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I don't understand the hatred for El Paso? I seems more is going on than just freeways.
And I don't understand the hatred for Albuquerque. It's a hatred that has been displayed for years by HotDesertCity under his various previous names. I recognize the good progress in El Paso such as the downtown ballpark. And I have praised certain aspects of El Paso such as its downtown retail scene. But I will point out its flaws and shortcomings when people from El Paso try to disparage and attack Albuquerque.
You people are SERIOUSLY excited about freeways?
Ooooooh look at all these freeways........wow how exciting, give me a break how ridiculous!
Yeah right, you would cream your pants if a loop around your town was announced..don't pretend you wouldn't and you would be bragging about it all over these forums.
Funny how when ABQ has something better, its ok for you guys to brag about it, but its terrible for us to do the same when we think we have something better.
It's not just El Paso freeways we are "seriously" excited about, its all sorts of progress going around El Paso. $180 million Downtown Arena, $100 million Downtown streetcar project, $100+ million West side 22 story tower, Plaza Hotel renovation, $70+ million Hotel Paso del Norte renovation, $2 billion William Beaumont Hospital, BRIO BRT expansion, $60+ million Dental School addition to Texas Tech El Paso, $35 million Mexican American Cultural Center, $20 million Children's museum, $600 million Loop 375 Border West Expressway, and thats just the tip of the projects for this region. In fact we already built most of our freeways so that project is the least of things I'm excited about. LOL.
And I don't understand the hatred for Albuquerque. It's a hatred that has been displayed for years by HotDesertCity under his various previous names. I recognize the good progress in El Paso such as the downtown ballpark. And I have praised certain aspects of El Paso such as its downtown retail scene. But I will point out its flaws and shortcomings when people from El Paso try to disparage and attack Albuquerque.
Same goes for El Pasoans to defend their city, when it comes under attack by ABQ folks.. we can point fingers too.
Again, if Brio is true BRT then the Rapid Ride is as well. The only difference between Brio and the Rapid Ride is the prepay kiosk. So I guess Albuquerque has had three BRT lines for many years now, we just didn't know it.
Sorry, but Brio is not a true BRT line and never will be. If it is, then why not have it rated by the international standard?
I don't know what it is with you El Paso people, but keep fawning over your freeways, I really don't give a damn. Albuquerque is bisected by two interstates, the north-south I-25 and the east-west I-40, and has very good freeway access across the city, that's really all any place needs. Our downtown has easy and quick access to both freeways and our airport is right off of I-25 with direct, controlled access via Sunport Boulevard. Our main sporting venues are also off of I-25 at the UNM South Campus. Our main shopping area is off of I-40 and our biggest employment area is literally named after the interstate it straddles, North I-25. And Paseo del Norte connects the Westside to North I-25 and the Heights as a freeway.
So Albuquerque doesn't lack good freeway access.
Yup its the same for me, if you think our BRIO is not a BRT system.. really means nothing to me and most people. Your opinion is just that and not fact.
El Paso's BRIO is a side-running BRT system but a true BRT system none the less. Other cities that have side running BRT systems are NYC, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, and quite a few more.
Same goes for El Pasoans to defend their city, when it comes under attack by ABQ folks.. we can point fingers too.
Point away. Albuquerque has less to be worried about and ashamed of than El Paso. Lower poverty, higher GDP per capita and larger economy, more educated, better and more shopping options. Higher crime and lower population growth recently are Albuquerque's only real faults or problems. Job growth and unemployment were issues in recent years, but all of that has been improving in the last 2 1/2 years. The Albuquerque metro has been adding jobs non-stop during these last two years and at a faster rate than the entire state of Texas recently. In June it added jobs at a year over year rate of 2.4 percent compared to Texas at 1.5 percent. New Mexico as a whole actually also bested Texas even with the downturn in our energy sector, with 1.7 percent growth in jobs year over year in June.
