Introducing: “We Can Have Nice Things”
Hello friends and neighbors,
I’m starting a new chapter in my journalism career with the launch of “We Can Have Nice Things,” a project focused on solutions for our community.
As you may know, I recently concluded my time with Boomtown Media. While I’m moving in a new direction professionally, I remain committed to supporting local journalism—to that end, I am keeping my subscription to Boomtown, and encourage you to do the same. Our community needs good journalism and benefits from diverse reporting voices.
What “We Can Have Nice Things” will be
This new project isn’t about breaking news or day-to-day reporting. Instead, I’ll focus on policy analysis and solutions-oriented content centered around a simple question: Why aren’t things working as well as they could be in our community, and what can we do about it?
As part of the broader movement examining why governance isn’t delivering the things people need, I’ll be exploring:
Why housing remains unaffordable despite our community’s resources
How we can create vibrant public spaces that serve everyone
Ways to cut through bureaucratic red tape that delays progress
How we can design our cities to be less car-dependent, with safer streets, and
Practical solutions that have worked in other communities
I aim to move beyond merely admiring problems to offering concrete paths forward. This isn’t about partisan politics—it’s about practical solutions and empowering citizens to participate in creating the community we want to live in.
In this space, my voice is going to come through. My ideas are going to come through. I will get into broader trends analysis, interviews with policy experts, case studies of successful community initiatives, and actionable ideas we can implement locally. It will be more like a newspaper column or magazine journalism like you’d find in The Atlantic or The Economist.
Supporting by sharing
For now, I’m offering this content for free. This is a labor of love for me—the kind of writing I find most fulfilling. I may introduce paid subscription options down the road, but for the initial phase, I want to share these ideas with as many community members as possible. You can support my work best by sharing it. Share it with your elected leaders, your friends and family, on social media, and with your neighbors. Invite people to subscribe. We get nice things when more of us are on the same page about what we want—and how to get there.
I hope you’ll join me on this journey toward solutions thinking in Los Alamos. If we are clear about what we want and what’s in our way, we can indeed have nice things.
Looking forward,
Stephanie