Enough is enough, says Colleen Aycock who notes that it's time for action to clean up the lawlessness and degradation that plagues southeast Albuquerque.
Aycock, a resident of Four Hills in southeast Albuquerque and the founder of Women Taking Back Our Neighborhoods, said the group is demanding action. WTBON held a Zoom meeting Aug. 3 to discuss the criminal element and the mentally unhealthy and threatening individuals living at the corner of Central Avenue and Tramway Boulevard in Albuquerque.
The meeting was organized by WTBON members Sharon Alexander and City Councilor Renee Grout, and was attended city department leaders, including the directors of solid waste, parks and recreation and Albuquerque Community Safety, plus the Albuquerque Police Department commander and Foothills Crime Prevention.
Women Taking Back Our Neighborhoods is a citizen activist group founded in 2018 to inform the public and demand greater accountability from elected officials and civic leaders to prevent crime and keep communities safe. The group has opposed city efforts to expand sanctioned homeless camps.
The Aug. 3 meeting was intended to spotlight the city’s sanctioned encampments plan, first added to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) albeit without budget and operational rules in place in early June. It has faced extensive citizen-led opposition.
On Monday the City Council voted to place a moratorium on any new Safe Outdoor Spaces encampments until Aug. 1, 2023, barring any further action on the matter.
Aycock said the Aug. 3 meeting was intended to open some eyes to the harsh realities of the area.
“It was an attempt to have all the city [department] heads hear about the problems so that everyone would be on the same page, not pass the buck to some other department, identify official laws and city ordinances that apply to the problems and attempt to resolve those problems facing affected neighbors and businesses,” she told New Mexico Sun.
The issues addressed included burglaries, theft, vandalism, lack of arrests, 311 and 911 calls not handled in a timely manner, allegations of Albuquerque Community Safety being ineffectual to the real problems, businesses leaving the corner, unaddressed homelessness and homeless vouchers ruining the hotels.
Aycock provided a description of the conditions at Tramway and Central.
“On the northwest corner is a series of motels, many of which have been given homeless vouchers by the city, which has reduced their ability to attract paying visitors to the city," she said. "You have only to look at any of the reviews to see that these are undesirable locations for paying customers.
“On the southwest corner is an Alon gas station that has been forced to severely curtail its hours, sometimes closing altogether because it can’t get employees to work on this corner,” Aycock added. “The regional manager has told me that of the 13 gas stations in Albuquerque owned by 7-Eleven that this one is the most problematic. They have spent a great deal of money trying to prevent the homeless from across the street from breaking in to the building. At one point they even installed cameras at our request and installed no trespassing signs also at our request so that the police department could take appropriate action against burglars and trespassers."
Aycock said these measures failed.
"Why? Because even though the cameras were being monitored at the real-time crime center in Albuquerque, no one downtown seemed to be monitoring the cameras such that police could respond in real time,” she said. “As a result the owners disconnected the cameras because they simply weren’t worth it. This is a sad state of affairs when cameras are being installed by businesses but they aren’t being monitored in real time by the city as intended.”
Aycock said behind the gas station is a shopping center owned by Jason Daskalos that has been plagued by crime and vandalism. A Dollar Tree is currently boarded up.
“The vagrants across the street have burned the Dollar Tree’s business trash receptacle in retaliation for being asked to leave the premises," she said. "If the homeless feel they are being disrespected, they retaliate by doing serious damage to the business. The Icon Theater has found drug paraphernalia in their bathrooms and had to hire extra security to prevent it.
"Einstein Bagels has had repeated vandalism, again from the people across the street retaliating against the business for asking them to leave the premises," she added. "The laundromat has had its windows broken repeatedly. Sprouts has to hire its own security. Cato moved out last Saturday and prior to that a home store left the shopping center due to high theft.”
Businesses are not the only victims. People have had their cars vandalized and stolen from the shopping center’s parking lot, Aycock said. Drug dealers use the parking lot to distribute their drugs to the homeless in the northeast corner park.
She said although the owner of the shopping center hired a security firm to drive around the property, they are seen irregularly and have not displayed an eagerness to confront the people causing the problems.
“On the southeast corner of Tramway and Central is the Smith’s location,” Aycock said. “They to have to hire additional security and must bar the bathrooms from the vagrants across the street. When the vagrants are asked to leave the park, they set up their tents along the fence at Smith’s.
“On the northeast corner of Central and Tramway is what we’ve been calling a park ever since it was designated with a piece of artwork," she added. "Officially, it had a brass sign designating the statue as ‘La Luz de Amistad’ — the light of friendship. The sign was stolen three years ago.”
A fence behind the small park area supposedly protects the Interstate Highway 40 freeway but illegal campers cut large entry holes in the fence so they can camp under the freeway. At any one time there could be 30 to 50 homeless living in the space.
In 2019, WTBON identified this freeway location as a particularly hazardous location and escorted two APD officers into the area.
“When nothing was done to remove the individuals, we contacted the media,” Aycock said. “In the process of cleaning up, the New Mexico Department of Transportation discovered a meth lab under the freeway and the fact that the fiber optics were stolen, which could have been disastrous if a freeway alert had been needed.”
She said inside two medians, panhandlers are on the scene around the clock. They “rent” the corners from gangs, Aycock said.
“This corner, we have been told, is the most profitable corner of Albuquerque," she said. "Panhandlers make a minimum of $100 a day. We’ve seen it and solid waste [department] also confirms their earnings,” she said. “The majority of campers on this corner are drug addicts, thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes and the mentally ill. They throw rocks at cars, break into businesses and threaten individuals. They are the cause of all the problems at Tramway and Central.
“And after four years of Mayor [Tim] Keller telling all departments, including the APD to stand down on the homeless, WTBON has heard enough,” she said. “Now it’s time for Mayor Keller and his departments to hear us. Do your jobs and quit promoting lawlessness by standing down to crime.”
Aycock said during the Aug. 3 meeting, Councilor Grout asked if the police could make appearances and officially close the area to campers at 10 p.m. each evening, as the city ordinance states.
“No one gave her the answer she was seeking,” Aycock said. “Thus the problems continue and we must take our problems, one at a time, to the governor. Did we get any resolutions from our meeting? No, not really. Did Renee get an answer? No. But they heard us, our proposed solutions, and they know we are not giving up.”