Community support keeps the Westside thriving through our full collapse
January 6, 2021
Los Alamos, located in the Westside neighborhood. // Photo by Zach Bauman
On a sleepy Wednesday in December, I went for a walk on the Westside. It was sunny but cold, and I didn’t expect to encounter many people as I stalked past the neighborhood’s curious mix of concrete-and-glass modern homes and whitewashed brick duplexes as old as the city’s railroads.
Instead, I felt like I’d stumbled onto a small parade. Accordion music streamed out of an open door at Los Alamos Market y Cocina; inside, cartoonish piñatas swung from the ceiling like punching bags. Across the street, the door to Blue Bird Bistro chimed open with the Hallmark tinkle of a bell. Every table on the sidewalk in front of Chez Elle, the brick-faced crêperie and coffee house, was full of diners in sunglasses and sweatshirts.