Albuquerque has lost two of its most open-hearted, dedicated, and public spirited citizens – environmental activist Joan Rosner who died in Florida at 89 last week and former City Council President Vince Griego, 68, who passed away in Albuquerque this weekend.

 

Unlike so many hard-bitten, devious players in modern political life, with Joan Rosner and Vince Griego what you saw was what you got. And what you saw was civil, practical, and tirelessly optimistic.

 

They were, to the present vicious world of cannibal politics, angels of decency. And neither one of them was narcissistically inclined. They weren’t preoccupied with amassing personal fortunes or accumulating fame. Both wanted honestly, I think, to do good in the world.

 

If they’d had a reaction to the financial horror show that’s upon us now, I’m sure neither Rosner nor Griego would have hardened into financial ideologies. It wasn’t in their nature. Their concerns would have been with the bank accounts and savings of people who might have a little nest egg, but who are always careful with their money and cannot afford to lose any of it to the vices of financial speculation and unregulated free market religion.

 

What mattered to them, their lives clearly show, was helping better the lives of all of us, of everyday people struggling to make it in the world. Their interests were local and regional. They weren’t distracted by national issues they could do little about. They focused on the here and now of their own town, and knew as much about how things worked in Albuquerque – politically, financially, and ecologically – as anyone. They were experts on the immediate reality and needs of their surroundings. Although too polite to ever say so, I suspect they would have found the American craze for national politics and national gossip to be draining the social life blood out of America’s towns and cities. Neither one of them lost touch with the details of Albuquerque’s problems and opportunities.

 

Vince Griego fought for all of his 24 years in office to bring to his district in the North Valley the kinds of roads, flood control, parks, and traffic calming that long-neglected neighborhoods need the most.

 

And Joan Rosner, along with her late husband Hy, was a pioneer educator who devoted her life to helping young people understand the living world upon which any society depends. The Rosners’ great work here, an exhaustive volume for APS students and the rest of us called “Albuquerque’s Environmental Story: Educating for a Sustainable Community,” was started in l978. It’s a visionary document, even today.

 

Vince Griego supported the Rosner’s efforts during his tenure on the City Council when he showed the courage to openly and vigorously oppose the powers that be who favored feeding sprawl development on the West Mesa by building the population magnet of the Monta o Road Bridge. His brave defiance of powerful westside interests endeared him to everyone in the Valley. Vince Griego just thought it was wrong to sacrifice one part of the city, his part, so another part could grow faster. And he was right. The Montano Road Bridge has changed the traffic patterns in the valley and burdened its people with absurd drive-time congestion since it was rammed down their throats a decade or so ago.

 

Joan and Hy Rosner modeled for many young people in the city what selfless public service actually means. As educators, they believed that cities exist by virtue of the health of the natural world they inhabit. And they managed through endless dialogues with hundreds of people to accumulate essays from experts all over the state for their Environmental Story.

 

Raising the money to publish it, the Rosners really did work night and day for years, gently jawboning everyone from politicians to hydrologists to contribute to a community-wide effort. The Rosners never took credit for their work. They always gave it to other people, just as they gave and gave to their community all their lives.

 

And Vince Griego did too. Like the Rosners, he was a giver not a taker. A gentle, kind, warm hearted man, with a sly sense of humor, and a beguiling persistence, Vince Griego was not only a champion of the North Valley, but of everyone who needed help and some cheering up. Low key and working mostly behind the scenes, Griego supported parks and speed bumps and neighborhood issues all over the city. And in the North Valley his legislation managed to solve, to a large degree, the chronic flooding that had plagued the area for generations.

 

Joan Rosner and Vince Griego are examples of the kinds of leaders we’re going to need in our town and across the country in the future, people whose genial and principled behavior gives them credibility, people who devotedly believe in public service, who welcome the opinions of others, people free of hypocrisy who do what they say and do it with both kindness and conviction.