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didn't answer your question rybert...yes I am loving Placitas. The 15 minute drive up the 25 unwinds me. Every night before I retire I walk outside and look at those millions of stars and am thankful to be here. Love the railrunner right down the hill. Love the wine tasting at the Merc on Friday evenings. Great friendly neighbors. Awesome close places to hike and bike. And believe it or not, have not had any friends hesitate to visit because of the short drive!
First off, responding to Rybert, yes the developers are hungry in Placitas...but with the current economy as it is, and the already underutilized commercial areas off the 165 still needing growth, and Diamond Tail not selling at all just because it is sooooo far east, and lastly the water issues, it will may be quite awhile till residents have to face that challenge. Growth is okay, it just needs to be well planned, complimentary to the environment, and avoid quick knee jerk decision making.
And to EnjoyEP, my comments about RR are simply to state what I think is an area that has been developed hastily, wastily, and without proper planning. And don't be fooled, developers are not building what people want, they are building what they can build the cheapest. Houses 8 feet apart, nearly identical, placed on exceptionally narrow streets are not well oriented to their surroundings is not responsible planning. They may be new with tile roofs and granite counter tops, but its still bad planning. This last real estate runup of the past 8 years allowed so many people to buy that were not qualified. They walked in, put a couple of thou down and got a house. Those people are easy to please. Now to a huge degree, its all come crashing down and overbuilt neighborhoods are sitting empty and losing value. That is not good planning, period.
I am not saying that every town has to have huge lots and expensive houses, but developers have been allowed by crooked political practices to go beyond what is reasonable and just cram in streets and lots. In many commercial areas of RR, ingress and egress is abominal. And the friggin city builds city hall 4 miles west of where concentated development should be. Someone posted earlier that RR will be NM's largest city in the next 50 years...boy will that be big mess.
Abq has its fair share of badly planned areas. So do most cities. But these older neighborhoods of winding streets and single story homes on at least decent sized lots are, to most, infinitely more attractive than what is being build today. In these times where money and resources are scarce, especially here, called WATER...one would hope that city governments would be wiser in growth planning.
And lastly, I do agree with Towanda. Everyone is free to live where they like and what their means allow. Whatever makes the individual happy is great. Its a totally different topic than development planning.
I agree with your observations about the bad designs in many homes/subdivisions these days. I also love those old one story ranch homes. I think you are completely unfair though by attacking Rio Rancho, when the crammed in on small lots, ugly, 2 story home style of development is the dominant mode of construction all over the southwest-- Phoenix, Las Vegas, Inland Empire of LA, Tucson, Denver (except no adobe or stucco or pink tile roof, but just as packed in)... you name it, and including other parts of Albuquerque. You're really comparing developments across time; the ranch homes of 1-2 generations ago vs new tract developments of today. It's not Rio Rancho's fault that it wasn't around back in the 1960's.
And all you guys are forgetting something... you're focusing on only residential homes, when Rio Rancho is one of the fastest growing business centers in NM. Just Intel alone is absolutely enormous in size. A bunch of companies are relocating there. That's got to count for something.
Interesting. Thanks for the link. I didn't realize Intel has been there since the early 80's. So apparently Rio Rancho has been around in some form for awhile, but had nowhere near its present day population until recently.
Interesting. Thanks for the link. I didn't realize Intel has been there since the early 80's. So apparently Rio Rancho has been around in some form for awhile, but had nowhere near its present day population until recently.
I remember at least some RR construction happening back in 71 or 72 when I
lived here before. The idea of a new "city" that far out was deeply scorned
at the time.
It is what it is. Good people live there, bad people live there. There are nice
houses and there are cracker barrels. I think the overall access in and out is
very poorly designed and will be a growing and nearly incurable problem but
perhaps there are long term plans to address this that I am unaware of.
We never go there even though we live less than 10 minutes south yet
we'll cheerfully drive all over Downtown, Old Town, Nob Hill and NorthEast
to go to shops, restaurants, events, medical, etc. Why? Because so far we
don't have any friends living there and every facility a pair of moderately
sophisticated retirees might be interested in is better represented elsewhere
in town.
