On March 21, 2025, in response to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s announcement to redevelop or move the State Fair, also known as Expos New Mexico, the New Mexico legislature passed legislation creating the “State Fairgrounds District.” It is a board that has redevelopment funding authority over the existing State Fair grounds area. The board has no authority to move the fairgrounds. It will be up to the New Mexico State Fair Commission to make the final  decision to move the fairgrounds.

Voting members of the State Fairgrounds District Governing Board are:

• Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, chairperson
• Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller
• Senator Mimi Stewart, Senate President Pro-Tempore, International District, #17
• State  Representative Janelle Anyanonu whose district the fair grounds is located
• City Councilor Nichole Rogers whose district the fair grounds is located
• County Commissioner Adriann Barboa whose district the fair grounds is located
• Peter Belletto, President, District 6 Neighborhood Coalition

MASTER PLAN PRESENTATION BY STANTEC

On June 18, the state General Services Department announced that a $844,433 contract with Stantec Consulting Services Inc. was entered into with the State for Stantec to create a Master Plan  for repurposing the 236-acre tract of land that will make suggestions for the land’s use.

On March 14, 2026, after over three months of community input and surveys conducted, Stantec Consulting Services held a public meeting and made a presentation on the Master Plan which  included a presentation on Phase 1 of the Master Plan.

“Recommendations highlights include the State Fair remaining on the Fairgrounds, with investment in infrastructure and facilities upgrades, as well as an outdoor sports stadium as a strong economic anchor, activating the Fairgrounds and its edges with a walkable, mixed-use core, including housing and commercial activity.

Based on community feedback and discussion with Expo NM staff, the Fairgrounds would be reimagined from a seasonal venue into a place where residents and visitors can meet, dine, shop, stay, recreate, learn, live, and work through-out the year. Mixed-use environments would be programmed even on non-event days, centering housing, community venues, parks, and workplaces that could significantly expand Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) generation, a portion of which is utilized to unlock bonding for future development on the Fairgrounds.

Critical to Phase 1 recommendations are that the Fairgrounds are integrated into the surrounding neighborhoods by connected streets, parks, activated edges and pedestrian improvements.”

The Stantec report found that the cost of relocating the fair would be $1.1 Billion to $1.970 Billion for relocation and redevelopment. ($1.1 billion along with another $870 million for development. )

The link to review Stantec’s March 14 Master Plan presentation is here:

Click to access NMSFG_Draft-Recommendations_Public-Meeting-3.pdf

STATE FAIRGROUNDS DISTRICT BOARD VOTES TO SPEND $114 MILLION ON PHASE 1

On March 14, the State Fairgrounds District Board held its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on the Fairgrounds, with the meeting chaired by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. All 7 voting members were present. The meeting lasted more than two and a half hours.

The State Fairgrounds District Board voted 6-1 to approve Phase 1 of the Master Plan giving  their approval  for the state to spend $114 million in appropriations from the Legislature once the fiscal year begins on July 1. The Phase 1 price tag is upwards of $200 million when combined with previously approved bonds. Phase 1 includes infrastructure maintenance for the State Fair and to add permanent retail space.  According to Stantec Consulting Services Inc  the investment is expected to generate $5.7 million a year in tax earnings which is double what the State Fair currently produces. Phase 1 is expected to create nearly 1,000 jobs. At least $30 million of the budget is dedicated specifically for affordable housing.

Representatives with Stantec said the investment covers a wide mix of long‑needed improvements. Stantec said it’s recommending a stadium as an anchor tenant, because it could draw activity year-round.  The funding triggers the start of Phase 1 construction and  includes the following:

• A new multi-purpose sports stadium.
• New housing and business space.
• Park Plaza public spaces.
• Pedestrian safety improvements.
• Infrastructure upgrades.
• New traffic calming and pedestrian safety upgrades on San Pedro.
• New roads through the fairgrounds site, a park, housing.

The vote included  building  an outdoor sports stadium on existing State Fair  property. It also included a mixed use and  mixed-income housing development on the property located at southwest corner of the Fairgrounds  bordered by San Pedro on the West and Central on the South of the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. The Phase 1 development will see the annual State Fair operating as normal while demolition and construction are underway around it.

Ben Lewinger, with Fable Communications, a sub-consultant to Stantec said this:

“This is a true generational opportunity for New Mexicans. This is the first time that a huge area of New Mexico will benefit from a single master plan that will make sure that everything works together, and this is the first time that there’s a funding mechanism to work on that development.” 

Voting “YES” to Phase One were Governor Lujan Grisham,  Mayor Tim Keller, City Councilor Nichole Rogers, Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, state Rep. Janelle Anyanonu, D-Albuquerque, and Peter Belletto, the president of the District 6 Neighborhood Coalition. Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa voted “NO” after her motion to defer the vote for one month narrowly failed. Barboa wanted to defer the decision for a month so that the board could first vote on a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA), which sets out requirements for development, such as local hiring.

Barboa explained her “NO” vote by saying “I am not against a stadium. … I want due process, I want community and I want things that are binding.”

The vote by the State Fairgrounds District Board made no decision over whether the New Mexico State Fair will ultimately move, something  Governor does want and which is a sticking point for many residents who oppose the project.

VOTING FOR DEVELOPMENT ON PROPERTY NOT YET ACQUIRED BY STATE

The Southwest corner property is private property owned by a number of individuals and including limited liability corporations.  It has a total 12 businesses. It was disclosed to the  State Fairgrounds District Board  that the state has sent  letters of interest to purchase at fair market value to the various  property owners and is currently  having appraisals being done for all the property.  No firm offers to purchase have been made.

The State has set aside $22 Million dollars for purchasing the private property with another $15 million set aside for relocation of the business. State officials said  the goal is to acquire all private property at fair market value by September 1.  If the state is unable to purchase the property at fair market value  or if property owners refuse to sell, the state is prepared to initiate condemnation actions.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS AGREEMENT 

During the March 23  meeting, District 6 City Councilor Nichole Rogers said she wants a “Community Benefits Agreement” put in place before construction of Phase 1 moves forward.  A Community Benefits Agreement is a written binding set of protections for local residents.

City Councilor Nichole Rogers said the protections need to be specific. Rogers advocates for 30% of housing to be reserved for local renters or owners and the same percentage for retail space. Rogers emphasized the importance of supporting local business and said a certain percentage of the commercial space must be for  small businesses. Rogers said this about housing:

“Actually putting in binding language that says the people that get to purchase the homes here are not out‑of‑state investors… things that say 30% of the homes built here go to residents of District Six first.”

Councilor Rogers raised more than a few eyebrows and concerns when she disclosed to the Board that she has already prepared a detailed “Community Benefits Agreement” she wanted the board to approve and wanted to be part of the negotiations for a final “Community Benefits Agreement”.

COMMENTARY: It is somewhat embarrassing and a misunderstanding that City Councilor Nichole Rogers has nor does she understand her role as a State Fairgrounds District Board member and her actual authority. The  state fair redevelopment  is a state project on state owned  property. It’s not a city project. It would be totally inappropriate for City Councilor Rogers  to be part of any negotiations for “Community Benefits Agreement” let alone be allowed to write one. It is the State Fair Commission that has exclusive jurisdiction and authority to authorized the negotiation of  a “Community Benefits Agreement” and only after it decides one is needed and if they even want one.  

NEW MEXICO UNITED SOCCER TEAM

Monday’s vote confirmed that an open-air stadium will be part of the Expo redevelopment. However, there are no teams currently tied to an open air stadium.  Any franchise interested in playing there will need to submit a lease proposal. With Phase 1 of the project now approved, the state can begin looking for private partners for the outdoor sports stadium one of which is rumored to be the United New Mexico soccer team.

The city has so far failed to find a home for the United Soccer Team stadium after considering sites in Downtown, near the University of New Mexico and Balloon Fiesta Park. Though the United New Mexico soccer stadium project was approved to be built at the Balloon Fiesta Park in 2023, a lawsuit by three nearby neighborhood associations has halted all progress as the suit makes its way through the state Court of Appeals.

Both Governor Lujan Grisham and Mayor Tim Keller suggested during the March 14 meeting  that United may be interested in the proposed stadium, but both emphasized that nothing has been agreed to.

Governor  Lujan Grisham said it is  still too early to know who could occupy the stadium and said this:

“I have not talked to United directly, but I want this to be an open process. … There is a sense that United is in a really good position to make a proposal, and I certainly I, as the governor, expect them to do so, but I don’t know that they will. … I would be shocked if they aren’t first at the table with a proposal. … United has gotten support out of the legislature multiple times, they’re the most developed team and they fit a soccer stadium for year round use, typically in other parts of the country and we believe here, can connect retail and housing in a really productive way, but another meeting will have to occur.”

Mayor Tim Keller sees this as an opportunity to find a permanent home for New Mexico United. Mayor Tim Keller said this:

“Let’s get a real agreement with United on the table. … We’ve never had a team that really puts butts in seats and that we can build around. … And so they’re the team. They’re the best we got right now.”

After the State Fairgrounds District Board vote, KOB Channel 4 reported it  received a statement from New Mexico United soccer team saying the team is prepared to bring forward a $30 million proposal if it decides the project is the right move. Peter Trevisani, the owner of New Mexico United, said this in a statement:

“We’re encouraged by the State Fairgrounds Board taking this important step toward a comprehensive master plan that includes the potential for a stadium. This is a public process, and it should be, because the future of this site belongs to the entire state and the surrounding community.“

“For New Mexico United, a stadium has always been about more than soccer. It’s about creating a year-round, shared space that brings people together in meaningful and lasting ways.  We’re excited about the possibilities, and for the right project, we’re prepared to bring forward our $30 million private commitment as part of a broader public-private partnership.”

“What matters most is that any development here is thoughtfully integrated into the surrounding neighborhoods, reflecting the shared values of this community and serving as a true catalyst for positive change. This has to work for everyone.  That means incorporating green space and trees, creating opportunities for affordable housing, supporting local art and culture, prioritizing safety and delivering an anchor event center to create jobs, drive commerce and support local business that are working hard to thrive.”

“We look forward to continuing to listen, engage, and collaborate as this process moves forward.”

GOVERNOR LUJAN GRISHAM REACTS TO VOTE

According to  Governor Lujan Grisham, the State Fairgrounds District Board action marks the first time in 40 years that the state has made a multimillion‑dollar investment in Albuquerque’s International District.  Governor Lujan Grisham noted that both past governors and city leaders have tried and failed to redevelop the 236-acre fairgrounds. The governor said she believes the redevelopment could finally bring long‑awaited economic momentum to the area. Lujan Grisham said this:

“I think what the International District needs more than anything is a serious economic development shot in the arm so that it’s more than just the State Fair property. … We’re [now] going to do something about it, so that the people who live here now and the people who want to live here have something meaningful to look forward to. ”

Governor Lujan Grisham said that now that the project has financial backing, any delay is a waste of taxpayer dollars and she said this:

“The longer we wait, the more expensive these [development plans] will get. … What we hope occurs, what we believe occurs, is, once you spend 200 million, the amount of money that keeps coming in allows you to spend a billion dollars.”

 Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:

https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/phase-one-plans-approved-for-fairgrounds-what-do-they-include/

 https://www.koat.com/article/phase-fairgrounds-revitalization-plan-forward/70825884

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/governor-local-leaders-vote-to-build-sports-stadium-housing-at-fairgrounds/3007641

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/state-fairgrounds-set-to-begin-first-phase-of-redevelopment-project/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

There is no doubt that the surrounding neighborhoods to Expo New Mexico and the State Fair Grounds  breathed  a great sigh of relief that Stantec appears to have abandoned plans to move the State Fair grounds. The two major reasons are:

Extreme hostility to moving it by the public. Repeatedly, members of the public attended  meetings and voiced strong opposition.  Ostensibly, Stantec understood fully the extreme hostility that was voiced by the public over the Governor’s proposal to move the Fairgrounds. It’s extremely disappointing that Governor Lujan Grisham persists in wanting the State Fair Grounds to be moved, and she should abandon her  efforts in no uncertain terms. Her refusal to change her mind about moving the State Fair is likely a matter of being ego driven to complete a legacy project within a mere 9 months before her term ends and its simply not going to happen.

The estimated cost to move it. Although discussion were had that the fair could be moved to another location such as the South Valley and even Mesa Del Sol, the proposal to move it was never seriously taken because of the astronomical  cost. The Stantec report found the estimated cost for relocation of the State Fair would be at a minimum $1.1 Billion to $1.970 Billion for relocation and redevelopment.

SEEKING TO REDEVELOP PROPERTY NOT OWNED

This is called the Governor and the State Fairgrounds District Board “putting the cart before the horse”.  State Fairgrounds District Board voted to spend upwards of  $200 million on property that is not part of the State Fair grounds and where there are 12 business located.  The Southwest corner property is bordered  by San Pedro on the West and Central on the South and is in fact private property owned by a number of individuals and including limited liability corporations. The state sent out Letters of Interest to Purchase with no responses received to date. Appraisals of roughly 30 lot parcels are only in the beginning phases and will likely take  months to complete.

Governor Lujan Grisham and state officials have said they hope to have all the property acquired by September 1 so they can break ground on Phase 1. They are being way too optimistic.  The State has set aside $22 million to purchase the property and another $15 million for relocation on business, and that just may not be enough, especially if you are dealing with an unwilling seller.  Confidential sources have confirmed that property owners are extremely upset with the state efforts to buy their properties and they intend to resist and go to court if need be. State Officials have already said they are willing to initiate condemnation actions if the property cannot  be acquired for fair market value.

BUILD THE OUTDOOR STADIUM FIRST AND FIND TENANT

Rather than placing too much hope on acquiring all the private properties over the next few months,  State Fairgrounds District Board should give approval to start to build the outdoor stadium first on the land the state already owns and is used by the State Fair. In conjunction with commencing building the outdoor stadium, immediate efforts  should begin with finding a tenant, which should include issuance of a Request for Proposals from prospective tenants including United New Mexico Soccer Team.

HIGHEST AND BEST USE OF PROPERTY NOT AFFORDABLE HOUSING.

Phase 1 concentrates on redevelopment  reshaping  the 250-acre site and includes upgrading fairground facilities, adding retail and entertainment options and an outdoor stadium.  What is extremely disappointing is that Stantec persists with proposing mixed-income housing and public park spaces.

$30 million of the Phase 1 monies is set aside for affordable housing and other types of income level housing. The blunt reality is that $30 million will not  go very far to build affordable housing. The term affordable housing is a false narrative. When the term “affordable housing” is used by elected officials, investors and developers, what they mean is “subsidized government housing.”  Construction costs are consistent when it comes to building a new housing.  According to the Homebuilders Digest, construction costs covering everything from materials to the actual construction average between $175 to $225 per square foot. To build a 750 square foot housing unit would therefore carry a cost of $131,000 to $168,750.

What the State Fair District Board completely ignores is that 2024, 2025, 2026 were banners years for state appropriations to expand homeless and housing projects in the City, including in the International District. During the 2024 and the 2025 legislative sessions, the New Mexico Legislature dedicated more than $300 million to various housing-related measures at different agencies, including revolving loans for builders, down-payment assistance and anti-homelessness programs.  The Legislature specifically earmarked $110 million in the 2025  year’s budget of the $10.8 billion budget for affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. During the 2026 legislative session, the New Mexico legislature appropriated $175 million for statewide housing and homelessness initiatives with the lion’s share going to Albuquerque. The 2025 New Mexico Legislature approved upwards of  $140 million for housing programs during the legislative session with $83 Million of the $140 Million is earmarked for  projects in the Albuquerque area for housing and the unhoused.

PARK AREA ACCESED FROM CENTRAL WILL BE MAGNET FOR CRIME AND UNHOUSED

Phase 1 once again places a major emphasis and dedicates a large portion of the State Fair property to park area with access from Central. The reality of the city’s homeless crisis is that parks are notoriously magnets for crime and the unhoused. At this point, the State Fairgrounds, does not have a crime problem with the New Mexico State Police having primary law enforcement responsibility to calls for service. The lack of crime on the state fair property will no doubt change with a park and access from Central.

Area resident Dave Kailer was absolutely correct when he was questioned whether a proposed park could thrive in the area and he said this:

“You know what is going to happen to that park if you put it in the war zone? It will turn into a homeless park, let’s face it. … I don’t want to be ugly about it or negative about it. I’m just being realistic.”

History tends to repeat itself over and over again especially when it comes to the homeless crisis and parks in Albuquerque. The State Fair District Board might as well dedicate any park on State Fair grounds property with public access from Central as Coronado Park 2 in remembrance to Coronado Park which was closed by the city as a result of more than 125 unsheltered people taking over the park to camp and it becoming a hot bed for narcotic usage, trafficking illicit drugs and violent crime, including homicides and rapes.

MISPLACED REDEVLOPMENT GOALS

Five out of the seven State Fair District Board members are elected officials of the International District with the President of the District 6 Coalition of Neighborhoods all in the International District.  It apparent that the  Governor’s appointed State Fair District Board and Stantec are strictly dedicated to reviving and benefiting the International District. The Governor and her board have essentially  ignored  the needs and concerns of neighborhoods and businesses to the West, North and East of the Fairgrounds. 

The International District, which is bordered by Central South of the State Fairgrounds has had for decades some of the highest violent crime, property crime and drug offense rates, so much so that it was at one time referred to as the WAR ZONE until it was officially renamed the International District, but the renaming had no impact on the trajectory of the area.  The International District continues to be plagued by high crime rates and  now has become a magnet for the homeless with encampments constantly popping up and cleaned up by the city only to pop up again.

Crime and the unhoused is what is destroying  private investment, job growth and small business development within  in the International District. After all the millions are spent to redevelop the fairgrounds, to improve infrastructure and traffic flow, building a park, adding public spaces and allowing businesses and low-income housing, the problems of high crime rates and the unhoused will remain the same in the International District because they have never been solved for decades. No businesses will want to relocate to the State Fair grounds after it is developed into commercial property, and it will become a magnet for crime and for the homeless, especially with parks.

The Governor and her appointed State Fair District Board are attempting to use the State Fair property to solve all the crime, economic problems and lack of affordable housing of the International District.  Until you reduce crime and homeless on Central itself and in the International District itself, redevelopment of the State Fair property to benefit the Internation District will fail and Governor Lujan Grisham will go down as the Governor who destroyed the State Fair for the sake of her ego.

CONCLUSION

Expo New Mexico can be revitalized into an Entertainment and Commercial Hub  that could revitalize the entire SE Heights and surrounding area with creation of all new commercial property areas leased by the State Fair for shops, restaurants, theaters and entertainment venues that would also be used for operations of the annual State Fair and during the State Fair itself.

There should be no affordable housing and no other housing on the property. No portion of the State Fair acreage should be sold to any developer. The existing walls along San Pedro, Lomas and Louisiana should remain intact for security reasons but develop larger entrances. Efforts to revitalize adjoining neighborhoods should only be undertaken by private developers perhaps with state and city development and tax incentives.

Following is a guest opinion column submitted by Jaemes Shanley.  Mr. Shanley is the President of the Mark Twain Neighborhood Association located in the mid-heights and he is the Vice President of the District 7 Coalition of Neighborhoods which boasts membership of 14 neighborhood associations. Mr. Shanley was not compensated for his column and it is being published “free of charge” as a public service to the public by www.PeteDinelli.com.

BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION

It was on February 18, 2026 that the Albuquerque City Council voted 5 to 4 to reject a series of sweeping amendments that Mayor Tim Keller sought to the city’s zoning laws mandating upzoning in all established residential areas of the city.  The debate exposed tensions between affordable housing activists, investors and developers on one side and on the other side were existing homeowners, property owners and neighborhood associations.

Supporters wanted to double or triple density to boost housing supply in all existing neighborhoods, eliminating rights to object or appeal by adjoining or affected property owners. Proponents argued that “flooding the market” with more housing would result in making more affordable housing available for sale or rent. Opposing homeowners, property owners and neighborhood associations argued there was a need to preserve historical areas of the city, to preserve existing neighborhood character, tranquility and livability and to prevent gentrification and no  property tax increases brought on by change in zoning, improvements or a new purchaser.

JAEMES SHANLEY ARTICLE

ALBUQUERQUE CORRIDORS – AFFLICTION AND OPPORTUNITY

BY: Jaemes Shanley, Albuquerque resident.

If I learned anything from my 35-year career in the world of “big corporate” it was “what gets measured gets managed”.

“INNOVATION CORRIDOR”

In early spring last year, a friend of mine sent me the presentation made January 27^th, 2014 by a group of ABQ community “experts” at a luncheon of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP).  It lays out a proposal for a 5.25 mile “Innovation Corridor” running along Central Ave. from Washington to Atrisco, just west of the Rio Grande River. The vision offered of the potential of this corridor was inspiring: $940 million in new investment and more than 100,000 new private sector jobs by 2024, created in a context of thriving commerce, walkability, and interlinked community innovation.  

The catalytic “thread” for its realization would be a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system running along Central.  With then Mayor Richard Berry using this presentation and a [ $125 million] funding grant from the federal government as justification and impetus.  The BRT was ultimately realized as the ART we all know today, but too few of us actually use it.  Some of the alternative proposals from other experts (School of Architecture professors etc.) and community members offered at that time make for painfully nostalgic reading today.

The cognitive dissonance produced by reading this presentation   triggered a “mission” to measure the reality on Central in 2025, which did not seem to reflect any of the “promises” of this 2014 presentation.  If anything, it was the opposite.

JOURNEY ONTO ALBUQUERQUE’S CORRIDORS

Thus began a  journey onto Albuquerque’s corridors to try and quantify their condition.  Beginning at Tramway & Central in March 2025, I covered  its length to the ART terminus beyond Unser Blvd. NW.  What I found was so striking and disturbing that I felt compelled to continue, which I did, adding:

• San Pedro from Gibson to Montgomery.
• San Mateo from Gibson to its end point at I-25 NE.
• Menaul from Tramway to Rio Grande Blvd. and down to Bellamah north of Old Town.
• 4^th Street from Coal SW to Los Ranchos NW.
• The entirely of Zuni Rd. from east of Wyoming to its end at Morningside SE.
• Lomas Blvd. from Tramway to its intersection with Central east of Old Town.
• Wyoming Blvd from Trumbull in the International District to Paseo Del Norte in the far northeast heights.

Among the 6,050 discrete properties I have documented along or adjacent to these corridors are the following:

• 3,271 commercial premises, of which 740 (18%) are empty, closed, for lease, or abandoned
• 198 free-standing empty whole buildings with combined enclosed space of 1.9 million square feet
• 287 vacant lots totaling 217 acres
• 140 fast food outlets, 262 restaurants, 81 cannabis shops, but only 31 grocery stores. I can’t count high enough to include massage parlors and car washes.
• Large, paved parking lot areas underused all over the place
• Unhoused people concentrated or dispersed throughout

These quantitative and qualitative indicators will, I am sure, be replicated as I extend this effort to other ABQ corridors (Juan Tabo, Eubank, Candelaria, Carlisle, 2^nd & 3^rd Streets, etc.).

