Here’s a Map of What I Was Talking About

PUTTING THE UNSER PLAN ON PAPER: After last week’s column gave a rundown of the city’s work to make Unser a straight shot from Paradise to Rainbow, Steve Hamlin called to ask for more than a word picture.

The sewer line installation, the drainage pond, the realigned roads and the piles of dirt make for “a confusing road project” for the average motorist driving past.

While he’s sure there is a method to the madness, he says “when you’re an outsider, it just looks like chaos.”

So can we get a map?

You bet.

While the aerial map the city provided is very large, much of the surrounding real estate is vacant land. This compressed version shows how Unser will straighten out, Rainbow will hook into Unser further northeast, and Universe will no longer hit Unser but swing to the west and become Scenic.

The work south of Paseo del Norte is scheduled to wrap up in September; north of Paseo sometime soon after.

SPEAKING OF THE SECTION OF UNSER TO THE NORTH: Also after last week’s column, “Concerned about Unser” emails “thank you for securing the information from the City of Albuquerque regarding the widening of Unser (to a consistent two lanes in each direction) in the area of McMahon Boulevard NW.

“I had written in a couple of times over the last few years regarding the mess that has been created by cutting in roads to access the Walgreens and now the Ventana Animal Clinic that are close to Unser, but far enough off the roadway so the developers did not have to widen Unser. It has been the stance of the city that only developers build roads. But, as I’ve pointed out before, there is no frontage on Unser that is usable for developers, and the one that went before, Artistic Homes, has already put in the two-lane roadway as required by the city when it did its development. I am happy that finally, the city has realized that, ‘if the city doesn’t do it, it won’t get done.’ Hoorah!”

AND WHAT ABOUT THE UNSER/LYON/UNSER SWITCHEROO? So with Unser going all the way through Rio Rancho and Albuquerque, will it still switch names for a few blocks in Paradise Hills?

We can hope not.

David Mitchell, director of Operations and Maintenance for Bernalillo County’s Operations and Maintenance Department, says: “That is a timely question. There’s been a lot of arguing lately about little … roads that were never named or have a wrong designation — road, drive, court, place — in our maps vs. the official recorded name on the plat or deed or lack thereof.”

Why should it matter? Welcome to a digital world, where there are cases of “Google doesn’t have it right, or a GPS device doesn’t match the street name sign.” The real question, Mitchell says, is whether in each individual case a change will clear things up for drivers and residents, or make a lot of work for little gain. If residents are “still getting their mail, and the fire department has no problem with it, do we rename and force the residents to change all their paperwork, and driver’s licenses, change the street name signs, just to ‘clean the books’ for something that hasn’t caused an actual complaint in 40 years — or (do we) do nothing unless the residents ask?”

As for a road that actually changes names like Unser/Lyon/Unser, “frankly, renaming has been mentioned and forgotten several times around here, but that is because nobody from the public, until now, has ever asked that I’ve heard of in 20 years anyway.

“Now that you’ve asked,” Mitchell says, “we’ll add it as a Director’s agenda item and get serious about it.” If there are no owners with direct frontage on Lyon there in Paradise Hills, he says it could just come down to “a standard name-changing request to the Planning Commission, and open(ing) it for public comment, and (perhaps getting approval from) the Paradise Hills Zoning authority … depending on how that statute is written. It’ll take a little research.”

And now the county is on it.

Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and for West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; or P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103. Go to abqjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.

— This article appeared on page 1 of the West Side Journal