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Santa Fe to close some downtown streets for 'No Kings' march Saturday
By Nicholas Gilmore
After a struggle between local activists and Santa Fe city officials over permitting fees in connection with a coming anti-Trump protest, the city has acquiesced and plans to close some downtown roads Saturday so demonstrators can march from the Roundhouse to the Plaza.
"No Kings 3" — which is expected to bring thousands of people to the state Capitol in opposition to President Donald Trump's policies — will include a march to the Plaza after all.
City officials initially quoted event organizers numbers of up to $25,000 in potential fees in connection with the event's permitting and public safety costs, but the closure of Old Santa Fe Trail on Saturday will instead come at no cost. Mayor Michael Garcia confirmed in a statement the city "has made the decision to proactively close the roadway on Saturday March 28 to vehicular traffic for public safety reasons."
Organizer and law professor Heidi Li Feldman, who pushed for city officials to allow the march without the hefty fees, said the city's decision was "great news" and that she has "a great sense of relief" that the march will be safer for attendees.
"What this one-off decision doesn't do is resolve any of the constitutional issues about the propriety of the city's process for getting a permit for political demonstrations, or any of the concerns about the conditions that they stipulate," she said.
Saturday's demonstration, the latest in a series of anti-Trump protests in deep-blue Santa Fe, will like previous No Kings protests take place at the same time as others across New Mexico and the country. Previous No Kings protests in Santa Fe have drawn thousands of participants.
Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is scheduled to speak at the No Kings rally in Albuquerque on Saturday, alongside U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury and state Attorney General Raúl Torrez.
Feldman in recent weeks called the city's permitting process "unconstitutional" in its treatment of political speech, arguing the proposed fees and other conditions raised during her negotiations with city officials violated the First Amendment.
She pointed out police officials told her and other organizers from Indivisible Santa Fe that the public safety costs they would charge the organization would be increased by the potential for their event to draw counterprotesters, which Feldman said amounted to tying costs for the permitting directly to the political speech being expressed.
City officials said the permitting process they employed would apply to any organized event seeking road closures, and that the estimates given to the organizers "were based on SFPD protocol and continuum of risk assessment and the organizers desires and estimates of participants."
Many other cities, including Albuquerque, have passed ordinances allowing for events concerned with "political speech" to be granted permits without paying fees for road closures and policing costs.
Feldman said the mayor could direct changes administratively to city staff to change the permitting process quickly, and that the city council could then pass an ordinance to codify the changes. She pointed to Fort Collins, Colo., and Salt Lake [County] as two municipalities that have strong permitting ordinances that she said are protective of constitutional rights.
"We will see if the city is serious about coming into compliance with the U.S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution," she said. "I hope they are."
Garcia said Thursday he was "currently working on updating city policy and procedures that guide our permitting process," although he did not provide more details.
Feldman — a member of Indivisible Santa Fe — has created her own group called 1A Santa Fe in order to provide education about free speech rights.
Indivisible Santa Fe has planned for a march around the Roundhouse at about noon, and at about 12:15 p.m. attendees are encouraged to meet at Old Santa Fe Trail to begin a march to the Plaza, which is being organized by Feldman's group.
Indivisible noted the two separate marches in a social media post, encouraging attendees to "do one or both." The organization also noted the "1A march" was organized independently and is "not affiliated with, sponsored by, or coordinated by Indivisible Santa Fe."