An interview with Councilor Randall Ryti

Housing affordability, land, and homelessness in Los Alamos

Published 1/11/2023

Interview by Stephanie Nakhleh, Sam McRae, and Minesh Bacrania

Photographs by Minesh Bacrania

Note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On December 18, 2023, Boomtown invited County Councilor Randall Ryti for a wide-ranging discussion about some key issues facing Los Alamos, particularly housing and development. Councilor Ryti started us off on a kind note:

Randall Ryti: Well, I like your new project, Boomtown. It’s good to have.

Boomtown: Thank you, we appreciate that.

The nice thing is that people are getting information about needs. Because one of the questions that was asked in the town survey was how to rank different town priorities, and the social-services hub project was frankly ranked pretty low. But I don’t think people are aware of the needs we might have, and about what something like a social-services hub could do for the community.

A perception many have is that there are no problems in Los Alamos. That’s why we titled the first story “Ther…