ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — This probably isn’t the Route 66 that most people imagine. Here, there are no restored 1950s diners or art deco gas stations-turned-gift shops.
Here, homeless encampments occupy an entire city block, and it is not uncommon to see people openly injecting drugs while sitting on a curb.
This neighborhood that surrounds this roughly 2-mile stretch of Route 66 in New Mexico’s largest city goes by two names.
“When you’re addicted and you’re running the streets, it’s the War Zone,” said Jeff Holland, executive director of Endorphin Power Co., a nonprofit substance abuse residential treatment center a block off Route 66. “When you live here and you work here and these are the places where your family is raised, this is the International District.”
Roughly 25,000 people live in the nearly 4 square miles that make up the International District. It is considered to be the most culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood in New Mexico, a place where immigrant families once could find affordable housing, raise their families and start businesses.
“We have all the shades,” said Holland, who grew up in the neighborhood.
For years, though, the area has been plagued by disinvestment, poverty, addiction and crime.
Then COVID hit, advocates say, and those issues intensified.
In April, responding to a request from the city’s police chief, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham agreed to send between 60 and 70 National Guard troops to help authorities, specifically along Route 66, where is also called Central Avenue here.
The move put some community members on edge, and that fear was only magnified after President Donald Trump deployed members of the California National Guard and the U.S. Marines to Los Angeles in response to unrest following protests over immigration raids.
Lujan Grisham and others say the two deployments are nothing alike. Guard troops in Albuquerque have been tasked largely with aiding police with their drone program, traffic control, processing arrestees and securing crime scenes.
“I think some people thought it was gonna be more militaristic in nature, and I understand their concern,” said Holland, 56. “But I’m kind of like a wait-and-see guy unless it’s overtly obvious that something is crazy and we’ve got to do something.”
Still, Holland and others recognize the deployment as another blow to a community that has struggled to push back against its public perception and its “War Zone” nickname, which Holland says initially stems from the neighborhood’s past as housing for the nearby Kirtland Air Force Base.
“It’s the appearance that our neighborhood is so violent, so bad, that we need extra National Guard to help control it,” said John Bulten, 56, executive director of East Central Ministries, an International District-based nonprofit that works to provide rapid, affordable housing to people in the area.
Last month, the Albuquerque Journal reported, multiple law enforcement agencies including the Bernalillo County sheriff’s office and New Mexico State Police announced they had made 700 arrests in a three-month effort called “Operation Route 66” that focused on the International District.
The arrest figure “is a staggering number,” county District Attorney Sam Bregman told reporters at a news conference, “and it shows how much this neighborhood deserved this operation.”
State Sen. Micaelita Debbie O’Malley, a Democrat who as county commissioner helped spearhead a tiny home project with 40 units in the International District, said the governor appeared to be responding to frustrations and fears that had been building for years among neighborhood residents.
“Was that the appropriate response? I don’t think so,” she said. “But at the same time, I think she felt she had to do something. Because we haven’t done enough.”
The National Guard deployment also raises questions about the best way to spend public money. A report from station KRQE says the governor has approved $2.5 million for the effort, dubbed “Operation Zia Shield.”
“We want to see public dollars going to the social workers, the case workers, the community organizers, the purchasing of vacant lots and working on projects that come from the community, are supported by the community and will be owned by the community,” Bulten said. “We don’t need that money spent on National Guard enforcement; we need it on boots-on-the-ground engagement and healing of our community.”
Then there is the decision by city, county and state leaders to spend $13 million to build a Route 66 visitors center about 12 miles west of the International District on the outskirts of the city.
Finished in 2022, the center has yet to open to the public. The county has since backed away from the center and given control over to the city, which hopes to have it ready by next year’s centennial.
“Look, I think a visitor center is great,” Holland said. “I don’t know if it’s strategically located or not.”
O’Malley, though, thinks the center still has the potential to be a catalyst for development on the city’s west side.
“For whatever reason, there is just not enough support to really get it off the ground,” she said. “You build something like this and it’s basically owned by the public if you will, and there’s just not enough effort for whatever reason to get it going.”
Both Holland and Bulten say they have little time for Route 66 centennial celebration planning. Their fear is that city officials will temporarily relocate the neighborhood’s unsheltered population to other parts of the city instead of focusing on the long-term health of the neighborhood.
“Everybody lives on this,” Holland said, pointing toward Route 66. “This is important to everybody. This is our main thoroughfare. This is it. If we don’t take care of it, then all of us pay the price.”
