You know you've been living in a town for a long time when you have an intimate relationship with a couple streets. Being in Albuquerque for 18 years, I've waxed poetic about Central Avenue (a.k.a. Route 66) in the past, but the time has come to tell you about Lead & Coal.

Lead & Coal are the one way alternatives just south of Central. They are there as a local bypass to the popular avenue. Lead heads west, and Coal heads east. The west end starts at 14th Street downtown and the east side goes through Nob Hill to Washington, where the two one-ways combine to create Zuni. Almost everyone who lives here has turned down the wrong way on Coal & Lead at least once in their lives, either by ignorance or inattentiveness.

Since I've lived near Nob Hill for 14 years, Lead & Coal have been essential for my daily driving. When I drank a little much downtown at nights, I would cruise up Coal at a nice easy pace. The lights are times on Lead & Coal, so if you go about 30 m.p.h. with out much traffic, you can hit most lights without stopping. The cops eventually figured out our "secret" local way home and regularly stake out the streets. Sigh.

I also had my one and only one-car accident coming down Lead. On one wintery morning, I was cruising a little too fast in my little Ford Escort (now deceased), and when I hit the brakes, I began to fishtail. The fishtail spun into a complete 180 degree spin and I smacked my back tire into the curb. I drove it for a couple weeks with a rattle before taking it into the shop. A few hundred dollars later, and I swore to take it slower on icy mornings. Live and learn.

Being a cab driver who works the triangle zone, Lead & Coal are an immense benefit. I can't tell you how many times I've been up and down those roads. It's literally thousands of times. I watched it go from three lanes to two lanes on each road, I've dealt with curbs being added and subtracted, and now the true test has come: a complete renovation of Lead & Coal to "Parkway" status.

This doesn't sound bad on the surface, but the plans are to shut down Coal completely for EIGHT months and make Lead a two lane, two way street. It's already causing backups. After that, Coal becomes the two lane, two way street while they shut down Lead for another EIGHT more months. The whole project is planned to take a year and a half. Sigh.

Will there be more lanes? No. Will there be any improvements to traffic at all? No. They are concerned with sidewalks and bike lanes and landscaping. This wouldn't be so bad if the roads on both sides of Lead & Coal (Garfield & Silver) weren't already designated as biker and walking friendly roads. Lead & Coal were made for one reason: so the cars didn't have to get stuck on slow going Central all the time!

This is where a chunk of the stimulus money is going. To beautify a couple roads. Not improve the roads, just make them prettier. It was some pet project the old mayor decided we should do. No vote, no discussion, he just decided we should do it. Now the old mayor doesn't even live in town, but we still have to deal with decisions. It's going to be a long year and a half.

I'm going to miss Lead & Coal. I know they will never be the same, even though nothing is really going to change. They'll be some wider sidewalks with bushes and shrubs, but it'll still be a couple one-ways that were made to divert traffic off of Central. In the meantime, I'll be figuring out interesting ways to work the cab in the triangle, get from here to there, and take secret drunk ways home.

If you stay in a town long enough, you start to take everything personally, although no one asks what you think about it.

Chris Jungle doesn't like to wait a year and a half for anything.