After having proposed at least two walk/cycle overpasses (with more to come) of Albuquerque’s I-25 in the eventual revamping of its Southern Corridor, I’ve heard back from a few folks. Thanks for that feedback. Most has been of the generally positive, but “isn’t that expensive?” line of thinking.

Which got me thinking about alternative solutions found in other communities, such as Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix.

Yup, that’s an Interstate (I-10) completely covered by a 32.5 acre park. The webpage linked above adds to its description of all the great things Hance Park is home to (“Irish Cultural Center, Japanese Friendship Gardens, and the Jewish Heritage Center as well as many events, like next month’s Oktoberfest“) with a little story about the other alternative considered when Hance Park was created back in the 1960s:

By the way, below is a rendering of one of the plans that was suggested in the 1960s to move traffic through Phoenix BEFORE historic neighborhood leaders got involved and fought for what became Margaret T. Hance Park. Do you get the feeling that we dodged a bullet?

Yes, it was a helluva lot cheaper to do it right back in the 1960s than it will be in 2020, but if Burque ever wants to get over its “we don’t deserve nice things” mantra bullshit, covering I-25 from MLK to, say, Lead/Coal would be nice enough that I’d happily drop my proposal for expensive walk/cycle overpasses. Happily.

Meanwhile, we could save a few hundred million dollars and just have walk/cycle overpasses. Just.