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"A special task force has unveiled a plan to address issues of crime and homelessness downtown.It centers around the 4th Street Mall.Venezia Pizzeria opened six months ago on 4th Street, but it's already had to lock its bathroom doors to keep heroin addicts from going inside and shooting up.And then there's the violence.\"I've had customers beat up by the gang members out here, put in the hospital. His whole cheek was inverted,\" said Venezia manager Nathan Plimpton.It's keeping street performer Janette McClelland home, instead of out playing her trombone. \"You're afraid you're going to get groped or you're going to get attacked or somebody's going to rip you off,\" she said.The Alvarado Transportation Center Task Force wants to change things. The group of city officials and community members unveiled plans to turn the 4th Street Mall into a two-lane, two-way road.The project would cost $1.5 million.\"We need to open that up so we can make that a vibrant, happening place instead of a scary place, which it is right now,\" said City Council member Roxanne Meyers.Some worry that if they do change the mall back into a street, it will just send problems with the homeless and people dealing drugs to other parts of the city.The task force is working with area shelters to make sure those people have a place to go.Despite the task force's good intentions, some observers remain cautiously optimistic. \"This looks like a good start, but like I said, we will see what happens,\" McClelland said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.koat.com/article/task-force-unveils-plan-to-make-albuquerque-s-4th-street-mall-safer/5050371>