On June 14, it was reported that the Albuquerque Police Department was called out to Coronado Park investigate a shooting that left a man dead. The Albuquerque Fire Rescue (AFR) was contacted around 2:40 a.m. Tuesday morning about a man who was “down and out” at Coronado Park. Police say AFR went to check on the man and discovered he had suffered from a gunshot wound.
Lt. Ray Del Greco of the Albuquerque Police Department said officers responded to a shooting at Coronado Park at Third and Interstate 40 around 2:30 a.m. He said a man who lived in the park, which has become a campsite for the homeless, had walked up to a nearby fire station to report a man had been shot.
City Officials says the man was declared dead on scene. APD said a full violent crimes callout has been initiated and APD homicide detectives went to the park investigate the incident.
Links to news sources:
https://www.abqjournal.com/2508302/man-fatally-shot-at-abq-park.html
MAYOR TIM KELLER’S REACTION
During an unrelated news conference on the city’s expansion of its speed camera system, Mayor Keller was asked about the latest killing at Coronado Park and why something is not being done about it being used as a homeless encampment. Mayor Keller had this to say:
“[The federal courts] will not allow us to just walk in and arrest someone because they’re homeless and the current situation beats the alternative. … It is not lost on me that we created Coronado Park because Wells Park said, ‘We don’t want these folks in our neighborhood,’ and we agree with them. And that’s why they were all grouped to one area. … So you also got to remember the alternative. You can’t have it both ways — you want to close Coronado Park, you are going to open all of Wells Park neighborhood to something none of us want to see.”
Link to quoted news source:
https://www.abqjournal.com/2508302/man-fatally-shot-at-abq-park.html
CORONADO PARK
Coronado Park, located at third and Interstate 40, is considered by many as the epicenter of Albuquerque’s homeless crisis. Over the last 10 years, Coronado Park has essentially become the “de facto” city sanctioned homeless encampment with the city repeatedly cleaning it up only for the homeless to return the next day. Residents and businesses located near the park have complained to the city repeatedly about the city’s unwritten policy to allow the park to be used as an encampment and its use as a drop off by law enforcement for those who are transported from the westside jail.
At any given time, Coronado Park will have 70 to 80 tents crammed into the park with homeless wondering the area. It comes with and extensive history lawlessness including drug use, violence, murder, rape and mental health issues. In 2020, there were 3 homicides at Coronado Park. In 2019, a disabled woman was raped, and in 2018 there was a murder.
Police 911 logs reveal a variety of other issues. In February 2019, police investigated a stabbing after a fight broke out at the park. One month before the stabbing, police responded to a call after a woman said she was suicidal, telling police on lapel camera video that she had previously made attempts to overdose on meth.
The link to the news source is here:
City officials have said Coronado Park is the subject of daily responses from the encampment team because of the number of tent’s set up there. They say the encampment team, along with Parks and Recreation Department , and Solid Waste go out every morning, during the week, to give campers notice and clean up the park. They also work on getting them connected to resources and services they may need.
HIGH COST OF CLEAN UP
The debate on how to address Albuquerque’s homelessness crisis was raised during the recently concluded 2023 city budget process. Questions were asked by city councilors about the cost of the city’s efforts to help the homeless. Questions were also asked about clean up costs.
When it comes to Coronado park, the city every other Wednesday dispatches a crew to temporarily clear it of people and clean out the debris. The team involves several departments, including Police, Family and Community Services, Solid Waste, and Parks and Recreation.
During one council budget hearing, Democrat City Councilor Klarissa Peña asked the Keller administration officials how much it spends on the biweekly cleanup at Coronado Park. The answer came as shock.
City budget officials said it is costing the city $27,154 ever two weeks or $54,308 a month to clean up the park only to allow the homeless encampment to return.
Acting Chief Administrative Officer Lawrence Rael cautioned that the amount includes staff time built into the city budget for homeless outreach that occurs throughout the city. Rael had this to say:
“There is no question that monitoring a park of that size with that many folks does cost some dollars to make sure we keep it clean. … I want [to point out] a portion of that $27,000 is already day-to-day operating costs we assume anyway.”
https://www.abqjournal.com/2501616/lewis-moves-to-correct-planned-parenthood-vote.html
STATE LAW AND CITY ORDINANCE DEFINING A PUBLIC NUISANCE
Both New Mexico state law and city ordinance define a public nuisance.
Under state law, a public nuisance is define as follows:
30-8-1 Public Nuisance (Defined)
A. public nuisance consists of knowingly creating, performing or maintaining anything affecting any number of citizens without lawful authority which is either:
A. injurious to public health, safety and welfare; or
B. Interferes with the exercise and enjoyment of public rights, including the right
to use public property.
