On Christmas Eve, L&LNM met with Mary Driscoll near Atrisco and Central. Mary has lived in this 'hood for a long time and has seen the changes over the years. She has kept up with community news about A.R.T. and its effects on local businesses. She, too, is concerned that a rapid transit system like this is too much for Abq and unnecessary. Mary was kind enough to walk with us and share her experiences living in the area.
One story we heard was that of a local favorite, El Charritos. A.R.T. is making them first, move their sign, and then cut their already small parking lot by 6 or so spaces. The city will reimburse them part of the cost but the majority of it will have to be paid by the restaurant. REALLY? Should they have to pay for any of it?
Mary pointed out two or three empty buildings that promise to soon be in business but who knows if that will really happen. She told us of businesses that moved once, twice, because of A.R.T. and still lost or went out of business. For rent signs abound.
As well as it being xmas eve, it was a Saturday so there was no construction and probably less traffic than usual. I appreciated the quiet to hear Mary's stories.
We plan to drive through this area soon, during a regular business day, and see what happens. Cone-wise, it looks a lot like what we've been seeing on east Central. It's easy to imagine what it's like during rush hour on a Wednesday.
Between Atrisco and Coors, we counted 49 (88%) in-businesses and 7 (12%) out-of-businesses. For the entire distance we've covered so far, we have counted 695 total businesses, 537 (77%) of which are in business and 158 (23%) of which are out of business.
Next Steps
We are thinking that we will meet every other Saturday and invite others to join us. We'll be doing our usual unorganized blogging in between but it is nice when people from the 'hoods we blog are there to tell their stories.
The next time we will blog will be Saturday, January 7, 2017, at 1:00 pm. Don't know where yet. We'll let you know.
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