Elise Kaplan, Author at City Desk ABQ

Muslim community reflects as first trial in spate of killings begins

As Muslims began their Ramadan fasts on Monday, Muhammad Syed — an Afghan refugee who came to Albuquerque in 2016 — prepared to face a jury on one count of murder in the 2022 slaying of a fellow Muslim, Aftab Hussein. It is the first of three trials in a case that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim […]

When will Downtown’s unwelcome tunnel be gone?

Dark, loud, unsafe and foul: words commonly used for decades to describe the pedestrian tunnel that links East Downtown and Downtown along Central Avenue under the railroad tracks. The tunnel also connects vehicles — often with horns honking, tires screeching, and engines revving for an amplified sound effect. The link is an important one because […]

CNM to host summit for women in trades

Rosie the Riveter is a symbolic icon — a woman who can do her part on the factory floor and keep the manufacturing industry going. She’s got a growing number of real-life counterparts in the U.S. Here in the metro area, Central New Mexico Community College wants to make local women aware of careers in […]

City Desk interview: Arts & Culture director talks iconic KiMo Theatre

One of the city’s key assets is the historic KiMo Theatre, located in the heart of Downtown, on Central Avenue and Fifth Street. The storied pueblo-deco structure built in 1927 has seen more than 10,000 people file into its 650-seat theater in the past few months. Oreste Bachechi, an Italian immigrant and merchant, was the […]

What should happen after the city has completed the police reform effort?

As the federally mandated reform of the Albuquerque Police Department closes in on 10 years — and the end is in sight — community policing groups have begun thinking about what comes next. With that in mind, a policing expert who has worked on consent decrees in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md., visited the Southwest […]

‘We are familia’

Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the city’s center, its challenges and the plans to address them. Read about why the area matters here, about vacant buildings here, about crime here and end with what the area has to offer here. Lorenzo Otero has been spending […]

Man serves joy through popcorn

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the lobby of 505 Marquette Ave. is permeated with the comforting aroma of “better than movie theater” popcorn and the warm laughter of an Albuquerque man who loves making people’s days better. Not everyone who enters the lobby of the building is having their best day. The building houses the […]

Special Help Wanted: 86% of APS teacher vacancies are for special education teachers

The Albuquerque Public Schools district needs more than 100 special education teachers to fill vacancies in its 176 individual schools. According to the district’s job listings on Thursday afternoon, 120 of 139 open teaching positions were in special education. The district is not unique in that regard. Monica Armenta, executive director for communications at APS, […]

Next year’s APS budget includes more money for special education, less money for food

Albuquerque Public Schools will have less money to work with next fiscal year, but it is working on ways to lessen the disruption in services, budget officials told the Board of Education Wednesday evening. District officials have said the budget will drop from $2.167 billion for the current fiscal year to about $1.9 billion for […]

Roadrunner CEO: ‘Food insecurity can strike anyone’

Roadrunner by the numbers: Dana Yost was named the president and CEO of Albuquerque-based Roadrunner Food Bank in August 2023. He comes to the city from Tucson, Arizona — a state where he worked in the food bank industry for 13 years. In just a handful of months at the helm, Yost said he’s noticed […]