What's going on, Albuquerque?

Morning Fix - Ditching The Crutches

'Topes try something new this year - Humidor Balls!
Oenophiles listen up, there's a wine conference coming to town next weekend.
Bosque Baking bets on bread business boom. Been?
Know any 13-18 year old know-it-alls who inexplicably want to make a difference in their community?
Coors & Rio Bravo mega-mall dealio moving forward. Supersized cartoony rendering here. Save your anti-WalMart rants, it's already built there. Shameless plug for my old treatise on WalMart found here.
Retail Project for Lobo Village/UNM Pit area is slightly delayed.
Two DOJ public meetings on APD fatalities down, two more in March to go.

2 members like this

Comment by Adelita on February 15, 2013 at 6:28am: Jah Rastafari, Marcus Garvey and Burning Spear too! Thanks for all the reggae this week!

Comment by Hunter on February 15, 2013 at 9:29am: This is the first presser on Las Estancia I can recall that didn't specifically brag on the "movie theater". Makes one wonder. As to sprawlification, in Albuquerque, seems to me WinRock and Coronado started that trend long before WalMart left Arkansas.

Comment by Phil_0 on February 15, 2013 at 10:41am: True, Hunter, but I'd argue that 60s sprawl is qualitatively different than 2000s sprawl in many, many ways...most Winrock-era neighborhoods retain at least the possibility of walkability, neighborhood-scale retail, and pedestrian-oriented community. Modern sprawl, not so much. Big box stores like Super Wal-Marts have a lot to do with that.

Comment by once banned twice shy on February 15, 2013 at 11:28am: Hunter, just curious, did you live here in the 60's when WinRock was, uh, rocking? Likewise when Coronado was up-and-coming? Because if you were, you would remember that there were a LOT of local businesses there. WinRock had the anchor stores, J.C. Penney and Monkey Ward, but the smaller stores were all locally owned. Likewise with Coronado Center. So, no, not just like WalMart. Not at all like WalMart, as a matter of fact.

Funny--when I was a kid and we'd go to WalMart, we treated it as a daytrip. Because it was so far from our house. A whole 3 miles. Maybe 4. Heh.

Comment by once banned twice shy on February 15, 2013 at 11:30am: Oh, and I have not been to Bosque Baking, but have had his bread. Deeeelicious. Also excited they are downtown.

Comment by Phil_0 on February 15, 2013 at 11:33am: Good points, OBTS. WinRock was chock-a-block with local stores, as a quick perusal of any Albuquerque nostalgia thread will reveal...

Comment by RunLikeADog on February 15, 2013 at 12:46pm: There are two problems with these massive retail developments that seem to pop up everywhere. One is that they promote consumerism as entertainment which entices people to go out and buy crap they don't need. As a society we already buy too much junk. I'd rather see a park and a farmers market on every corner than another Walmart/Home Depot/Payless Shoes. Second is that these places are usually only accessible by people in their pimped out Escalades and such. Try getting to one of these places by foot or bicycle without getting run over. Surround it with a park and make everyone hike to it would be a much better idea ;)

Comment by Hunter on February 15, 2013 at 1:16pm: obts/Phil 0 - no, I did not live here in the '60s. For the record, the sprawlification/WalMart connection is found in Masshole's "treatise" linked in the original posting. To your point though, how many locally owned stores are tenants in Coronado today? Fifty years ago Coronado had local business. Fifty years ago WalMart sold American made goods. Funny how we can conveniently avoid labeling a million square foot mall with the big box store pejorative. As far as the evolution away from "traditional" neighborhoods you can blame the planning establishment's love affair with Euclidian zoning, separation of uses. Today's New Urbanism is really a return to the days before restrictive zoning codes. Those codes are welcomed if it helps to block a multi-family development in a single family neighborhood but demonized if it blocks a mom and pop grocery. And Dog, I hear you. Kids with $100 sneakers and $400 iphones don't have lunch money.

Comment by once banned twice shy on February 15, 2013 at 1:47pm: To your point, though, how many locally owned stores are tenants in Coronado today?

I was responding to your statement that WinRock and Coronado started sprawlification before WalMart left Arkansas. I was pointing out that WinRock and Coronado both had a fine collection of local stores within their boundaries, and were not actually set on the edge of town. Near the edge of town, when built, granted, but now are smack-dab in the middle of town. Unlike WalMart, WinRock and Coronado were not built to dominate the local shopping scene, but to collect it in one, easy-to-find spot. Very much unlike what WalMart likes to do.

And...geez, only people with "pimped-out Escalades" shop at WalMart? Really? What exactly are you trying to say, there RLAD?