That sounds harsh, but RR is first and foremost a FAMILY oriented district
that is directly intended to appeal to the up-and-coming professional with
a couple kids. That ain't us so it's not a good fit.
The REAL question is not whether it is a modern Levittown, but whether it
succeeds in its goal. Based on what I've seen of the access points and what
I've been reading here and elsewhere about serious underfunding of the schools,
I'd have some serious doubts about what it can deliver without a really
massive increase in the employment base within its borders.
What it does succeed in doing is in delivering square footage at affordable prices
and for many people that is a necessity that trumps the negatives.
Okay, I just read every post on this thread and you all are scaring me! I'm moving from Colorado Springs to Rio Rancho in a year or so for work. I don't love where I live in Colorado Springs (eastern city sprawl) but on the weekends I can go downtown or to Old Colorado City of Manitou Springs and enjoy the history. I don't like chain stores either but they are everywhere! I can only hope that Satellite Coffee will build in the new downtown of RR sometime! I'm worried about the traffic getting to work so I feel it only makes sense to buy a home in RR instead of Albuquerque however just because I buy a house there doesn't mean I will stay in RR 24/7. I like to get out and explore and get away on the weekends.
The only thing scaring me more is moving into a subdivison with 20,000 children because mine are grown and gone. I'm thinking the High Resort area, Paradise Hills or somthing similar may be my best bet. Yes, i've visited RR this past year and it's certainly not much and I'm concerned that with the current economic conditions that the "new" vision for downtown may not come to fruition for much longer than the city leaders initially planned.
Now the dust bowls and the flooding are new topics for me......more things to be worried about! :-)
And please don't anyone misconstrue...my point wasn't obviously in any way to "put down" Placitas or really even to on the surface try to compare Placitas to Rio Rancho. I know that wasn't trailtramp's intent, so I wasn't "debating" anything in terms of the two towns.
Same for me. At the time, we needed a place to live quickly as my wife had a short notice transfer. I had a contract which I wanted to complete. So I was living in our house in PA and my wife was living in our house in ABQ. It was a great deal. Then we sold the house in PA and bought in Rio Rancho because another great deal came our way and my Daughter and family moved out to RR.
Placitas is a lovely place, I just did not want to commit the funds to buy there at the time and there was no "move in right now homes" there. There were some other factors.
Those were the decisions, and I really don't regret them. I still am considering Arizona, possibly The Dominican Republic and I had a job offer in Europe and some issues I really don't want to drag out. My wife does not want to go overseas and she has a good career, so she's the boss on those issues.
like skidmark said, 'You'll be fine in Rio Rancho'
But there were a few items you might consider:[indent]
You act like you won't be able to get out of RR on the weekends.
Paradise Hills is not part of RR. It is a different county and part of ABQ. You might have a hard time getting out of there during commute time.
High Resort is a nice part of RR.
We have a Satellite Coffee just out on the North side of RR in Bernallillo. Another one just outside the South end in Corrales. Three Starbucks in RR and two private coffee shops in RR. Bad Ass coffee in Bernallilo. Etc...
Traffic? Depends on where you work. My wife work's on Kirtland Air Force Base 27 miles away and she drives slow and it's a 50 minute commute. But she leaves early.
Subdivison with 20,000 children. I think RR has more dogs than kids. RR started as a retirement community. Of 9 houses on my street, 4 of the houses are retirees. The number of children varies. Ten years ago we had about 20 kids in the neighborhood.
The new Vision for downtown will be completed, maybe not as soon as some people want.
Dust bowls? What dust bowls you talking about?
Flooding? Don't buy a house in an arroyo.... How that situation occurred is a different issue. I know three people with the problem, or possible problem.
Dust and Sand Problems... Rio Rancho used to have them, the development took care of that, It reminded me of Las Vegas Nevada too haha.
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