Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thanks for your replies, guys. I know I came across as a paranoid nut job, but after reading so many posts on this forum and on some other sites, I was beginning to wonder if I had missed something. Glad to see I didn't!
*although I do like the image of the Blackhawk hovering as I lay down suppressive fire while spouse heads for the armored Prius*
Jasmine,
We moved here from small town Maine, and feel perfectly safe. We just know which areas to avoid (like in any city).
I feel much safer here than I ever did in Boston.
Property crime is much more common than violent crime, for sure. But it's hard for me to be cavalier about the violent crime since I have known people who've been victims here. You also have to watch out for the drivers, one of my coworkers died after injuries she sustained in a hit-and-run while crossing Central Ave. at Cornell, in front of the Frontier Restaurant. She used a cane and I guess was too slow for someone.
As I was having lunch on the UNM campus the other day, enjoying the perfume of the blossoming crabapple trees, listening to the laughter of students at another table and enjoying the view of the mountains, I wanted to forget that so far this year (since January) there have been two stabbings on campus, a professor and student were shot dead, and a student was killed in a car crash involving a bank robber making a getaway. Welcome to Albuquerque. Enjoy the billboards advertising bail bondsmen, billboards reminding you not to commit gun crimes, and more billboards with mugshots of criminals on the loose staring down at you. What is your sleep medication of choice?
Wow, no offense to the OP but...even taking into the negative comments about crime in Abq I've read on C-D, her concerns seem a bit paranoid/really overstated.
IMO Abq is like all big cities and most smaller ones - bad people commit crimes. But they mostly do it in certain areas and mostly to people who do something or have some behavior that causes the bad people to label them as potential victims.
If you don't visit the wrong areas, don't act like a victim and are observant of your surroundings, I think the likelihood that you will become an actual crime victim drop fairly close to zero. That is true in Abq, true in New York City and true everywhere else I've lived or visited.
The Wild Wild West is a thing of the past; there's no need to go around armed in Abq. Not sure how much good it did back in the Old West either, since the bad guys outgunned the good guys in many instances. Same thing is true today.
All you need to do is be smart - no guns required.
Rwjoyak, I've got a question just for my personal curiosity. I've only been through NM a few times, but I have a friend who has family in Bernalillo and he'll go there once or twice a year. But every time he comes back he keeps telling me how the place is like a warzone and X number of people got stabbed the first night he was there, etc. etc. He even goes so far as to say he's in a group of vigilantes or some **** and they have to protect their neighborhood from the drug dealers. The point is this is a good friend of mine but I think he may also be a chronic bull****ter. Just for my curiosity, is the crime in Bernalillo really as bad as this guy says it is?
Rwjoyak, I've got a question just for my personal curiosity. I've only been through NM a few times, but I have a friend who has family in Bernalillo and he'll go there once or twice a year. But every time he comes back he keeps telling me how the place is like a warzone and X number of people got stabbed the first night he was there, etc. etc. He even goes so far as to say he's in a group of vigilantes or some **** and they have to protect their neighborhood from the drug dealers. The point is this is a good friend of mine but I think he may also be a chronic bull****ter. Just for my curiosity, is the crime in Bernalillo really as bad as this guy says it is?
I don't think so. We're having a place built in Bernalillo, but it's on the west side of the river where the socioeconomic mix is very different from old time Bernalillo. Still, we go into the main part of Bernalillo multiple times a week for eating, shopping, etc., and I've never felt in danger there. We've also driven around the older residential neighborhoods just to get a mood of the place and again never felt threatened.
Bernalillo is generally a quite poor place in terms of income levels. But poor doesn't necessarily equate to crime. If there were lots of stabbings, etc., they'd be front page news and there's nothing like that. I've also seen very little graffiti in town, the level of which is often one indicator of gang activity.
Jasmine,
We moved here from small town Maine, and feel perfectly safe. We just know which areas to avoid (like in any city).
I feel much safer here than I ever did in Boston.
The 'questionable' areas aren't sneaky... Some places I've lived (Houston, for example) you can be in a good neighborhood, walk 2 blocks and suddenly be in a really uncomfortable place. The places in Albuquerque you really don't want to be are pretty obvious.
Property crime is more of an issue that personal crime, from my experience (while not bad at all) but, at the core of it, things are just things. That's what insurance is for. I worry about all the typical paranoid parent stuff, but I'd be worrying about that wherever I lived. I get up a couple times a week and go.. hmm... forgot to shut that window last night... oh well. But then I have a loud (though pointless otherwise) dog who would most definitely let me know if anything out of the ordinary happens. He usually barks frantically while looking for me to hide behind.
Rwjoyak, I've got a question just for my personal curiosity. I've only been through NM a few times, but I have a friend who has family in Bernalillo and he'll go there once or twice a year. But every time he comes back he keeps telling me how the place is like a warzone and X number of people got stabbed the first night he was there, etc. etc. He even goes so far as to say he's in a group of vigilantes or some **** and they have to protect their neighborhood from the drug dealers. The point is this is a good friend of mine but I think he may also be a chronic bull****ter. Just for my curiosity, is the crime in Bernalillo really as bad as this guy says it is?
Bernalillo's a playground compared to places I've lived. I suppose if you went in with a chip on your shoulder, you'd discover that the latino-American culture can take that as a challenge, but a smile and a respectful attitude (which EVERYONE deserves, imho, until they prove otherwise) will get you the same in every single case I've run into.
Bernalillo's a terrible place to try and get drugs, too... much better luck in Albuquerque neighborhoods. There certainly aren't 'turf wars' in any sense, otherwise they'd be for sale there...
Unless you're LOOKING for problems, they're hard to find in Bernalillo. Silva's is a tough hangout (a decades-famous biker bar) but again, unless you wander in and order a wine spritzer in a shirt that says "Bikers are losers" you're not going to end up hurt.
Don't speed there, though. Ever. Under any circumstances.
its not as bad as it seems on paper, but it seems there have been more cases of home invasions and homeowners shooting these fools, maybe more people in the city are arming themselves and that is a good thing.
... home invasions and homeowners shooting these fools, ...
Hopefully shooting-and-not-missing the fools.
It's one thing to get a shot off, but if you can chamber another
round and hit the next target - cudos to the marks-person!
( Per the news reports, there are some skilled female gun-toters in town. )
but it seems there have been more cases of home invasions and homeowners shooting these fools,
Not really, not that I have noticed in the last 10 years, not in the Albuquerque area, it has been sporadic, and I do not see any verifiable evidence to that claim. I would certainly like it to be true.
Rich
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
