Let’s ring in the New Year with a 2018 success story made possible by the folks at City of Albuquerque Planning! No, we’re not kidding or being sarcastic! You are so cynical!

Regular readers know that BB has been complaining, reporting, but mainly complaining for well over a year about gravel on the sidewalk that serves as multi-use path alongside the Walmart connecting Gail Ryba Bridge west and north to the multi-use monstrosity that is Coors and Ouray.

 

 

BB first brought up the subject in 2017, with photos like this:

and this:

 

As a 2018 New Year’s Resolution of sorts, BB formally proposed in January that this relatively easy fix (yes, the dreaded, proverbial “low-hanging fruit) be undertaken. Given the massive political and bureaucratic power of Better Burque (now we’re being sarcastic), we thought little de-gravelization could be accomplished beyond the recurring and mysterious sweeping of the gravel we spotted during 2018:

 

But we were wrong.

Instead, thanks to the intrepid ingenuity of the City of Albuquerque Planning Department with regards to some parking lot changes required by the Coors/Ouray Walmart, the truck-laden, gravel-filled sidewalk passageway now looks like this:

 

 

Huzzah and Happy New Year! To misquote Kurt Vonnegut, Gravel No More!

Seriously, in a year where so much has gone either wrong or horribly wrong, it is truly heart-warming to see the photo directly above, even if it shows nothing more than some dirt, rocks, sidewalk that in no way should be a vital multi-use connection along the I-40 Trail, and the death stroad that is Coors Boulevard.

You take you’re low-hanging fruit when it comes. And you like it.

Seriously. We at Better Burque more than like it! We love it, City of Albuquerque Planning Department! We love it even more if Walmart paid for it, which we think might be the case. Please let this be the case.

Huzzah and Happy New Year to everyone who takes time to read Better Burque, takes time to slow down on our roads, and/or takes time to make riding/walking our city safer and more enjoyable.

To more of each in 2019.