Posted inDowntown, Jobs, Workers & Economy

Downtown Albuquerque reboot: Pockets of hope, a field of potential

Editor’s note: This is the final 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, peruse a photo essay about lowriders here, and read about crime here. Beyond the crime, shuttered businesses, vacant […]

Posted inCourts, Justice & Safety, Downtown, Housing & Homelessness

Business owner, deputy commander talk crime in Albuquerque’s Downtown

Editor’s note: This is the fourth 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, peruse a photo essay about lowriders here, and end with what the area has to offer here. On […]

Posted inAlbuquerque, Downtown

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 […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

Posted inDowntown, Jobs, Workers & Economy

Attention Downtown: the city wants your email address

Downtown business and property owners will likely see some fresh faces at their doors this month. The city — through its Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency (MRA) — is on a mission to collect the email addresses of Downtown stakeholders through face-to-face contact in order to build better relationships and communication.  The emails would be used to […]

Posted inDowntown, Jobs, Workers & Economy

City wants to speed up Downtown housing projects

Housing development in Downtown Albuquerque would be accelerated under new legislation introduced at the City Council’s March 4 meeting. The resolution sets a two-year priority for construction projects that produce permanent housing, whether single-family homes, multifamily developments or mixed-use projects — 13 housing categories in all. The focus is the “Downtown Center” —  generally bracketed […]

Albuquerque official responds to residents’ concerns about the Bosque thinning project

By Nash Jones, KUNM | Homemade signs expressing concern for the ecosystem of Albuquerque’s Bosque have popped up where a thinning project is underway. In addition to questioning the harm to native plants, shade and habitats, some call for the city to pause the work and hold a community meeting. The head of the city’s Open Space […]