Speaking of street fights, just out and a great read is the book "Street Fight" by New York City's transportation director under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible, and transformed the streets of this great, tough city into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and cyclists. Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but lessened congestion, increased foot traffic, and improved the bottom line of local businesses.
     Sound familiar? Jeff Speck recommended this approach for Albuquerque's Downtown and EDo in September 2014, and yet we've seen nothing from the Berry Administration. What are they waiting for?  Given that Albuquerque is an economic laggard, we're scratching our heads over this one. 

     Why do we have to travel to walk a street that feels like it was made for pedestrians, lined with great places to shop, work, be entertained, live, and bump into friends old and new?
     No one understands the connection of great streets with economic and social vitality, better than Jeff Speck. His latest article, not surprisingly, is both entertaining and inspiring. It's part of the "City Fixer" series from The Atlantic "City Lab."  We recommend it to you. 
     We continue our 13-year battle to make EDo and Huning Highlands Albuquerque's first "pedestrian first" and "park once and walk" neighborhood.

     Newly open at 412 Central SE, this delightful place provides tasty food and beverage with the opportunity to visit with felines seeking adoption. For those not wishing play time with the kitties, there is seating inside and in a beautiful courtyard sans chats. Please support this great new local business, the antithesis of a chain restaurant and better for you!

     The Obama administration purportedly wants to use the lever of transportation policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx recently said he'd like to reverse the damage highways caused in urban neighborhoods, but you'd never know that by looking at U.S. DOT's latest policy prescription.
     "There's nothing with any teeth here. Instead - in a 425-page proposed rule - there are just six pages (p. 101-106) addressing greenhouse gas emissions that read like a bad book report and a 'dog-ate-my-homework' excuse for doing nothing now. Instead, DOT offers up a broad set of questions asking others for advice on how they might do something, in some future rulemaking, to address climate change," writes Joe Cortright at City Observatory.
     The good news is that you have the opportunity to ask the Obama Administration to do more!  Here's the full article, including a link to make comments about the proposed regulations. 

     The primary is Tuesday, June 7th. This publication opposes any public investment in the proposed Santolina project on the far, far west side. This is just more of the same subsidized sprawl that has ruined our landscape and impoverished our community for decades. If sprawl is so great for us financially - as we have been hearing for years - why is Albuquerque one of the poorest large cities in the nation? "Sprawl Costs Us All."  Ya basta!
     Adrian is the only one of the three Democratic Primary candidates who has taken $0 from development interests, and he opposes Santolina. Robert Chavez and Michael Quezada, the other two candidates, have accepted contributions from development interests.  As such, we endorse Mr. Padroza and recommend you vote for him.