Good News on Potholes

Lately, the “Bad Gringo’s attitude has come under attack, due to writing “negative” stories about the Town of Taos. So the Friction is publishing the above photo in praise of a pristine Town Street, completely free of potholes with immaculate sidewalks. You can reach this unmarked street; I am calling West Estes Road, on Paseo Pueblo Sur by driving south and turning west just north of the Guadalajara South restaurant and Vigil’s in-town gravel operation.

The street runs .6 of a mile west to a stop sign and then proceeds at a ninety-degree angle .1 of a mile where it joins the east-west Chamisa Road, which needs maintenance. Although the .1 is meant to be part of the Salazar Extension, said extension is blocked on the north and south sides by piles of dirt and remains a dream.

Although this “pristine street” has exits to the Vigil property on the south side and the Bella Vista apartments, there are no exits through the fences at the county-owned Ag Center, pictured, a busy place for meetings, the county fair, etc. There are no residences, no pedestrians, no new commercial entities or traffic because this is the “road to nowhere.”

The gift, a legacy from the previous Cordova Administration and Town Public Works Department, has responded remarkably well to a lack of wear and tear. Leaving the street unmarked and isolated renders it one of the best-kept secrets in Taos. I did not see a single pothole, pedestrian, or other vehicle during the noonday drive-by, twice!

In other good news, somebody snapped this photo of a community concerned with corrective gardening and beautification: planting flowers in “potholes.” As the local garden club plants flowers and those who can, sing Kumbaya, we can all become part of the solution instead of part of the divisiveness.

Hey: “It’s all good.”