Ad
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood on Thursday.
My favorite business news this week wasn’t a business story — it was a cops story.
I live in Downtown Albuquerque and have done so for most of the 10 years I’ve lived in the city. I have an apartment in the Imperial Building at 205 Silver SW.
For those of you who don’t frequent the area, it’s the tip of the spear of the city’s homeless population.
Longtime residents will say Albuquerque’s homeless population is growing — they’re right. The city’s most recent Point-In-Time count tallied 2,394 people who were experiencing homelessness on a single night in Albuquerque. That marked 1,000 more people than the PIT in 2022.
On Thursday, the mayor, police chief, sheriff and the agent in charge of the local FBI office held a press conference right outside the Imperial Building.
To be clear, crime and homelessness are two separate matters. The press conference was about what they are doing to address violence in Downtown parking lots, especially by teenagers.
But the press conference on that matter was interrupted by a person asking about homelessness. Prior to the press conference, a massive police presence swarmed the area. There were dozens of police office and Albuquerque Community Safety workers milling about. Mayor Tim Keller said they were offering services.
A surge of cops have had a tendency to remove many of the people who live on the streets from an area for awhile.
When I got off work and chatted with my neighbors and grocery store employees, I was told that the neighborhood looked like a different world for hours throughout the day because there was such a heavy law enforcement presence. By Friday morning, it was back to normal.
Ad
Downtown revitalization is a piece of Albuquerque’s economic puzzle. Improving the area is a priority of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Local and federal governments are pouring money into a rail trail that will connect Downtown and Old Town. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has dispatched a unit that will patrol Downtown. Albuquerque police are going after violent criminals.
A thriving city should have a thriving and welcoming Downtown. Downtown Albuquerque has some problems that need to be solved.
I’m not complaining about people experiencing homelessness. I have had conversations with many of them, and I’ll occasionally chip in and buy an extra coffee or candy bar when I’m asked, which is probably about five or six times a day when I take my dog for a walk. For the most part, they are kind and caring people. They are polite. They take care of each other. They are smart. They need help.
One encounter I had was particularly alarming. I was walking inside and a man approached me and asked if I had a cigarette.
I told him I didn’t have any, and he held out his hand with a pill in and said, “I’ll give you a blue.”
That was a fentanyl pill and they are abundant in Downtown. Those little balls of crinkled foil on the ground are what is used to smoke the drug. It’s likely when you see someone with a blanket or coat covering their head, they are getting high.
If a person is homeless because they are addicted to drugs, they won’t get clean on the streets of Downtown.
It’s welcoming news that our city and law enforcement leaders have made cleaning up Downtown a priority.
They’ve got a lot of work to do.
