So, the proposed, and long-fought, “Edith Transfer Station” appears dead, for very understandable reasons.

About the only thing that kept the idea alive, despite neighborhood environmental justice and traffic impact concerns, shoddy public outreach, and the fact that we are talking about (as the Journal finally admits in today’s headline) a “trash station,” is that the idea of centralizing trash pickup and changing the logistics of getting it to the distant “dump” is a good one.

As mentioned over and over and over again by City officials, there are big cash and carbon-dioxide savings in centralization. It makes sense; it just didn’t make sense at Edith and Comanche (or Griegos, if you prefer).

So where does it make sense? What central location in Albuquerque, or close to it, can we plop a “transfer station” (a positive spin that evidently hasn’t yet been quite positive enough) that is also close to I-40 for large trucks hauling the big, post-transferred, loads efficiently off to the far westside dump?

Better Burque has identified five potential sites, and seeks your choice, dear readers, on which makes the most sense as an alternative. BB will leave establishment of criteria for “most sense” up to you, aside from the aforementioned close to I-40 tenet. The site found most popular in our poll will be formally suggested to Mayor Tim Keller and CABQ Solid Waste Department officials. So this is important.

Here are your choices:

1: Coronado Mall, Menaul and San Pedro

That old Sears will make for a terrific “Negative Air Flow System” enclosed transfer station. Sears, and large shopping malls in general, have known all about “negative flow” for decades now, the “negative flow” of people not going to Sears/malls. Which leads us to our second candidate:

 

2: Winrock Mall, I-40 and Lousiana

The best feature of “Winrock 2.0” is a cavernous (and typically always devoid of cars) underground parking area that would be just the thing for, you got it, underground “transfer station.” Out of sight, out of mind/nose, baby!  It would also be a good replacement for WIPP, but let’s stick to non-radioactive trash. We at Better Burque are sensitive to NIMBY concerns, and think plutonium storage a few hundred feet from Jerry Cline tennis courts and two elementary schools is a “bridge too far.”

 

3: Arroyo del Oso Golf Course, Academy/Osuna and Louisiana

Thanks to Tiger Woods and a huge number of other factors, golf is D-E-A-D. Not as bad as all those abandoned tennis courts scattered about, but golf courses take up much larger swaths of land and its popularity has waned for years. Besides, here’s a chance to have a trash station near a Whole Foods and Albuquerque Academy. A YIMBY (“Yes In My Back Yard) chance if there ever was one.

 

4: NM Expo Horse Track, Lomas and San Pedro

See Golf above. But with more D-E-A-D.

 

5: Near University of New Mexico, Lomas and I-25/University

Despite its great proximity to the Big-I, this location might find *opposition in that it’s directly next to Carrie Tingley Children’s Hospital, as well as fairly close to UNMH and the University main campus itself. Still, this option would help thousands of UNM students see the stupidity in driving to a parking lot distant from their classes (many of which will involve topics surrounding climate change), then catching a “shuttle bus,” twice-a-day, over and over again, instead of just taking goddamn alternative transportation to get to goddamn class in the goddamn first place.

Okay, those are your choices, Albuquerque. Time to make your voice heard and this good idea closer to eventual reality. On behalf of Mayor Keller, thank you for your input and consideration. We at Better Burque know the Mayor and his staff must be keenly awaiting your vote.