A Sunday cruise that's never been tighter: City is championing lowrider culture

The sun has set as Carl Dixon drives his baby blue 1966 Chevy Impala convertible up and down Central Avenue.

“Some people say it’s a hobby. To me, it’s a lifestyle, I live it, I breathe it,” Dixon said.

Dixon is an Albuquerque native who has worked as a roofer for 35 years and owns a dozen lowriders, some of which he’s given to his children. He has been collecting cars his entire adult life and takes his children cruising every Sunday night.

As he heads east on Central, the streets are starting to fill up with customized trucks and sports cars, many revving, touting their likely missing mufflers. But stealing the show — in a much quieter way — are the vintage mid-century lowriders — like Dixon’s — that have become synonymous with Chicano culture.

He turns around and heads past the western edge of Downtown and explains this is where he and his friends — who also spend their Sunday evenings cruising — have elected to come in recent months after increased Downtown violence.

“We’ve already moved to three or four spots because it just keeps getting bad. And one of the times we had just luck when this kid was out here, shooting — shooting out here on Central (after) we had left early that night,” Dixon said.

But this Sunday he heads back to a part of Downtown, to a parking lot just off Central, across from the new Ex Novo Brewery taproom, that the city has dedicated to Dixon and others to showcase their lowriders safely.

On Sunday, the city announced the launch of a pilot program called “Park & Chill Sundays” which offers a designated parking lot of 150 spots for people to show off their lowriders every Sunday evening.

“This is a good example of our vision for Albuquerque,” Mayor Tim Keller said. “It is about not changing at all who we are. It is about celebrating who we are. Now we’ve got to do that in a way that is safe. We understand that’s important when it comes to the challenges we’re having Downtown, but we want to keep the best of ‘Burque,’ and car culture is at the top of that list.”

Keller told the Journal that the city has become an example and has moved other communities across the country to lift bans on the cars.

“Albuquerque is actually a role model. And you go to these conferences, and there are police departments and then lowrider communities and they all are like, ‘Wow, Albuquerque is really doing this the right way,’” Keller said. “That’s a great thing. It’s something we want more of in every way.”

In 2017, Albuquerque formed a “Cruising Task Force” and then repealed a local ban on lowriders in 2018, separating it from other cities’ and states’ policies on them.

On Jan. 1, California repealed all local bans on lowriders, In March, Arizona lawmakers blocked a bill that would have repealed local bans used to split up lowrider meets and cruising. Meanwhile in Texas, Dallas and Fort Worth have ordinances effectively banning cruising in some of their most popular neighborhoods.

“A lot of communities are banning cruising. They have anti-cruising ordinances and they pass them. We choose a sort of ‘coordinate and self-regulate’ approach,” Keller said.

Keller added that his favorite cruising experience was with City Councilor Klarissa Peña in her pink Cadillac through Barelas right after he was elected in 2017.

Peña did not attend Sunday’s news conference, but has spearheaded the effort to solidify lowrider culture in and outside of the city.

Peña initiated the creation of the task force and repeal of the local ban in 2017. In 2023, she wrote a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to support the legislation that ended local lowrider bans across the state. She has also listed “designating the lowrider as the official state car” on a draft of the City Council’s legislative priorities for 2025.

Keller’s chief of staff and Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Director Terry Brunner said the pilot program, using city funds, would last five to six months to “see how this goes.”

The Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency is spending $31,700 over the next six months on the program for the lot rental and security.

As the sun set, Gilbert Lopez showed up with the bed of his slammed burgundy red 1991 Mazda B2200 lifted above the cab while he rolled onto the lot.

As he showed off the truck’s gravity-defying hydraulics, he credited all the friends who have helped him work on the vintage Japanese pickup.

“In the lowrider community, everyone knows everyone, and everyone helps out. We’re all just helping each other,” Lopez said. “You know, just a couple buddies hanging out, working on trucks and cars.”

Lopez, who came from Los Lunas to be at the event, was thrilled the city is designating a space for the community.

“It’s awesome, because we try to park where we can park. We’re not troublemakers. We hang out and we enjoy our time, and we’re always getting kicked out of different places, because the rider community gets big,” Lopez said. “There’s no drama, we just hang out and chill and talk about our cars and enjoy our family and friends.”