ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – There was a lot on the table at Monday night’s Albuquerque city council meeting.

A lot of people had something to say about one of the proposals. That would be a potential new ordinance allowing police and other city departments to move people along who are hanging out, or sleeping, in front of vacant buildings downtown. 

Most of the speakers at tonight’s city council meeting were against the proposal. They say it would violate people’s First Amendment rights and treat our homeless like trash. 

If City Councilor Joaquin Baca’s proposal is approved, sleeping, sitting, fighting or keeping your stuff on sidewalks downtown would not be allowed. 

While this proposal includes five sections, the one most folks took issue with was the no obstruction zone ordinance.

During the meeting, Baca said it would not impact people’s rights to protest, for example, and offered to work with the city’s legal team to make that clearer. 

His idea is for Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department, Metro Security, and Albuquerque police to be able to kick people out of those no obstruction zones, fine them, or even make arrests if it gets to that level. 

Baca also said this would not only impact the city’s homeless, but people at tonight’s meeting didn’t see it that way. 

 “If you weren’t aware, gentrification and beautification, labeled as cleaning up our streets, threatens the very lives of our unique communities, increasing policing of the poorest,” said Courtney Montoya. 

Another part of Baca’s proposal would target vacant buildings downtown. It would create an ordinance to essentially activate them. 

Owners of these vacant properties would have to pay new registration fees and face additional regulations and inspections.

Baca says the empty buildings sometimes fuel the crime and other public safety concerns downtown. He says more than half of the properties in the area are empty.

KOB 4 took a drive downtown and found about 44 vacant buildings. Some business owners spoke up tonight in favor of these ideas. 

“Downtown deserves to have the same kind of public safety expectations as any other neighborhood in town. I really think this bill is on the right track dealing with the vacant property problem,” said Isaac Benton. 

City council was supposed to get to some other hot topics tonight like the sale of the Coronado Dog Park and start discussion on possibly updating the city’s social media policy.

At the end of the night, the vote was differed 8-1.