City of Albuquerque leaders announced a new effort Tuesday to discourage people from standing on medians, saying the crackdown is intended to improve public safety, not target panhandlers.
The legal basis for the initiative is Mayor Tim Keller’s revision of a 2017 “pedestrian safety ordinance,” which was struck down by a federal judge in 2019.
The revised measure, approved 7-2 by the City Council in November, prohibits people from standing on narrow medians on busy streets.
“When you get smaller than 4 feet, it’s just dangerous, especially in these busy intersections,” Keller said Tuesday following a news conference at Fourth and Montaño NW, one of the affected intersections.
The ordinance targets medians less than 4 feet in width, on roadways with a speed limit of 30 mph or greater.
Keller said the new ordinance is more likely to withstand a legal test than the more-restrictive 2017 measure, which was attacked as a violation of public speech.
“It’s fundamentally about safety, not about speech,” Keller said of the new ordinance.
Colorado Springs, Colorado, and other cities have similar measures that have stood up in court, he said.
Albuquerque police kicked off the effort by issuing 14 citations to violators on Monday, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said Tuesday.
Violations are a petty misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $100, according to the legislation.
“This is not about panhandlers,” Medina said. “It’s about public safety.”
The city has identified 15 intersections for enforcement, including Fourth and Montaño NW, three intersections on Menaul NE, three on Coors NW and two each on Gibson SE and Carlisle NE.
The city has placed signs on those medians that warn: “Unlawful to occupy median.”
A spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said Tuesday that “median enforcement” is a coded term for “anti-panhandling” measures.
“It is no secret that the city’s goal is to sweep under the rug individuals seeking assistance from their neighbors on Albuquerque’s streets,” said Maria Martinez Sanchez, legal director for the ACLU. “The intent is and has always been to drive the most vulnerable and desperate in our community out of public spaces where they are most visible.”
The city’s efforts to keep people off medians have a complex history.
The pedestrian safety ordinance approved by the City Council in 2017 was immediately challenged in a lawsuit by the ACLU on behalf of a woman who routinely used the medians to ask for donations and others who give money to panhandlers.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack ruled against the city in 2019, finding the ordinance violated free speech protections. It was “not narrowly tailored to meet the City’s interest in reducing pedestrian-vehicle conflicts,” Brack wrote.
The City Council tweaked the ordinance in 2019, but the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately upheld Brack’s ruling in 2021.
Keller cited Albuquerque’s grim record for pedestrian deaths in his remarks Tuesday.
“We know pedestrian safety is a real challenge in Albuquerque and in New Mexico,” Keller said.
City officials had no estimate Tuesday how many panhandlers have been struck and killed by vehicles.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation data shows that 40 pedestrians were struck and killed in Bernalillo County in 2022. Of those, 33 happened within the city limits.
The Governors Highway Safety Association has ranked New Mexico the nation’s deadliest state for pedestrians since 2016.
“Way too many of our pedestrian fatalities have been on super-busy intersections and have been from a person either going to, or coming off, a median,” Keller said.
