ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The city is looking at sprucing up a stretch of a busy Albuquerque street. City council has now been handed a study showing the problems on Menaul down by the Big-I.
“At night, when the sun goes down…to walk out and there’s [sic] just people hanging out out there or, you know, you don’t know and it’s just kind of scary,” says Antoinette Mora, stylist at Sergio’s Hair Studio. People who work on Menaul Boulevard agree – the area has really gone downhill.
“It’s just a bad area, there’s a bad homeless problem here,” Mora says. “It’s kind of just this downward spiral of illegal activity and safety concerns,” says Tammy Fiebelkorn, Albuquerque city councilor.
A six-block drive along the boulevard between I-40 and the North Diversion Channel west of Carlisle will bring you views of boarded-up buildings, homeless encampments, and signs of depressed industry. It’s an area the city council is calling “blighted.”
“This is the exact middle of town. Right? This is a great prime piece of real estate. And if we can get this area back up and running in a really fast manner, everyone in the city will benefit from that,” Fiebelkorn says.
Former City Councilor Diane Gibson got the ball rolling in late 2020 to study this section of the street. Since then, they’ve held public meetings with local businesses and residents. Now: “we’re finally at the third step, which is the actual plan for redeveloping that area into something that is more customer-friendly, more transit-oriented, more business-friendly,” Fiebelkorn says.
The more than 60-page Metro Redevelopment Area plan highlights vacant lots and empty buildings where businesses could thrive again with improvements to roads and streetlights and bus stops, and ideas for what to do with empty signs that line the roadway.
Businesses along this stretch of Menaul say that they would welcome the revitalization of this area. “It’s gonna work for everybody here. Our neighbors, their business. They’re gonna get more customers. We’re gonna get more customers. And we’re gonna get more access for the customers,” says Carlos Ramirez, corporate trainer with Stripes Burrito Co.
“I think that would be great. We need more here. You know, this is a really good location, it’s just really empty over here,” Mora says.
“That’s really the goal here is to really change the focus of that area back to a retail destination point,” Fiebelkorn says.
The plan will be introduced to city council in January. If it’s eventually approved, it could mean tax breaks for developers and city funds for a makeover of the area.
