I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
City worker takes down black tape from a downtown Albuquerque vacant motel, spelling out a message to city leaders. (Photograph by Marjorie Childress)
“Why is this building still here? Give us a grocery store!”
That was the message that downtown Albuquerque residents and workers who travelled down Park Street this morning saw spelled out in big black letters on the back of the Silver Moon Lodge.The Silver Moon Lodge is one of the historic motels along Albuquerque’s old Route 66, which is Central Avenue as it snakes through Albuquerque. The motel has been sitting vacant for a number of years now. Park Street runs along the back of it, and is home to a popular local breakfast and lunch spot–Java Joe’s–as well as office buildings.
Ever since I moved to downtown Albuquerque in 2001, residents have been asking for a grocery store. And the general wisdom is that it won’t happen until more residents live downtown or in its surrounding historic neighborhoods. With each passing year, residents watch condominiums and apartments being built in and around the city’s core, but no grocery store yet.
Word is that the Silver Moon Lodge is going to be redeveloped into housing. I’ve also heard one local architect estimate that another 500 housing units would do the trick of luring a grocery store to the area.
