ABQ’s ‘Sidewalk Ordinance’ Under Fire

Albuquerque City Councilor Joaquín Baca represents the Near North Valley, a piece of the West Mesa, the San Jose area and, important to this week’s episode of New Mexico in Focus, Downtown. It’s a tough district, with many competing interests: businesses, bars and a sizeable portion of the city’s unhoused population.   

In the spring, Baca sponsored the “Enhanced Service and Safety Zone Ordinance,” an attempt, he says, to address a host of issues facing Downtown including gun violence, frustrated business owners and the ripple effects of homelessness. The law has come to be known as the “sidewalk ordinance” because, well, it allows Mayor Tm Keller to designate certain commercial areas of the city where sitting, lying, sleeping, camping or standing on a sidewalk could be criminally prosecuted.   

There’s been plenty of criticism, even though, according to city officials, it’s not yet being enforced. Keller even declined to sign the ordinance after councilors passed it 6-3 in early May, but it nevertheless took effect on June 5.  

Baca was in the NMPBS studio in late May to talk about the U.S. Justice Department suing the city over its immigrant friendly policies. While chatting with the news team in the green room, Baca said he was frustrated by “misinformation” drifting around the city about the sidewalk ordinance and suggested we dive into the facts on NMiF sometime.  

This week, we did.  

A good chunk of this week’s show finds Host Nash Jones moderating a debate between Bacas and the New Mexico Stronger Together Coalition’s Lisa Christopherson, one of the sidewalk ordinance’s most vocal opponents over the law’s merits, its intentions — and whether it’s the right tool to address the city’s chronic homelessness situation. The conversation was civil, but tense. Christopherson and Baca were positioned, armed with facts and ready to give their disagreements room to breathe. And Nash was, as always, prepared to sit in the middle, dig deeper and interrogate both perspectives with respect and a critical eye.  

Our show is at its best when presenting discussions like this one: longform, nuanced, important.   

To complement and contextualize the Baca/Christopherson debate, we’re also featuring Tiffany Leger, founder of the Albuquerque Homeless Union, who until just a few years ago was living outside herself. From Leger’s perspective, the sidewalk ordinance is just another in a long string of city laws and policies meant to criminalize and punish unhoused people. 

We close the show with a back-to-school story — New Mexico in Focus style. Nash sat with Albuquerque City Councilor Nichole Rogers, Mayor’s Office Field Representative Angelica Archuleta-Romero and Natalie Vargas, president of the South San Pedro Neighborhood Association, to learn about innovative new approaches to ensuring International District kids can walk safely to school. 

-Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer