Jean, Elizabeth and Gary are spot on re the City’s pitiful plans for the diner and Triangle Park.

More than a month ago, I went to the substation to dispose of unwanted pharmaceuticals. The nice woman staffing the station told me that the City had removed the drop box and virtually all of the office equipment, because the mayor planned to close the station. She hadn’t been told the reason.

My beef? Once again, the highers-up make decisions without communicating with those who will be impacted. I am so tired of public officials dictating from the top down. I actually believe in a democracy where elected officials don’t make changes unless and until the public has been consulted. We weren’t even asked what we thought; just told that a decision without our input had been made and there was no turning back.

Today’s murder at UNM confirms that a police presence is critical to our neighborhood’s safety and well-being. An earlier email from the City’s Shelle Sanchez was the straw that broke this camel’s back. The City is committed to “transparency?” Hogwash. Were that true, Hilleños would have been asked early in this process to give their two cents about moving the diner to a place that still is not operating.

Years ago I asked a legislator to pass a law that prohibited public officials from using the word “transparency.” My point? That’s just a sound bite that public officials use, but don’t believe. I’m spitting into the wind but I still naively hope that elected officials communicate with their constituents. After all, there’s a municipal election in November.

Sorry about my rant. I’ll share it with Councilor Rogers in the hope that she cares about her constituents.

Mary H Smith

From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces@mailman.swcp.com> On Behalf Of eachestnut--- via Neighbors_nobhill-nm
Sent: July 24, 2025 8:52 PM
To: 'Jean Bernstein' <JBernstein@flyingstarcafe.com>; neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com
Cc: chat@nobhillmerchants.org
Subject: Re: [Neighbors] Triangle Park

I totally agree with Jean: the City does NOT care about the diner, the trees, or anything else on Route 66. I spent two decades working on

a historic preservation project, with due respect the City did preserve what it could, but ultimately, it gave away this site and absolved

all responsibilities for public inputs about how the shared vision might occur in Nob Hill.  I believe Jean’s experienced this fact is

various ways and sympathize. For those who are new to this, there are 40 plus years of examples of City lack of commitment to

Route 66 and or ways to preserve more of what might have been preserved.  Kudos to the perseverance by Gary Eyster and others

Of Nob Hill’s community leaders in preserving, improving what is left.

Elizabeth of the De Anza Murals Project

From: Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm-bounces@mailman.swcp.com> On Behalf Of Jean Bernstein via Neighbors_nobhill-nm
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2025 4:24 PM
To: neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com
Cc: chat@nobhillmerchants.org
Subject: [Neighbors] Triangle Park

All,

I’ll be brief. I’ve read the communications  between the neighborhood and CABQ regarding the removal of the old diner at Triangle Park. Let’s face it, it’s clear, they’ve already made their decision – the diner will be moved to the huge failure Route 66 Center on West Central. The City does not care one bit about what the people and businesses of Nob Hill want – they have proven this over and over from administration to administration. Recently, I politely asked if some of the overgrown trees on Central could be removed (trimming does not work) in the instances where they completely obliterate business signage. I specifically mentioned our own Flying Star vintage neon, which has some historic value and charm. I was not asking for a hand out, I offered to pay to remove the tree and replant or buy a new tree in a more deserving place. There are about 7 trees on our block, the loss of one to uncover a very cool neon would not cause any significant changes to the block or the street canopy. And, a reminder that I was never consulted as to the type of trees that have grown ridiculously too large for a commercial street. This one tree makes it impossible to identify our business, the same issue for other businesses along Central Nob Hill. (And, to move large, exterior signage is unbelievably expensive, especially when the sign is in need of repair and updating.) A representative of the Mayor’s office told me in no uncertain terms that the tree was extremely valuable to the climate/environment, with no mention of my business’ wellbeing….

Again, the City decides to do what they want to do, whenever they want to do it. The “park” to replace the diner will take years, in the meantime Nob Hill will have an empty, weed infested, ugly space as its welcome to travelers. I figure they’ll get around to taking bids for designs and building a possible park in about 2 years from now.

Neighbors, it’s time to get a petition started, make some noise, get together on this. Time and again, being appropriate, proper, asking instead of demanding, following the channels yields exactly NOTHING, except the continued degradation of our beloved Nob Hill.

Jean Bernstein