What's gonna happen to El Paso when the federal and state-funded construction projects finish? These projects may have helped El Paso with population and job growth recently but its fundamentals of poverty, educational attainment and productivity of its private economy are still not very good. Albuquerque's fundamentals are much better and our private economy is what has been growing lately, which is always a good thing. We've been losing government jobs but business and professional services and other private employment sectors have been growing by leaps and bounds lately. So while El Paso is benefiting from the government largesse Albuquerque is increasingly becoming less dependent on it.
We also have plenty to boast about when it comes to development: 1,700 new housing units in our downtown since 2001 as well as a 14-screen movie theater and full-service grocery store, an impressive transportation center that links city buses, interstate buses, commuter rail and with a direct, non-stop bus line to the airport and a true BRT connection coming soon as well. There are 14 microbreweries, taprooms and distilleries in or surrounding our downtown core in central Albuquerque. This larger area of central Albuquerque is bounded by the Rio Grande, I-40, I-25 and Avenida Cesar Chavez and encompasses Old Town and Downtown Albuquerque and their surrounding neighborhoids. It had 20,000 people as of the 2010 Census and has added nearly 3,000 residential units since 2001. In total there has been almost 5,000 units of infill housing in Albuquerque's urban neighborhoods like Downtown, Nob Hill and the UNM area since 2001.
We've had freeway projects and new strip malls and shopping centers built recently as well. Just because I haven't posted tons of pictures of them doesn't mean they don't exist or aren't being developed here.
West Bluff Center, Las Estancias, Riverside Plaza, Montana Plaza, the Village at La Orilla, the Paseo corridor in the Heights and the Cottonwood Mall area on the Westside are all examples of strip mall and power center construction in Albuquerque.
We also have two massive New Urbanist communities in Mesa del Sol and Santolina, as well as Mirehaven by Del Webb for those 55+ on the Westside. There have also been infill suburban projects like the Presidio developed by Centex in Southeast Albuquerque and Vista del Norte by KB Home in the North I-25 area.
The Big I costed over $200 million dollars back in 2002 and after that we also had the Coors and I-40 interchange reconstruction as well as the reconstruction and widening of I-40 with full rebuilds of every interchange east of the river in the city. The San Mateo and Louisiana interchanges were the most impressive of these. The Louisiana interchange is currently being expanded once again to better handle the crush of traffic headed to Uptown Albuquerque.
The Paseo interchange on I-25 was scaled back for its initial phase, but it was also recently constructed with the most important flyovers being completed. I-25 south of downtown is the only portion of interstate in Albuquerque that hasn't been redone since it was built in the 1960s. It will be entirely reconstructed and widened in the next few years. Part of that is another project to extend Sunport Boulevard as Woodward Road to Broadway in the city's south side industrial area which has grown rapidly in recent years with new distribution centers and manufacturing plants.
We've had two new hospitals built in the metro recently and the main UNM Hospital is going to be completely rebuilt on a new site at I-25 and Lomas in a $600 million project. It will join the new UNM Cancer Center which costed 90 million dollars and the new OMI building as well on this new medical campus. The existing UNM Hospital was actually expanded just ten years ago in a $200 million building, the Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion. You and the other poster have given varying amounts for the cost of the army hospital in El Paso, everything from $700 million to you now saying it will cost 2 billion dollars.
Presbyterian Hospital downtown was also greatly expanded in the last decade and has more expansions planned. Lovelace Medical Center downtown has also undergone renovations and expansion and it bought the Heart Hospital of New Mexico, which was constructed in the last decade and is one of the finest in the country.
As for new museums, cultural institutions and sporting venues, Albuquerque has those as well.
Isotopes Park is bigger and cost more than El Paso's downtown ballpark. The only difference is that it was built in 2002 and is not downtown. The Pit basketball arena was completely remodeled in a $60 million project back in 2010. Even with a reduced capacity to allow for luxury boxes it is still bigger than the UTEP basketball arena. The Santa Ana Star Center arena was constructed in Rio Rancho back in 2006.
The National Hispanic Cultural Center was built in 2001. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center was expanded and remodeled in the last decade, as were the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. A new building was constructed for the Explora Science Center and Children's Museum, as well as the National Atomic Museum which was renamed as the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. And a completely new museum was created and constructed to celebrate and explore ballooning at Balloon Fiesta Park.
