Comprehensive approach needed for Downtown

It’s not news that Albuquerque is facing many challenges, especially Downtown where crime is a serious challenge for residents, property owners and businesses.

As a Downtown business and property owner, we know all too well the realities of having business impacted by crime. Our tenants and our properties suffer regularly from graffiti, shoplifting, vagrancy, and trespassing.

Our company’s office is located adjacent to a few of the homeless services providers, and we see people who are experiencing homelessness or in crisis pass by on a daily basis. We see the effects firsthand of folks not getting the resources they need, like needles getting left behind in and around our properties, and human waste left in our corridors and Dumpster enclosures where people sleep and do drugs.

This happens at parks and other public spaces across Albuquerque. And it’s especially dangerous in places like Downtown where markets set up and attract families from across the city, where those suffering from homelessness and behavioral health conditions come in very close contact with those of us that are more fortunate in the journey through our lives.

But despite these issues, we build our businesses Downtown because we believe in Albuquerque.

Downtown Albuquerque is the heart of our city; the lifeblood the city can’t live without. It’s an urban center that is different than any other neighborhood in Albuquerque. That’s why it’s important that we approach the challenges we’re facing down here with a comprehensive approach that will address root causes of crime and crisis. Band-aids don’t fix heart problems.

That’s why I, and other Downtown business owners and residents, are grateful for Mayor Tim Keller’s new Downtown Public Safety District, and the commitment to participate with Bernalillo County, the judicial system, and the University of New Mexico Hospital to address the behavioral health problems in our city.

The district will include an increased, and permanent, presence from the police and fire departments.

But more than just fighting crime, the new district connects the City of Albuquerque with community partners to dedicate resources to providing services to folks experiencing homelessness, mental illness and addiction. They are also ramping up trash collection, sidewalk cleanup and making nightlife safer for residents and visitors.

This effort will lead to helping keep people and businesses safe, and over the long term, creating a vibrant Downtown where everyone can succeed.

As APD planned for the creation of the Downtown Public Safety District, officers reached out to residents and business owners to get our input on public safety in the Downtown area. At the same time, police ran tactical operations to crack down on crime.

And we’re already seeing a difference in our area.

The fact that APD reached out to our business directly, and has been in consistent contact with us, is a drastic shift from the way business has been done previously.

We know our guy by name — Lieutenant Ray Del Greco — and we have his contact information. A new substation means that we’ll have a true public safety presence Downtown to begin to address all the needs this unique community has.

Downtown has so much to offer, and our company, as well as many other local business people, are investing significant amounts of capital and energy to make Downtown Albuquerque a better place for everyone.

We know we have a long way to go, but this is a promising first step in making Downtown a thriving place to live, work, and play.