A practical 12–18 month Action Plan for Las Vegas, NM

1. Double down on Arts & Culture District (ACD)/ Main Street Capital:

• Pursue NM MainStreet Façade & Great Blocks-style funds; line up a 10–12 storefront cohort for code/ADA/appearance fixes in a collective bid to save costs. 

• Apply to the new NM ACD pilot grant ($50–$100k) to program events + wayfinding + storefront activation.

2. Anchor + Upper-story Housing Strategy:

• Tax Increment Financing / Local Economic Development Act (TIF/LEDA) 

• Identify 2–3 “ready” buildings on or near Bridge St./Plaza for adaptive reuse with upper-story units; copy Wabash/Bedford’s formula for loan guarantees + small-gap TIF/LEDAs. 

3. Entrepreneurship Hub in a historic shell:

• Stand up a light-lift co-working/accelerator inside a rehabbed building (even 3–4k sq ft) with pre-accelerator programming; pair with maker/culinary pop-ups to test tenants. 

4. Vacant-parcel triage:

• With county partners, map top-priority nuisance parcels and run a block-by-block blight program (demo where necessary + pocket parks/food-truck pads) to concentrate change and reduce disorder. 

5. Public-health + public-safety braid:

• Import closed-loop referral network; post-overdose outreach; jail-to-treatment handoffs) to reduce visible drug impact around downtown. 

6. Year-round event calendar:

• See our proposed event calendar that celebrate local, Hispano heritage, Route 66/Santa Fe Trail narratives, low-cost vendor stalls, and music