Downtown (rental car, rental, neighborhoods)

[mattywo85]

So I've heard mixed reactions about downtown ABQ at night. I've heard more bad then good. Basically its a bad place to be at night and theres a lot of weirdos downtown. So my question is, is that true? Do you feel comfortable going downtown at night? Is there a lot of people at the bars, restaurants, etc?

[bradly]

Well there are some wierdos, just not so many..
lots of people go to downtown for the restaurants but mostly the clubs, bars, and concerts, its a pretty nice place.. nothing has ever happened to me and i feel comfortable there at night!

[ziaAirmac]

The better part of 'the crowd' is going to be in classes at UNM just up the road in the AM. It's one of the few places in town where you can park once and hit a bunch of clubs just walking around. They're not there to fight. They're there to blow off some steam, dance, people watch and meet people outside of their circle of friends. There's really nothing much to even go to outside of the main strip of clubs, and the surrounding neighborhoods, while in transition, drop off in foot traffic and safety sharply as you get away from Central. The real problem was that the bars all closed at the same time so the streets would suddenly fill with every sloshed guy with a chip on his shoulder and sooner or later someone would end up getting into it. Answer: Park near Central in one of the well lit multilevel lots, stick to the main drag of clubs, and leave before close.

[LiveLaughLove]

I feel perfectly safe. I dont particularly feel safe leaving my car in certain spots though. It has been spray painted, etc. But I feel safe, I just worry about my cars safety.

[nightwishfan]

I have always felt perfectly safe downtown! I have never had any problems with my car down there, though I always park in one of the parking garages (I could be wrong but I believe the one near 5th and copper is free at night, I don't recall ever paying for parking there at night). There are always tons of people around on Sat night, and I don't know about weirdos. Maybe I'm one of the weirdos =) because I've never noticed anyone especially odd down there.

[ApartmentNomad]

One night I went downtown for a couple Latin nights (which turned out to be non-existent) and I ran into one very odd, very unpleasant encounter. On another occasion I made it to a club and everything was fine. There are a lot of drunk or otherwise intoxicated people around, and some of them are clearly looking for trouble. I don't feel entirely safe, but I also don't feel threatened enough that it's going to keep me away. I'd recommend avoiding as much as possible the emptier streets parallel to Central, especially the dimly lit ones flanked by empty office buildings at night.

[desert sun]

I have only hung around downtown a couple times-- the first time I went for a concert, I got kicked out and found the rappers(performers) rental car along with another in the alley broken into with the windows shattered and the trunks popped
Then watched some drunk guy get into my cousins face trying to provoke a fight then moved onto a couple more guys doing the same, other than that nothing.

I went last week to a couple clubs and I felt safe, they close down Central and everyone bar hops. You got a mix of everyone downtown, gangsters,sluttty girls,normal kids,couples,homeless, I even seen a local weather man there, I also saw a homeless guy fighting a trash can then throwing a large rock like he was pitching, I even saw him throw it into a crowd of people on the street, then I saw a group of Japenese tourists. I like it, its very diverse. Its very alive downtown, but there are alot of guys that look for trouble.

you can look on you tube, there are a few videos of downtown on there.

[rybert]

Gotta love the Tiki Lounge!

[ABQConvict]

There are drunken incidents downtown on weekend nights. It is comparable to similar districts of similar size in any city in America or Europe. In fact it is probably a bit tame compared to most places, especially Britain.

ABQConvict

[mattywo85]

How is the presence of police downtown at night?