Simple tactics could cut Downtown crime
Vagrancy and crime have plagued Downtown Albuquerque for decades. Political leaders tout their desire to tackle the problems, but they ignore common-sense tactics that those of us with vested interests Downtown have urged for years. My family owns 14 properties Downtown wherein over 100 businesses, residences or offices are located. Although the city’s police officer shortage and the recidivism caused by a lenient judiciary and underfunded District Attorney’s Office are the major public safety impediments, doing the following four simple things would markedly help Downtown:
1. REMOVE THE DRUG PHONES: There are two freestanding pay phones Downtown. Pay phones have been recognized since the 1990s as primarily for the use of those who are buying or selling narcotics. The phones are hard-line and protected from tapping without a warrant due to a 1960s U.S. Supreme Court decision. That fact, plus the knowledge that 95 percent of Americans have wireless phones and that the indigent may use phones at homeless centers, means that there is no defensible reason to leave these phones for the convenience of drug traffickers.
2. KNOCK OUT KNOCKOUTS: On Central between Third and Fourth sits Knockouts Gentlemen’s Club. APD has made arrests during undercover narcotics sting operations there and said those operations were “set in place to curb the spike of criminal/narcotics activity within the establishment.” In light of this nefarious history and considering that having a strip club in the heart of an area that our city wants to appeal to tourists and locals alike, the city should use its powers under nuisance laws or eminent domain to acquire the Knockouts property and then auction it off, stipulating that it may no longer be used as a strip club.
3. NO BUTTS: Panhandlers Downtown, of course, ask for money. But the other thing that they ask for is cigarettes. Smokers attract vagrants by disposing of cigarette butts on the sidewalk or in exterior ashtrays. Block by Block, the cleaning crew employed by the city, had its staff and coverage area reduced two years ago. The city should increase Block by Block’s funding, staff and geographic area Downtown with specific instruction to eliminate cigarette butts. Moreover, the city should pass an ordinance (and actually enforce it) mandating that ashtrays must be designed such that butts are dropped into extinguishing containers that are thereafter inaccessible.
4. SELL GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS: Government derides buildings that remain empty for long periods. But the government is a frequent offender in that regard. The city owns the bottom two floors of the Rosenwald Building at Central and Fourth, which has sat empty since the closing of Roosters restaurant several years ago. Similarly, Bernalillo County owns the former jail at the northeast corner of Fifth and Roma. The multistory buildings there cost over $80,000 per year and, by the county’s own appraisal, have a negative value. The city and county need to sell their unused Downtown properties at auction and let the private sector (which has recently revived several Downtown properties) do what it does.
These are concrete, measurable steps. We do not need another task force, study or roundtable. I implore readers to advocate to city leaders for these actions.