Nob Hill festival lights up local businesses

After the big-box mania of Black Friday, citizens of The Duke City will have a chance to shop for some unique, afford­able gifts, right in Main Campus’s backyard, while keeping their money in the local economy, at the 2013 Nob Hill Holiday Shop and Stroll and Twinkle Light Parade on December 7, according to cabq.gov.

From noon to 10 p.m., Central will be closed to traffic from Girard Boulevard to Washington Avenue, as people shop, stroll, enjoy live music and food vendors, and watch as over a hundred floats and cars all decked out in twinkling lights head down Burque’s main drag, according to cabq.gov.

Nicole Montes, owner of Silver Skate Shop that was newly reopened on Friday, Nov. 29 after almost three years on sabbatical, said she was grateful to be welcomed back to the Nob Hill community.

“We had a lot of sup­port at the shop, and a lot of people came through for our Black Friday grand opening,” she said.

Montes said for this year’s Shop and Stroll she plans to have skat­ing ramps and rails made by local skaters set up on Central, with hopes of having a good turnout of local rollers and artists.

“I believe when we set up, we’re going to have hot cocoa and a little con­test, for everyone to join in,” she said.

Montes said that her friend and owner at Masks y Mas used to accommo­date by giving her space in front of his shop for skate ramps, but now that she is back in the neighbor­hood, she can now have the ramps in front of her shop for local skater kids to have a place to hang out at the event, she said.

“So this will be the first year we have our ramps in front of our own shop, which will be pretty cool. I’m sure it will be a great event, because all the local skater kids usually show up for it,” Montes said.

Federico “Kiko” Torres owns Masks y Mas, a store that has been in Nob Hill for 12 years, and he said he agrees that shopping locally benefits everybody.

“I think it actu­ally helped to turn the economy around, people shopping more locally. Even just a little bit, maybe a few gifts can make a huge difference,” Torres said.

Masks y Mas sells Mexican-inspired art and gifts made by over 80 dif­ferent craftspeople, most of them local, Torres said.

Torres said his store features local artists such as Brandon Maldonado, Stephanie Jamison, and David Santiago, sculptors Javier Benitez and Raymond Sandoval, and employee and recycled-object artist Kenny Chavez, among many others.

Mike D-Elia has owned the neighborhood comic shop Astro-Zombies for 15 years, and he said the Shop and Stroll is one of the store’s busiest times of year.

Aside from the extra busi­ness the event brings, D-Elia said that it creates something just as important: a sense of community.

“There’s people you don’t see any other time of year. You see old friends, you see fami­lies; it’s that one big event in this neighborhood that’s like ‘hey, it’s holiday season.’ And it’s great,” D-Elia said.

Shopping locally sup­ports small business as well as local artists and craftspeople, and the benefits trickle down and help the entire city in the end, Torres said.

“At the end of the day, when you go to the big corporations that are bringing everything in from China, ultimately you’re supporting some other country. So what better way to support your local economy than to shop locally?” Torres said.

For more info on the 2013 Twinkle Light Parade and Nob Hill Holiday Shop and Stroll, visit rt66central.com/ shopandstroll.