From Old Coors to Estancia

Michelle Worley, L&LNM Blogs Abq's Central Avenue

On this chillingly cold Saturday, Mariah, Danny, and I headed out to the west side of Central Avenue, and we took Mariah's niece and nephew with us. They got to enjoy the walk bundled up in their strollers. Turns out it wasn't so cold after all and we had a nice walk. 

We were afraid that we would have to walk in the street because of A.R.T. construction -- as we had once or twice on east Central -- but the side we walked on, the north side, was pleasantly A.R.T.-free. 

It was the traffic coming from the west that was really bad. I think we were observing travelers coming from Grants, Gallup, etc. to visit Abq or travel through. 

I'm willing to bet there were Route 66 travelers as well who were in for a bitterly disappointing drive along Abq's part of the Route. I bet they weren't happy at all. It was pretty much a slow-creeping stream of cars all the way into downtown Abq. Traffic cones the whole way.

Signs of the Times
In this 'hood, I noticed there aren't as many smoke shops as I've noticed on the east end. In the short distance we walked, there are a lot of payday and title loan-type businesses. 

We also saw a lot of "ministries" (see photo) that I don't understand. Many have windows that are shut off from public scrutiny with dark paper. What are these places? Are they shelters? Are they churches? Are they open? They didn't look it. 

I tried to google one but found nothing online. If anyone can shed some light on this, please do. 

The Numbers
Between Old Coors and Estancia SW, we counted 24 (83%) in-businesses and 5 (17%) out-of-businesses. For the entire distance we've covered so far, we have counted 769 total businesses, 594 (77%) of which are in business and 175 (23%) of which are out of business. 

Next Steps
No one joined us on today's walk but it was super cold. Someone did, however, honk twice (I asked in another post that anyone who sees us honk twice) and I waved enthusiastically back. At least, I hope they were honking at us and for that reason. Let me know if it was you. 

WE WILL NOT GIVE UP! We will continue to invite others to join us. So far, Joaquin Baca and Mary Driscoll have taken time to share their stories of this iconic road that runs through our city. We appreciate it greatly. 

 The next call to join us is for Saturday, January 21, at 1:00 pm. I don't know where we will meet yet so stay tuned. We post it on our underutilized website (www.liveandlearnnm.com) and we will post it on our Facebook page as well. 

That's it for today. Go New Mexico!