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New $30K website unveiled as city gears up for Route 66 centennial celebration
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The city of Albuquerque unveiled a $34,000 website with a countdown to the Route 66 centennial celebration and a list of related events in the lead-up to the momentous occasion.
The website was announced Tuesday to a room packed full of officials and community leaders inside the city鈥檚 Route 66 Visitor Center, which has struggled to consistently keep its doors open since a ribbon cutting in 2022.
In 2026, Albuquerque will celebrate the 100th birthday of its main thoroughfare, U.S. Route 66 鈥� one of the country鈥檚 first highways.
The event took place outside city limits on the second floor of the unopened center, a project that鈥檚 been decades in the making and has snowballed into an over $13 million cost.
An opening date for the center has still not been given, but back in October, the Journal was told the center would be running by May.
The cost $34,000 to develop, according to Brenna Moore, spokesperson for Visit Albuquerque. It features a countdown to 2026 and will eventually have a list of centennial-related events.
鈥淚f you drive down Central Avenue, it really is a hop, skip and a jump away from everything. If you can just visualize getting off the interstate, coming to the visitor center, going down the hill,鈥� City Councilor Klarissa Pe帽a said.
Pe帽a, who for the center that sits just outside her district, thanked members in attendance from the Hispano Chamber and West Central Community Development Group for their participation in the project, including former president and her husband, Johnny Pe帽a.
As the centennial creeps closer, Mayor Tim Keller spoke on the excitement for the visitor center to open and the local challenges facing the historic highway.
鈥淲e have this facility, and we have it just in time to fully utilize as the headquarters for the centennial,鈥� Keller said. 鈥淣ow that you鈥檙e all here, I think you can see why it is the absolute perfect spot. It is also something, by the way, no one else in America has.鈥�
However, there are other Route 66 visitor centers across the country, including ones in Texas, Illinois, Missouri and one in Kansas that 鈥� like New Mexico鈥檚 鈥� is listed as temporarily closed.
鈥淲e also want to do what we can to try and clean up Route 66 in all sorts of ways, and obviously that means things like crime fighting and that sort of thing, which we鈥檙e going to try and do as best we can,鈥� Keller said.
Preparations for the celebration come at a time when local law enforcement is targeting the historic highway, which in certain corridors has become synonymous with homelessness and open-air drug use.
New Mexico State Police, the Bernalillo County Sheriff鈥檚 Office and District Attorney Sam Bregman announced 鈥�Operation Route 66鈥� during a news conference Monday. The operation seeks to crack down on crime in the International District.
In October, the Albuquerque Police Department said dealing with the use of fentanyl and other hard drugs along Central was its top priority.
Additionally, the city鈥檚 encampment abatement policy shifted in December to prioritize and target tents and carts set along Central. The previous policy listed children鈥檚 parks and community centers as the areas of most crucial concern.
However, the mayor鈥檚 office denied the change had any correlation to the upcoming centennial celebrations.
鈥淭he recent revision was a routine update to our citywide encampment policy. Since we took office, we have focused on Central,鈥� Staci Drangmeister, a spokesperson for Keller, said in a statement.
