What do you think Albuquerque needs to make it look like a real city (Las Cruces: fit in, apartments)

[finmqa1]

Denver has both beautiful mountains and beautiful highrises. When I advocate more density (400-500 foot towers) I'm not proposing some 700 foot replica of the Sears Tower. The Bank of Albuquerque building Downtown currently stands at 352 ft. So adding a few towers at 400 feet would not make our downtown look like Dallas, Chicago, or any other major metroplex in the country.

[nmguy]

In order for Albuquerque to LOOK like a real city, it must ACT like a real city.

Luring professionals to Abq requires quality schools. It's my belief that, when we offer good education, professionals with kids will be more inclined to move to this area.

[LLD]

Not quite sure what you mean here... there a ton of professionals here -- at UNM and at Sandia and several of the high tech companies in Albuquerque, not to mention all the doctors and lawyers too.

[nmguy]

LLD,

Sorry for being ambiguous.

I guess I'm talking about prospective film industry employees at the places being built south of the SunPort, as well as employees at Intel in RR, and some of the nano technology companies that are sprouting in the area.

Many of these folks have school-aged kids and, from what I've read and heard, are scared off by the dismal education system that APS offers.

[LLD]

Well I think there are lots of professionals here and as to school districts - seems that in many cities the public schools are lacking in general but then there are always some good schools within the district and then of course there are private schools and suburban schools to the city -- all of which attract people to an area.

Personally I think one of the deterrents here are the generally low salaries for professionals. I remember looking at the salaries in the Albuquerque magazine not long ago and I was frankly totally surprised. And I've had friends and family look for jobs here and say no way would they take a 20-45% pay cut. And I'm not talking CA or East Coast salaries -- I'm thinking of comparable places like Austin -- IT professionals make much higher salaries there than they do in Albuquerque in general.

[zvercetti]

Albuquerque should not be built like or another phoenix. It should not be built like another Dallas either. maybe another one or two more 300-400 foot highrises would look good. ABQ already is a great city, why change it? The skyline isnt that bad and ABQ already has nice arcitecture the way it is. why do I think ABQ shouldnt build something too tall or too out of place is Albuquerque is great and unique how it is, it offers most things cities five times of it have minus many of the drawbacks. Albuquerque is already a great city.

Now is this that bad...

[DocGSD]

Originally Posted by zvercetti

Albuquerque should not be built like or another phoenix. It should not be built like another Dallas either. maybe another one or two more 300-400 foot highrises would look good. ABQ already is a great city, why change it? The skyline isnt that bad and ABQ already has nice arcitecture the way it is. why do I think ABQ shouldnt build something too tall or too out of place is Albuquerque is great and unique how it is, it offers most things cities five times of it have minus many of the drawbacks. Albuquerque is already a great city.

Now is this that bad...

Nope, ALB has a beautifull skyline. If your traveling from Gallup NM to ALB via I40 at night you will come down the mountain to see the city lights. You can see forever. There are many other places in the city that you cas see for miles. It looks cool durring the day but unbeliveable at night. I love the ALB skyline, even wiithout the tall buildings.

[angelawongme]

it needs a imax theatre to watch spiderman in

[yukon]

You have so many wonderful and unique things in Albuquerque - why would you want to build a theme park? You'd be better off helping ABQ further enhance it's uniqueness.

[yukon]

Hey gsd, was that building on the far left of the picture built by Trammell Crow Co by chance?