Reimagining Albuquerque
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reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Reimagining Albuquerque
@reimaginingabq.bsky.social
62 followers 130 following 59 posts
Albuquerque with an Urbanist/YIMBY lens. Read at www.reimaginingalbuquerque.com
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reimaginingabq.bsky.social
The politics of abundance are winning — from Albuquerque to Las Cruces and beyond. 🏘️ Ending exclusionary zoning and saying yes to homes isn’t just right, it’s popular. Read more → reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/11/05/t...
The Tide Is Turning: Pro-Housing Wins Across New Mexico
For years, exclusionary zoning, NIMBYism, and procedural obstruction defined local politics in New Mexico. But in 2025, voters across the state sent a clear message: the era of NIMBYism is fading, …
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:22 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
A fight over two parcels at Lomas & Broadway became a case study in why Albuquerque struggles to grow. The Martineztown CPO hearing shows how our planning system traps us in the past.
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/11/02/b...
Beyond the Overlay: What the Martineztown CPO Hearing Reveals About Albuquerque’s Planning Gridlock
At 9:00 a.m. on a weekday, the Environmental Planning Commission met to consider a small but revealing change: removing two parcels, an empty city-owned lot and a Burger King, from the Martineztown…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:25 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Downtown isn’t just a place on a map — it’s where our democracy plays out in real time. The “No Kings” protest reminded Albuquerque that our city still has a heart. If we keep treating downtown as expendable, we lose more than square footage. Read more:

reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/10/28/n...
No Kings, Just People: What the Streets of Downtown Still Know
When thousands filled Downtown Albuquerque for the No Kings protest, it was more than a march. It was a reminder that the city still has a heart—and that our politics, zoning, and fear of density h…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Our housing shortage isn’t an accident. It’s policy. Albuquerque’s zoning code still enforces scarcity. The new IDO reforms could change that: more homes, corner stores, and walkable neighborhoods. The Planning Commission must pass them. #abq #albuquerque

reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/10/24/t...
The Moral Case for Housing: Why the Planning Commission Must Pass the IDO Reforms
In April, NPR published a striking statistic: the United States is short about seven million homes. Years of restrictive zoning, parking mandates, and procedural delay have tied a noose around our …
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
October 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Imagine a South Campus that feels like a real neighborhood: homes, cafes, trees, and life. Not another shopping center in a sea of asphalt. UNM has a chance to get this right.

reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/10/23/r...
Rethinking Lobo Crossing: How UNM Can Build a Real Neighborhood Instead of a Shopping Center
There’s a map tucked into a recent EPC filing that shows the future of UNM’s South Campus. At first glance, it’s unremarkable: some rectangles labeled “proposed tracts,” a few looping roads, and ro…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
The myth of “perfect friendship” still shapes who gets to belong in New Mexico.
Zoning, heritage, and property values are its modern language.

Unpacking how race, land, & law intertwine in Albuquerque:
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/10/21/p...
Perfect Friendship: Race, Property, and the Politics of Belonging in Albuquerque’s Land Use Debates
Property values, planning codes, and the afterlife of colonization Every morning in schools across New Mexico, children recite a pledge unique to our state: “I salute the flag of the state of New M…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:28 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Between walls and bridges: Albuquerque’s 80s-00s growth story isn’t just about sprawl—it’s about zoning, NIMBYism, and how we locked away the core. Read Part 3 of ABQ’s land-use history ↘️ reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/09/20/a...
#ABQ #Urbanism
Abbreviated History of Land Use & Zoning In Albuquerque: Part 3
Between Walls and Bridges From neon smut shops to sector-plan vetoes, the 1980s and 1990s revealed how easily Albuquerque scapegoated vice, codified localism, and forgot that the real cause of deca…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
September 20, 2025 at 5:08 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Albuquerque doesn’t need fewer apartments—it needs more homes. 🏘️
Filtering creates more affordable housing than subsidies, but NIMBY zoning keeps supply strangled. #abq #albuquerque