The Albuquerque Bio Park has been expanded and improved as well. The Rio Grande Zoo already has a new carousel and is building a new exhibit for penguins that will open next year. The Rio Grande Botanic Garden added a butterfly pavilion and insect building called the Bugarium. The Albuquerque Aquarium has also added new exhibits. Tingley Beach was completely renovated and improved in the last decade. It now has separate ponds for fishing, model boating and paddling. It added a restaurant and bait shop and was beautifully landscaped. All the components of the Bio Park were joined by a miniature railroad and train as well.
All of these things have occurred in the last 15 years in Albuquerque, so plenty has gone on and is going on in Albuquerque. Just because all these projects aren't under construction right now or are as recent as the ones in El Paso doesn't mean that they don't exist as accomplishments and amenities.
Yup its the same for me, if you think our BRIO is not a BRT system.. really means nothing to me and most people. Your opinion is just that and not fact.
El Paso's BRIO is a side-running BRT system but a true BRT system none the less. Other cities that have side running BRT systems are NYC, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, and quite a few more.
If you bothered to read the BRT standard article I posted you will see that none of those other "side-running" systems is a true BRT either. True BRT has a high standard and only five systems in the U.S. meet any of those standards. ART may be the first in the U.S. to achieve the highest standard. Express bus systems like Brio can't even reach the minimum to even be rated by the global BRT standard.
There was a thread on City-Data a while back which got into all this and dealt with the problem of inferior systems like Brio trying to be passed off as true BRT:
So it's not just me that is saying this. I understand it's human nature to want to classify your own thing as being better than what it truly is, but doing so in the face of facts and set standards is ridiculous. I've seen people call streetcars "light rail" for instance. Calling an express bus like Brio true BRT is just as absurd.
Point away. Albuquerque has less to be worried about and ashamed of than El Paso. Lower poverty, higher GDP per capita and larger economy, more educated, better and more shopping options. Higher crime and lower population growth recently are Albuquerque's only real faults or problems. Job growth and unemployment were issues in recent years, but all of that has been improving in the last 2 1/2 years. The Albuquerque metro has been adding jobs non-stop during these last two years and at a faster rate than the entire state of Texas recently. In June it added jobs at a year over year rate of 2.4 percent compared to Texas at 1.5 percent. New Mexico as a whole actually also bested Texas even with the downturn in our energy sector, with 1.7 percent growth in jobs year over year in June.
Job growth from July 2015 to July 2016
Texas : 235,600 new jobs, 1.8% increase
New Mexico: 8,500 new jobs, 0.9% increase
Higher crime rate, higher unemployment rate, higher cost of living rate.. But we all have our faults, including El Paso. I won't go into the negatives as its not really fun.. I'd much rather talk about the positive sides of both cities.
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What's gonna happen to El Paso when the federal and state-funded construction projects finish? These projects may have helped El Paso with population and job growth recently but its fundamentals of poverty, educational attainment and productivity of its private economy are still not very good. Albuquerque's fundamentals are much better and our private economy is what has been growing lately, which is always a good thing. We've been losing government jobs but business and professional services and other private employment sectors have been growing by leaps and bounds lately. So while El Paso is benefiting from the government largesse Albuquerque is increasingly becoming less dependent on it.
LOL, El Paso will be fine.
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We also have plenty to boast about when it comes to development: 1,700 new housing units in our downtown since 2001 as well as a 14-screen movie theater and full-service grocery store, an impressive transportation center that links city buses, interstate buses, commuter rail and with a direct, non-stop bus line to the airport and a true BRT connection coming soon as well. There are 14 microbreweries, taprooms and distilleries in or surrounding our downtown core in central Albuquerque. This larger area of central Albuquerque is bounded by the Rio Grande, I-40, I-25 and Avenida Cesar Chavez and encompasses Old Town and Downtown Albuquerque and their surrounding neighborhoids. It had 20,000 people as of the 2010 Census and has added nearly 3,000 residential units since 2001. In total there has been almost 5,000 units of infill housing in Albuquerque's urban neighborhoods like Downtown, Nob Hill and the UNM area since 2001.
