Hope and Renewal in Barelas

I went to a party last weekend and was outed as Barelas Babe.

My identity is no secret, but once people discover this, cocktail conversations head in a predictable direction. So I spent more than a few minutes last Saturday night talking with a longtime Albuquerque realtor about changes in Barelas. When you live in a community it is easier to notice incremental changes, especially if you walk it daily. For the infrequent visitor driving through the neighborhood, these subtle differences are harder to catalog.

About two weeks ago, on New Year’s Eve to be exact, I went for a short evening walk through my neighborhood. I needed some fresh air - the clouds of incense smoke that accompany my teenager’s newfound interest in eastern religions were obscuring my thoughts and choking my lungs as I tried to (mentally and literally) wrap up 2008.

Since I had hopes of greeting 2009 with a clear head, I bundled up, stepped out the door, and started walking through the newer part of Barelas. That's the part of Barelas built shortly after the railroad arrived in New Mexico in 1880 - these are the streets adjacent to the railyard and named for railways and the land speculators who saw a good thing before it happened - Santa Fe, Atlantic, Pacific, Stover, Hazeldine.

In addition to seeing a starry night sky and smelling a hint of piñon smoke when the breeze picked up, here are some other things I noticed.

1. Barelas is a quiet place at night. Once upon a time this was not always true, but these days, a barking dog is a big deal.

2. There is a fair amount of quiet rehabilitation of Barelas that an outsider’s eyes might be slow to notice. In addition to the new homes built this year on longstanding vacant lots, there are older homes now cared for by (for want of a better phrase) members of the creative class. There’s the little house around the corner recently purchased and refurbished by a social worker from South America, the mid-century home on Barelas Road that belongs to a community organizer, the two New Mexico Territorial adobes next door to each other that are now part of a small enclosed compound, and many more teeny tiny adobe homes benefitting from a healthy dose of TLC this year.

3. Art stuff is still happening in Barelas despite the recent closure of Out ‘ChYonda and the Donkey Gallery's current sabbatical. The Filling Station and the Church of Beethoven are going strong, there’s this cool music venue at 711 Third Street, and increasing buzz about who has moved to the neighborhood and what kind of art they do. If I stand on the sidewalk in front of my house and look down my street both ways, I come up with a burlesque dancer, an urban car artist, a writer, an art photographer, a found art sculptor, another photographer, a painter, another writer, and a story teller. (And just around the corner is a poet, and behind me, Mexican folkorico dancers).

People who do not live here tell me that it’ll be a long, long time before Barelas gentrifies. Looking at the changes on a near daily basis, I'm not as convinced…

4. La gente are friendly in Barelas. Sure, it doesn’t hurt that I know people on almost every block, but during my New Year’s Eve constitutional, I said hello to a gaggle of teenage girls hanging out on their front porch, greeted a neighbor walking to his car and said hola to two guys heading to church services at one of the ubiquitous evangelical churches in the neighborhood.

I hear a lot from people who do not live in Barelas or spend time here about how dangerous the neighborhood is – for whatever reason, my experience doesn’t line up with their stereotypes. Living on/near the periphery of some rough neighborhoods in big cities from the east coast to the west coast, I’ve watched communities transition from rough to funky and beyond. What I see in Barelas happening in Barelas now is more in line with transitioning community than what I’d consider really dangerous. At the same time, I don’t abandon my common sense and intuition – it stands me in good stead everywhere I go.

5. The Barelas street chickens are back! Shortly after I wrote this post, the birds in the neighborhood disappeared. Every morning my cat and her Tonkinese house guests clamber onto our 24 inch wide window sills and watch the morning parade of chickens scratching for bugs and feed in our parkway. I don’t think they’d know what to do with a chicken if they got within a paw’s reach of one, but they dream big.

6. APD horse patrols through Barelas are a really cool trend in 2009! I wonder if they'll ever use any of the remaining metal rings in Barelas once used for "parking" horses - a few are still left on the sides of buildings and elsewhere. I hope they keep up these patrols, if only to see the expressions of delight on the neighborhood kids' faces each time the horses come through.

7. The first greeting of the New Year I heard in Barelas was the best greeting of the year. As I turned homeward on my walk, a slight man in his late twenties greeted us with a grin, saying “Happy New Year! I think it’s gonna be a good one!” My companion and I reciprocated with smiles and similar greetings. His response? “Man, this is the first New Year I’ve celebrated in 10 years – finally out of prison and does it ever feel good!” We paused for a few minutes on the street, exchanged a few words about redemption, rehabilitation, and renewal, and wished each other the best year yet for 2009, moving into the night to celebrate.