EDITORIAL: Mayor Keller needs to listen to residents

Jul. 29—It's a grass-roots plea for help, and City Hall ought to pay attention.

The Foothills Area Community Policing Council, one of six such volunteer groups established citywide under the consent agreement the city signed with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014, describes the situation along East Central near Tramway as dire.

"There are mentally unstable people walking down the streets ... heavily armed and very dangerous," said Vance Kabella, an Albuquerque Realtor who grew up near the area and is a member of the policing council. Along with 20- and 30-year-old vagrants, Kabella said, "they're running the streets."

The policing council last month unanimously approved a report and recommendations, noting that police can only do so much unless they see a crime in progress, and arguing a broader effort is needed to address the problems.

And the council touched on a sore point when it identified motels where homeless people stay using what are supposed to be temporary city-issued vouchers. A sore point because it requires follow-up. From the policing council's point of view, the city can't simply issue motel vouchers and say "problem solved."

"The objective reality is that conditions along East Central, and the situational, preventable, crime-ridden motels have become a serious problem for businesses in the area," the policing council said in its report.

The group has several eminently reasonable recommendations, including requiring the city Family and Community Services agency to track police calls involving voucher users and another that would make voucher users ineligible for future vouchers if they were "disruptive to the extent of needing police intervention." They also want city enforcement of time limits for the temporary vouchers and criteria that clearly stipulate when "nuisance properties" must be deemed a nuisance.

Family and Community Services officials and motel owners who get paid via vouchers generally discount the complaints. But, if they're right and it's not a problem, the council recommendations should prove that.

An APD spokesman, meanwhile, essentially said the council was driving outside its lane and is supposed to focus on issues related to the DOJ reform process.

The city's website, however, says that, among other things, the councils are asked to make recommendations, and identify concerns, problems, successes and opportunities within each area command.

When it no longer feels safe to walk the streets or shop in local businesses — among other incidents, two recent homicides and a law enforcement raid of a "stash house" linked to a gang leader — it would seem the concerns raised by the council fall well within its mission.

The Central-Tramway area isn't the only city neighborhood plagued by these issues, but this group has taken a new and interesting approach in seeking help. For that, they deserve credit, not dismissive bureaucracy.

And the council makes this important point: In addition to draining police resources that could be used to answer calls to the rest of the Foothills command, crime at or near the motels presents "an unfortunate spectacle to tourists and travelers passing through Albuquerque."

That's a sad touch of irony, given that the city just approved $500,000 for a marketing firm to devise strategies for promoting the 14 miles of Central between Unser and Tramway. And if reviews of the area on such platforms as Tripadvisor are any indication, it's going to take a whole lot more than "marketing." Like, perhaps addressing the facts on the ground?

One way to do that would be for Mayor Tim Keller to personally convene a meeting with community policing council members, area business owners and some of his top staff, including police and social services.

Listening to concerns, rather than dismissing them, would be a good starting point toward a broader approach to make this a livable stretch of the city.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.