We've had freeway projects and new strip malls and shopping centers built recently as well. Just because I haven't posted tons of pictures of them doesn't mean they don't exist or aren't being developed here.
West Bluff Center, Las Estancias, Riverside Plaza, Montana Plaza, the Village at La Orilla, the Paseo corridor in the Heights and the Cottonwood Mall area on the Westside are all examples of strip mall and power center construction in Albuquerque.
We also have two massive New Urbanist communities in Mesa del Sol and Santolina, as well as Mirehaven by Del Webb for those 55+ on the Westside. There have also been infill suburban projects like the Presidio developed by Centex in Southeast Albuquerque and Vista del Norte by KB Home in the North I-25 area.
That's great for ABQ, I'm really happy for the city as I really like this town. (I am currently in ABQ for business)
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The Big I costed over $200 million dollars back in 2002 and after that we also had the Coors and I-40 interchange reconstruction as well as the reconstruction and widening of I-40 with full rebuilds of every interchange east of the river in the city. The San Mateo and Louisiana interchanges were the most impressive of these. The Louisiana interchange is currently being expanded once again to better handle the crush of traffic headed to Uptown Albuquerque.
The Paseo interchange on I-25 was scaled back for its initial phase, but it was also recently constructed with the most important flyovers being completed. I-25 south of downtown is the only portion of interstate in Albuquerque that hasn't been redone since it was built in the 1960s. It will be entirely reconstructed and widened in the next few years. Part of that is another project to extend Sunport Boulevard as Woodward Road to Broadway in the city's south side industrial area which has grown rapidly in recent years with new distribution centers and manufacturing plants.
Cool Deal!
I still think it pales in comparison to the $2 Billion+ highway construction that El Paso has seen in the last 10 years, but I like progress, so that's good.
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We've had two new hospitals built in the metro recently and the main UNM Hospital is going to be completely rebuilt on a new site at I-25 and Lomas in a $600 million project. It will join the new UNM Cancer Center which costed 90 million dollars and the new OMI building as well on this new medical campus. The existing UNM Hospital was actually expanded just ten years ago in a $200 million building, the Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion. You and the other poster have given varying amounts for the cost of the army hospital in El Paso, everything from $700 million to you now saying it will cost 2 billion dollars.
Presbyterian Hospital downtown was also greatly expanded in the last decade and has more expansions planned. Lovelace Medical Center downtown has also undergone renovations and expansion and it bought the Heart Hospital of New Mexico, which was constructed in the last decade and is one of the finest in the country.
Very nice!
We also had the $146 million Sierra Providence East Medical Center open up several years back with a $67 million expansion recently. Another Tenet hospital is currently being built on EP's Northwest side and will open in January 2017, its pricetag is now at $200 million.
As for new museums, cultural institutions and sporting venues, Albuquerque has those as well.
Cool!
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Isotopes Park is bigger and cost more than El Paso's downtown ballpark. The only difference is that it was built in 2002 and is not downtown. The Pit basketball arena was completely remodeled in a $60 million project back in 2010. Even with a reduced capacity to allow for luxury boxes it is still bigger than the UTEP basketball arena. The Santa Ana Star Center arena was constructed in Rio Rancho back in 2006.
Hmm, Isotopes Park cost $25 million to build in 2003. Southwest University Park cost $72 million and is newer and better, believe me. I've been to both. The Pit is better than the Don. Santa Ana Star is nice but smallish. EP's $180 million downtown arena should be state of art and maybe not so big, but definitely nicer than anything either city has IMO.
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The National Hispanic Cultural Center was built in 2001. The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center was expanded and remodeled in the last decade, as were the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. A new building was constructed for the Explora Science Center and Children's Museum, as well as the National Atomic Museum which was renamed as the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. And a completely new museum was created and constructed to celebrate and explore ballooning at Balloon Fiesta Park.
Awesome, I would like to visit them.
I can't wait for ours to open.
