Albuquerque Crime neighborhoods-why are they bad (South Valley, Cuba: credit, house, buy)

[Daniel_T]

Hi there, I read that these two areas are the worst in Albuquerque. Why are they? And why is the second area called the "War Zone"? Makes it sound like Compton or something.

The South Valley, along the river south of Central Avenue. ( we had a tire blowout and had to drive through ABQ to the wal-mart at Coors Blvd SW and Rio Grande BLVD SW. is this considered part of the S. Valley? The area looked clean and inviting. Maybe I didn't see the bad.

The War Zone, the area surrounding and south of the State Fairgrounds.

When I was in Albuquerque, I thought it looked quite safe and clean to me... It was actually very attractive. I fell in love with ABQ

[jrod2828]

I hope someone can answer your question. My wife and I are thinking of moving to ABQ from Indianapolis and I'm also curous about the "why" in regards to the crime.

[Daniel_T]

anyone here? please answer.

Daniel

[abqsunport]

The South Valley--in parts--has a great deal of poverty. With poverty comes crime. I am not so sure why the warzone has so much crime, but, it just seems that there is a lot of gang activity and drug problems in these areas.

[6 FOOT 3]

Yeap the Fairgrounds along Central and east of it are not very good areas. I guess it's called the warzone as gangs used to be located out of the area and would be selling drugs and would be shooting at each other.

I will give the Mayor a tad bit of credit as the area has been cleaned up some but it still needs an infusion of money to help the Fairgrounds area.

[Daniel_T]

Thank you all for clarifying that. What are the boundaries of these two areas?

[6 FOOT 3]

Boundaries?? Central Ave. from San Pedro to Eubank is what i'd call the rough and tough area all along that section. It's too bad they havn't fixed that area up as they could showcase Central as to feature the old Route 66 nostalgia. Most of Central is nice with just that area i'd mentioned so if the city rep for that area or the mayor can landscape the medians and pave the streets there and make it like another Nob Hill in there then it would be really nice IMHO.

[Daniel_T]

Man, I looked and that's a huge area!!! I didn't know that area would be so large with crime and such.

Daniel

[ksbyndsea]

South of that area is also iffy, I would say.

[mrgoodwx]

Albuquerque has a gang culture that spans generations. A friend of mine at APD told me they don't even know how many gangs there are, but at least 100 identified ones, with "branches" of the large LA gangs and a few from Mexico, Cuba and Vietnam. I agree with the areas the others have identified. Recently, I hired someone who thought the south valley looked inviting, and he ignored my suggestion that he not buy a house there. His house was cleaned out by burglars the first week he was in it. And... he has to work nights and sleep days, and can't get any sleep because of the booming car stereos. Needless to say, he's not very happy with his house decision. So...learn all you can about the city. Some areas are much better than others when it comes to crime.