An article in the Albuquerque Journal says that the city and El Vado Motel owner Richard Gonzales have entered talks to settle their spat over the historic Route 66 property:

City officials and the old Route 66 tourist court owner, Richard L. Gonzales, are pursuing “settlement negotiations,” according to a letter from Planning Director Richard Dineen to the city’s Landmarks and Urban Conservation Commission.

An application requesting that the motel, on Central near the Botanic Garden, be designated a city landmark was to be considered again by the commission Wednesday. But the city requested a 60-day postponement of the case, and any other pending cases concerning El Vado, “to facilitate settlement negotiations,” Dineen’s letter reads.

Gonzales, who did not agree to the designation attempt, consented to the delay.

Talks with the city started about a week ago, Gonzales told the Journal. Gonzales has proposed saving a portion of the motel and redeveloping the rear of the site with condominiums.

The property owner said there have been no discussions about the city buying the site.

I’m not sure what this means. I don’t know whether Gonzales simply wants this standoff to end and hand the property over to the city, or whether the parties are talking about demolishing part of the motel and keeping other parts of it for a museum or other purposes.

We want the entire motel to be preserved, not demolished entirely or in part. Tell them this. Write the city council, using this link here. You can also write to Mayor Martin Chavez at mayor@cabq.gov

This is a version of “Route 66″ by Kim Hyun Jung, who uses the stage name Big Mama King, or BMK. She’s known as one of the best jazz singers in Korea, and has the big pipes to prove it.

Some blokes from England are touring the Mother Road on Harley Davidson motorcycles and blogging their experiences at Vultures tour Route 66. They’ve made it to Tulsa so far.

This tidbit on the Rolla-to-Tulsa entry cracked me up:

The land is so green; even more so than Ireland!

Yeah, well, everything tends to green up after 3-4 inches of rain in less than a week.

(Hat tip to Batesline.) 

Allan Affeldt has accomplished a lot. He saved the run-down La Posada in the Route 66 town Winslow, Ariz., and transformed it into one of the best lodging and dining destinations in the Southwest. He was elected mayor of Winslow two years ago. He’s guiding the restoration of another Harvey House, El Garces, in Needles, Calif.

Now Affeldt is setting his sights on another goal — winning a seat in Congress.

His political bid was essentially announced by a glowing article in the Winslow Mail this week. Affeldt is positioning himself as a conservative-leaning Democrat in Arizona’s 1st District, and the article quotes Republican-voting Affeldt admirers for good measure.

“I was raised in a traditional Republican family who taught me that those who prosper have an obligation to give back to their communities,” Affeldt said. “My parents believed in limited government and self-reliance. The self-interest, greed and shortsightedness of the current Republican administration does not represent traditional Republican or Democratic values.

“It is time people focus less on party affiliation and more on the issues and what is the right thing to do for everyone,” he said.

Affeldt’s political site is here.

Affeldt’s resume presumably makes him a formidable candidate. His candidacy also became more viable with the recent legal problems of Republican incumbent Rep. Rick Renzi, who’s being investigated by the FBI into his role in a proposed government land swap.

I admit, the idea of Congress having a lawmaker who lives on Route 66 and sees the value of the Mother Road is most intriguing.