Editorโs note: This is the final installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the cityโs 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 […]
Housing & Homelessness
March Sadness: Lobo fans gather, mourn after loss
Lobo fans gathered around the city to watch the team’s match-up against South Carolina’s Clemson Tigers Friday afternoon for the University of New Mexico’s first game in a NCAA basketball tournament in a decade. More than 100 people flocked to Civic Plaza where the city had set up a projector at the Al Hurrican Pavilion […]
Advocates Claim Inhumane Conditions at Detention Center
At the March 13 meeting of the Torrance County Commissioners, business was as usual until public comment began. During public comment, representatives from the Immigration Law Lab and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center discussed alleged conditions at the Torrance County Detention Facility. Aurora Arreola, the Policy Program Manager for the New Mexico Immigrant Law […]
Council approves additional funding to help with increasing number of migrants
Helping asylum seekers and migrants and recognizing the impact of the atomic industry on downwinders topped the short Albuquerque City Council meeting held on March 18. Migrant Help An increasing number of migrants arriving in Albuquerque โ โdue to unforeseen circumstances at the southern U.S. borderโ โ since early fall has stretched thin the nonprofit […]
One manโs quest to help solve the cityโs homelessness problem
The campaigning hasnโt stopped, but now the focus is homelessness. Daymon Ely, an attorney and former three-term state representative, has spent the past 12 months developing a proposal to address homelessness in Albuquerque. The problem is well documented: There are more people living on Albuquerqueโs streets, some with severe mental health and addiction issues, and […]
Business owner, deputy commander talk crime in Albuquerque’s Downtown
Editorโs note: This is the fourth installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the cityโs 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 […]
Legislature put โbig infusion into housingโ
New Mexicoโs dual crises of a decrease in affordable housing and an increase in homelessness were hot topics in Santa Fe at the recently concluded legislative session. The New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, one of the stateโs most effective weapons in the fight, was the recipient of some key funding from lawmakers. The somewhat enigmatic […]
When will Downtownโs 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 โ 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 Theatreย ย
One of the cityโs 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’
Editorโs note: This is the third installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the cityโs 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 […]
