Editorial: Keller provides 3 plans to resolve some of Albuquerque's issues

#foogallery- gallery-0. fg-image Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller along with his partner, Elizabeth, boy Jack, 7, and Maya, 9, stand for the Pledge of Allegiance prior to Keller delivers his State of the City address in the Boiler Shop at the Albuquerque Rail Yards on Saturday. Sarita Gonzalez, 18, right, and a student at New Mexico School for the Arts, checked out a poem at the start of the occasion. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal).

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After Mayor Tim Keller gave his State of the City address in 2022, then-City Council Vice President Dan Lewis stated the mayor "doesn't appear to know what city he is residing in" as the administration had failed on criminal offense and homelessness in spite of huge spending plans.

In this year's State of the City address, this past Saturday at the Rail Yards, the mayor used three concrete actions to resolve gun crime, homeless encampments and panhandling that puts pedestrians and motorists in risk. All sound appealing however require to go even more than the mayor described.
Keller informed the a number of hundred gathered "this summer season we are cracking down on guns. You devote a criminal offense, any criminal activity, in Downtown Albuquerque and we will pursue federal weapon charges and get you off the street.".

Penalty for federal criminal activities is usually harsher, which we hope would work as a higher deterrent. Why simply Downtown Albuquerque and school areas? The unfortunate fact is crimes devoted with guns, consisting of homicides, are taking place in every quadrant of the city.

Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina validated APD will work with federal prosecutors to target gun violence in the Downtown area. On one hand, excellent, on the other, that's a huge signal to lawbreakers to take their organization to other neighborhoods.
In August, Keller's administration closed Coronado Park, house to among the city's biggest and most noticeable unauthorized homeless encampments and a site the mayor referred to as the most dangerous location in the state.

9 months later on, Keller told those at the Rail Yards "moving forward, we will not permit tent cities in Albuquerque. We can not allow large encampments to grow untreated. They become hot-spots for prohibited activity, harmful to public health and security for our community.".

Again, good-- but what makes up a "large encampment" or "tent city"? Will a little group with all the drug stuff be neglected in the alleys behind houses on Central Avenue? In the arroyos in the Northeast Heights and Northwest mesa? In our parks and behind our shopping centers?

Without concern disbanding and cleaning up after these encampments is labor intensive. The city and nonprofit providers regularly have unoccupied shelter beds-- and the status quo of crime and drug and human trafficking is dangerous, intolerable and filthy.

Dangerous panhandling

As an apparent service to a years-long battle with the American Civil Liberties Union, APD has actually identified 13 narrow averages-- less than 4-feet broad-- where it will implement bans on panhandlers, Medina stated. Keller stated the "median-safety steps" will "safeguard our most dangerous road( s), both for chauffeurs and pedestrians.".

Again, that's a good start. But there are panhandlers on a lot more than 13 typicals, weaving in and out of high-speed traffic and causing near-misses, fender-benders and worse. Like breaking up encampments, moving people out of the roadways is a labor-intensive effort, however taxpayers are funding APD public service aides as well as a whole new Community Safety department entrusted with reacting "to 911 require psychological health, substance use, and homelessness," according to the city website.

Just like the weapon criminal activity proposal, targeting a narrow location encourages those who would put themselves and drivers in threat to simply move to another mean.

Keller informed the crowd this year "the pledge of Albuquerque is on its method to being understood." How these three proposals are implemented, expanded and tracked will reveal if that realization genuinely occurs.

This editorial initially appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the viewpoint of the paper rather than the authors.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller together with his other half, Elizabeth, child Jack, 7, and Maya, 9, mean the Pledge of Allegiance before Keller provides his State of the City address in the Boiler Shop at the Albuquerque Rail Yards on Saturday. Sarita Gonzalez, 18, right, and a trainee at New Mexico School for the Arts, checked out a poem at the start of the occasion. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal).
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller talks with people after his speech on Saturday. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal).
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller watches among a number of videos revealed during his State of the City address, presented Saturday in the boiler store at the city's Rail Yards. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal).