Don’t forget us on west Central

Kudos to Dan McKay on a very good article on Route 66 and neon lights. The write-up and photographs were on four businesses — Garcia’s Kitchen, Route 66 Malt Shop, the Dog House Restaurant and the KiMo Theatre — along Central Avenue.

As stated above, the article was very good; however, I was quite disturbed that nothing was said about the west Central that most people know. In the 18 years that I have been involved in our community, west Central is/was everything west of the Rio Grande. I believe that from the river to the railroad tracks, the other two neighborhood areas are known as Old Town and Downtown.

“Neon and Chrome” was the theme chosen for redevelopment of our west Central more than a dozen years ago. Our community people worked tremendously hard with the city of Albuquerque to create a Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Plan that finally resulted in the Atrisco Plaza, west Central Avenue and Old Coors Road Metropolitan Area Plan. This plan will in time extend to the western edge of the city limits.

The following businesses still operating were created in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s: Rainbow Apartments, Ski-Hi Liquors, Mac’s La Sierra Coffee Shop Family Restaurant, Western View Steak House Coffee Shop, Adobe Manor Motel, Westward Ho Motel, Palisades RV Park and the Grandview Motel.

It should also be noted that one of the results of the West Central Metropolitan Redevelopment Area has been to give us old style Route 66 Neon Arches. They are located at west Central at the Rio Grande, west Central at Old Coors, west Central at the Western View Restaurant, west Central at Unser and west Central at 98th Street.

It would be nice if people would not ignore us. For the record, let me state that everything that has improved our area is the results of very active community folks. City Councilor Ken Sanchez has gone to bat for us like no other councilor and we appreciate him.