LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The population of unhoused people is growing in Las Cruces. To make matters worse for these individuals, the City Council passed an ordinance to prohibit them from using shopping carts to carry their belongings. Despite this problem, bicyclists, artists and the community have come together to create a solution.
Velo Cruces is a bicycle shop where wood gets cut, bars get sawed and screws get drilled. All the noise is made to create carts.
“People that get into their system that are homeless, that have all their belongings, they don’t have a way to secure those belongings when they come to the municipal court,” President of Velo Cruces Donald Wilson said. “As a result, sometimes they will skip their court dates, which just exacerbates their problems.”
Wilson was having discussions about creating a solution to this problem, and that is when project funder Lauren Rosenberg came in.
“My husband Bob Hepner was a performance artist and a cyclist and an activist,” Rosenberg said. “He had cancer and he died in 2020.”
As a way to commemorate Hepner, Rosenberg wanted to find the perfect project. This bike shop is helping her do just that by combining art, social justice, biking and creating carts.
“I had a lot of flops in terms of pursuing what I thought would be his vision,” Rosenberg said. “I ran into Donald at an event and I was telling him about this and he said I know we’re doing things at the bike shop that’d be interesting to Bob.”
Rosenberg started funding the project and recruiting artists who could turn carts into pieces of art. She reached out to artists Tauna Cole-Dorn and Raul Dorn. The Dorn’s were inspired by bees for this project, after seeing wood scraps at the bike shop.
“There’s different stages of a bee’s life,” Cole-Dorn said. “A lot of these shapes that are on the cart right now kind of represent that poopa or larva.”
“Bees are a symbol of industry and production and sweetness,” Dorn said. “I found that kind of a challenge because this issue is not a happy one. It’s a necessary one.”
It is necessary for the unhoused, but also for the community.
“Sometimes I think when people see folks pushing shopping carts or pulling carts, they have a judgement about that person,” Wilson said. “Maybe this will change the way think about it.”
This was also important to Hepner and Rosenberg is sure he would be interested in this project.
“He really wanted to make the world a better place,” Rosenberg said. “I felt like this project has to be something that would be really meaningful to him.”
For more information about Velo Cruces, check out its website: velocruces.org or call (575) 323-0883. It is located at 205 East Lohman Avenue. It is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-4 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
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