in any way, but really making some critical updates to make sure that people can feel more included and can access the space easier. So um refurbishing the gazebo, fixing a lot of access points to the plaza, making sure that they are ADA compliant and people with mobility challenges can really access the space easier. Um, some new sidewalk work within the plaza. Um, I think also some potential new utility hookups. So when events are happening on the plaza, it's easier for for vendors or or other folks who need to be able to hook into some utilities to easily hook up. So we're excited about that. Um, the other section of that strategy really involves community engagement and community building in action. Um that uh that's a critical part to this. And again, like how are we starting to bring residents back downtown on a more regular basis? So one of the things we really want to highlight here is a new activity that's been going on all summer. If you haven't, if you haven't joined us on Monday, um we expect to see you out there in the coming Mondays. But it's a it's a new activity that's called Meet Me at McCarthy's. This really has been the brainchild of Arsenio here. Um we've had some amazing, amazing results and amazing community building happening every Monday in downtown. So I'd like to hand it off to him to just tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Well, I appreciate that. Arsenio, it's great to see you. And finally, we have a chance to talk to you. There's so much to talk about, and uh time just flies. So we have been talking up, uh, Meet Me at McCarthy every Monday, and I've spoken to friends. I've not yet participated. I know I still have a few weeks to do it, but um, I have spoken to friends who have done it and uh they've all taken advantage of the the the opportunity to um See downtown kind of from a different vantage point, really, and to uh get to understand better the walkability and and what downtown might mean. So Arcinio, thanks for kind of it sounds like maybe you were the brainchild or certainly uh instrumental in uh making this happen and keeping it going.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Well, it's been a it's been a team effort for sure. We've we've uh we've we've spent a lot of time uh planning and and getting all the logistics uh in place for this. Um the the key word that I think that you you touched on is walkability uh of the downtown area. And and uh um of course, you know, there's a lot of a lot of really neat things that happen, but uh it is important to to show folks that that that the historic town downtown house district is is very walkable and and several people enjoy you know the um the amenities that uh that are are that exist downtown. There's good sidewalks. There's you know now there's some really uh visible and uh good crosswalks in the main on the main street that uh that weren't there before. And um, as you know, the the sidewalks weren't you know evenly measured out before and now they are and it's it's really nice. Um and so um but uh but Mimi and McCarthy's has been, yeah, like like Charles says, has been a really good uh uh kind of a Kickstarter for us to to get folks to to come down and sometimes it's just to come jibber jabber with their their neighbors or strangers, you know, and just just kind of uh enjoy the uh those brilliant afternoons that we have in downtown Taos.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

But it's great that um Taos Main Street kind of has a presence there to kind of remind folks and let folk or folks who don't know let let them know that Main Street exists, that this organization is here to kind of help improve the community, uh, you know, for lack of a better word, and to uh bring people together to um make it better for all of us, right? I mean, I know so simply said, but a lot of work and uh a lot of opportunity for conversation on what it looks like. This this is a great idea, I think. This meet me at McCarthy for folks to just be reminded about downtown, the walkability, and and that um that that there's somewhere to be, that there's a you can hang out and walk around. And you know, it I live in downtown, like I mentioned, so I I love it. I do I do a meet me at McCarthy type stroll every uh a couple times a week, you know, certainly on the weekends. And um and yeah, the improvements in the sidewalk, it's it's simple stuff that makes it even that much more enjoyable.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Um and just real quick, the the uh the folks that have been coming, we're talking multi-generational, we're talking about, you know, you know, the elderly that have been coming to to do their best to maybe do a couple laps around the downtown uh, you know, in the plaza, or just sit there and and and join us and and and talk about things that they used to do in the plaza was all is is also very, very exciting. And then we have very, very young kids that come and and uh you know kind of mingle with those folks.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

So it's great to see the community involved, and I know that's an essential component of Main Street is um getting community members' businesses involved in some of the programs and initiatives that you introduce. Meet McCarthy, uh McCarthy is a great example. Um, using McCarthy Plaza, for example, as kind of the uh starting point and uh place to gather and listen to music and um to share ideas before you actually go on the walk. Um how important uh is it to Main Street to to engage the community and the businesses? I mean, is that ultimately what it's all about?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Yeah, that's the I mean that's that's that's a critical component in community community engagement is is kind of the the the steady through line that goes through all aspects of the work. So yes, like that we we do have we're really ramping up our efforts to to engage the community, to get different sectors of the community who who aren't who have voices that aren't aren't often heard in these spaces. Um and and again, really an invitation, you know, Mimi McCarthy's is an invitation to to the broader community to like, hey, the plaza is for everyone, downtown is for everyone. Come join us. There's there's no there's no pressure to to do anything or to buy anything. It's this is this is civic space, and this is space that we're all welcome and then we all should spend time in. And there are some there's some business owners that have already really understood this as an opportunity and are already really contributing to just that activity of Meet Me and McCarthy's awesome um with with raffles. We we do a raffle every week, and nothing big or grandiose, but just a way for the businesses to directly engage the community and saying, hey, here's here's something, here's something from our store, come in, take a look, check us out. Um so so it's it's a great starting point. The the beauty of this, the beauty and maybe the challenge of this work too is that this is this is a long-term proposition. We don't we're not gonna do Main Street for five or six years and then call it call it done. This is this is work that is done in in perpetuity. So um we're uh we've we've loved this season so far of Meet Me and McCarthy's, and we can't wait for the next season, and we can't wait to see the additional types of activities that that an idea like this is gonna help help create. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

