Happy New Year and apologies for starting this year with yet another chorus of that perennial Burque tune: ♫We don’t deserve nice things♫.
What if…you could walk from a show at Popejoy Hall at UNM to the Frontier Restaurant without having to deal with traffic on Central Avenue? Just you and your fellow show attendees whistling tunes from the preformance while gliding toward western hash browns and a cinnamon roll?
Well, back in 1985 somebody proposed precisely such a scenario:
Despite Journal reporter Mary Engel employing the word “delectable” to describe the proposal, no such pedestrian overpass has been constructed (at least not yet, forty years later). Think for a second: how many current proposals for anything could be described as “delectable”? And here we had delectation so close, well close enough to make it into the newspaper. Alas…
If you’ve ever used the Buena Vista notch to get to/from UNM, Engel’s story also has interesting tidbits about that little stretch of trees and sunflowers one takes to get to Redondo Dr. If you squint at the photo accompanying the story, behind the person evidently taking advantage of the notch you can see traffic on Central Avenue backed up eastbound. About 35 years before A.R.T.
Would have been great to glide over that backed up traffic to get that cinnamon roll. Frontier Restaurant’s still with us, folks. Never too late for a good idea.
Better Burque 
ehh, I’d rather just walk across at street level, especially with the ART island, than go all the way up and down the steps for an overpass.
Dream would be underpass for cars, while peds stay at street level.
LikeLike
Understand the reluctance to go up and over, but also note that perhaps my single most enjoyable bike/ped experience currently is gliding over the I-40 drivers via the bike/ped bridge at Jerry Cline. Pity the poor dears stuck in the metal boxes. Thanks for reading/commenting!
LikeLike