Editor’s note: This is the second of five maps detailing areas of the city with the worst concentrations of crime from 2014 through 2016, based on an analysis by the Albuquerque Innovation Team. Here are details of the Downtown zone.
It’s home to City Hall, courthouses, the tallest buildings in the city and a disproportionate amount of crime.
In 2014 through 2016, Downtown Albuquerque, with a population of just 2,597 residents, saw the second-highest amount of crime per capita, according to a recent study by the Albuquerque Innovation Team, or ABQ i-team.
The area stretches roughly from Broadway to Eighth Street and from Lomas south as far as Pacific.
Though the population of residents is small, a large number of crimes happened there. Downtown was where 5 percent of the city’s robberies were reported during the three-year period, and 2.3 percent of the city’s murders. More than 3 percent of all calls for service in the city came out of the Downtown zone.
It’s a poor area. More than 50 percent of Downtown residents make less than $20,000 per year and almost 20 percent have income of less than $10,000.
Almost one-third of all violent crimes in the area occurred either near the Alvarado Transportation Center at First and Central or Knockouts, a strip club on Central near Third.
Alvarado Apartments at 611 Lead was the most victimized living complex, with nearly one-fifth of all property crimes reported at that address.
In the three-year period, 77 percent of people arrested for violent and property crimes Downtown listed their address as 218 Iron SW, which is the site of the Good Shepherd Center, which provides overnight shelter to homeless people and other services.
