Reader Dan Majewski rode this weekend by BB’s oft-portrayed lo-fi diverter at El Vado (Central & New York) and found this:

Yes that’s right, the planter previously pulverized has exited, leaving drivers free to motor where no motorized traffic is supposed to go, and free to store their car freely along the neighboring residences before loading up on that bad Ponderosa Brewing beer at El Vado.

The short life and long death of the planter(s) and other inadequate means to counter driver privilege seems perhaps ended. Many are the physical (multiply-bashed curbs) and bureaucratic (arrows and text) scars visible in the photo above illustrating the battles fought.

Thus the above photo might be the final one BB takes at this site (we actually very much doubt that, but thinking so helps the narrative here). Let us now look back through an incomplete scrapbook documenting this eventual debacle:

And this weekend, we’re left with Mighty Planter swept away and what was meant to be a “cycle track” is just another driving throughway. Concrete planters described as monarchs aside, there’s much more to this story. Actual news source “Downtown Albuquerque News” (DAN) writes indirectly on the subject of the failed diverter in relating the story of neighbors on New York Ave. who wish to stop El Vado patrons from parking all up and down their street:

Roberta Sparks, who is leading an effort to restrict parking along New York west of Clayton (map), said that some motorists have proved less than neighborly by parking in front of fire hydrants or driveways, driving over curbs, and exhibiting other disorderly or loud behavior. Last week, Sparks said she had collected paperwork from 57 percent of her fellow property owners authorizing the creation of permit-only parking on the street, well above the 51 percent she needs.

Peter Rice and the fine staff at the great DAN go on to report that Ms. Sparks’ effort is running into snags, most specifically that it is now caught up in the city-wide debate on “permit-use” zone parking.

So only time will tell if further attempts, albeit most very likely inadequate, will be made to stop drivers at El Vado. We’ll be there to see the attempt and almost inevitable resulting carnage.