Santa Fe’s downtown business community says new panhandling controls aren’t working and is calling on city leaders to crack down on aggressive panhandling and vagrancy around the Plaza.
In an April 22 letter to the mayor and City Council, the Santa Fe Gallery Association said there are an “overwhelming number of vagrants in the downtown Plaza area,” with “aggressive panhandling, public urination, threatening comments and cases of assault.”
The situation “is instilling fear in local residents and tourists,” the gallery owners’ letter said.
Elizabeth Pettus, of the Things Finer shop in La Fonda, wrote a similar letter on behalf of the Downtown Merchants Association. It begins: “Downtown Santa Fe, the heart of our city, and its economic engine, is under siege.”
“This year, the situation seems to have become more problematic,” wrote Pettus. “General economic conditions, confusion about the panhandling ordinance, budgetary constraints, and the diversion of allocated funds away from (the) Police department have exacerbated the problem which was already huge. … We do not believe that assault, public urination and harassment of the public are protected First Amendment expressions.”
Police Chief Ray Rael said Monday that the police department has moved a bicycle patrol back downtown in response to letters on the issue. He also said there are plans for the city’s Public Safety Committee to revisit the panhandling ordinance to see if there are ways to give it “more teeth.”
“The way the ordinance is written does limit our ability to address some panhandling situations,” Rael said. “On the other hand, there’s a lot of law behind it and they do have a right to panhandle.”
City Councilor Chris Calvert said he couldn’t personally say whether the claims in the business owners’ letters were accurate. “But I don’t think people are making these things up,” he said.
Calvert said there may be confusion at the Police Department over the panhandling ordinance and how to enforce it.
“Maybe if there is (confusion) they’re not enforcing it because they are not sure how to,” Calvert said.
The ordinance the City Council approved in December replaced a panhandling ban that had been on the books but wasn’t uniformly enforced. Police now can issue citations to panhandlers who follow people, block their path or use threatening language. The new measure also bans panhandling at bus stops, on buses, near automatic teller machines and banks, on medians and at schools.
The council made some changes to the ordinance to deal with free-speech issues raised by the American Civil Liberties Union. The law bans panhandling after dark except in the downtown Capitol Business District.
Deborah Tang, executive director of St. Elizabeth Shelter near the downtown Railyard, said she hadn’t heard of any problems with the new ordinance from the shelter’s clients.
She added, “Many of the people who are standing on corners panhandling are not homeless. This is their way of making a living. Many of the people we have at the emergency shelter are working either selling papers or with various other types of work and they’re not panhandling.”
Problems ‘unacceptable’
The letter from gallery association president Karla Winterowd and other association officers called the current situation “unacceptable.”
“We believe it is critical to resolve this horrendous problem quickly before there is further damage to our local and tourist population,” the letter said.
“The Santa Fe Police Department is very effective in resolving these issues when present, but there is more Police presence needed to address this urgent situation,” the gallery owners wrote. “We would hope that with this additional assistance any homeless individuals could be directed to a shelter. We implore Mayor Coss and the City of Santa Fe to consider increasing the number of officers on the Plaza to keep our city safe for locals and visitors alike.”
Coss couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.
Pettus, on behalf of the Downtown Merchants Association, wrote in her letter: “Of course we have sympathy for the truly unfortunate. Santa Fe has many homeless shelters, and exhibits great generosity, on both public and private levels.
“But fidelity to the creed of helping the unfortunate does not extend to allowing violence and destructive behavior to ruin our beautiful city. The Police get small support in their efforts, and much grief when they try to address these issues. When school is let out, the Plaza serves as a gathering place for the youth of the city, and this is (a) huge additional concern.”
In an interview, Pettus said the merchants believe downtown “needs to be safe for the people who visit and safe for the people who live here.” Of the panhandling ordinance, she said, “On some level, it doesn’t seem to be working.”
“We think everyone should not be harassed and be able to have a pleasant experience on the Plaza,” Pettus said.
Connie Axton, of Ventana Fine Art on Canyon Road, said there was a recent report that a woman on the Plaza had to run into business to get away from a man who was harassing her.
“I think all of us are concerned that with $4 gas and higher air fares and the things that are going to cause a dip in tourism, the last thing we need is a perception that it isn’t safe when tourists want to come and be welcome, not to mention for the rest of us,” Axton said.
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Journal reporter Kiera Hay contributed to this article.
-- Email the reporter at moswald@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-992-6269
