Mayor Tim Keller recently announced the city is closing down Coronado Park to get rid of the homeless encampments that have overtaken the area, according to KOAT 7 News.
Rhiannon Samuel, executive director of the National Association for Industrial and Office Parks, said the decision will have a significant impact.
“Closing down Coronado Park is monumental in the shift of what it means for that area," Samuel told KOAT 7 News.
In announcing the closing, Keller said the city is no longer to tolerate “the status quo” when it comes to Coronado Park, adding, “We must be open to new approaches.”
The park will officially close in August. Meanwhile, city and civic officials vow to work with the homeless in Coronado Park to find workable solutions. Keeping the park open is not one of them, something Samuel applauds.
"This has been an ongoing issue, so we are pleased to see he's doing something about it," Samuel told KOAT 7 News.
Keller said there were several reasons for the closures: the safety of the people in the park, rampant narcotics use and trafficking, multiple stabbings and other physical violence, frequent thefts, sexual assaults, sex trafficking, extortion and other continuing crime.
Albuquerque received more than 11,500 calls in the past year complaining about homeless encampments. APD reported in 2021 that it responded to 651 incidents in the park, according to KOAT 7 News. Out of the responses, 73 turned into a police report. To date in 2022, police have responded to 312 calls with 62 reports filed. In the last two years, there have been five homicides and 16 stabbings.
"It impacts the communities, neighborhoods and businesses surrounding it," Samuel said, according to KOAT 7 News.
Keller also said the park also needs to be cleaned and overgrown foliage either trimmed or pruned.
“The condition of the park is getting to the point of no return,” Keller told the news station. “If we don’t close the park now, it will never be a park again.”
Once the park is closed in August, Keller said the city will consider a variety of options to seek a solution for the homeless.
“We do not have the luxury of the perfect plan,” Keller said, according to KOAT News.
The homeless who live in Coronado Park were not happy to hear the news.
“This is our home,” one resident told KOAT 7 News. “This is where we live. This is how we grew up. People don't see this. We deal with mental illness day in and day out.”
Keller emphasized there are enough emergency beds in the community to shelter every person living in Coronado Park, estimated to be about 120 people. Nearby Wells Park has a growing homeless community that will probably swell with the impending closing of Coronado Park. That's not good news for Geri Romero, who lives across from Wells Park.
"We live here, and we have to see it every day,” Romero told KOAT 7 News. “I didn't even want to look that way in the mornings."
