top of page

Route 66, Central Avenue, Albuquerque NM


What a mess. What a disaster area. The iconic highway of America that sells t-shirts and hats and is the road of memories written in books and told in movies and stories reduced to just that. A memory.


Business owners are still trying to invest in businesses and expect to prosper on Central Avenue which is for those not from the area, Route 66. The same highway that ran from Chicago to Santa Monica California and dropped you off at the Pacific Ocean. The same highway that was in the movies and many books.


Yes, most of it has been retro fitted for todays travel. But parts of it still exist through the mid west and some places take pride in having had that experience and they try to keep that memory alive. Does Albuquerque? Not that anyone can see. The city managers and the Mayor have turned their attention to new developments that draw new and larger investment and have left Central Avenue and those businesses that have not closed, to fend for themselves. To be polite, it a shame and disgusting.


Oh yes, there is more. The longest part of Route 66 that still exists does run through Albuquerque. But if you are on a site seeing tour and want to see what's left of Route 66, you might want to detour around Albuquerque.


As a reference for some background information and to say that I have seen it with my own eyes, I took a Saturday morning and drove to the bus stop at the east end of the Central Avenue bus line and boarded the bus to ride on Central Avenue, "Route 66". Did I expect what I saw? Yes and no. Will I do it again? No.

Central Avenue used to be a vibrant east to west passage filled with businesses and people. Today it's a human corral. I'll explain. there are 2 busses that run on the central avenue. An express bus that stops at the major intersections and the regular busses that make every stop if there are people at the stop or if someone signals to exit. I rode the express bus and as I said, it stopped at all of the major intersections, passing the regular bus stops. When we came to one of the major intersections, I will not mention then name, things turned ugly. people laying on the sidewalks, tents everywhere, and people with back packs wandering everywhere.


This continued for several major intersections until we came to the area known as knob hill. This used to be a select area for shopping. That is one of the many reasons businesses still try to find success in that area. I got off the express bus and looked around for a place to get some lunch, but even on a Saturday it seemed depressing and decided to wait for the next express bus back to my car.


My conclusion is the busses are dark and dirty. I looked out of place because I di not have a back pack well worn clothes on. Almost everyone on the bus was a transient ,homeless, lower income, or riding to stay out of the cold because riding the is free for everyone.


Having lived in other parts of the country and having seen city transportation systems, I can tell you this one is a wreck. They have torn up a major road through the city for no good reason. They built bus stops in the middle of the road unnecessarily. Any other city I have been in had express busses but they used the regular bus stops. They did not stop at every one. They stopped at the major intersections and they did not tear up the streets to accomplish that.


I am not going to speak anymore about Central Avenue because there are some serious things going on this country and Albuquerque will never change and to say anymore becomes just venting. If you want things to change, get off your asses Albuquerque and elect people who will effect change. It ain't happen' now.


Jack Wilson

Opinion


0 views

Comments


DAILYrazz.com

 Progressive Daily Blog of News, Business and Travel 

bottom of page