Stasis is the real luxury.
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/09/03/f...
September 4, 2025 at 2:12 AM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Broadway is Albuquerque’s heart—but politics are turning it into a highway. Plans to restripe and slow traffic between Lomas & Coal are finished, funded, and proven safe. Yet Mayor Keller stalls. Every delay is another risk. It’s time to act.
Read more: reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/08/27/b...
Broadway’s Broken Promise: Why Albuquerque Must Stop Stalling on Safety
The Keller administration continues to stall on road safety in the aftermath of tragedy On Broadway between Lomas and Coal, the story is cars. Four wide lanes of them, running fast through what sho…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
⏱ The NIMBY Double Bind: Stifle every shelter, shelter reform, or safe campsite—and then act shocked when tents fill the streets. Albuquerque deserves better. Time to open more exits. Read more: reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/08/12/t...
The NIMBY Double Bind: Saying “No” to Every Shelter & Development, Then Complaining About Encampments
If we block every pathway out of street homelessness, we can’t be surprised when people remain on the street. On a hot August afternoon, you can smell the asphalt on Second Street before you hear t…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
August 12, 2025 at 7:13 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Albuquerque’s housing ladder is broken but R‑25‑167 opens a cautious, city‑wide path forward. Let’s talk inclusion, character, and policy that meets our moment. #abq #albuquerque #yimby #zoningreform

reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/08/08/a...
A Smarter, Fairer Way Forward on Housing
R-25-167: Albuquerque Experiments with Meaningful Zoning Reform. What the Proposal Gets Right and Why Albuquerque Needs to Go Further In cities across America, the price of housing has soared but i…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
August 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Downtown Albuquerque is stirring to life. Vacancy fees are nudging long-stalled buildings forward, housing projects are gaining momentum, and scooters are bringing joy back to the streets. Let’s build on this progress.
#YIMBY #Urbanism #ABQ

reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/08/07/a...
A Downtown in Motion: Progress, People, and Possibility in Albuquerque’s Core
Something is shifting in Downtown Albuquerque. Or, at least trying to. After decades of neglect, speculation, and missed opportunities, a different story is beginning to emerge; one marked by forwa…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
August 8, 2025 at 1:54 AM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
🏙️ “If ART ran later, and if Albuquerque built more along Central and Downtown—and there were jobs for both of us—I think we’d come back.” A former Burqueña reflects on why she so wants to return. Read more reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/08/06/a... #abq #albuquerque #yimby
An Urbanist Diary: Thinking About Home from Denver
I left Albuquerque in the mid-2000s. It felt like the only option at the time as my partner had a job offer in Denver. I wanted to live somewhere I could walk to get coffee or buy things instead of…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
August 6, 2025 at 5:44 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Views, 'character,' and 'we are not California.'
Albuquerque's zoning fights aren't just about housing—they're about envy disguised as virtue.

How resentment fuels NIMBYism, and why saying yes to neighbors is the only way forward.

🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/08/01/e...

#ABQ #albuquerque
Envy and the Fiction of Wealth: How Resentment Fuels NIMBYism in Albuquerque
The City of Albuquerque is currently in the midst of its biannual zoning code (IDO) update process, with Planning hosting a series of public input meetings ahead of a hearing before the Environment…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
August 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Who gets to shape the future of Huning Castle?

One of Albuquerque’s wealthiest neighborhoods is trying to opt out of zoning reform. The tactics are familiar—height caps, "character," preservation—but so are the consequences.

✍️ New on the blog:
reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/07/18/w...

#ABQ
Who Gets to Shape the Future of Huning Castle?
Huning Castle, a country-club-adjacent neighborhood, is pushing for a “small area” designation; one of the many tools historically used to keep out new neighbors. The Huning Castle Neighborhood Ass…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
July 18, 2025 at 8:37 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
New on the blog: “Defanging the Tyrant’s Veto” 🐢

When neighborhood coalitions can stall even the mildest reforms, that's not democracy—it’s dysfunction.

How Albuquerque’s zoning process got captured—and how we take it back.

🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/07/12/d...
Defanging the Tyrant’s Veto
When procedural power meets fear-based rhetoric, progress dies in a neighborhood meeting. There’s a rhythm to how things stall in Albuquerque. A resolution is introduced. Somewhere, in a tidy ranch…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
July 12, 2025 at 6:43 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
What does it mean to live a car-free life in a city built for cars?

From ART to avocado toast, this urbanist diary explores the daily rhythms, quiet resistance, and real hope of living without a car in Albuquerque.

Read it here:
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/07/11/a...

#ABQ #Urbanism #Transit
A promotional graphic for the blog Reimagining Albuquerque. Bold green and white text reads: “An Urbanist Diary in Albuquerque.” Below, a subheading says, “Notes from a car-free life in the high desert, between bus stops, taquerias, and a future worth fighting for.” The background shows Central Avenue with parked cars, scooters, and historic buildings under a clear blue sky. A graphic titled “On the Blog” from Reimagining Albuquerque. The text summarizes a blog post about living car-free in Albuquerque after returning from a larger, more transit-rich city. It describes finding hope through ART, recognizing fellow bus riders, and asking what kind of city we want to build in the face of NIMBYism and political inertia. The background shows a colorful ART bus on the street near the Nob Hill area.
July 12, 2025 at 12:11 AM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
It wasn’t the bus.

