Construction on the Albuquerque Rapid Transit bus project began on Central Avenue in earnest a few weeks ago, and the results are not pretty — several businesses are reporting as much as a 30 percent drop in revenue.
KOAT-TV cited the 30-percent figure during a recent story about the project along the city’s Route 66 corridor.
Gabriel Amador, owner of Amore Neapolitan Pizzeria, said the detour signs are confusing or inadequate for drivers.
The operators of Garcia’s Kitchen have resorted to erecting their own directional signs to make it easier for customers to turn into their lot.
The owners of the landmark Frontier Restaurant and Golden Pride restaurant also reported in a scathing letter to the editor to the Albuquerque Journal some businesses along Central Avenue are reporting as much as a 30 percent drop in revenue, with 15 percent to 20 percent drop-offs common.
As a result, employees that have quit are not being replaced.
Even the business at our Frontier Restaurant is down due to the destruction of Route 66 to the east and west. As a result, we have had to shorten employees’ hours.
The letter also states worries over the long-term effect of ART:
The ART project will permanently reduce Central to one lane through Nob Hill as well as west of University to I-25. This will negatively affect accessibility to the businesses along Central.
People do not have time to sit in traffic. The inconvenience will cause them to take their business elsewhere. Two lanes of traffic east and west are necessary for businesses to survive and grow on Central.
The elimination of two lanes will permanently devastate the businesses on Central.
The idea behind ART — which carves out two dedicated bus lanes along nine miles of Central Avenue — is to make Albuquerque more attractive to millennial workers and cutting-edge companies.
On Feb. 9, the Federal Transit Administration announced it would recommend awarding a $69 million grant for the $119 million project. The city says the FTA never has refused funding for such a project.
More than 11 months later, the grant still hasn’t arrived. Congress still hasn’t approved a budget for the grant, and there’s no telling whether President-elect Donald Trump would support such a grant, anyway. No one seems to know what will happen to ART if the grant money simply doesn’t come.
(Image of road construction on Central Avenue in Albuquerque by uıɐɾ ʞ ʇɐɯɐs via Flickr)
As a resident of the Albuquerque area, I can attest that the populace here is so against the ART that we feel that this was shoved down our throats so that Mayor Berry could leave a symbol of his “legacy” to the City. He could have done it better if he had just put the money into repairing streets!! He is a jacka$$!
Good way to permanently hurt a town and its businesses.
I’ve watched this project from afar for the last couple of years and it’s proven to be another boondoggle encouraged by the Federal DOT. Politicians don’t listen to local residents and businesses. It’s no wonder Donald Trump was elected. This will continue as long as politicians are more worried about their legacy rather than making government work for the residents.
Which ignores the fact we don’t truly know what Trump stands for. I could see him approve this project because its an “infrastructure” project he campaigned on. Or he could kill the project because it’s an effort to “drain the swamp” — whatever that is. His stances seem to shift dramatically by the day, even by the hour.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.