Santa Feans sounded off on the much-criticized median safety bill before the City Council and Mayor Alan Webber passed it in an 8-1 vote Wednesday night.
The bill, sponsored by Webber and District 3 Councilor Pilar Faulkner, makes standing on medians less than 36 inches in width for time periods “longer than needed” illegal. It has undergone a series of amendments since the mayor introduced the legislation in April, including removal of a former jail penalty and lowering the maximum fine for violations from $500 to $25. The governing body also carved out exceptions to the law for people crossing the roadway; injured or disabled people who are “unexpectedly incapacitated while crossing; law enforcement; and those experiencing car trouble.
Most who spoke at yesterday’s meeting opposed the bill. District 1 resident Nicoletta Munroe referenced the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass vs. Johnson, which allows for cities to ban sleeping and camping in public areas, at the beginning of her comments.
“I feel that it’s very serious that the country—because we have such a heavy right side of the Supreme Court—is moving right unwillingly. This bill is in that exact category. It is moving our city to the right unnecessarily,” she said. “People who are unhoused who stand on medians are not going to stop panhandling if you tell them there’s a narrowness rule.”
Webber recently told SFR he disagrees with the Grants Pass ruling.
Stephanie George began her time in front of the governing body by noting she works in physical therapy.
“I’m very angry that I’m here talking to you today because my job is basically to take care of all of you every time you have a hip replacement or a shoulder injury, and here you are trying to make a decision that will hurt other people,” George said. “You know what’s really dangerous? Being homeless. That’s even more dangerous than what they’re doing on the side of the road.”
After public comment, councilors discussed the bill, following a motion to deny it from District 1 Councilor Alma Castro, which was seconded by District 2 Councilor Michael Garcia.
Garcia noted he had requested data related to accidents involving people standing on medians but had not received any yet.
“Is there a reason why we cannot produce this data?” the councilor asked. “Is it nonexistent or does the data show it’s not in favor of this legislation?”
Webber replied that “in the absence of this legislation, it’s very difficult to correlate directly to people standing in a median versus people crossing the street and getting hit by a car.”
Garcia then inquired into the cost of implementation—which city councilors said should include an educational outreach campaign and signage or painting the medians—and argued the money could be spent better elsewhere to increase safety.
“If we’re really looking at making our roadways safer for pedestrians, why are we not as a city really putting forth a proposal that would improve our infrastructure, that would make medians a minimum size or there’s no median at all?” Garcia said. “I think, if anything, if we are going to approach individuals on the median that need support, we should be doing it from a proactive, supportive manner, not a punitive matter.”
District 4 Councilor Amanda Chavez said she supported taking up the issue, because it would help the city’s efforts to establish a by-name list of unhoused individuals in Santa Fe—a key goal to the Built for Zero initiative, which the city joined in 2019 and aims to bring the amount of unhoused individuals to “functional zero”—meaning more people are exiting homelessness than becoming unhoused.
“I think it’s very hard to not start somewhere in having interaction and consistent interaction with individuals that need support. Is it the best way? I’m not sure, but it’s a start,” she said. “I think we have to start somewhere to meet our goal.”
Still, she expressed concerns about implementation, saying uniformed officers could appear threatening to some and “that could escalate situations.”
Castro, the sole vote against the bill after Garcia voted in favor of the measure following an amendment to delay its effective date by six months, tells SFR she’s “sorely disappointed in my colleagues tonight” for passing a bill with “no clear path forward financially” for implementation and “no guarantee” of a uniform approach to officers enforcing the law. She noted both the Public Works Department and the Santa Fe Police Department are understaffed, and implementation will apply added pressure to each.
“I don’t think this is going to make pedestrians safer,” Castro says. “Our values should be rooted in community service, not in penalizing folks who are down and out.”
Interfaith Community Shelter Executive Director Korina Lopez—who runs the Pete’s Place shelter on Cerrillos Road in a city-owned building—tells SFR she’s likely “at the other end” of the issue than most of her counterparts, saying she supports the measure due to the safety benefits but doesn’t believe it will substantially lower pedestrian-vehicle fatalities.
“It doesn’t completely outlaw panhandling, and as somebody who has tried to cross Cerrillos Road, I will say there is a safety issue around a very narrow median…Is it going to make a huge impact? I personally don’t think so, but I do understand trying to increase public safety,” Lopez says. “I don’t think that it’s going to result in a slew of people being arrested, and for me, now it’s really about educating our guests.”
The law will go into effect Feb. 1, 2025.