Our team at nm.news and City Desk ABQ outside our new Nob Hill office, July 2025
From Pat Davis, City Desk founder & publisher
When voters elected me to Albuquerque’s City Council in 2015, I promised to serve no more than two terms. In that time, we’d navigated the city through COVID, brought APD to the verge of ending DOJ oversight and funded the largest housing investment in city history.
But as I watched election returns come in for the mayor and councils race of 2021 midway through my last term, it was clear that most voters didn’t see why showing up for local decisions matter anymore.
In a city of over 550,000 people, most city council meetings see less than 30 residents signup for public comment.
A quick scroll through your neighborhood Nextdoor or Facebook group shows you that we definitely care. So why do so few people participate?
A new study of New Mexico residents found that 2/3 say they don’t have access to trustworthy, local news to tell them how those decisions get made and how to participate.
I built City Desk to change that.
We recently asked readers to tell us what they think of City Desk and give us feedback to make it better.
68% shared a story they read in City Desk with a neighbor or friend.
65% said they used something they read in City Desk to inform how they voted in city elections.
29% contacted the mayor or city council about a story in City Desk.
40% say they visited a local business or donated to community group we profiled.
That’s not bad for a startup working to build a new type of newsroom with a purpose.
Keep reading to see what readers had to say this year and how your support helped us change how readers saw city elections and how we’re finding solutions and accountability for City Hall.
“I support your work because of articles like 8/13/25’s on mayoral fundraising. The detailed campaign contribution info you provide offers voters valuable insight into candidates and their supporters.” – Terry, Albuquerque
Tracking candidates, outside groups and the money behind them.
City Desk tracked over $3 million, including more than $1 million by outside groups, spent on city elections — 5,800 donations and 1,800 individual spending transactions — for 7 months — all cross referenced against finance rules, city contractors, lobbyists and outside groups — providing the most comprehensive insight into the money in city politics ever. |
No other outlet went as deep and we uncovered information other outlets missed, including how city contractors and developers who had received multi-million tax breaks, blocked from donating to candidates, backed an outside PAC to support them anyway. |
Albuquerque has a great program for transparency, but only if you know where to look. Records for city lobbyists, contractors and campaign donors are available by public record but they aren’t easy to find and they definitely aren’t laid out to make it easy to connect the dots.
This type of reporting is tedious, detailed work most newsrooms don’t have the resources to do anymore — but it’s critical work for keeping city hall honest.
“City Desk and NM News are some of the few outlets that continue to do real journalism. We need investigative journalists who see reporting facts as a civic duty. Thanks so much for your work!” – Annie, Albuquerque
Management kept saying there was nothing they could do and wouldn’t give a repair timeline. Although tenants had filed complaints with city, response had been slow.
John Reiser, a resident I had interviewed, told me the media attention helped push things forward.
What I’m most thankful for is hearing from tenants who felt heard. The experience was a reminder of why local accountability journalism matters. Sometimes people just need someone to document what they’re living through.
Holding City Hall accountable.
During last year’s reader survey, we heard from lots of readers that they wanted to see us push for greater reach and more solutions journalism. |
He found that despite council passing the new law, the city never informed landlords of the new requirements. By asking questions he helped resident complaints waiting for action in city hall to get attention. |
City Hall Reporter Jesse Jones:
This summer, I covered an Albuquerque apartment complex where tenants went weeks without air conditioning during triple-digit heat, even though city rules require landlords to provide cooling. One apartment hit 91 degrees. Families with young kids and older residents were miserable, and some slept outside on their patios.
Management kept saying there was nothing they could do and wouldn’t give a repair timeline. Although tenants had filed complaints with city, response had been slow.
After the story ran, city inspectors showed up and ordered fixes. Within hours, management finally started talking to tenants about when repairs would happen. John Reiser, a resident I had interviewed, told me the media attention helped push things forward.
What I’m most thankful for is hearing from tenants who felt heard. The experience was a reminder of why local accountability journalism matters. Sometimes people just need someone to document what they’re living through. Even if my role was small, hearing those air conditioners had finally been fixed showed me why this work matters.
Holding City Hall accountable.
The City of Albuquerque paid out more than $1million in fines and court settlements relating to public records violations in 2024 and although the city is making progress, more than 1,000 records requests are still overdue. |
In November 2025, most local news outlets covered a $1 million jury verdict to former APD cadets involved in a hazing incident. |
We transcribed testimony, checked city policies and interviewed public records attorneys who said APD has likely been breaking the law for years. |
‘Alarm bells of the highest order’: APD chief’s testimony reveals years of deleted police texts to avoid public records
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina testified under oath in a lawsuit that he routinely deletes text messages about official business, a practice legal experts said violates a state law that requires…
“In times like these it can feel like there’s nothing we can do to make a difference. But the biggest impact we can have is turning to our own community to find support and ways to take action. Local news is an important part of that.” – Margaret, Cedar Crest
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Margaret.
Others newsrooms are cutting back on covering City Hall. We’re doubling down.
Pat Davis
City Desk founder and publisher
We never charge to learn how city hall works because news should be a public service, free to anyone who wants it, without paywalls or popups. But keeping it that way requires public support.
I know you already support other news sources you count on. Me too. As you consider how to help with your year-end giving, I hope you’ll consider us.
We’re doing something worth investing in, Albuquerque, and we want you to be a part of it, too.
We are making decisions now about who to hire and what to cover in 2026 — the first year of our next mayor and a new council.
We set a goal to raise $25,000 between Thanksgiving and Dec. 31 — enough to cover new investments in AI research tools streamline public records reporting, software subscriptions to transcribe city meetings and stipends for new student journalists to teach civic journalism to a generation of reporters.
To help, the New Mexico Local News Fund is matching $3,000 in reader donations. That $6000 funds a reporter for about 6 weeks, so it’s a huge help in our small budget.
Learn more about our year-end fundraising needs here, or step up now to invest in nonprofit journalism with a purpose.
Thank you. – Pat
Year-End Giving
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