ABSTRACT
Except for the rugged Organ Mountains towering above the empty parking lots and shuttered commercial businesses, El Paseo Road could be anywhere in the United States. It is a typical auto-oriented commercial strip development, which uses large amounts of land and resources while providing minimal commercial space, employment, or community character. Its vitality has been sapped by more recent, more distant commercial development at a freeway interchange even more inaccessible except by car. The densities of housing and employment are so low that they cannot support transit. Sidewalks are missing in many areas and only people with little regard for their lives would bicycle along it. The road is bordered by acres of heat-reflecting pavement, contributing to storm water disposal and pollution problems. It is also dangerous: a disproportionate number of traffic injuries occur along its 1.7 mile length. Adjoining it is a neighborhood of small homes and apartments where, as of 2011, more than 40% of households were in poverty.
