Good morning, this is Albuquerque Local Pulse for Friday, January ninth, and we are glad to be with you.

We start today with housing and development, because that is shaping a lot of our daily lives. The city just broke ground on the Serenade at Park Central project near Central and San Mateo, turning the long vacant San Mateo Towers into more than one hundred new apartments, including dozens of affordable units, with security upgrades and on site management. City leaders say neighbors along the Park Central corridor should start seeing fencing and early construction work this month as we tackle both housing shortage and safety concerns in the International District.

Over at City Hall, our City Council has also approved a five point seven million dollar package to launch the NMexus Center at Mesa del Sol, a global business accelerator expected to help bring in roughly twelve hundred high paying jobs over the next several years. The idea is to turn the area near the Netflix studios into a hub for clean energy, aerospace, cybersecurity, and other advanced industries, with a strong push for local hiring.

On the neighborhood level, Councilor Nichole Rogers is inviting us to her State of the District event tomorrow afternoon at the International District Library on Central near Louisiana. It is a chance to hear about public safety, small business support, and youth programs, including a new North Star Mentorship Program that sets aside about two hundred thousand dollars for groups serving at risk youth.

Weather wise, we are still feeling the effects of the winter system that brought snow to the East Mountains and icy spots across the metro. We can expect cold morning temperatures, slick patches on I 40 near Tijeras and Zuzax, and then clearing skies with a cool, sunny afternoon. Tonight will drop back below freezing, so we should plan for refreezing on bridges and overpasses.

That winter weather played a role in tragedy yesterday. Deputies say a man was struck and killed by a dump truck on westbound I 40 near mile marker 176, east of Albuquerque by Zuzax. Westbound lanes were closed for a time, and traffic was diverted while investigators worked the scene.

In Nob Hill, a district judge has ordered Quirky Used Books and More at Central and Jefferson to clear a homeless encampment from its parking lot by January twentieth. The ruling comes after complaints from nearby businesses and a fatal shooting last year; the court called the encampment a public nuisance while acknowledging the owner’s intent to provide a safe space.

On the job front, between the Mesa del Sol accelerator, ongoing Netflix production work, and the new housing projects in the International District, local economists expect several hundred construction and tech related openings over the next year, many starting around twenty to thirty dollars an hour.

For community events, we have high school basketball heating up this weekend, with several metro teams hosting d

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