Nob Hill and Central aren’t struggling because of ART—they’re struggling because we stopped letting people live there.

Fewer residents = fewer customers = empty storefronts.

Read why housing, not blame, is the answer:
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/07/09/i...
#ABQ #Urbanism
It Wasn’t the Bus: Why Nob Hill—and Central Albuquerque—Are Struggling to Stay Full
For years, critics of the Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) project have pointed to empty storefronts and quiet sidewalks in Nob Hill as evidence that the city’s marquee transit investment “killed Ce…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
July 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM
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Albuquerque didn’t grow by accident—it was engineered.

From zoning and freeways to cul-de-sacs and erasure, Part 2 of our land use history traces how policy shaped the city we know today. #abq #albuquerque

Read now ⬇️
reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/07/05/a...
Abbreviated History of Land-Use & Zoning Policy In Albuquerque: Part Two
In the Name of the Modern The tallest building in New Mexico opened its doors on a Saturday in February. A crowd filed through the lobby of the new First National Bank Building East, admiring the g…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
July 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Albuquerque’s most controversial infrastructure project just passed 10 million rides—and it’s working.

ART is moving people, shaping growth, and changing how the city works. Here's what it got right—and what comes next.
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/06/27/m...

#ABQ #Urbanism #Transit #BRT
More Than a Bus: How ART Is Driving Albuquerque’s Urban Revival
In 2018, Mayor Tim Keller called Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) a “bit of a lemon1.” Today, with over 10 million rides logged and more than $800 million in new development permits issu…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
June 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Albuquerque’s Route 8 is getting more frequent service. Will the land use catch up? A proposed redesignation of Menaul as a Major Transit Corridor could unlock housing, jobs, and walkability—if fear doesn’t get in the way. #abq #nmpol #albuquerque
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/06/25/a...
All Eyes on Menaul: Why Albuquerque’s Next Transit Corridor Fight Matters
The debate over reclassifying Menaul Blvd reveals who gets to shape the city’s future and whose fears are still driving land use policy. Albuquerque’s Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) is con…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
June 25, 2025 at 4:38 PM
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Albuquerque has 7 major mayoral candidates, but not all are playing the same game. Who’s ready to lead with housing + land-use reform, and who’s doubling down on enforcement and status quo? Read how they scored ⬇️

reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/06/24/a...
And Then There Were Seven: Grading Albuquerque’s Mayoral Candidates
Albuquerque’s next mayor will inherit a city at a crossroads: housing shortfalls, struggling transit, and a Downtown ready for reinvention. But not all candidates are offering the same vision. From…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
June 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
It should’ve been a walkable, transit-aligned gem. Instead, The George got redesigned to appease NIMBYs—trading good urbanism for driveway politics.

Albuquerque’s land use system isn’t democratic. It’s dysfunctional.

🧱 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/06/23/t...
The George and the Problem with Local Control
Original design of “The George” project on Central NW in West Downtown. The plan has changed to accommodate the demands of an outdated and ill-informed “Character Protection Overl…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
June 23, 2025 at 2:43 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
It took 17 years to build housing next to a train station—in one of the most unaffordable cities in the country.

Zia Station is a case study in bureaucratic failure, NIMBYism, and why New Mexico needs to wrest control of housing from local obstructionists. reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/06/20/t...
The Seventeen-Year Delay: What Zia Road Station Reveals About the Need for State Action on Housing & Land Use
In a state struggling with a worsening housing crisis, there’s perhaps no clearer symbol of bureaucratic dysfunction and local obstruction than the Zia Road Rail Runner station in Santa Fe. Origina…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
June 20, 2025 at 7:29 PM
reimaginingabq.bsky.social
Zoning didn’t arrive in Albuquerque to shape growth—it arrived to control it.

Before 1953, land had already been carved up—from Indigenous commons to colonial grants to a grid of prohibitions.

Read how that legacy still shapes ABQ today:
🔗 reimaginingalbuquerque.com/2025/06/17/a...
Abbreviated History of Land-Use & Zoning Policy in Albuquerque
Part One In the Manner of Progress The idea that a city might be planned rationally, deliberately, even morally, is a relatively new invention in the American West. Before zoning, there was ambitio…
reimaginingalbuquerque.com
June 18, 2025 at 3:40 PM