Long before I became afflicted with this “obsessive compulsive corridor disorder”, others in our city, most notably the former East Central Ministries (now reconfigured as Street Vision), the Center for Housing Economics, and New Creation ABQ,  focused on the International District, were documenting huge numbers of vacant lots and abandoned houses within residential areas that stand year after year as wasted opportunity for near term housing. On multiple sites they have initiated redevelopment and refurbishment by aggregating parcels of funding from private and government sources.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) is essentially all of the city zoning laws on how properties are zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use development. The IDO includes zoning and subdivision regulations to govern land use and all development within the City of Albuquerque. It establishes the City’s system of planning citywide. The IDO allows the Albuquerque City Council to amend it every two years. This amendment process has resulted in upwards of 140 amendments in the last two years resulting in mass confusion to the public.

The Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) is the legislated framework of rules by which the official “vision” for Albuquerque’s development documented in the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Comprehensive Plan is executed. It is dense and granular. The most definitive guidelines and parameters for land use are contained in its zoning provisions and restrictions.

During  the recent “IDO amendment season” much debate occurred around whether or not “priority #1” for Albuquerque should be re-zoning and “permissive” (unaccountable to adjacent neighbors) rather than “conditional” (subject to notification and consultation with community) re-configuration of neighborhoods city-wide.  Little attention or discussion focused on corridors.

A vocal and passionate segment of the community argued that the only way to make housing affordable in Albuquerque would be to remove any zoning restrictions that could potentially question or obstruct higher density housing development by anyone on any street in any single-family home neighborhood city-wide.

I am not going to wade into the merit of elected officials dictating permissive development rules for the single-family home neighborhoods where 66% of Albuquerque’s residents are housed, but I do know what those residents see every day when moving beyond their own neighborhoods.  It is not other neighborhoods.  It’s the corridors they use to navigate through the city.

The impression these corridors convey to the public is not inspiring. It presents a city afflicted, not one that is thriving.  As an Albuquerque resident throughout the 1970’s, a regular visitor from 1982 thru 2006, and full-time resident since 2007, I know from lived experience that Albuquerque has seen MUCH better days.

ALBUQUERQUE RESIDENTS SEE DECLINE

What Albuquerque residents see when car driving, bus riding, biking or walking along most of our major corridors today is a troubling spectacle of a city grappling unsuccessfully with forces of decline:

• An unhoused population numbering in the thousands, existing as nomads within our city limits, subject to the depredations, vulnerabilities and sometimes desperate behaviors that will inevitably accrue to being placeless within an urban context.
• Empty unused built structures, some casualties of homeless concentrations, but most the consequence of an economic change that has transitioned commerce away from local businesses to national “big box”, ultra discount, and online retailers with which few local businesses have capacity to compete.
• Acres of vacant land lots along or adjacent to corridors which, by their very existence, contradict the assertion by some that “we have no more land for infill development”.
• “Got Space”, “Available”, “For Lease” signs on most strip malls, commercial retail and multi-unit office buildings city-wide.
• Vast parking lots less than half used .
• Large (many new) apartment buildings, most advertising units for rent, with ground floor commercial spaces for lease at higher vacancy levels than the apartment units above them.
• Relentless expansion of thrift stores, Goodwill Industries facilities, and other operations serving our growing population of economically marginalized, while the diversity of iconic locally owned businesses that served Albuquerque’s once growing and thriving middle class steadily shrinks, declines, or disappears.
• Encampments of the unhoused pitched against the walls of empty buildings that contain the basic amenities of civilized life to which they lack access (running water, toilets, heating/cooling, stability, security, shelter from elements)

Each of these 8 corridors present contradictory absurdity juxtaposed with the notion of Albuquerque we justifiably hold: that of a “special place” totally unique geologically, geographically, culturally, and historically.  

Having lived in or repeatedly worked in more than 50 cities throughout the world, I know this cradle we call Albuquerque, with its distinctive and dramatic vistas to the east and west, and the verdant belt of the Rio Grande and bosque running through it, has no identical rival.

WHAT IS A CITY?

Wikipedia devotes more than 10,000 words to the definition and description of “city”.  The nucleus and constant of a city is buildings.  The ancient cities we discover archeologically, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mezoamerica, and Chaco Canyon are collections of buildings that housed and sheltered people.  Nowhere does Wikipedia characterize a city as a combined population of the housed (placed) with the unhoused (placeless).  Its brief reference to homelessness describes it as a growing problem for cities, not as an intrinsic characteristic. 

A large population of unhoused people, obliged to subsist in its midst as indigent nomads, is a blatant contradiction of the foundational concept of “city”. 

When I visited India in 1994, for the first of what would be many trips, I was appalled by what I saw. There were desperately poor people living in hovels that appeared to be constructed of scraps and refuse.  Yet those poor people were better off than our unhoused Albuquerque neighbors today scattered city-wide and concentrated along east Central or adjacent to the I-40 overpass on First Street, because those poverty stricken in India had at least stable place of shelter, and no authorities were routinely and pointlessly coming by to “sweep” them down the street to another “placeless” location. 

WHAT IS “THE KIND OF CITY WE WANT TO BE”?

I believe that if you were to canvas the residents of Albuquerque to solicit their desires and description of the city they would like Albuquerque to be, the overwhelming majority would state unequivocally that they wish Albuquerque to be above all a city where:

• THEY DO NOT SEE unhoused people wandering or encamped on our streets, sidewalks, and alleys or wandering citywide with shopping carts containing their worldly goods because every resident has “place” providing the most basic amenities of urban life.
•  THEY DO NOT TRAVEL along city corridors that are blighted by declining businesses, vacant premises, and vacant lots.
•  Local businesses and households are not obliged to invest heavily in fencing and security to insulate against the desperate behaviors of people obliged to subsist within our city in desperate conditions.
•  Innovative locally owned businesses established in categories of the economy not captured by national chains or online retailers are overtly supported to maximize their potential for growth locally and beyond.
•  Economic development prioritizes not just “jobs” but career path opportunities in Albuquerque that can restore an upwardly mobile working middle class.
•  Household income and home prices have a relationship that permits purchase of a starter home at a relatively early stage of working life.
•  Albuquerque’s abundant charms and attractions are not diminished or neutralized by all too visible problems it is failing to adequately address.

It is worth noting, when considering this might be a daunting challenge, that the nation of India, since my first visit in 1994, has moved more than the entire population count of the United States from extreme poverty to a position within their middle class.

REALITY CHECK: FACTS THAT MATTER

 Consider the following facts as a reality check for Albuquerque:

• Albuquerque’s population in 2018 was 559,677. In 2026 it was 558,046.  That is a 0.3% decrease.
• Albuquerque’s City Budget in 2018 (the last delivered by administration of Richard Berry) was $956,728,000.
•  The 2027 City Budget proposed by Mayor Keller to City Council is $1,466,195,000. That’s a 53% increase.
•  The oft cited “shrinking” of household size over the past 20 years in Albuquerque, if extrapolated to continue for the next 20 years, with maximum impact on housing supply, will require adding 525 units of housing per year, a rate we are already vastly exceeding.
•  Commercial and multi-family real estate research publisher Berkadia reports apartment vacancies in Albuquerque currently stand at more than 7% indicating oversupply, not under supply.
•  Among 21 major US cities plus Vancouver and Montreal in Canada, Albuquerque experienced the 5^th highest inflation of median home prices between 2020 and 2025 at 51%.
• Of the 16 cities in that group with double digit home price inflation (includes the cities most often cited for having eliminated zoning restrictions), Albuquerque is unique for having negative population growth.
•  Smaller and theoretically less expensive housing options like townhouses, duplexes, quadraplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADU’s) and small multi-unit apartments are and have been “legal” in Albuquerque for a long time.
•  Of the 1,370 small home units I counted along the 8 corridors I surveyed, 40% were townhouse and duplex units, many of them relatively new.

THE HOUSING “CRISIS” IS  AFFORDABILITY, NOT SUPPLY

We do have a real “crisis” in housing for Albuquerque, but it is not supply.  IT’S AFFORABILITY!  As I witness driving around, we are building housing, especially apartment complexes, at a blistering pace city-wide, faster than our demographics demand.

Most of the apartment complexes I see today in Albuquerque have signs offering available units.  Price is the problem.  Given the fact that 50% of households earn less than $76,000, if their monthly housing costs (rent, mortgage, utilities, insurance) exceed $1,900 at the high end it is not “affordable”.  For a single person household working a 40 hour week at $15/hour affordable housing costs cannot exceed $858 per month!

The entire, often hysterical, debate over the “housing crisis”  at State, County, and City level has excluded the one causal factor that points to Albuquerque’s contradictory exceptionalism (high housing cost inflation with no supply shortage) and which will continue to strangle housing affordability no matter how much we densify or build.  That is “urban land price inflation.”

When I arrived in Albuquerque in 1969, Eubank and Montgomery were the “outer limits” on the east side.   We could take our cars at night up to the foothills community of Glenwood Hills, point them west, turn the headlights off, and coast in the dark on Montgomery all the way to I-25 without stopping….or being stopped by the police.  Most of the west mesa was still part of the 7 Bar Ranch owned by the Black family.  The cost of the land on which single family houses were built in the 1950’s, selling new for less than $15,000, was negligible.

Not so today.  As we have built up against the limits to our sprawl, land has become an increasingly finite commodity and that is where the true impact of supply constraint is driving housing price inflation.

An interesting current illustration can be found on a now vacant lot being sold in Nob Hill.  The 1,293 sq ft single family home built in 1947 has been scraped from the site.  The 16% of an acre vacant lot is on the market with an asking price of $249,000.  The Bernalillo County assessed market value of that land is $53,635 with 1/3^rd of that value being taxable at the rate of 0.042254% = $755.36 per year property tax on the land. 

For those who can afford to acquire land in Albuquerque, property taxes are a trivial price to pay while sitting on the investment for future capital gains as it inflates continuously and exponentially when infrastructure or development occurs around it. Land is assessed as 1/3^rd of the total property value when improved with a building (house) and other infrastructure. 

Consider what the value of any housing built on this lot will be, for example a two-family duplex or townhouse, each of them 1,650 sq. ft. leaving 50% of the lot for landscaping, driveway, parking etc.  At an averaged construction cost of $200/sq ft, each unit will have a built cost of $330,000.   Add the cost of the land and you have a unit cost to the developer before adding profit to selling price of $455,000 each.   That’s not heading toward affordability.  The post construction County reassessment of the property value will also add a dramatic valuation and annual property tax increase.  Even squeezing a fourplex onto this lot will not yield “density” that is “gentle” from a cost and price point of view.

Any housing policy discourse in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County that does not seriously include and consider the implications of land price inflation and taxing policy is doomed to wallow in the status quo.  Current reality fully validates the work of economists Thomas Piketty and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz who demonstrate the contribution of urban land price (expressed in housing unaffordability and resulting concentration of ownership in the hands of the investor class) to the income inequality that underlies so many of our current ills. 

To dismiss books like Broken City, by Canadian urbanist Patrick Condon, who unpacks the issue of urban land price inflation across the English-speaking world is to announce you have not read it.

FLEEING COMPLEXITY

Oversimplification and distraction does not solve complex problems. It simply kicks them down the road.

