ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A hotly-debated proposal focused on issues in downtown Albuquerque is officially dead. 

On Monday night, Albuquerque City Council voted against a package aimed at tackling vacant buildings and people sleeping or loitering on sidewalks, among other things. 

City Councilor Joaquin Baca created the proposal and even made some changes based on other councilors’ concerns. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough. 

Some councilors liked parts of the bill but found other parts too problematic to pass it. The proposal failed in an 8-1 vote, with only Baca voting in favor of it. 

Baca’s ordinance had four parts:

• Vacant buildings
• Dilapidated properties
• People obstructing downtown sidewalks
• Parking issues 

It would have essentially penalized owners of downtown buildings that are empty and in bad shape to cut down on the amount of vacant properties. 

The proposal would have also allowed police to arrest or fine people sitting, kneeling or sleeping on downtown sidewalks. That aspect had the most pushback. 

Finally, the proposal would have also updated the parking code.

Ultimately, most city councilors said it was too much in one package. 

“If this bill were four bills, which in my mind it should have been, I would have voted for two of them without any amendments,” City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn said.

“There are a lot of things that I think that that could make some that can really move the needle and do some good things, and so certainly willing to work with a sponsor and others to do that. But I am opposed to this bill,” City Council President Dan Lewis said.

Some downtown business owners that KOB 4 talked to Monday agreed, saying all of these complex topics shouldn’t be all thrown in together.

“I think that it would be smarter to separate that proposal, because you’re going to get a lot of pushback,” said Dawn Vatoseow, a co-owner of Lindy’s Diner in downtown Albuquerque. 

Vatoseow argues the market is tough for everyone. She adds that, if city councilors want to get rid of vacant buildings, they should provide incentives – not penalties.

“It’s not the building owner’s fault that there is so much vandalism, and you know, other issues going on,” Vatoseow said. “I don’t think a lot of these people are sitting on these buildings because they want to. I think they’re sitting on the buildings because they have to.”

While Vatoseow supports Baca’s proposal to arrest or fine people sleeping on or obstructing sidewalks, she also argues it’s not going to entirely solve the issue.

“There’s so much more to it than them just camping out on the street. It’s the destruction and what is spent to clean up the mess that is left,” Vatoseow said. “The problem that we have downtown is not a homeless issue. It is an issue of drug addiction.”

Amy Martinez, with Thicc Pizza Co., agrees. Martinez says a fix for people who are homeless won’t come with one proposal. 

“We shouldn’t have to watch where we’re going, watch what we’re driving, watch where we’re stepping or because they’re using our alleyways for a bathroom, we go out there and throw our trash,” she said. 

Martinez says she doesn’t mind that the ordinance tackles many problems. She believes it was a long time coming.

“They should have started a long time ago, when the problem started. Now, we have everything all at once, and what jumbled up into one,” she said. 

City Councilor Louie Sanchez argued some of our current laws would address the issue of people sleeping and loitering on sidewalks. He just says they’re not being enforced. 

Meanwhile, Fiebelkorn says this proposal doesn’t do anything to help people who are homeless. 

Baca hasn’t said if he’d reintroduce some parts of his ideas as individual bills.