Whoever commits a public nuisance for which the act or penalty is not otherwise prescribed by law is guilty of a petty misdemeanor.
Under City ordinance, a public nuisance is defined in terms of use of property as follows:
11-1-1-10 PUBLIC NUISANCES PROHIBITED
“(A) It shall be unlawful for any owner, manager, tenant, lessee, occupant, or other person having any legal or equitable interest or right of possession in real property …or other personal property to intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently commit, conduct , promote, facilitate, permit, fail to prevent, or otherwise let happen, any public nuisance in, on or using any property in which they hold any legal or equitable interest or right of possession.
(B) … .”
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
It was an astonishing admission of failure when Mayor Tim Keller said this about Coronado Park:
“[The federal courts] will not allow us to just walk in and arrest someone because they’re homeless and the current situation beats the alternative. … It is not lost on me that we created Coronado Park because Wells Park said, ‘We don’t want these folks in our neighborhood,’ and we agree with them. And that’s why they were all grouped to one area. … So you also got to remember the alternative. You can’t have it both ways — you want to close Coronado Park, you are going to open all of Wells Park neighborhood to something none of us want to see.”
Grouping the homeless, as Keller says, in a city park should not be an alternative given all the resources the city is spending to help the homeless. This so called “grouping” coming from a Mayor who for his entire first term made dealing with the homeless crisis a corner stone of his administration. A Mayor whose administration spent $40 million in 2022 and will spend $60 million in 2023 to provide assistance to the homeless. A Mayor who saw to it that the City purchased the 529,000 square-foot Lovelace Hospital facility on Gibson for $15 million to have it converted into a Gateway Shelter and who made the westside shelter a 24-7 facility.
No, Mayor Keller, the current situation does not beat the alternative. It was disingenuous for Keller to say “[The federal courts] will not allow us to just walk in and arrest someone because they’re homeless and the current situation beats the alternative. … .“ The current situation does not beat the alternative of having a zero tolerance of allowing illegal encampments and allowing the homeless to squat all over the city and enforcing the law.
Keller knows damn well that being homeless is not a crime. His attempt to blame the federal courts was pathetic if not downright misleading. Being homeless is not a crime, but that does not mean the homeless are allowed to violate the law. The are no state or federal laws nor court rulings that say if you are homeless, you are given immunity to break the law and you cannot be arrested for violating the law.
It is a dereliction of his duty for Mayor Keller to allow APD to ignore the city’s anti-camping ordinances, vagrancy laws, civil nuisance abatement laws and criminal laws, and for him to pretend those laws do not exist to accommodate the homeless.
CORANDO PARK KELLER’S SYMBOL OF FAILURE
With the June 14 homicide, there have now been 4 homicides at Coronado Park since 2020. How many more killings, rapes, aggravated assaults and how many more crimes have to be committed at Corondao Park before the Mayor Keller and the City realize the mistake made to allow the park to become overrun with the homeless and allow them to camp illegally?
The city has allowed a once beautiful and pristine park dedicated to public use to become a festering blight on the community. Simply put, it has become an embarrassment with the city violating its own ordinances and nuisance laws by allowing overnight camping and criminal conduct in the park thus creating a public nuisance both under state law and city ordinance. Coronado Park has now become a symbol of Keller’s failure as Mayor to deal with the homeless crisis.
Mayor Tim Keller could use the inherent authority of his office and issue executive orders to clean up and remove unlawful encampments and permanently close Coronado Park. After a full term in office, Keller is reluctant to do just that out of fear of being accused of being insensitive to the plight of the homeless. What Keller has now shown is that he has been a failure dealing with the homeless crisis and he is being insensitive to the needs of the general public and to public safety.
CORONDO PARK IS A PUBLIC NUISANCE
It is clear from the plain meaning of the state statute and the city ordinance defining a public nuisance that Coronado Park operated as a unlawful encampment is “injurious to public health, safety and welfare … and interferes with the exercise and enjoyment of public rights, including the right to use public property. The city is violating its own public nuisance law when it comes to Corondo Park by “intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently commit, conduct, promote, facilitate, permit, fail to prevent, or otherwise let happen, any public nuisance in, on or using any property in which they hold any legal or equitable interest or right of possession. ”
Now that Mayor Keller has ignored and condoned a festering problem that is known as Coronado Park for 4 years affecting a public facility, the City Council needs to fill the leadership gap. The city council needs to enact forthwith a resolution calling for the immediate and permanent closure of Coronado Park, order its cleanup and “decommission” the open space as a public park and order the fencing off of the park. The city council resolution needs to order the Parks and Recreation Department to conduct a study as to how the open space can be better utilized within the city’s park system.