Gay Albuquerque (Santa Fe, Rio Rancho, Bernalillo: real estate, apartments, rent)

[zeb]

My partner and I are relocating to ABQ from Phoenix for his job. We visited NM several years ago, but spent most of our time around Santa Fe/Taos. Just looking for some info on what life might be like there for a gay male couple in long term relationship. We have a great circle of friends here and hope to build same there. Specifically:

1. Until we can figure out where to buy, we'll probably rent an apt or loft. Does anyone know anything about the high school turned into lofts?

2. Assuming there's no gay ghetto, what part of town is the gay friendliest?

3. We've always lived in historic neighborhoods downtown and love refurbishing old houses. Does ABQ have n'hoods like that?

4. If anyone's made the move from Phx to ABQ, what's the transition like?

5. Our blood's grown thin living in the desert. We're hoping it doesn't get too cold there, but I hear there's snow. What's winter like?

6. Can you recommend any Web sites or print publications we should subscribe to to learn more about the area?

7. What's Rio Rancho? One of my partner's new coworkers lives there and said she enjoys it. Sounds suburban, though.

8. We're not big into the bar scene, but like knowing there's a fun place to go out when we get the itch. What're bars like there?

9. We spend a lot of evenings having dinner with friends at great restaurants. What's the dining scene like? We'll be making a trip there in the next few weeks to find housing. Recommend any restaurants?

Thanks for any help.

[ApartmentNomad]

Some of these questions have been discussed before, so you could have searched the archive for those. I will respond to just a couple. (I'm not gay and I don't even live in Albuquerque, so take my answers with a grain of salt.)

Originally Posted by zeb

2. Assuming there's no gay ghetto, what part of town is the gay friendliest?

Probably Nob Hill and the UNM area.

6. Can you recommend any Web sites or print publications we should subscribe to to learn more about the area?

Try this:

Duke City Fix
http://www.dukecityfix.com/group/*****albuquerque (broken link)

(LOL, that's censoring a traditionally derogatory, but sometimes reclaimed as positive, five letter word that begins with "q.")

alibi . march 13 - 19, 2008
Local IQ - HOME

[abqsunport]

1. Yes, you are refering to the old original Albuquerque High. It used to just sit there abandoned for years and years and finally someone decided to make good use of it. It is located downtown. Here is a good link: The Lofts at Albuquerque High | Loft Apartments, Condos, Townhomes & Retail-Office Space

2. I don't know that there is a part of town that is the most "gay friendly". For the most part ABQ is just a friendly town. However, you will find a few people who will be very derogative (granted I am straight conservative male so take most of my post with a grain of salt), but I think that ABQeans are very tolerant of gays on the whole.

3. Albuquerque has several n'hoods like that. You will have to talk to a realtor to find which one would suit you and be the safest ("historic" can be taken as run down, so make sure your realtor understands the difference).

4. Well I go between the two alot ( I am in PHX every 6 weeks for Biz), and I would say the "feel" is very close. Albuquerque will feel much like Tucson feels. ABQ and Tucson are very similar, if that helps. Keep in mind, ABQ is quite a bit smaller than PHX so their will be a large transition in that regard.

5. Albuquerque is a high desert (refering to the altitude). We get much colder than PHX, but in the summer we are a lot more pleasant. Here are the monthly AVGs : Average Weather for Albuquerque, NM - Temperature and Precipitation

6. Here is a website from ABQ's Gay community Albuquerque Pride

I really like these websites to understand ABQ
Albuquerque - Albuquerque New Mexico - Albuquerque NM <Make sure you watch the video at the top>
ABQjournal | The Albuquerque Journal Online v1.5.3 tab Albuquerque and New Mexico State and Local News, Sports, Weather and Jobs, Cars, Real Estate and Classified Advertising
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce
albuquerquebaseball.com: Home
The University of New Mexico Official Athletic Site
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque - Official City Website
Albuquerque Economic Development
The Albuquerque Museum Foundation Welcomes You!


7. Rio Rancho is a suburb. But is a suburb like Tempe or Chandler is a suburb --you can't really tell when you are in one and out of the other. However, there isn't much really going on in Rio Rancho--in my opinion anyway


8.There are all sorts of bars, I am sure you can find one you like.

9. There are several great restaurants. Here are some other threads that addressed this issue (that way you get more of an idea than the opinion of one person)
http://www.city-data.com/forum/albuq...estaurant.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/albuq...-10-range.html

While you are here make sure you check out the Sandia Tram. It is the world largest aerial tramway. You will also need to check out Nob Hill/ UNM Area, ABQ Uptown, Downtown, etc. So much to see! Keep in mind, Santa Fe is only an hour away.

Check out the Photo Sticky Thread at the very top of the Albuqueque Forum.