• That’s how an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), also referred to a casita, ordinance gets passed in the city and over the next 2 years yields only 15 permits.
• That’s how a Safe Outdoor Spaces ordinance gets enacted to try and improve the situation for the unhoused and in the ensuing 2 years only one organization in the City (New Creations Church) is able to scale the financial and logistical obstructions imposed to establish an SOS facility.
• That’s how the City expends hundreds of millions of dollars to buy, build, renovate, construct and contract a vast Gateway System while the visible and countable scale and state of street homelessness is relatively unchanged.
• That’s how we can propose new zoning regulations to permit “bodegas” in the middle of neighborhoods city-wide when even small businesses located on our corridors with access to many more customers are being squeezed by oversized national competition to the brink of extinction.
• That’s how we are bombarded with benchmarking statistics from other cities that bear nothing in common with Albuquerque to justify radical changes to our land use policies.
• That’s how we surrender our economy and commerce to out of state businesses and property owners who harvest the cream (profits, executive salaries, middle management salaries, capital gains) and export it to their headquarters out of state. When we are milked dry, they leave their abandoned premises on our corridors (Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Franklin Plaza) for years waiting to profit from the land appreciation.
• That’ s how (or perhaps why) we expend great fanfare and funds on Rail Trails, giant tumbleweed sculptures, Rt 66 Visitors Centers, State Fairgrounds Master Planning projects while our most pressing and visible crises persist unresolved…..homelessness, income inequality, housing unaffordability, commercial decay.

RESTORING ALBUQUERQUE’S WHOLE  ATTRACTIVENESS

The commerce that can contribute jobs and higher wages for households depends on restoring Albuquerque’s whole attractiveness to the entrepreneurs, professional practitioners (ie. doctors and mental health professional!), and skilled laborers who will move here with their families to lead and participate in the repair and recovery of our corridors and thus our city. 

Albuquerque needs to utilize the opportunity presented by existing but unused built structure and vacant land as an accessible and core element of a priority program to produce greater housing density and affordability and, most importantly, to effectively end homelessness.

Among its many blessings Albuquerque has an  extraordinary and large eco-system of individuals, non-profits, and coalitions of knowledgeable, experienced, skilled and, above all, deeply committed individuals working tirelessly from every angle to make things better.  A rightly prioritized effort that engaged this community in coordinated partnership with City, County, and State government could accelerate real progress way beyond anything we are seeing.

The “seeds” of a rapid supplemental program of relocation from street homelessness to “intentional supported communities” can be found in the volume of built structure of all sizes we have sitting empty beside the very people who need their shelter. The City and the County have toolkits of “carrots” and “sticks” by which these assets could be engage, short or long term to good effect.  

We should never allow ourselves to lose sight of the fact that, as a wise and knowledgeable community leader states repeatedly when discussing this, “people are dying”.

CONCLUSION

We can and must  fix Albuquerque! If we fix the corridors and the human calamity that is dispersed along them, we can fix Albuquerque.  If we fix Albuquerque the rest of the State will benefit.  A State of New Mexico that is not handicapped by urban affliction in its largest city cannot fail to be one of the most attractive in the nation.

Referenced Corridor surveys, summaries and supporting data are publicly available at:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dlMLlHv7tc1V5sIBSujL4oZyN3UQufpE?usp=share_link

Respectfully yours,

JAEMES SHANLEY

Jaemes1@mac.com

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Jaemes Shanley hand delivered his in depth survey to Mayor Tim Keller and all 9 City Councilors. However, it is understood that not a single one of them acknowledge receipt which is a lack of  common courtesy by elected officials. Such lack of common courtesy was the nature of the hostile debate surrounding the mandatory up zoning amendments where the “cold shoulder” was given to  people with opposing thoughts and who were simply ignored or even vilified, especially by city councilors such as the likes of Tammy Feiblekorn.

The term “affordable housing” is about as misleading as it gets. It is a term way too often used by elected officials and politicians to simply declare a crisis with inflated numbers that shows there is not enough housing that allows the poor or low-income people to rent or buy a home and call their own. Housing prices and rental costs never come down. The more appropriate term that should be used is “subsidized” housing where it’s clear what is needed is subsidized funding for those who cannot afford to buy outright or rent and need assistance.

The housing shortage crisis  declared is related to economics, the development community’s inability to keep up with supply and demand and the public’s inability to purchase housing or qualify for housing mortgage loans. The shortage of rental properties has resulted in dramatic increases in rents. It is clear that the City of Albuquerque and the state of New Mexico are suffering from a shortage of housing, but that does not mean it is all affordable housing.

The Jaemes Shanley article provides an in-depth survey and analysis of the city’s corridors with an informed, viable approach to address the city’s affordable housing crisis. The James Shanley column and survey provides a reasonable, rational, measured and well thought out approach to address the city’s affordable housing crisis.  As a separate editors comment and and analysis, a major emphasis by Mayor Keller and the City Council  should be placed upon the use of vacant commercial properties or buildings for conversion to affordable housing as opposed to forcing the doubling or tripling of neighborhood density, destroying historical neighborhoods and leading to gentrification.

Mayor Keller, the Albuquerque City Council and affordable housing activists, investment speculators and developers would be wise to listen to and act upon the Shanley proposals rather than enacting a wave of amendments every two years to the city’s already complicated zoning laws. They should knock it off with ignoring or vilifying those they disagree with especially when it comes to mandatory up zoning and the Integrated Development Ordinance.

___________________________________________________

POSTSCRIPT

The link to related articles  are  here:

City Council Votes 5 To 4 Along Party Lines to enact “Safer Community Spaces Ordinance” Reinstating Immigrant Protections; Commentary: The Killing Of US Citizens By ICE Agents Could Easily Happen Here

ABQ Journal Dinelli Local Columnist Opinion Column: “Council Was Correct To Reject Forced Upzoning”; POSTSCRIPT: Commentary On The Votes of City Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn, Nichole Rogers, And Joaquín Baca 

On April 1, 2026 the Mayor Tim Keller Administration released the proposed city operating budget for fiscal 2027.  The budget will now be submitted  to the Albuquerque City Council for final review and approval by June 30. The fiscal year begins July 1, 2026 and ends June 30, 2026.

The link to review the entire FY 27 proposed budget is here:

Click to access fy27-proposed-budget-with-weblink-final-4-01-2026.pdf

TRANSMITTAL MEMO

The April 1, 2026 transmittal memo of the FY27 proposed budget from Mayor Tim Keller to Albuquerque City Council Klarissa Pena states in part as follows:

“The FY27 budget proposal comes as cities across the country are facing increasing pressure from inflation, rising service and healthcare costs, growing demand for services, and uncertainty in federal funding. Albuquerque is no exception. Revenues are tightening while costs continue to rise, requiring the City to make choices about how it  will allocate resources.  

Albuquerque continues to see relatively flat population growth and tax revenue when adjusted for inflation. … City revenues are also under pressure nationally, with economic uncertainty and low consumer confidence resulting in reduced spending.

 [The Mayor Keller] administration  directed city departments to eliminate inefficiencies, identify operational efficiencies, reduce non-essential spending and overhead, and to  focus on mission-critical services.

The proposed FY27 budget  protects core services while preparing for potential economic and federal funding challenge. Departments deactivated 247 redundant or non-critical positions, including eight command staff positions at the Albuquerque Police Department. [ A city  spokesperson said only a handful of eliminated positions were occupied, and they are working on transitioning those employees into comparable roles The result is the  FY27 budget  is $35 million lower than last year’s $1.5 billion budget.”

BUDGET DETAILS

The proposed $1.47 billion budget continues investments in public safety, programs to address homelessness, small business and community development, with  initiatives that benefit working families. Even though budget cuts were made, it makes targeted investments in public safety, homelessness and behavioral health services, housing, and the workforce needed to deliver reliable City services. These investments include $16.4 million in compensation increases, subject to applicable union negotiations, that ensure the City remains competitive in recruiting and retaining employees. The budget also includes $8 million in flexible, unallocated funding to support City Council priorities.

PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENTS

Public safety remains the City’s top priority, and the FY27  budget directs more resources to frontline response in the 3 departments of public safety as follows:

Albuquerque Police Department (APD)

The proposed APD  budget will  increase a modest 2% in the 2027 fiscal year to about $278.2 million and comprise nearly 32% of the city’s general fund appropriations. The APD proposed budget calls for $3.8 million to support staff raises, subject to police union negotiations. APD cut eight command staff and 52 civilian positions for a total savings of $5.9 million and doubled the number of funded positions for police service aides from 50 to 100. The budget calls for 1,100 sworn officer positions. In November, APD had 901 sworn officers.

APD resources are being shifted from administrative command structures into field operations. The department identified redundant or non-critical positions and  reduced command staff by 8 positions generating savings that have been reinvested to fund 100 Police Service Aides, allowing sworn officers to focus on core law enforcement duties. APD also continues recruitment and retention efforts toward a goal of 1,100 sworn officer positions and is transitioning 43 existing sworn personnel into field operations.

It was on January 9, that APD Chief Cecily Barker announced a reorganization of the APD. The reorganization includes new executive appointments and the elimination of 12 command staff positions. The 12 command staff positions are being eliminated are a combination of sworn personnel, such as  Deputy Commanders for both Internal Affairs division, and professional employees, such as the Director of Analytics and positions that are vacant.

Albuquerque Fire Rescue (AFR)

The  Albuquerque Fire Rescue proposed budget includes $4.4 million for a negotiated wage increase for firefighters. Overtime appropriations were increased by $409,000. AFR staffing is expected to remain essentially unchanged at 828 full-time positions. The AFR proposed  FY27 budget  will prioritize field response by realigning staffing and reducing reliance on overtime, including integrating support personnel into regular field operations to strengthen coverage city-wide while containing costs. AFR will also see its highest pay increases in city history.

Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS)

Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS)  will  receive a 10.5% budget increase to $19.8 million in 2027, including $261,000 for raises. The budget increase is intended to increase field response and street outreach. ACS personnel have backgrounds as social workers, clinicians and counselors and respond to 911 calls reporting people suffering from addiction, homelessness and mental health emergencies. The proposed budget would fund 156 full-time positions, up from 142 currently. The ACS department will have a $2 million investment to expand field response and double the size of its Street Outreach Team, freeing up APD officers and strengthening the City’s ability to respond to behavioral health calls and homelessness with specialized, civilian-led interventions. $500,000 would be reallocated for motel vouchers.

HOMELESSNESS, HOUSING, AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

The FY27 budget continues to build a coordinated system of care designed to move individuals from crisis to stability through outreach, shelter, treatment, and housing. The coordinated system is know as the Gateway system.

The proposed FY27  budget would increase funding by 9.5% to $48.9 million for the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness Department, and fully funds the Gateway System of Care, a cluster of city services for homeless people. The proposed FY27 budget includes $8 million for affordable housing vouchers. It calls for 98 full-time positions, of which 78 are paid from the city’s general fund. Another 20 personnel would be paid by grant funding.

The Gateway System is fully funded under the  FY27 budget to ensure operational stability as services continue to come online, supporting shelter, treatment, and housing pathways for those most in need. Expanded outreach through ACS will strengthen connections into this system and improve coordination across services.

