City on the Edge Podcast

Before the ART Project, before Rapid Ride, before the Railrunner, Albuquerque was a city of trolleys. But, like, where did they go?

Old Town. New Town. A match made in heaven? No. But eventually, it happened and modern Albuquerque was born.

We're not out of ideas! We just decided to grab a handful of files from Mike Smith's big ol' NM history cabinet, choose three at random, and talk about what we find. That's normal! A normal thing to do when you have lots of ideas!

Ty sits down with Amanda Sutton for a preview of Albuquerque's celebration of Route 66's centennial.

For a quarter of a century, early Downtown Albuquerque was bedeviled by an odoriferous presence-- a ditch that ran right through the center of town and became such a hazard that city officials tried to fill it in multiple times, only to be thwarted by one man and his shotgun.

What do Albuquerque's teens think of the city? Mike Smith, in his role as a teacher, assigned his classes to write about their feelings for the city, and how they would improve it. On this week's episode, we share the results.

Over the last 20 years, Albuquerque has lost multiple news sources-- from traditional papers like the Albuquerque Tribune, ad-supported free weeklies like the Alibi or the IQ, and various online sites like the NM Compass. But in the midst of all these failures, one quiet success stands out: the Downtown Albuquerque News. By focusing on an extremely local purview and charging readers a modest subscription fee, DAN has slowly grown a loyal readership and, even better, financial stability. On this episode, Ty sits down with DAN founder Peter Rice to talk about the newsletter's origin, some notable recent stories, and one of Peter's favorite historic Downtown buildings.

Eric Castillo has been conducting free walking tours of Albuquerque's Downtown for two years. I talk to him about the experience and his favorite stories from the area's history.

Sure, we all know about, you know, cowboys and archeologists and Bugs Bunny, but did you know that a house in Albuquerque once played host to one of the most infamous spies of the Manhattan Project era?

100 years ago, an itinerant ox rancher named Mike Smith discovered the Sandia mountains and decided to make a podcast about them. Today, we celebrate that great day with a very self-indulgent ramble session of an episode. We talk City on the Edge history, highs and lows, the Simpsons and whatever else comes to mind over the course of an hour and 40 minutes.

Mike takes us on a deep dive into the history, meaning and mystery of his street in the suburbs.

A two time gold rusher, automobile booster and, well, a racist, DKB Sellers was a man with many facets even before he founded one of the most desirable neighborhoods in modern Albuquerque.

RIP Mannie's. 1965-2020. And RIP to the building, 1940ish-2023.We also talk about the Colour Fence and Leisure Bowl.

Our far-flung correspondent Nora Hickey finds a surprising connection to Albuquerque in her new town: a Madonna of the Trail statue.

Hey, we've come back after a long break! And frankly, we need a refreshing drink of water, preferably from a beautiful, Giardia-free mountain spring. Fortunately, Mike knows where to find them.