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The Albuquerque Bio Park has been expanded and improved as well. The Rio Grande Zoo already has a new carousel and is building a new exhibit for penguins that will open next year. The Rio Grande Botanic Garden added a butterfly pavilion and insect building called the Bugarium. The Albuquerque Aquarium has also added new exhibits. Tingley Beach was completely renovated and improved in the last decade. It now has separate ponds for fishing, model boating and paddling. It added a restaurant and bait shop and was beautifully landscaped. All the components of the Bio Park were joined by a miniature railroad and train as well.
The EP Zoo is going through some major expansions, about $50 million worth of expansions. Thanks to the Quality of Life $470 million bond that was passed a few years ago.
BTW, I like the ABQ zoo, its really nice. Took my kids there once some years back.
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All of these things have occurred in the last 15 years in Albuquerque, so plenty has gone on and is going on in Albuquerque. Just because all these projects aren't under construction right now or are as recent as the ones in El Paso doesn't mean that they don't exist as accomplishments and amenities.
Agreed.
Last edited by Chuco; 09-09-2016 at 03:38 AM..
Reason: spelling
If you bothered to read the BRT standard article I posted you will see that none of those other "side-running" systems is a true BRT either. True BRT has a high standard and only five systems in the U.S. meet any of those standards. ART may be the first in the U.S. to achieve the highest standard. Express bus systems like Brio can't even reach the minimum to even be rated by the global BRT standard.
There was a thread on City-Data a while back which got into all this and dealt with the problem of inferior systems like Brio trying to be passed off as true BRT:
So it's not just me that is saying this. I understand it's human nature to want to classify your own thing as being better than what it truly is, but doing so in the face of facts and set standards is ridiculous. I've seen people call streetcars "light rail" for instance. Calling an express bus like Brio true BRT is just as absurd.
The US Govt (and basically everyone else), officially recognizes EP's BRIO to be a BRT system, whether you like it or not. Case closed. LOL.
ABQ's ART.. I'm sure will be nice. But still needs some small hurdles to pass.. lawsuits and federal funding has not been approved yet.
The US Govt (and basically everyone else), officially recognizes EP's BRIO to be a BRT system, whether you like it or not. Case closed. LOL.
ABQ's ART.. I'm sure will be nice. But still needs some small hurdles to pass.. lawsuits and federal funding has not been approved yet.
Everybody else doesn't recognize Brio to be a true BRT system. Did you not read the links I provided? Brio is just one of many interior express bus lines trying to pass itself off as BRT just because it has certain features of true BRT. But it is not true BRT according to the international standard that the U.S. agrees to. There are only five current systems in the U.S. which meet enough of those standards to qualify to be rated at all by the BRT Standard. Brio is not one of them and that is not just me or my point of view saying that, it is fact and recognized by others.
As for ART, the city just signed the construction contract a few days ago. It gives the contractor, Bradbury Stamm, 16 months to complete the project. If it goes over that timeframe there will be penalties. That means that ART will be done by January 2018, which is four months past the original completion date put forth before the delays caused by the additions to the project mandated by the city council and the temporary injunction by the federal appeals court.
The U.S. government authorized the city to begin building ART back in May before the delays and awarded the city a Letter of No Prejudice in July which authorized the city to spend up to $59.7 million dollars immediately on the project. That was after the President's budget called for giving the project $69.7 million in funding as part of the Small Starts initiative. No transportation project has ever not received funding after it has been included in the president's budget. The federal government is a defendant in the lawsuit and it knows all that is going on, and still it has authorized the project to go forward, which is why the city is able to sign contracts and the work has begun on the project. The appeals court lifted the injunction in mid-August against proceeding with construction, which is a sign that they do not believe the lawsuit has enough merits to be successfully argued.
The main question now is how much Congress will authorize to the project and how that will be meshed with the President's recommendation. The local governments have pledged about $26 million to the project and the city has funds from various other federal grants that it can tap into in addition to what it has already put forth for the project from those grants. The $119 million cost of the project is put in place as of now. If the city gets less than the $69 million from the federal government grant then I believe it will tap into those other grants and/or put forth more city money to close whatever gap there is. It will have to, since the project is already underway and the construction and vehicle order contracts have been signed.
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