Monday 20 July 2020

Evolution of Downtown Albuquerque -- during the Summer of Covid 2020

On June 1st, downtown Albuquerque started her Summer of Covid 2020 with a riot, essentially at midnight.  That day most businesses on Central Avenue boarded up their windows downtown, to cover the broken glass, and to prevent more damage.




Ironically the riot started the same moment that restaurants, barbershops, gyms and other businesses were allowed to reopen (over two months after the "stay-at-home" order was issued on March 24th, by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham).

Gizmo boarded up


4th Street boarded up




OT Circus boarded up


JUNE ART WALK

First Friday June Art Walk in downtown Albuquerque on June 5th was a curbside event.  All of Central Avenue downtown was closed to traffic, most of the businesses boarded up, and the artists sold masks and other wares outside on the sidewalk. It felt very surreal.  Artists listed on ABQ Art Walk.




On Monday, June 15th, I sipped a pour-over inside the coffee house.  I believe that breweries and coffee houses had opened on June 12th, with limited indoor seating.

That same day, June 15th, someone was shot during the demonstration in front of the Albuquerque Museum, where protesters were trying to pull down the statue of Don Juan de Onate (video).



JULY ART WALK

First Friday July Art Walk in downtown Albuquerque was on July 3rd, and likewise was a sidewalk affair.  It seemed like there were more people, but less artists than the previous month.  Central Avenue was open for traffic, only one building had a big graffiti mural.   Artists listed on ABQ Art Walk.








FIRST GRAFFITI MURALS


The graffiti murals did not take off until after the July Art Walk, more than a month after the businesses were boarded up.  I took photos on Wednesday, July 8th, just five days after the July Art Walk.








MORE MURALS
July 12th

By Sunday, July 12th, there were a lot more graffiti murals in downtown Albuquerque, just four days since my last rounds of photos. So I took more pictures; so many that I had to post them in Part 1 and Part 2.





MORE MURALS
July 12th








On Monday, July 13th, all the restaurants and coffee houses had closed again by order of the governor, as Covid cases were rising.


DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE
JULY 19th, 2020

The murals momentum kept snowballing, so I took more pictures on July 19th, when all the low riders and fancy cars come out on Sundays.  I needed three blog posts to show off all the new murals -- Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

did a lot more for Albuquerque




DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE
JULY 19th, 2020








Note: Later in July the above mural got switched out for the one below:






DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE
JULY 19th, 2020













See more pictures:

Many of the businesses have already taken down the boards over their windows about the time I took the last set of photos on July 19th.


The cases of Covid has more than doubled in the downtown zip code in just over a month, from 71 on June 14th, to 156 cases on July 21st.



On July 22nd, President Trump announced Operation Legend, where he sent government agents to Albuquerque, as well as Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia.




On Sunday night at 1 AM (technically Monday, August 3rd), all of downtown Albuquerque was blocked off east of 6th street, from Lomas to Silver street (south of Central Ave).  I have never seem downtown Albuquerque that shut down.  I believe that that stretch of Lomas was also closed on Friday.  Apparently they closed it down for fireworks/gunfire during a protest on Sunday night.  And I heard that this was a follow-up protest to the one on Saturday night, though the streets were not closed off on Saturday/early Sunday morning.


Central Avenue closed at 1 AM,
Monday August 3rd, 2020 -- strange --
all of downtown was closed east of 6th Street,
from Lomas to Silver


AUGUST ARTWALK 

The August downtown artwalk had an upbeat feel, and a decent turnout for the first hour (as I left early).




On August 29th, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham lifted some of the Covid restrictions, so that restaurants could reopen, but only at 25% capacity.  I could drink coffee indoors again at Villa Myriam Coffee and Little Bear Coffee.



STEAMROLLER PRINTING
Friday, September 4, 2020

The summer basically ended on Labor Day weekend when we went out to do some steamroller printing at the Isleta Amphitheater on Friday, September 4th, 2020.  The main event was the burning of Zozobra in Santa Fe, projected on a big screen, which people could watch from the safety of their cars and trucks.





That night was also the Artwalk in downtown Albuquerque, which was pretty lively around 9 PM.

Artwalk in downtown Albuquerque,
on 4th Street looking towards Central



OTHER MURALS
from previous times






THE BEST GALLERY IS THE STREET










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