The Albuquerque City Council approved legislation at Monday’s meeting to sell Gross Receipt Tax Improvement Bonds and to spend $100 million to improve quality of life and infrastructure projects.
Some of the $100 million will be spent in your neighborhood.
District 5 City Councilor Dan Lewis co-sponsored a resolution that includes $15 million for the expansion of Paseo del Norte at Unser Blvd. and expand Unser from Paseo to Paradise Blvd. The project should removing the traffic choke point in northwest Albuquerque that often causes lengthy delays for motorists.
Construction on the project is expected to begin in 2024.
Lewis, who was elected to the Albuquerque City Council in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, was again elected to the City Council in November. He represents the largest council district Albuquerque.
““Since choosing to serve on the City Council once again, it has been one of my primary goals to widen and improve these critical roadways,” Lewis said in a release. “This phase will go a long way to improving the quality of life of all the people on the Northwest Mesa, allowing them to spend more time with their families and making a living and not stalled in rush hour traffic. It will especially allow for the prompt critical delivery of emergency services to the neighborhoods located along these roadways. I will continue to tirelessly seek funding to complete the remaining roadway sections and will be working with the State Legislators and Federal Congressional Delegation to accomplish this effort.”
The Monday meeting also saw approval for safe outdoor spaces, which are managed sites where homeless people can sleep in tents or automobiles and have on-site restrooms and showers.
After months of debate, the council passed the order 5-4. Lewis voted against it.
There will be a limit of two safe outdoor spaces in each of Albuquerque’s nine council districts after it was amended from five proposed sites per district Monday.
Lewis posted his thoughts about his on his website in May.
“The proposals are supported by Mayor (Tim) Keller and it looks like a majority of the City Council. If passed, Albuquerque is on its way to looking like Seattle and other large cities where tent encampments are allowed in public and private city spaces, parking lots, commercial properties, near businesses, schools, offices and homes,” Lewis wrote. “What’s more concerning is that the councilors who are sponsoring these proposals are introducing amendments that prohibit these tent encampments from large portions of their own council districts, pushing them to develop more tent encampments in entire districts such as Northwest Albuquerque’s district 5.”
