"The Plan"

I'd say that Mayor Barry is drinking the Kool-Aid and I hope he continues to do so. Last week he presented "The Plan," aimed at investing in quality of life projects for our fair city. He even included a laundry list of potential projects as a way of beginning the conversation and I would say that every one of his projects deserves consideration except for the Paseo Interchange. That one in no way contributes to place-making or our community's culture. I'm also a little disappointed in all BRT talk coming out of MRCOG. But, again, it's all worthy of discussion and also happens to be transit planning's technology du jour. If this is the type of foresight the mayor has developed as a result of trips to Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Chicago, imagine what would happen if we sent him to Copenhagen and Bilbao. I salivate at the mere thought.

This discourse originating from city hall complements an article from my favorite, local rag, Local iQ, where they have proclaimed that "Albuquerque is perched to become the best place to live, play, and ride in America."

Mayor Barry and Local iQ are my favorite people/entities of the week.

Coming and Going

Forbes published a nifty interactive map that illustrates inter-county population movement using 2008 census estimates. What stands out to me is how we tend to pull people from the Northeast and Southwest while hemorrhaging noticeable amounts to the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, and Southeast (jobs?). LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, and Minneapolis appear to supply us with ample new citizens. Meanwhile, 'Burqueños tend to leave for job creation centers like Atlanta, Dallas, and Austin as well as the real urban centers of NYC, DC, Seattle, Portland and Boston. This is rather old but interesting none-the-less. What does this imply with regards to our city? Are people happy/unhappy with our quality of life? Perhaps our job opportunities? Built Environment?

Now let's compare our performance with that of Austin, TX (Travis County). I'd say they're doing something right.

We're NOT a Dangerous City - New Rankings

Do you think this will allow the local news media to cover real news? Yeah, I doubt it. We ranked 77th most dangerous city. Our ranking suggests we are safer than many of our neighbors including OKC, Dallas, Tulsa and Las Vegas.