Over the weekend we had some friends in town from the Four Corners area. Their daughter was playing in a softball tournament at Los Altos Park (Eubank and I-40). Although I’m not a native New Mexican I remember watching my uncles play in softball tournaments at these fields and it being a nice, well-kept park.
Unfortunately, while workers do their best to keep up with the deluge of trash, the homeless population is simply impossible to control until the City of Albuquerque takes action to make living in a park uncomfortable or illegal.
See a few photos below:
Is this really how Albuquerque’s parks should look? Is this what we want people visiting Albuquerque to see? With all the money being pumped into promoting tourism, shouldn’t local government be doing something creative to make sure that existing public spaces like parks (which are also visited by tourists) are kept in good shape and are inviting to people visiting the City?
The City is planning to build a $15 million facility for housing the homeless that will be on your fall ballots,but in my conversations with people who manage existing facilities there are beds open every night (with some of the coldest winter nights being close to capacity). Without some effort to push/demand these people leave parks and other public spaces, is there any reason to believe that this new $15 million facility will make a difference?