The Gateway System of support for people struggling with homelessness and drug and substance addiction consists of the following:

1. Gateway Center– (Located on Gibson.) Campus providing medical, behavioral, and social services including overnight beds, first responder intake, medical sobering and respite. Old Lovelace Hospital city purchased for $15 million costing $95 million to remodel into shelter and supposedly providing  assistance to upwards of 1,000 unhoused per month.
2. Gateway West – Safe, supportive 660-bed facility for individuals experiencing homelessness, offering specialized resources and case management. (Annual Impact: 5,700 Individuals. Open 24/7 Since 2019)
3. Gateway Family – Supportive housing center for families with overnight beds, meals, and case management to help achieve stable housing. (Annual Impact: 987 Individuals Open Since 2020.
4. Gateway Recovery– 50-resident micro-community offering low-barrier beds, recovery services, and support for 18 – 24 months. Annual projected Impact: 50 – 100.
5. Gateway Young Adult – Housing and support for young adults ages 15-25 experiencing homelessness, tailored to their unique needs. Annual projected Impact: 120 Individuals. On March 25, the city opened the $17 million transitional housing facility for homeless youth

https://www.cabq.gov/health-housing-homelessness/gateway-system-of-care

The Health, Housing and Homelessness Department budget also includes targeted investments, like $500,000 in reallocated funding to support motel vouchers through expanded outreach efforts, providing immediate, flexible shelter options in partnership with Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS).

NEW DIVERSION INITIATIVE

$400,000 is included in the FY 27 budget proposal for a new diversion initiative, led by the City Attorney’s Office, designed to address the cycle of low-level, non-violent offenses that often result in brief and ineffective periods of detention without treatment or long-term resolution. Under this diversion program, eligible individuals will be assessed by a social worker or case manager at the point of prosecution and offered structured diversion options, including shelter intake, case management, substance use or mental health treatment, or other supportive services.

This approach shifts the City’s response from a system that cycles individuals through arrest and release to one that uses legal intervention as a pathway into services, while maintaining accountability for participation.  By aligning enforcement with treatment and housing resources, the program is designed to reduce recidivism, decrease strain on the courts and detention system, and improve outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness and behavioral health challenges.

PROTECTING QUALITY OF LIFE SERVICES

Departments including Parks and Recreation, Arts and Culture, and Senior Affairs are focusing on core programming while improving procurement, inventory management, and operations to reduce waste and improve long-term sustainability.

The Youth and Family Services Department  is expanding teen programming by $500,000 and increasing compensation for part-time frontline staff by $800,000, while reorganizing early childhood programs to better align with the states free childcare framework.  This approach will allow the  City to extend services, strengthen partnerships, and increase community reach without duplicating resources.

To ensure fairness and fiscal responsibility, several departments will implement non-resident surcharges so that services used by non-residents more accurately reflect their true cost, protecting our taxpayer funded resources.

DRIVING EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

A central component of the proposed  FY27 budget is restructuring how the City operates so it  can reduce costs while also improving the services it provides to Albuquerque residents. Departments have been instructed to  consolidate administrative functions, reduce  reliance on outside contracts, and to  expand in-house capabilities where it improves efficiency.  Examples are   the Department of Municipal Development will be increasing internal capacity for specialized work, and the Legal Department is reducing outside counsel costs through expanded in-house services.

Under the proposed FY27 budget, the City continues to support long-term economic growth. The Economic Development Department and Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency are leveraging redevelopment tools and partnerships to support local businesses and attract investment. The Aviation Department is advancing key assets, including the rail spur and Double Eagle II, as drivers of economic opportunity and improved connectivity.

JOB CUTS VACANT POSITIONS WILL NOT LEAD TO LAYOFFS

The proposed FY27 budget eliminates 247 jobs, including eight command staff positions inside APD, but out of the  job count of 247 positions eliminated, all but two of the 247 are vacant.

Carla Martinez, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Albuquerque, explained it this way:

“The approach that we took is, each of the departments had to find places in which they could find cost savings. Whether it was eliminating vacant positions that they didn’t really need, if it was other in some instances, it was bringing personnel in-house so we had less dependency on contractors. … That was an intentional goal of the mayor and administration …  that when we were making these cost-cutting efforts that we were not eliminating people’s jobs and having layoffs, so to speak.” 

KELLER ADMINISTRATION REACTS

According to news release announcing the FY27 budget, the proposed budget  meets today’s challenges while unlocking tomorrow’s opportunities. The proposed FY27 operating budget reflects clear priorities, disciplined financial management, and a commitment to improving how City government operates for the people of Albuquerque. It will now move to the City Council for review and consideration.

In a news release announcing the proposed budget, Mayor Tim Keller said this:

“We’re making the necessary cuts without sacrificing services or public safety. … This budget shows our total focus on protecting public safety, housing, and the core services people rely on every day. It’s about doing more with what we have and making sure it works for our community.”

Chief Financial Officer Carla Martinez said this:

“This is a disciplined budget built around accountability.  … We took a hard look at any inefficiency and worked with departments to reduce costs, bring work in-house, and improve performance while making sure we continue delivering essential services for our residents.”

CITY COUNCIL BUDGET CHAIR REACTS

Albuquerque City Councilor Renée Grout, who is the budget chair, said she is still reviewing the budget, but from what she has seen, she’s happy to see more efficiency. Grout said this:

“I started just barely started going through the budget, but I am pleased that they did make some cuts. I think it’s important that we all tighten our belts and make some much-needed changes.”

Councilor Grout said the process to adopt the budget will take more than a month of reviews and meetings, and changes usually occur. Gout said this:

“I will be meeting with a few of the [city department] directors just to have some more one-on-one time to learn more about, you know, what their priorities are and why they chose to do what they’re doing, recommending.”

Links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

Click to access fy27-proposed-budget-with-weblink-final-4-01-2026.pdf

https://www.krqe.com/home/albuquerque-mayor-releases-proposed-1-47b-budget-with-cuts-to-spending/

https://nationaltoday.com/us/nm/albuquerque/news/2026/04/02/albuquerque-mayor-proposes-1-47b-budget-with-job-cuts/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/keller-proposes-147-billion-city-budget-for-2027/3015664

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/city-of-albuquerque-explains-that-247-job-cuts-in-proposed-budget-will-not-lead-to-layoffs/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The  FY27 budget  is $35 million lower than last year’s $1.5 billion budget. If approved, the 2027 fiscal year budget would mark the first year the city’s budget has declined since fiscal year 2024, when the city approved a $1.37 billion budget, down from $1.42 the previous year.

The most interesting line item in the FY17 proposed budget is the $400,000  included for a new diversion initiative involving the unhoused. It is a program that will be led the City Attorney’s Office.  The program is designed to address the cycle of low-level, non-violent offenses that often result in brief and ineffective periods of detention without treatment or long-term resolution.

Ostensibly, what the new program in the City Attorneys office appears to be is that at the point of prosecution  the city will  initiate  civil mental health commitment proceedings, either in District Court or Metro Court involving the unhoused who are suffering from mental illness or drug addiction who pose a threat to themselves or others.

The FY27 budget contains $8 million in flexible, unallocated funding that will be divided up by the 9 city councils to support individual City Council priorities.  It will be interesting to see what projects each city councilor will allocate their share of the funding.

Over the next few months, the Albuquerque City Council  will hold “Committee of the Whole” budget hearings chaired by City Council Renee Grout and will review all 27 city department budgets, make changes as they see fit and must approve the budget by May 31.

According to reports, the March 28 “No Kings” rally held in Albuquerque to protest the policies of President Donald had upwards of 50,000 participants. It was  the third No Kings march held in Albuquerque and was likely the largest of the three. The last “No Kings Day” demonstration took place in the fall and had an estimated 37,000 participants. Indivisible Albuquerque, an organizer of the March 28 event said attendance estimate, based on drone footage, was 50,000 people. In New Mexico, nearly 30 rallies were held, including in Las Cruces, Santa Fe and Carlsbad.

Across the country, more than 2,000 rallies were held according to the No Kings website.  U.S. organizers had estimated that the first two rounds of No Kings rallies drew more than 5 million people in June and 7 million in October. On Saturday, March 28,  they estimated that at least 8 million participants took part in more than 3,300 events worldwide.

In Albuquerque, most participants gathered at Montgomery Park before marching peacefully for three miles along San Mateo, Montgomery,  Louisiana and Comanche boulevards before returning to the park. Temperatures reached the high 70s as a cool breeze helped  wave flags  above the heads of marchers as they held handmade signs of protest. The Albuquerque Police Department blocked off streets as protesters carried signs opposing Trump’s political  agenda and policies. The sound of banging drums and chants reverberated in the streets as passing drivers blared their horns in support of protesters with a few expressing opposition.

STACEY ABRAMS SPEAKS

From discontent and protest over the Iranian War, or  the ongoing government shutdown to concerns over immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights, protesters of all ages had different reasons for joining the rally. All voiced their complete distain and  frustration with the Trump administration.

The main guest speaker at the rally before the march was  Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives. She was  in New Mexico to campaign for Democrat Deb Haaland’s who is running for the Democratic nomination for Governor against Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.

Abrams spoke for about 15 minutes as she spoke about the 10 steps to authoritarianism that  the Trump Administration has now taken. Those include by starting with free elections then followed by expanding executive power, installing loyalists, attacking free expression and free speech and normalizing  violence and suppression of access to the ballot box and  people’s rights to vote. Abrams said this to the cheering crowd:

“They’ve taken all 10 steps to authoritarianism. … They were going to seize our power and change our rules and change our minds and change our lives. But I’m here to tell you, no, not on our watch. …  They’ve taken the 10 steps to pull our democracy into authoritarianism; they have done their best to make the man sitting in the White House an autocrat. But if there are 10 Steps to authoritarianism and autocracy, I’m here to tell you there are 10 steps to freedom and power, and we’re going to take every single one!”

Abrams outlined 10 steps she said will take back democracy and freedom, focusing not just on the mid-term elections in November, but action at the local level. Abrams said this:

“We’re going to organize ourselves to show up after today because they need to know that ‘No Kings’ is not a day, it’s a dream, and it’s a truth, and it’s a reality. … We’re going to show up at those community meetings, at those city council meetings, at those county commission meetings, because they’re not doing this alone in DC. … They’ve got folks at the state and local level doing this with them, and they all need to know we’re paying attention. We’re going to disrupt.”

Stacy Abrams took the opportunity to campaign for Debra Haaland for Governor and said this:

“Every eight years in the state of New Mexico, you guys change your minds and say, ‘oops, never mind. We didn’t like progress. Let’s go backwards.’  … But this time y’all got Deb Haaland waiting for you, let’s get it done. Let’s elect we’ve got to elect people who believe in the people, not the power. We’ve got to elect people who believe in the future, not the past.”

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAÚL TORREZ SPEAKS TO CROWD

Another prominent  guest speaker was Attorney General Raúl Torrez. He bragged about the fact his office  has successfully sued President Trump 44 times.  Torrez also took credit for  the state’s recent legal victory against Meta and its founder Mark Zucherberg. Torrez said this:

“Now we took a little time out from suing Donald this last week to deliver a $375 million message to Mark Zuckerberg.”

Torrez told the crowd said this to the crowd cheering him on:

“You’re called upon in this moment to build a different kind of politics, to restore what really makes America great. … Two hundred and fifty years ago, a small group of people declared to the world that the consent of the governed was paramount, that we would not live under arbitrary rules and arbitrary power, that we would not abide graft and corruption and tyranny, and that is still what we are fighting for today. … As long as I have the power to stand up and say no, you can count on me, but I need to know that I can count on you to show up, to organize, to fight, to never give up, to not look away. Now is the time, and we need everything that you can give us.”

ALEXANDER UBALLEZ SPEAKS TO CROWD

Former U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez, who unsuccessfully ran for Mayor last year coming in third with 18.79% of the vote behind Mayor Tim Keller’s  35.69%  and Darren White’s 30.65% who made it into the runoff, spoke about a young woman he met last year while campaigning who bought two dozen burritos for an unhoused man and his community. He used the story to urge people to work in the community to make things better. Uballez told the crowd this:

“Madison helped a stranger, knowing that two dozen burritos wasn’t going to fix the structural problems of poverty and mental illness and addiction that drive homelessness in our city, but knowing also that she had to do something. … This moment demands that you, too, do something, that you take a risk, that you sacrifice something, that you put something on the line when the odds are stacked against you.”

FABIOLA LANDEROS SPEAKS TO CROWD

Fabiola Landeros, a civil rights organizer with  El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos invoked the contributions of the immigrant community in New Mexico. She  said it will take all New Mexicans of conscience to resist current federal policy. Landeros said this:

“We are living in a moment where fellow Burqueños are afraid to go to the store, afraid to send our kids to school, afraid masked agents will snatch us off the streets in plain daylight. We are living in a moment where parents are having to have unthinkable conversations with our children in case we don’t come back home from work.”

PEACEFUL MARCH PROCEEDS WITHOUT INCIDENT

After all the speeches, the crowd assembled along Ponderosa Street that borders the park. The crowd was riddled with handmade signs protesting Trump and his policies, including the Iranian War he has declared and ICE arrests. Protesters march West to San Mateo and went right North to Mongomery and marched East to Louisiana and then turned West on Comanche to return to Montgomery Park for a walk of about 3 miles.

NEW MEXICO REPUBLICAN PARTY REACTS

The Republican Party of New Mexico downplayed the protest march and said the “NO KINGS” movement merely causes  confusion and division at a time when the state is facing a crisis in health care, veterans rights and a lack of school choice.

New Mexico Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Barela released the following statement on behalf of her party:

“If we had a ‘king’ in the White House, there wouldn’t be a ‘No Kings’ protest tomorrow. … We have a president who is making our country infinitely safer by doing what Democrats have refused to do for years: cracking down on crime, eliminating terrorist threats abroad, and removing dangerous criminal illegals from our communities. … Whatever the message behind these protests may be, it stands in stark contrast to what President Donald J. Trump has been doing for this country, putting America and Americans first. …For the first time in modern history, we have a president who prioritizes the people over the political elite, families over government control, and the future of our children over the agendas of Washington insiders.”

Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:

https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2026-03-28/thousands-take-to-the-streets-for-third-no-kings-protest-in-albuquerque

https://www.koat.com/article/no-kings-protest-in-albuquerque-draws-thousands-of-people/70874268

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/thousands-protest-trump-administration-at-no-kings-day-rally-in-albuquerque/

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-no-kings-day-rally-gathers-tens-of-thousands-of-protesters/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/no-kings-rally-draws-thousands-to-downtown-albuquerque/2905082

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/no-kings-rallies-protest-trump-millions/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The “No Kings” rallies across the country with  8 million participants taking  part in more than 3,300 events represent what our Democracy is all about. They reflect just how upset and disgusted the public have  become with President Donald Trump.

Opinion polls are very consistent that Trump’s approval ratings are at 42% and sinking. Trump’s  invasion of two countries and declaring war without congressional approval is taking its toll, as he threatens to invade Cuba saying it’s his to take, as the government shut down continues, as gasoline prices soar and as the economy continues to tank, as ICE kills American citizens, and affordability are the number one issues in the midterms just 8 months away and as Trump’s Department of Justice continues to withhold the Trump-Epstein files.

The midterms will “tell all” if Trump will be impeached for a third time and finally removed from office, unless there is divine intervention because of his ill health. Trump has finally gotten the biggest crowds he covets and that he lied about when he was inaugurated the first time.

On March 31, 2023, the Albuquerque Journal published the following news report  with a  bold, top of the fold  banner headline  “Public safety chief to be paid $187,000 yearly. The article was written by the Journal  investigative reporter Colleen Heild

“The city of Albuquerque will pay incoming public safety executive director Raul Bujanda $187,000 a year, a spokesman confirmed Monday.

Bujanda, whose appointment by Mayor Tim Keller will go before the City Council next month, retired from the FBI in April 2025 after 23 years.

Bujanda served as special agent in charge of the Albuquerque field office from 2021 to 2025, leaving federal law enforcement just months after President Donald Trump assumed office and named Kash Patel as FBI director in February 2025.

Prior to joining the FBI in 2002, Bujanda was a special agent in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and previously worked as a fifth grade teacher.

The INS was the federal agency that handled immigration, border patrol and naturalization until 2003, when its functions were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.

Bujanda will be earning about $32,800 more a year than Keller, whose annual salary is $154,211, according to a city spokesman. He will report to Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel.

Bujanda, who will be a full-time city employee, and newly appointed Albuquerque Police Department Chief Cecily Barker still need to be confirmed by the City Council.

Barker is required to have a contract under a new city ordinance. She will be negotiating a contract, including a salary, with the Keller administration, said APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos.

Bujanda will oversee the APD, Albuquerque Fire Rescue and Albuquerque Community Safety. Their department heads, including Barker, will report to Bujanda.

[APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said] Bujanda’s office will be in the Mayor’s Office. He will not have staff, other than a shared executive assistant with other executive staff in the Mayor’s Office.

Gallegos said there were no other candidates for the public safety chief job.

The position, similar to a deputy CAO, existed under Keller’s predecessor, Mayor Richard Berry, who appointed former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White to the job in 2009. During his stints in office in the 1990s and 2000s, Mayor Martin J. Chavez filled the position with veteran APD commander Nicholas Bakas, and former city councilor Pete Dinelli.

 Up until Bujanda retired last year, Keller didn’t have a candidate he thought would be a good fit, Gallegos said.

 During Bujanda’s FBI career, he served as a section chief in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington. After stints in Portland, Oregon, and El Paso, Texas, he was promoted in 2016 to assistant special agent in charge of the National Security Branch in the Oklahoma City Field Office. He later served as the assistant special agent in charge of Oklahoma City’s Criminal Branch of the FBI.

 Bujanda was named section chief of the Criminal Investigative Division’s National Covert Operations Section in 2019. He managed and oversaw all criminal and national security undercover operations for the FBI.

The link to review the full unedited Albuquerque  Journal  article with photo is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/public-safety-chief-to-be-paid-187000-yearly/3013275

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

EDITORS NOTE:  In the interest full full disclosure, from 2002 to 2009, I worked for the City of Albuquerque and  held two jobs at the same time with and office on the 4th floor and an office on the 11th floor in the Mayor’s Office. For 8 years I was a Deputy City Attorney who was the Director of the Safe City Strike Force and a trial attorney, who organized the Strike Force and worked with APD sworn, the Fire Department sworn and Planning Department code enforcement initiating civil nuisance abatement actions and going to court. I was appointed by Mayor  Martin Chavez as the Chief Public Safety Officer to oversee  APD and the Fire Department and held that position for a year and a half from 2007 to 2009 while also being Director of the Strike Force as a Deputy City Attorney. I served  as the Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center dealing with APD and Fire  and was the former Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney which gave insight to law enforcement practices. I retired on November 16, 2009 after almost 28 years of public service.

Absent from the Albuquerque Journal article is the fact that Raul Bujanda was the Special Agent In Charge is the DWI bribery and dismissal  corruption scandal involving corruption within the APD, the New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sherriff officers. A total of nineteen (19) law enforcement officers have resigned, retired, been terminated or federally charged or indicted or plead guilty to charges. 16 APD officers have been  implicated, charged or plead guilty to federal charges. Nine APD sworn  officers, including a Lieutenant, and one Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Deputy have plead guilty to federal charges of taking bribes. No one has been sentenced for the crimes they have plead guilty to, including two attorneys. The FBI investigation is continuing.

According to a March 26   KOB 4  TV report, Raul Bujanda said that after he retired from the FBI, he reached out to then Chief Harold Medina who then introduced him to Mayor Tim Keller before last years election to discuss how he could assist the city on law enforcement issues and other matters affecting the city.  Bujanda has not disclosed  if the DWI corruption case was discussed in detail with Medina or Keller as he sought employment with Keller. The conversations eventually led to Mayor Keller deciding to offer the position of Public Safety Executive Director to Bujanda.

Simply put, Raul Bujanda’s interview with KOB 4 was as simplistic and as evasive as it gets. He effectively sidestepped answering the question of conflicts by saying no one has questioned if there is a conflict with him taking the $187,000 city job. He did not say whether or not his appointment presents ethical conflicts or the appearance of impropriety to appoint an individual who investigated APD for government corruption and bribery for dismissal of DWI cases and to now be in charge of overseeing APD as well as the City Fire and Rescue Department and the Albuquerque Community Safety Division.

The link to view the full and more detailed KOB news report is here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/meet-albuquerques-new-public-safety-executive-director/

It’s unknown if the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), which the FBI is a part of, was a reference for Bujanda, or if the FBI or DOJ were  conferred with by the city regarding the Bujunda appointment and if the appointment presents any conflicts or jeopardizes the continuing FBI investigations of other officers involved in the DWI scandal. Bujanda could disclose any and all information he may have to APD Chief Cecily Barker or Mayor Tim Keller on other corrupt APD Officers, but that likely is strictly prohibited by his FBI oath of office or the oath to keep evidence presented to a grand jury strictly confidential.

Another problematic area is if Mayor Keller or others will be asking Bujanda to run interference for the city with the FBI or the United States Attorney on the APD corruption scandal or any other cases of government corruption. Bujanda essentially admitted he will run interference when he said to KOB 4 “… I want to continue to do that collaboration we have, not only with the FBI, but any entity that is looking to see what we’re doing inside or internally.”

APD Public Information Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said there were no other candidates for the public safety chief job.  Mayor Keller said he wanted to create the position since the beginning of when he took office over 8 years ago and he wanted a person with a background in law enforcement. Keller said he could not find anyone qualified for the job.  Both APD Spokesman Gilbert  Gallegos and Mayor Keller’s explanations are  laughable and disingenuous.  The position of Public Safety Executive Director was not advertised by the city nor were other applications solicited nor accepted. A national search was not done as was the case for APD Chief.

There is no need for the  position of Public Safety Executive Director that pays $187,000 to oversee APD, the Fire Department and the Albuquerque Community Safety Department whose primary duties will be public relations and community outreach which is already done by the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief and the Director of the Community and Safety Division. The City Council has the obligation to determine if the position of Public Safety Executive Director that pays $187,000 a year to perform public relations and community outreach is really needed. It is not.

The City Council should reject and vote no to confirm the position.

The link to a related article is here:

KOB 4 Interview With Raul Bujanda On Keller’s Rush To Appoint Him Public Safety Executive Director; Bujanda Downplays Likely Conflicts; COMMENTARY: No Urgent Need For $187,000 Public Relations Flack; Council Needs To Ask The Hard Questions On Duties Before Approving Bujanda Appointment

This is an in-depth report on the unhoused numbers in Albuquerque, APD’s  and the Courts response and the City’s financial commitment to the unhoused crisis.  It explores a viable solution to get the unhoused off the streets to provide them with the mental health and drug addiction treatment they need short of jail to get them off the streets.

PROREPUBLIC ARTICLE ON JAILING OF UNHOUSED

On March 4, ProRepublica, online and  non-profit investigative journalism organization,  published an investigative report entitled “Albuqurquerque’s Mayor Said Arrrests Were “Not the Solution” to Homeless. Yet Bookings Have Skyrocketed”. The article was written by ProRepublica reporters Nicole Santa Cruz and Ruth Talbot. The link to read the full unedited article is here: 

Albuquerque’s Mayor Said Arrests Were “Not the Solution” to Homelessness. Yet Jail Bookings Have Skyrocketed.

