Editorial: City Right to Green Light Red Tags on Neglected Sites

A handful of Albuquerque property owners who have allowed their vacant commercial properties to deteriorate into eyesores received a wake-up call and a warning to clean up their neglected buildings within the next two months or face the consequences. And it’s about time.
Mayor Tim Keller and other city officials delivered the warnings – in the form of bright red signs declaring each of the eyesores a “substandard building” – on Tuesday.
“We are taking back our community one block at a time, and it’s starting right here at this intersection,” Keller said while tagging a building at Juan Tabo and Central
The warnings are being issued in City Council districts 6 and 9 as part of a pilot program approved by the council last year. The program will be reviewed in two years to determine whether it had the desired outcome and should be expanded to cover other parts of the city.
District 6 is Albuquerque’s Southeast Heights, encompassing the University of New Mexico, Nob Hill and the International District. District 9 covers the far Southeast Heights and Foothills.
As of last Tuesday, 30 dilapidated commercial structures have been identified in the two districts. The owners of tagged properties have 60 days to remediate their property. If they fail to do so, the city attorney has the authority to file a complaint in district court. Under the ordinance, owners of dilapidated properties also must pay $500 to register with the Planning Department. The ordinance also calls for $300,000 to be set aside by the city and used to secure or demolish neglected structures.
Harris said the ordinance is needed because without it, it’s difficult to address properties that are in bad shape but not to the point of being declared nuisance properties, which means being used for criminal activities.
Kudos to the city for tackling this problem head on and trying to improve neighborhoods that have been plagued by these eyesores for years. While we all should respect the rights of property owners, those owners must also be held accountable when their run-down properties begin affecting their neighbors. They, too, have a responsibility to the neighborhoods they’re in.
That said, the city should work with these owners to make these vacant properties productive once more, and that includes minimizing red tape when an owner wants to spruce up or finds an alternate use for the property. And city officials should study the pitfalls that plagued the Safe City Strike Force during previous administrations and take steps to ensure they don’t end up repeating those same mistakes, which resulted in a class-action lawsuit.
By: Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board (ABQ Journal)
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