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That is my feeling as well, most SW cities I've been to share the bars on windows look. I think people see it so often that they think it's necessary without thinking much about it.
One thing to remember with this style is that before central ac or even swamp coolers, the only method of cooling was to leave the windows open - pretty much all day/all night, even when away from home. Bars were necessary then and there, now they are just "the look" to a large degree.
Those are handsome dogs Poncho
Hmnn. Haven't looked at that way. That would explain why they're mostly on the older houses, since the newer construction tends to have A/C.
If I'm not mistaken wrought iron bars are old Spanish style of window and door decoration. You can find them used in very upscale spanish style homes in Calif. and have seen a few in Phoenix area and other places. For pictures of designs check out Houzz home decorating site. Never really thought of them as crime indicators. Very practical for doors if you have dogs that scratch and tear screens or cats that climb them. Love your dogs Poncho!
I would much prefer having the doors and windows open with bars keeping things out. It's much more worrisome to NOT have any bars, and leaving doors and windows completely open.
Plus, I think the bars and gates and such look kind of cool too. I like it anyways.
You have to admit, some cheap bars bolted to the side of a concrete box with a weedy yard looks bad. On the other hand, there are beautiful houses with very nice bars. It is a legitimate architectural motif with a practical side effect.
I will have to say I do not feel the bars are there for due to crime. I lived in NM for several years and even my apartment there had those bars. It was in one of the safest parts of town. I assumed it was the style.
People moving here from the South and SE will definitely think they're for crime prevention. Where my mom lives (AL Gulf coast), bars are generally found on homes where older folks live and have been broken into, and high crime areas. That's why I thought they were burglar bars, as do other folks I know who moved here from there. Thanks to prosopis' post, I'm now looking at them differently.
I do like the bar formation though that looks like a sun. Really cool.
The thing I've noticed the most on traveling through Arizona and New Mexico is bars on windows and doors. Even in upscale neighborhoods in and around Albuquerque. They are absolutely everywhere, in every neighborhood.
It looks truly awful (despite efforts at "decorative" design) and makes every neighborhood in town look (and more importantly, feel) like the South Bronx.
How much of this is necessary, and how much of it is just unjustified fear, and are there any efforts to back off of the "halfway house" look, or is it becoming more prevalent?
I looked at an ad for a house rental in a nicer part of ABQ and it looks great.....except for the bars on the windows. I just dont want to live that way.
They are not "absolutely everywhere, in every neighborhood" as you claim.
I disagree. They are not on every house, but every neighborhood in ABQ's got them, from my observation. And much more prevalent than cities back in the Midwest, except for truly bad Midwestern city neighborhoods.
In some cities back East, there's been an effort to get window bars and security shutters removed. Cleveland has a neighborhood, for example, where new businesses and residences are now strongly encouraged to have no bars or security shutters on their businesses because it gives the perception of high crime area. And THAT neighborhood is far worse than some of the nicer ABQ neighborhoods that are loaded with bars on windows.
Thanks for the link btw. Very illuminating actually. Though it does create new questions!
Last edited by Poncho_NM; 02-17-2017 at 08:23 AM..
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the whole "bars on the windows" thing