The report reveals statistics on the arrest and jailing of the unhoused by the Mayor Keller Administration since he was first elected in 2017. Following are quoted portions of the article providing the statistics with edits for brevity:

During his reelection campaign last fall [Mayor Tim Keller] …  criticized challenger [former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White] for suggesting the city should get tougher on the homeless population. [White boldly proclaimed: “When I’m elected, the homeless tent cities will come down on day one.”]  Keller said during a televised debate with White … that such an approach would be cruel and the city clears encampments and gives people citations “all the time…[but] this problem is complex and you cannot dumb it down to arresting people. … You simply cannot arrest your way out of this problem whether you want to or not.”

Despite his rhetoric, a ProPublica analysis found that under Keller’s leadership, Albuquerque has increasingly criminalized conduct associated with homelessness, causing a growing number of people on the streets to be arrested and jailed.

In 2025, people were charged 1,256 times for obstructing sidewalks, nearly six times the number of cases in the previous eight years combined. More than 3,000 trespassing charges were handed out last year, the highest for any year since 2017. And cases of unlawful camping increased to 704 from 113 the year before, according to previously unreported county data provided to ProPublica by the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts.

In recent years, a majority of these cases, once they were adjudicated, were dismissed. But not without consequences: Each citation lists a court date, which, if missed, can lead to a bench warrant and arrest. … And that’s often what has happened.

Over the past four years, the number of bookings in Bernalillo County’s jail classified as homeless or “transient” has skyrocketed — to nearly 12,000 in 2025, from 3,670 in 2022. In recent months, the share of people booked who are transient made up about 49% of the jail’s population… .  This has occurred as the average daily population at the jail from July 2024 through June 2025 reached its highest point in a decade. On some days last year, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center held more homeless people than the largest local shelter.

The city’s homeless population has more than doubled from 2022 to 2025, while the increase in homeless people jailed by the county has more than tripled during the same time period. Police and court records and interviews with homeless people show the increase in their incarceration is primarily driven by the cascading effects of repeatedly citing people who are experiencing homelessness.

In an interview with ProPublica, Keller echoed his contention from the debate that citations and arrests are not a solution to homelessness. Still, he defended the actions police have taken. [Keller said this]:  “What we’re doing is following the letter of the law. There are much more punitive things that I’m sure a lot of people would want, that we don’t do because they’re inappropriate.” 

In a statement, a spokesperson for Keller [said] the city issues three citations before an arrest is made. … When ProPublica pointed out that citations can lead to arrests and jail time, Keller acknowledged that jail “is not the solution.” But, he said, people call the city and ask that laws be enforced.

In recent years, U.S. cities, facing record numbers of people on the street, have adopted more laws targeting them. In 2024, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities may enforce bans against sleeping outside, more than 150 municipalities nationwide, including Albuquerque, either passed new laws prohibiting public camping or ramped up enforcement of existing laws. … .

The emphasis on enforcement has come despite evidence that such citations and arrests are costly. For example, Bernalillo County spends about $169 per night to jail inmates without significant medical or mental health needs, according to a county spokesperson. The cost increases for people with severe medical ($250 a day) and mental health (about $450 a day) needs,  … .  By comparison, housing an individual in the city’s year-round emergency shelter costs $44 a night.

Tony Robinson, a political science professor at the University of Colorado who has studied camping bans, said the share of homeless inmates in Bernalillo County’s jail is “unusually high” — even at a time when cities are ramping up enforcement. ProPublica found that jails in similarly sized counties, including San Francisco and Pasco County, Florida, have lower rates of incarceration for people who are marked homeless.

Citing people who are homeless can land them in jail because some lack cellphones or an address where they can receive notices by mail. This is a barrier to appearing in court, leading to a warrant for their arrest, he said. “Simple citations lead to jail time and arrest by a predictable path.”  … .

Since Keller took office [eight] years ago, Albuquerque has spent at least $100 million to expand the city’s Gateway system, which includes shelter for families and adults, a 50-person treatment program, and a place where people are supervised by medical professionals as they withdraw from drugs or alcohol.

[Keller said this:] “We’re one of the few cities who really has been proactive about building a new system. … It needs tons of work and tons of help, but we’ve at least built something that has gotten 1,000 people off the street.”

Meanwhile, the city’s homeless population, which was at least 2,960 last year, exceeds the shelters’ capacity even with the expansions. Keller has also become less tolerant of encampments in public spaces like parks and sidewalks, vowing to not allow “tent cities.”  … .

City statistics show … that the biggest jump in arrests from 2024 to 2025 was for misdemeanor warrants … .  Arrests associated with misdemeanor warrants were up 72%.

… .”

The link to read the full and  unedited ProRepublica  article with photos is here:

https://www.propublica.org/article/albuquerque-homelessness-citations-surge-tim-keller

THE UNHOUSED CRISIS IN ALBUQUERQUE 

On November 17, 2025  the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness released the  most recent 2025 Point-In-Time (PIT) Report for the numbers of unhoused in Albuquerque. The PIT survey  found that at least 2,960 people in Albuquerque called the streets or an emergency shelter their home with nowhere else to go. Of that number, 1,367 people were completely unsheltered with no roof over their heads, living on the streets or in emergency shelters. The 2025 PIT report revealed an 8% increase in homelessness going from 2,740 in 2024 to 2,960 in 2025, an increase of 220 people.

A 2025 report by the city found 30% of individuals experiencing homelessness self report having a serious mental illness, 25% self report having a substance use disorder and upwards of  66% experience some form of mental health condition. A report by the New Mexico Justice Reinvestment Working Group found that 65% of individuals who enter the state’s criminal justice system have behavioral health needs and the criminal justice system cannot provide necessary medical  treatment and facilities. A major  problem is that approximately 75% of the chronic, emergency unhoused simply refuse city services, yet the city continues spending  millions a year to benefit  so few that need assistance.

CITY’S FINANCIAL COMITMENT TO UNHOUSE

In the last three years, the city has spent upwards of $300 million on homeless shelters, programs and purchasing and remodeling motels for low-income housing. In 2021, the city acquired the Lovelace Hospital complex on Gibson for $15 million and has spent upwards of $90 million to remodel it into the Gateway shelter.  The fiscal year 2026 approved General Fund budget for the Health, Housing and Homelessness Department is $53.3 million. The sum includes $48 million for strategic support, health and human services, affordable housing, mental health services, emergency shelter services, homeless support services, shelter operations, substance abuse services and $4.2 million for the Gibson Gateway maintenance division.

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_42aba680-62c4-4228-95a2-da72df1a34e1.html

https://citydesk.org/2025/09/10/albuquerque-becomes-new-mexicos-homeless-hub-as-gateway-contracts-add-100-beds/?mc_cid=b9e7b25ad7&mc_eid=001367acf1 

The Gateway Network consists of 5 shelters costing a staggering $300 Million dollars spent over the last 4 years to assist upwards of 3,000 to 5,000 unhoused. The City has become New Mexico’s de facto “homeless capitol”  providing shelter and services to the homeless for all communities throughout New Mexico. The problem is that the City and the State’s unhoused numbers are getting worse and not any better after spending millions.

The Gateway Network of support for people struggling with homelessness and drug and substance addiction consists of the following:

1. Gateway Center– (Located on Gibson.) Campus providing medical, behavioral, and social services including overnight beds, first responder intake, medical sobering and respite. Old Lovelace Hospital city purchased for $15 million costing $95 million to remodel into shelter and supposedly providing  assistance to upwards of 1,000 unhoused per month.
2. Gateway West – Safe, supportive 660-bed facility for individuals experiencing homelessness, offering specialized resources and case management. (Annual Impact: 5,700 Individuals. Open 24/7 Since 2019)
3. Gateway Family – Supportive housing center for families with overnight beds, meals, and case management to help achieve stable housing. (Annual Impact: 987 Individuals Open Since 2020.
4. Gateway Recovery– 50-resident micro-community offering low-barrier beds, recovery services, and support for 18 – 24 months. Annual projected Impact: 50 – 100. Opening Early 2025
5. Gateway Young Adult – Housing and support for young adults ages 15-25 experiencing homelessness, tailored to their unique needs. Annual projected Impact: 120 Individuals. Opened March, 2026.

STATUTES AND ORDINANCES ENUMERATED

New Mexico Statutes and City Ordinances have been enacted that are relied upon to deal with unlawful camping and trespass and are used to deal with the unhoused. All the laws have been on the books for decades and are applicable and are enforced against all citizens and not just the unhoused.

The specific statutes are:

1. NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-1 (1995), defining criminal trespass on public and private property.
2. NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-4 (1969), defining wrongful use of property used for a public purpose and owned by the state, its subdivisions, and any religious, charitable, educational, or recreational association.
3. Albuquerque City Ordinance 12-2-3, defining criminal trespass on public and private property.
4. Albuquerque City Ordinance 8-2-7-13, prohibiting the placement of items on a sidewalk so as to restrict its free use by pedestrians.
5. Albuquerque City Ordinance 10-1-1-10, prohibiting being in a park at nighttime when it is closed to public use.
6. Albuquerque City Ordinance 12-2-7, prohibiting hindering persons passing along any street, sidewalk, or public way.
7. Albuquerque City Ordinance 5-8-6, prohibiting camping on open space lands and regional preserves.
8. Albuquerque City Ordinance 10-1-1-3, prohibiting the erection of structures in city parks.

MCCLENDON V. CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE

All the above laws are classified as “non-violent crimes” and are misdemeanors. The filing of criminal charges by law enforcement are discretionary when the crime occurs in their presence. In 1995 the  federal  class action lawsuit of McClendon v. City of Albuquerque was filed to prevent severe  overcrowding  and to mandate  improving jail conditions with a Permanent Injunction issued against the City to prohibit jail overcrowding.

In 2017  the McClendon case led to a settlement agreement after the city was accused of conducting street sweeps of people whom APD had referred to as the “homeless mentally ill.” As part of a settlement, the City of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Police Department agreed that only citations will be issued and no arrests would be made for violations of the state statutes and city ordinances to reduce jail overcrowding.

In March 2025, the City of Albuquerque filed a Motion to Dismiss and be released from the McClendon case. The City  contends that the 10 requirements imposed by the settlement have been met and, in some instances, exceeded.  The Motion and the issue of the city’s compliance is now  before U.S. District Judge James Browning of Albuquerque, who now oversees the class-action lawsuit.  The Motion states in part:

“While the City intends to continue its programs designed to prevent unnecessary incarceration … it should be permitted to do so without judicial oversight, without remaining a defendant in a decades-long lawsuit, without the duty to pay attorney’s fees whenever Plaintiffs believe they have grounds to complain about the City’s actions  …”

Private attorney Ryan Villa, one of the Plaintiff attorneys in the case against the city contends the City of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Police Department have failed to live up to a 2017 agreement to remedy unconstitutional and unlawful practices affecting those living on the streets. Villa said this:  “In our view, the city is using Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC)  as a temporary homeless shelter.”

In a response to the Motion to Dismiss,  the plaintiffs’ attorneys contend the city has “turned back the clock” and resumed the “very same tactics” that led to the agreement. Villa in a  30-page response to the city’s motion wrote this:

“The City has significantly and openly increased criminal enforcement against nonviolent misdemeanants, particularly the unhoused and those with mental illness, and begun crowding the jail via the adoption of systematic practices and formal enforcement policies at odds with the Settlement Agreement terms and purpose. ”

The City’s Motion to Dismiss is still pending.