[abqsunport]

A good video to watch


YouTube - Visit Albuquerque New Mexico - Tourism Video

[mrgoodwx]

Zeb...I would just add one bit about the snow. Because of the terrain differences, snowfall exhibits a substantial range across the city. Average annual snowfall ranges from 6-8 inches along the Rio Grande to as much as 25 inches above 6000 feet east of Tramway Blvd. And...some people commute into the city from the east side of the Sandia Mountains. Snowfall at Sandia Park and elevations above 7000 feet south of I-40 (east of the Sandias) averages 50-60 inches. So, you may want to keep that in mind if you end up looking in the bedroom communities to the east...it makes the commute through Tijeras Canyon into Albuquerque a bit more "exciting."

[ABQSunseeker]

Zeb, Good luck on your transition to ABQ. My partner and I moved here from NYC and I lived in PHX previously and don't look back. ABQ has proved itself a good place to be.

2. There aren't really any gay neighborhoods per se here--but as ABQ Sunport says ABQ is a friendly town. Most gays live scattered throughout town including quite a few in the NE Hts, a very large area. Perhaps gay friendly would be areas around Nob Hill, the University, downtown.

3. There is a small neat neighborhood called Huning Highlands which is older and on the upswing. It's near downtown and around Central and Broadway. I've known of a number of people restoring houses there.

4-5. While I do miss winters in Phoenix, ABQ has wonderful springs, summers and falls. You can actually be out of doors in the summer even on the hottest days. The mornings and evenings are especially beautiful then.
Winters are definitely colder here but they are brief---I've found the worst to be between late Dec. and early Feb.(often in the teens and twenties at night) and after that it's mostly over except for the occasional cold snap. It occasionally snows, but very little this year. It snows more up in the Foothills of the Sandias, but again not really is it ever bothersome (that being said there were two huge and unusually big snowstorms last winter). Generally it's sunny though and that makes it bearable.

I think you'll appreciate that traffic is a lot less congested than Phoenix, the town is very easy to get around in, and people everywhere are very friendly and talk to you as a matter of course in shops, and all about town.

7. Rio Rancho is nice enough but it is more suburban and is a bit further out of things.

8. Not much going here in the bar scene. Sidewinders is a friendly bar on Central. And the ABQ Social Club is a very friendly private bar/club with minimal annual dues ($20). We go there often and have met lots and lots of gay couples. Seems like everyone is new here and eager to meet other couples. People entertain much here, entertaining in-house is real popular.
You shouldn't have lots of trouble meeting people here, if anything, you may meet more people than you expect.

9. Good higher end restaurants include The Artichoke Cafe, The Corn Maiden at the Hyatt Tamaya resort, the Prairie Star in Bernallilo.
More mid range and reasonable are the Range Cafe in Bernalillo and the Standard Diner---great art deco feel, and gay friendly. Also Yanni's and Scalo in Nob Hill, Asian Noodle Bar downtown, Jinja for Asian on Paseo, Los Equipales for Mexican off Central, El Pinto for New Mexican, Noda in Rio Rancho for Japanese, and lots of others to choose from. There's a good dining scene here, though, perhaps, not so varied as in Phoenix.

[aggiewalk]

Albuquerque is the high desert... It will get down to 50s in the summer by 11pm... Extremely Frigid in the winter... You will like Nob Hill and Old Town

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by aggiewalk

Extremely Frigid in the winter

"Extremely frigid"???

Wow...have you ever been in a winter to a place like Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Boise, Boston, Detroit, Indianapolis, Philly, NYC, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Omaha, Colorado Springs, or other states like Montana, Wyoming, Vermont, New Hampshire, etc., etc., etc.???

Albuquerque's "winter" averages are a high of 50 degrees (with strong sun) and a low of a cold-but-not-frigid 25 (well after the sun sets).

Albuquerque averages a mere 7 to 11 inches of snow per year; most which generally melts within hours or days. Transversely, Denver averages 60+ inches of snowfall annually (in the city - the mountains obviously much more) and Chicago averages ~50 inches.

Golf is a year-round sport in Albuquerque.

Buds start to come out on the fruit trees by late February and early March and spring starts in early March - winter is not only mild but short.

Albuquerque's winters are anything but "extremely frigid." Sure, compared to Phoenix or Miami or Houston they are often chillier, but compared to 2/3 of the US, they are incredibly pleasant.

[Tim Rankin]

Originally Posted by EnjoyEP

"Extremely frigid"???

Yes, this struck me as odd too. Perhaps aggiewalk was referring to definition #4 in this online dictionary:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/frigid

If that's the case, Albuq in during winter doesn't sound so fun.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Tim Rankin

Yes, this struck me as odd too. Perhaps aggiewalk was referring to definition #4 in this online dictionary:

frigid - definition of frigid by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

If that's the case, Albuq in during winter doesn't sound so fun.

Hey, those colder winter evenings after the sun sets makes for very UN-frigid like fun (by that definition) in compared to the heat of the summer!