[Neighbors] ART and city council contact

Tue Mar 1 08:51:08 MST 2016

Damian Donckel’s points are somewhat true for Central Ave. but the larger negative impact of this ART plan is what was left out from the discussion from the start - and for good reason.  That is why it is quickly being pushed down on us in the off-Central communities north and south of Central.   The assumption by the city planners is that for a small raise in the value of property and businesses along Central to developers and speculators individually it is ok to destroy the large number, collectively established long stable homes and neighborhoods with increased traffic problems - or moving the problems of Central over here, and onto some north area streets.  On one hand this is a classic business/neighborhood conflict we are caught up in.

 I live on the corner of Coal and Richmond and I tell you people are already talking of getting out of here if this goes through.  I see a lot of once family homes have been sold to investors who are turning the area into rental properties.  Many are student rentals now.  It seems more and more for sale signs are going up in this area.  This ART plan as far as I can tell tries to sell this large negative impact by ignoring us all.  I have spoken to this point from the first time the plan came out but it has fallen on deaf engineers ears.

 The planners are on record saying that Coal/Lead are under utilized for traffic flow.  That mean they plan on shifting all the traffic problems of Central over to Lead/Coal, which already are already, has insurmountable problems with traffic.  If they lived here I bet they would see it clearly.

 I just received a reply to my email this morning from city councilor Gibson who I understand is in real estate and she repeats much of Dockets points below of a value rise along Central.  But what I replied is that this ART plan assumes it is acceptable to sacrifice all the other neighborhoods and communities for an incremental value increase for businesses over along Central.  City engineers see our communities as problems bordering Lead/Coal traffic flow while we see Lead/Coal as knives cutting apart stable desirable communities.  We are back in some sense but with more intensity to the basic problem that was created by turning two small streets in dense residential communities into highways for cross town traffic related to the problem of what to do with Central Ave.  I would say this problem could be solved in a way that can benefit everyone if the community is heard.

Bob Anderson

On Feb 29, 2016, at 8:55 PM, Damian Donckels <damiandonckels at yahoo.com> wrote:

I just sent this to the below link

I live directly on Central Ave near the Carlisle interchange.   Over the last several years, traffic volume and speed continues to increase on Central as more and more drivers use this avenue as a high speed thoroughfare.   I have witnessed many street races and countless near misses with pedestrians.   ART is an excellent opportunity to change this behavior on Central.

By widening all sidewalks, slowing the speed limits, making access to the area easier we will inspire regrowth back into the Nob Hill area.  Families coming down on Sunday's for breakfast, strolling along the sidewalks sheltered by trees.  Businesses with seating along the sidewalk makes me think of European cafe's where friends meet and talk. 

There is no change to the number of trees in the area and an increase in overall parking with the Silver realignment.   The project does not increase any costs to businesses or residents in the area. 

It also provides a much needed increase in low cost transportation to an already overloaded bus system.  The current system is at capacity and I have seen bike riders not allowed on the bus due to overcrowding.  

The project also provided much needed budget to clean along Central and provide street light repairs. There is no current maintaince crew for street light repairs.   Twice per day, cleaning crews are already budged to maintain all stops along Central from end to end.  

There are many empty store fronts as more and more shops move out of the area.   We must make changes that are supported by several studies of the area.   Staples recently closed leaving zero big box retailers.  Nob Hill needs large retailers to bring more shoppers and improve our occupancy rates. 

I have talked to many people that live in this area and a large majority approve of this project and look forward to the improvements. 

I attended multiple pre submittal meetings and do not agree that this effort was ramrodded down our throats.   Multiple meetings discussed various options and the current plans include many of the suggestions provided by residents in the Nob Hill area. 

This effort should move forward as rapidly as possible.   The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting different results.  We cannot afford to keep Central as it is now.  This only leads to depressed property values in the area and more vacant store fronts.

Damian Donckels.

From: Anderson Robert via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm at mailman.swcp.com>
To: "neighbors at nobhill-nm.com Hill" <neighbors at nobhill-nm.com> 
Sent: Monday, February 29, 2016 7:55 PM
Subject: [Neighbors] ART and city council contact

You can send a message to the city councilors at this page:
http://www.cabq.gov/council/find-your-councilor/contact-all-councilors <http://www.cabq.gov/council/find-your-councilor/contact-all-councilors>

I just sent this message to all the council:

As more and more people learn what is in the details of this ART more and more opposition is building and a large number of people in the city would like for you as a city council to withdraw support for this plan and let's work on it better.

We need some sort of modern, not legacy type ART.  This plan has many defects and one big problem was slipped in without any consideration of the negative impacts was the using Lead/Coal/Zuni as surrogates for the traffic forced off Central with the design of the plan.

In short most people were not aware this was hidden in the plan.  People are realizing there will be large negative impacts on communities along Lead/Coal/Zuni that already have huge problems with traffic that is unmitigated.

The negative impact of this ART has not been evaluated adequately.  For one it will involve a large loss of property values for stable, community homes with families along these streets.   We will see an out migration of the very kind of families we wish to attract to these areas.  There might be lawsuits based on loss of property values as the traffic increases with all its secondary problems on the north/south streets along Lead/Coal/Zuni due to increase traffic. 

The ART plan in a slight of hand tone says that Lead/Coal and by way of that Zuni also, are under utilized.  This is code for turning these present problem streets cutting through our communities into major problems.

I and many other homeowners along the route ask that you as city council review the past council's endorsement of the ART and withdraw support so more thought can be given to it by more people.

Sincerely,
Bob Anderson

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