We're speaking with Charles Whitson and Arsenio Trujillo from Taus Main Street. Check out Tausmain Street.org um to learn more about the organization. Let's uh put what we're talking about community engagement, especially uh in the context of this radio program. This is kind of a pilot episode of a program we envision happening once a month here on KNCE. And um the community, because it's such an essential component to the work that Main Street's doing and and really to just the downtown area, um can we expect guests from the downtown area on this program? That that's what I'm hoping for. And it sounds like a great opportunity for, like you said, businesses that uh and business owners that folks might not even be aware of to kind of have a voice.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Absolutely. And and I think I think the idea behind the show is is to really uh to to create some topics. Um, you know, I think I think we can we can broadly talk about uh Main Street, and I do, and I can talk forever about it. Um, but I think it's it's really important that we start honing in on some specific topics, um, issues that are going on, you know, challenges that are going on, but also really highlighting um some of the good the good things that are that are already happening that people may not be aware of. So we we we really look to have a broad uh variety of guests that are gonna come in and really lend their their specific insights as as they relate to to sort of the topic, the topic of the show. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Now I expect um you'll probably and you probably already get a lot of uh community members in the downtown area who for one reason or another might not agree with some of the work you're doing. And uh are you prepared to kind of field questions or input from from people who dissent, for lack of a better word?

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Absolutely. I mean, I think that's actually uh an important part of this work is is that no no single person, no single organization um necessarily is is gonna have all the answers. And and um, yeah, we've we've we have plenty of of folks that that um maybe weren't necessarily happy with things that we were doing and maybe weren't necessarily happy with things that we weren't doing. Um it's important to kind of bring those voices in and just talk about like, hey, we we've got this vision, we've got these strategies, this is the area that we're working on, but maybe there's there's something that we're missing in here and having somebody come in and be able to really articulate like you know, a challenge or an area that really needs to be addressed and and how Main Street can maybe uh be a platform and the show can be a platform for raising raising attention to those issues and and talking about how we collectively address them.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, again, no small undertaking. And I I know I touched on it earlier in the program. Um I just think about the the philosophy and just the understanding of of the community if if they think there even needs to be a downtown, that's gonna be one extreme, right? Do we need to put any effort into this? Is is like you were saying, what's what's happening nationally, um downtown downtowns are kind of maybe thinning out or dissipating. And as people move away, what's the relevance of a downtown area? I think uh a town like Taos, which is so uh steeped in the in the history of the downtown area as as a meeting and a gathering place, um, that it's obviously worth preserving and uh and um improving over the years to come. So uh I I I can expect a lot of uh philosophical conversation from some of your guests in the coming months, and I do look forward to that. Um time really does fly. We only have a few minutes left, and uh we're just kind of working out the details of what this radio program will look like monthly. I think we've pretty much nailed that down. Um, but where we um we're talking about perhaps a half hour, maybe maybe we spend an hour each month bringing these guests in and getting their ideas on the downtown area and more importantly focusing on um the work that Taus Main Street is doing. Um do you guys have any parting thoughts or do you want to just uh encourage folks to get involved, stay involved, and how they can engage?

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Absolutely. And maybe, maybe I'll also tease, tease out sort of the next episode. Um, you know, please, please check out the the website. We we've got some great partners and in the bent house uh creative folks um who've really helped us with social media, with uh communications, with with a new website overhaul. So so take a look at the new website, tausmainstreet.org. Follow us on social media uh Taos Main Street on on Facebook and Instagram. We have a lot of cool stuff that's that's regularly coming out. We have a monthly newsletter um that highlights a lot of really uh fun stuff that's always going on downtown. I think part of part of our work is to, you know, get the broader community to understand that there actually are things happening downtown all the time, every night, and there's something to do downtown, there's something fun happening. So we really want to keep keep drawing that out and showing people that downtown is is a place where there's always something happening. Um, and then in our next episode, uh our third, our third strategy that I mentioned earlier, where we were talking about about tourism and how it relates to the downtown and the broader community. I think we really want to start, uh we we want to open up with a conversation around that. So uh Taos Main Street is is engaged in a destination stewardship initiative. Um folks probably remember the planning process, you know, happening for for several years. Um and there's a lot of really cool work that's that's already being done. And we really wanna wanna highlight some of that. So I think uh next show we really we want to bring in Jesse Hook, who is who has been tasked with with managing and coordinating this destination stewardship effort. Um, we'd like to bring her in and really, you know, do a do a deep dive on destination stewardship, what that means, what's that, what that looks like, and and how it all connects to the downtown and the broader community.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

That sounds great. And um yeah, uh it's it's uh topics that that need to be addressed. We're happy here at KNCE to uh kind of make the platform available for mainstream to Main Street to help get the word out, um, because it's important to reach the greater community and not just the downtown area. This is obviously going to benefit um all of northern New Mexico, really. Uh not even considering the the the tourism and the people who come through um who possibly expecting a vibrant downtown and some opportunities to get do some stuff down there. So Charles Arsenio, thank you so much for uh taking some time this morning. I know uh I personally was a little scattered at times on on uh kind of formulating what this radio program would look like, but I think we did a pretty good job of getting um the word out that we're gonna be putting some energy into the work that Taus Main Street's doing and helping spread the word. So thank you again, Arcinio. It's nice to see you. Thank you, Howie. And Charles, um, we'll be in touch. We'll um get the word out in the coming weeks about when the next radio program will be, the time and date, and um get into the details of the guests and the topics. And uh I look forward to this happening every month here for the foreseeable future.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

All right. Thanks, Howie, and we look forward to being back next time. All right, have a great day.