‘We're playing catch up’: Keller, ABQ police chief bet big on West Side beautification

The city of Albuquerque is betting big on median landscaping to improve West Side thoroughfares.

During a news conference Friday to provide updates on improvements to the West Side, Mayor Tim Keller touted progress since 2021 — 489 new streetlights and 14 miles of crack seal on roads — and said the city needed to continue improving the infrastructure of the area.

“The West Side was built so fast that the infrastructure is way late. ... So we understand that we’re playing catch up. We have been for decades,” Keller said.

The city will spend more than $300,000 on adding vegetation to some medians in the area, contracting Lee Landscaping to handle the job. The landscaping should be completed in the next two months, according to Dan Mayfield, the spokesperson for Municipal Development.

Keller was joined at the news conference by Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who said that the West Side has been a key area for patrols, citing 475 traffic stops on Coors over the past two months. He said 100 of the traffic stops resulted in an arrest, 68 for felonies and 32 for misdemeanors.

“We’re devoting resources to some of the traffic problems that are occurring on Coors, and we know that those traffic stops, a lot of times, will be bigger arrests,” Medina said.

Medina also said vegetation being added to the medians would help prevent crime, though did not elaborate on how.

“This beautification of some of these medians is not just for the beauty but is also valuable for us in law enforcement,” Medina said.

Keller called the dirt medians a “glaring symbol that the city never finished what it needed to do.”

Former city councilor and current state Rep. Cynthia Borrego spoke in support of the beautification efforts and believes it can help revive Cottonwood Mall, the state’s second-largest mall, which is in her district.

“Cottonwood Mall has lost a lot of its tenants, and this is really going to give them the boost that they need to bring some of these tenants back. And hopefully, with the mayor’s economic development folks, we can look at bringing some of these tenants back,” Borrego said.