Santa Fe Commission District 2

January 1, 2013 Update:
Although the city previously fenced and locked entries to the NWQ at the Park&Ride lot behind the Spa on Calle Mejia and off of Ridgetop Road, these entrance gates have been vandalized. The gate is wide open behind the Spa. The chain on the gate off of Ridgetop Road has been cut. Joy-riding 4-wheelers continue to erode the hills and kill vegetation. The user-created trails are getting bigger and bigger.

The city needs check on these gates regularly, and maintain them. Why is the city so negligent about this valuable piece of land?
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Recently the city has gated and locked two illegal access points – behind the Spa and on Ridge Top Road. Thanks! But there are breaches in the fence to the west off Los Montoyas. SUVs and OHVs are still tearing up the area and tossing party trash.
Regular police patrols are needed.
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Four males in a SUV shot at my daughter, son-in-law and me while we were walking in the Northwest Quadrant just above the Viento del Norte condos on Saturday June 17 at 7pm. We had observed them breaching the fence at the commuter parking lot behind the Santa Fe Spa and driving up the eroded hillside. They then drove towards us on a footpath just above the condo complex on a narrow ridge. So I (a 65-year-old white-haired woman) went to the driver's window and let the driver know that there was no outlet below and that the path has never been a vehicular route. I used the mild nonthreatening manner I learned in U.S. Forest Service visitor contact training. The driver said he would turn around, but his front passenger was belligerent, saying that they'd been "coming here for years." They proceeded down the ridge until they reached retaining walls that drop off into the condo property. They turned around with spinning wheels, and as they again approached us, we heard a gunshot. The three of us took cover in the adjacent arroyo and sprinted back to our condo complex, where we reported the incident to the police nonemergency number.

The City of Santa Fe is ignoring dangerous conditions in the city-owned Northwest Quadrant and endangering citizens with its negligence. This area is bordered on the southeast by Calle Mejia, Alamo Drive and Camino de las Crucitas; and on the northwest by NM 599 Relief Route. The city has half-heartedly fenced off vehicular access to the NWQ, but fails to maintain these fences from incursions and fails to patrol the area with police officers. As a result, the area is wide open to illegal activities. Inebriated and/or high joy riders daily access the area with SUVs, ATVs and dirt bikes, destroying vegetation, creating massive hillside erosion visible from St. Francis, and trashing the area. Squatters maintain camps up there year round, creating significant sanitation issues. In May 2007, a suspected serial rapist likely accessed his Casa Solana victim and escaped via this area. The area hosts drug dealing, driving under the influence, fireworks in drought conditions, and numerous other illegal activities. On occasion these illicit users have conflicts, and gunshots are heard regularly. Fireworks, huge party bonfires and squatter campfires threaten the surrounding residential areas and businesses with potential wildfires.

Meanwhile, many neighborhood citizens use this vacant city land for recreation, while the NW Quadrant housing development plans go through the public process. Even vacant land must be managed and supervised, especially in such close proximity to this densely populated city's center. The City of Santa Fe's neglect of this dangerous situation is a betrayal of the public trust and the city is exposing itself to significant liability.

The Northwest Quadrant deserves law enforcement just as much as the Plaza. The city must effectively fence out vehicles and enforce the law in the NWQ. Must we wait until someone is killed to fix this mess?