Colleen Aycock has taken a person interest in cleaning up southeast Albuquerque. That has involved a lot of time and effort — and a frightening moment as well.
Aycock, a resident of Four Hills in southeast Albuquerque and the founder of Women Taking Back Our Neighborhood, has focused on the dangers and decline along Central Avenue and Tramway Boulevard in Albuquerque.
Last week, she walked along the area, taking photos and assessing the damage done by the encampment of homeless people, many with substance abuse issues, others exhibiting clear signs of mental illness. Businesses are buckling because of the dangers their customers and employees have faced, she said.
“Needles in front of the door still full. Feces on the walkway. Broken doors,” Aycock said. “Temporary closure today. Friday. A rental agency. Would you rent here? One business left last week. (There is) only two active business leases along entire storefronts.
“In the entire storefront line of properties you will see nothing but 200 feet of vacancies. Dollar Tree is closed today for cleaning due to all of the destruction done by the homeless, retaliatory transients in the area,” she said. “I was told by employees that they opened the store on Thursday morning to find a man sleeping inside. Today at my visit there were needle cartridges at the front door filled with liquid. There were two spots of human feces deposited one in front of the Dollar Tree and another pile next to Sprouts.”
The shopping center on the corner of Central and Tramway is only a few hundred feet from a community center where children are bussed for after-school programs and The Bee Hives assisted living and memory care facility, she noted. It’s a place where violence can erupt at any moment, as she experienced in the summer of 2021.
“Last year — and similar mentally ill individuals still loiter there today — the Alon Gas station on the southwest corner of Tramway and Central had been experiencing a number of deranged, drug-induced individuals outside the grocery mart on their premises,” she said. “I had talked to several of the homeless individuals sitting on the premises before the incident. The transients told me that the deranged man was usually found near Wyoming but had shown up unexpectedly to this corner that afternoon. Two off-duty security guards that I knew from Sprouts were talking to the man, trying to calm him down.
“When I approached, one guard suddenly told me to take cover in that the man had a gun and was waiving it. I took cover behind a brick support beam near Einstein Bagels, facing Central,” Aycock recalled. “I tried to call 911 but when no one answered, I called my friend Byron Powdrell and told him to call 911 and stay on the line for me because I didn’t know what the outcome would be. Byron did not receive a call back from APD until the incident was over, about 30 minutes later.”
It was a frightening moment, she admits. But in the end, no one was harmed.
“It turned out that the crazy man, talking and yelling incoherently (a frequent situation at this location) probably had a toy weapon that resembled an automatic weapon that he waved and put back in his bag,” Aycock said. “The man left the area and walked south to get on the bus across from the laundromat. Wisely, the guards didn’t want to follow him, and there was no way to alert the bus driver of his impending passenger because we didn’t have anyone to respond to our 911 call. It was just another example of how quickly incidents can turn threatening from the high number of transients that occupy this corner of the city.”
The threat of violence is very real, and in some cases, people are being attacked, she said. Last week, Aycock met with and talked to several people who work in the area.
“Both doors have been broken into at the Dollar Tree. There have been seven burglaries in the last month to the Dollar Tree and two threats to employees with a gun in the last month,” she said. “The manager was beaten with a hammer and employees are afraid to work there because of the retaliation from the homeless if the employees try to kick them out. While there is some security hired by the Four Hills Shopping Center management, they are only a level one security team so they carry no weapons and the transients and criminals know this. All employees say the police are standing down to crime committed by homeless.”
Mayor Tim Keller has just closed a homeless encampment at Coronado Park due to its violent gang control, drug exchanges and a recent murder. But it’s just an indication of a long-standing problem in southeast Albuquerque, she said.
“We have had the same thing on Tramway and Central for the last four years, including a murder on the corner and the beheading of a homeless woman,” Aycock said. “Workers at Einstein Bagels have noted to me on several occasions that they have witnessed the drug dealer in the parking lot. I, too, have pointed out the drug dealer directly to two APD officers last year visiting the homeless camp. If anyone calls 311 or 242-COPS to report incidents, the operators now say to call the mayor’s office if we don’t like what’s happening because he has issued directions to 'stand down' on the homeless.
“As Coronado Park and Tramway and Central (the end of the free bus line) has illustrated, these ‘homeless’ are not here because they are trying to find work or better their conditions,” she said. “They are here because they know they can do whatever they want without repercussion. There is no law with which they have to face.”
Aycock said there is a solution available.
“If Mayor Keller would 'stand UP' to the situation at Tramway and Central and close the park on the corner, our businesses would be safe and neighbors would not have to fear shopping here,” she said. “But it appears Mayor Keller does not want Central Avenue to succeed, and these costs are driving businesses away.”
Aycock said there is still hope for the area, if city leaders want to improve conditions.
“It doesn’t have to be ‘only the homeless’ on Central and Tramway,” she said.