ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Neighbors are getting ready for an event to promote community and safe streets in one of the most dangerous parts of Albuquerque.

“CiQlovía has been around globally for a long time to celebrate biking and bring pedestrians out to the streets here in Albuquerque. A lot of it started to bring awareness to pedestrian fatalities,” said Skye Ontiveros with the International District Healthy Communities Coalition.

The coalition teamed up with Presbyterian to get the word out about CiQlovía. This year, they received $7,000 for what they call “Build Week” to get the word out and to get Kathryn Avenue ready for the event Sunday.

“We focus on nutritional access, and we focus on safe Street and infrastructure. It’s really obvious that everything has to do with health and safety. So safe streets, for instance, is also really crucial to living a healthy, safe, thriving life,” Ontiveros said.

During CiQlovía, Kathryn Avenue will be shut down between Louisiana and San Pedro.

“It’s a half mile stretch. We’re going to put in temporary safety for safe streets, including infrastructure like bike lanes,” Ontiveros said. “All of this right now, what we’re doing is we’re cleaning the streets to prep for the painting, and we’ll have bulb outs. In addition to the bike lanes, we’ll have rest stops.”

Even though they’ve run into speed bumps in the past, they’ve kept it going for 10 years.

“We have learned a lot of what works and what doesn’t work. They ripped out a buckhorn on the corner, and they would set up the benches they built. And of course, they were stolen,” Ontiveros said.

Ontiveros added it’s important to demonstrate what the streets could look like when automobiles aren’t dominating them. In previous editions of CiQlovía, they’ve seen how that can help.

“Louisiana and Southern, which is where the event used to be, was literally the most fatal intersection in America. We would see crashes all the time. The kids have to hear that, live with that and also have experienced it,” she said.

Ontiveros encourages everyone to come out this Build Week to lend a helping hand (more info here) and to attend CiQlovía (more info here).