The link to the relied upon and quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/attorneys-say-city-using-jail-as-homeless-shelter/3003486

CLOSURE OF CORONADO PARK AND ENSUING CLASS ACTION LAWSUITE

On June 27, 2022,  calling it “the most dangerous place in the state of New Mexico”, Mayor Tim Keller ordered the closure of Coronado Park. On  August 18, 2022, pursuant to Mayor Keller’s closure orders, the City of Albuquerque closed Coronado Park because it had become a de facto city sanctioned homeless encampment with the city evicting up to 100 unhoused who camped there nightly. The city cited numerous reasons for closure of the park including lack of sanitation posing severe health risks, overall damage to the park and extensive drug trafficking and violent crime, including rapes and murders at the park having reached crisis proportions. It was costing the city $54,308 a month to clean up the park only for the homeless encampment to return.

The city park had an 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 at Coronado Park.  APD reported that it was dispatched to the park 651 times in 2021 and 312 times in 2022. There had been 16 stabbings at the park in 2 years.  In 2023, APD had seized from the park 4,500 fentanyl pills, more than 5 pounds of methamphetamine, 24 grams of heroin and 29 grams of cocaine. APD also found $10,000 in cash. All the seized drugs were tied to a single bust that occurred at a nearby motel, not the park, though an APD spokeswoman said the suspect was “mainly doing all their distributions [at the park].”

On December 19, 2022 the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, the NM Center on Law & Poverty, and the law firms of Ives & Flores, PA and Davis Law New Mexico filed a “Class Action Complaint For Violations of Civil Rights and for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief” against the City of Albuquerque on behalf 4 men and 4 women identified to be homeless. All 8, along with upwards of 100 unhoused, were evicted by the city from Coronado Park. Not one of the 8 plaintiffs allege they were charged nor arrested for refusing to leave Coronado Park on the day it was closed nor were they jailed. The lawsuit contends it is unconstitutional to punish or threaten to punish unhoused people for the “crime of being in an outdoor public space when there are inadequate indoor spaces for them to be.”

The Plaintiffs allege they were displaced from Coronado Park when the city closed it and that the city did not provide satisfactory shelter options to them. The city said it did give notice and offered shelter and services, including vouchers.  According to the ACLU the lawsuit was filed to stop the City of Albuquerque from destroying encampments of the unhoused all over the city and preventing the city from seizing and destroying personal property and jailing and fining people for being unhoused.

The lawsuit alleges the city unlawfully seized personal property, denied due process of law, and violated constitutional rights by destroying property and forced all the unhoused at Coronado Park out with nowhere for them to go and with the city not providing shelter for them. The lawsuit sought court orders that required the city to cease and desist enforcement actions to stop the unhoused from camping in public spaces which include public streets, public rights of ways, alleyways, under bridges and city parks unless the city has shelter or housing for them.

On March 18, 2024, State District Court Judge Joshua Allison ruled the landmark  United States Supreme Court case of  Grants Pass v. Johnson that gives cities the green light to enforce criminal laws against the homeless for living and sleeping outside on public property does NOT apply to the City of Albuquerque and it is “flawed.” 

The class-action lawsuit is pending and is expected to go to trial in September, 2026, unless it is settled.

US SUPREME COURT CASE GRANTS PASS V. JOHNSON

On June 28, 2024 the United State Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson where the court held that local laws effectively criminalizing homelessness do not violate the U.S. Constitution and do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The case challenged a municipality’s ability to bar people from sleeping or camping in public areas, such as sidewalks and parks. The case is strikingly similar in facts and circumstances and laws to the case filed against the City of Albuquerque over the closure of Coronado Park.

The case came from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which appealed a ruling striking down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outside after tents began crowding public parks. The homeless plaintiffs argued that Grants Pass, a town with just one 138-bed overnight shelter,  criminalized them for behavior they couldn’t avoid: sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go.

Meanwhile, municipalities across the western United States argued that court rulings hampered their ability to quickly respond to public health and safety issues related to homeless encampments.  The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the nine Western states, ruled in 2018 that such bans violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there aren’t enough shelter beds.

The United States Supreme Court  considered whether cities can enforce laws and take action against or punish the unhoused for sleeping outside in public spaces when shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant case heard by the high court in decades on the rights of the unhoused and comes as a rising number of people in the United States are without a permanent place to live.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court  reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to “cruel and unusual punishment” under the United States Constitution. The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not extend to bans on outdoor sleeping in public places such as parks and streets.  The Supreme Court ruled  that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking.

BERNALILLO COUNTY METROPOLITAN DIVERSION COURT

During the 2025 regular session of the New Mexico legislature, the legislature enacted what was referred to as the Omnibus Crime Package.  It included 6 bills, one of which is the criminal competency legislation. It specifically requires that competency evaluators determine whether defendants are dangerous to themselves or others. After a competency hearing, and if a defendant is found not to be competent, a judge  then decides whether the defendant poses a threat. Based on that determination, a defendant is either  ordered to attend an assisted outpatient treatment program or  sent to the state Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, New Mexico. During the October 2, 2025 Special Session of the New Mexico legislature the legislature enacted legislation which will allow the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court to determine competency which previously required district court involvement.

On January 6, 2026 the Metropolitan Court Diversion Court was launched. The new court redirects people with serious mental illness into treatment as an alternative to criminal prosecution for minor and nonviolent crimes. The new court  deals with people who previously have had criminal charges dismissed because they were found incompetent to stand trial. The criminal competency Diversion Court is the fifth such program statewide and is the first in the state’s largest county.

During the Special Session of the New Mexico legislature that ended on October 2, 2025, the legislature enacted legislation which allows the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court to determine competency which previously was only allowed by the State District Court.  A recent report by the New Mexico Justice Reinvestment Working Group found that 65% of individuals who enter the state’s criminal justice system have a behavioral health need and the criminal justice system cannot provide necessary medical treatment and facilities.

State lawmakers appropriated $293,000 a year for the Diversion Court which will pay for a program coordinator and two case managers, or navigators, to direct people to appropriate mental health and substance-abuse treatment and basic services such as housing. The funding also will pay for the program’s behavioral health service provider, Albuquerque-based A New Awakening.

The Diversion Court  provides people who are unhoused with the opportunity to resolve pending misdemeanor cases, outstanding warrants and unpaid fines, all of which can pose barriers to housing and employment opportunities and hinder progress toward self-sufficiency. The Diversion Court will be able to do more when it comes to the homeless who suffer from severe mental illness or who are drug addicted and are a danger to themselves and others.

Candidates for the program are people charged with misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, excluding those facing drunken-driving charges. The program comes at a time when encampment sweeps around Albuquerque have increased significantly and have  led to an increase in misdemeanor charges like unlawful camping and blocking the sidewalk. The program provides an alternative for a judge who otherwise would have little choice but to dismiss the charges.

In cases involving the unhoused or those with mental illness, misdemeanor citations often lead to jail stays down the line due to missed court hearings. According to a Bernalillo County jail population dashboard, just over 7,000 people were booked on misdemeanor charges in 2025. The competency diversion program is intended to guide people with severe mental illness into services that may include housing, medical needs and appropriate mental health or substance-use treatment.

The links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/new-pilot-program-aims-to-break-cycle-for-nonviolent-offenders/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro-court-program-offers-new-treatment-options/2955055

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro-court-program-aims-to-treat-mentally-ill-defendants/2952594

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Being unhoused or being destitute are not crimes. Government, be it federal or local, have a moral obligation to help and assist the unhoused, especially those that are mentally ill or who are drug addicted. The City of Albuquerque is spending upwards of $60 million a year on homeless services with 120  service provider contracts including for two  emergency shelters, subsidized housing, food and medical care and drug counseling. The city under Mayor Keller has also spent upwards of $300 million to build or remodel 5 shelters. Notwithstanding all the money spent, the vast majority of the chronically unhoused refuse or decline city shelter, housing, services and financial help offered or simply say they are not satisfied with what is being offered by the city.

The unhoused are not above the law. They cannot be allowed to just ignore the law, illegally camp wherever they want for as long as they want and as they choose, when they totally reject all government housing or shelter assistance. The City has every right to enforce its laws on behalf of its citizens to preserve and protect the public health, safety and welfare of all its citizens. Unlawful encampment squatters who refuse city services and all alternatives to living on the street, who want to camp at city parks, on city streets in alleys and trespass in open space give the city no choice but to take action and force them to move on and perhaps even arrest for felonies found. Allowing the homeless to use, congregate and camp anywhere they want for as long as they want in violation of city laws and ordinances should never be considered as an option to deal with the homeless crisis given all the resources and  the millions being  spent  to assist the homeless.

Too many elected and government officials and civil rights advocates have a hard time dealing with the fact that many homeless adults simply want to live out  their life as they choose, camp where they want to for as long as they can get away with it, without any government nor family interference and especially no government rules and no regulations. No county and no municipality should ever be required to just simply ignore and to not enforce anti-camping ordinances, vagrancy laws, civil nuisance abatement laws and criminal laws designed to protect the general public’s health, safety and welfare of a community.

Squatters who have no interest in any offers of shelter, beds, motel vouchers or alternatives to living on the street really give the city no choice but to make it totally inconvenient for them to “squat” anywhere they want and force them to move on. After repeated attempts to force them to move on and citations, another option short of arrest and jail must be considered.

FORM SPECIALIZED UNIT TO INITIATE MENTAL HEALTH COMMITMENTS

It was very disingenuous  when  Mayor Tim Keller said when running for reelection in 2025 that “you simply cannot arrest your way out of this problem whether you want to or not”  when that is exactly what has happened during his 8 years in office as evidence by the dramatic spike in arrests and the jailing of the unhoused when there is a viable alternative.

It is likely that the Albuquerque Police Department and the city’s Community Safety Department know who the “frequent flyers” are and who need to be taken immediately off the streets because they pose and immediate threat to themselves and others. Both departments could and should assist the District Attorney or the City Attorney with civil mental health commitments of the unhoused and file civil mental commitment actions.

Under New Mexico statutes, the legislature has empowered  District Attorneys authority to initiate civil mental health commitments. The Bernalillo County District Attorney and the Albuquerque City Attorney’ office should form a specialized unit of at least four attorneys to deal exclusively with civil mental commitment actions in the Metropolitan Court’s new Diversion Court. The state or courts would  provide  funding for  the mental health services provided by the state through the Behavioral Health Trust Fund and  the Behavioral Health Reform Package.

The District Attorney should  cross deputized Assistant City Attorney’s, supported with para legals, to initiate mental health commitment proceedings to work in unison with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office. Such an arrangement of cross deputization of Assistant City Attorney’s has occurred in the past with the City Attorney’s Metro Court Traffic Court arraignment program that processed at one time 60,000 cases per year negotiating plea agreements. Under the process, citations are issued by sworn police and dates for arraignments by the court are immediately scheduled in the citations. The arraignment dates could be the initial step to begin the process of civil mental health commitments.

It is understood the Gateway Shelter on Gibson, which is the former Lovelace Medical Center and Hospital, is still largely vacant and has upwards of 200 patient rooms that are vacant. The Gateway Shelter on Gibson should be utilized for referrals by the Metropolitan Court’s “Diversion Court” with the State providing mental health services to those committed for mental health and substance abuse treatment.

CONCLUSION

Arrest and jailing is not the solution to the unhoused crisis. The homeless crisis has not be reduced  by the city nor by Mayor Keller, but it can and must be managed. The management of the crisis is to provide support services, including food and lodging, and mental health care needed to allow the homeless to turn their lives around, become productive self-sufficient citizens, no longer dependent on relatives or others. With that said, Civil mental health commitments must be included as part of the solution to provide a viable alternative to jailing.