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I guess that when I move there I'll just keep away from downtown and any "bad" areas (which I would do no matter where I lived).
Downtown ABQ is not a place to avoid. It is interesting and comparatively vibrant to other southwestern cities its size (i.e. Tuscon & El Paso). Some of the nicest neighborhoods in the city are there as well (Huning Castle area). It simply is not where it needs to be and we want it to improve.
Quote:
ABQ sounds like NYC in the 70's & 80's with it's infamous graffiti covered subways.
On your visit to ABQ, you likely won't see any graffiti. Anywhere. Unless you take the Rail Runner - in which case you'll see graffiti alongside the train tracks, like in any other city. ABQ does not have a graffitti problem. It gets graffiti, but it typically gets cleaned up very quickly.
There aren't enough people in ABQ to satisy Mayor Rudy's need to promote himself.
aries,
The cousins are there because they wanted to return to the same complex they rented in when they lived here before.
I remember many a day when I couldn't get to work because of the snow (I was living in Queens). As a matter of fact I remember seeing pepole cross country sking in the street.
There are cities a lot bigger then ABQ that don't (based on what I've read here) have the deteriorating infrastructure problems. Most of the big cities across the country are a lot older (as a population center) then ABQ and their infrastuctures have gone decades without being repaired or updated. ABQ doesn't have subways and huge bus systems which usually lose money and drain the city's budget. ABQ also doesn't have the huge welfare, medicaid and other expensive problems that major cities face so I can't see why the city is allowed to fall into disrepair unless the government is inefficent or has it's hand in the till.
... friends and colleagues who live in the East Mountains who are snowed
in and can't make it to work several times throughout the season, ...
That is a function of road maintenance and not weather.
It's likely that streets like Central and Eubank might also have been
impassible were it not for the handy and convenient plows working.
Also, Albuquerque's weather straddles the freezing point quite often.
It can be raining along Eubank and snowing along Juan Tabo. In such
a case, the temperature difference would only be from 34 degrees to
31 degrees or something like that after a night of below freezing temps
everywhere. In the East Mountains, then it might be 27 or 28 degrees.
That's not "drastically different."
In Phoenix or Fairbanks, it would be "drastically different."
Quote:
Originally Posted by aries63
... Another friend ... was tired of ... she'd been "sand-blasted"
True. It is much more windy there.
Your friend was likely "sandblasted" during the Spring Winds, however.
Going out for a walk any time of year in the East Mountains
is likely to be a pain - except, I guess, in the mornings.
Ok so the wind is an issue in ABQ. I can't toss in crime, because well you know NYC did have something like 400+ murders last year. Education honestly isnt much better in NYC. Granted they do have 3 H.S. that are nationally known, but thats about it.
Most of the big cities across the country are a lot older (as a population center) then ABQ and their infrastuctures have gone decades without being repaired or updated.
Geez... when you say infrastructure, which part are you talking about?
Our roads (the asphalt that is) seem to be in pretty good shape compared to other cities (Lubbock or Houston for example). The freeways seem to move people fairly quickly. I'm not replacing the rims on my vehicle every other year...
What I mean with the "drastically different" weather statement is that many people from the East Coast don't understand that the weather out west can be so different from one place to the next, in close proximity, the way ABQ's weather is different from the East Mountains. Someone who wants to relocate from the Northeast might misjudge, thinking that the places are the same latitude and are only a few miles apart, they must have the same weather. They don't understand the effects of elevation and which side of a mountain you're on. If someone is trying to get away from wintry weather, they'd do FAR better choosing Albuquerque or Rio Rancho than the East Mountains. If you hate snow and icy cold winds, then the East Mountains would be a poor choice. I do think there is a big difference.
Norm: it's not the population size that's the problem, it's how far and wide the population is spread. In older eastern cities there's more density, more people per square mile, so less infrastructure to maintain per person and more efficient public transportation. Take our bus system as an example, we have a relatively small population that is spread out over a very large area, so we run a lot of buses with few passengers and that costs a lot of money. Our buses probably burn more gas per passenger than most other cities.
Norm: it's not the population size that's the problem, it's how far and wide the population is spread. In older eastern cities there's more density, more people per square mile, so less infrastructure to maintain per person and more efficient public transportation. Take our bus system as an example, we have a relatively small population that is spread out over a very large area, so we run a lot of buses with few passengers and that costs a lot of money. Our buses probably burn more gas per passenger than most other cities.
Wikipedia says NYC has a larger land area than ABQ (if you include Queens and Staten Island) but the population density of the five boroughs is about 10 times more:
ABQ: 2,796 people per sq. mi.
NYC: 27,440 people per sq. mi.
A lot of people don't use the buses because they don't run frequently enough and you lose time making connections, but as it is, except for a few well-traveled routes, there are few passengers, sometimes the buses are running nearly empty, and the city can't afford to run more empty buses just for the convenience factor.
There has been many a rush hour that I had to stand on a long line waiting to get on a bus in Manhattan and this wasn't a route that the buses came every half hour, they came every 5 minutes. There are not nearly enough available buses to cover the passenger's needs and yet in an effort to reduce the city budget some bus routes and subway lines were eliminated this year.
Here are the 2008 stats for bus ridership in NYC:
2008 subway ridership at a glance
Annual Ridership - Average Weekday - Average Saturday - Average Sunday
"Fiscal-year statistics compiled by the Mid-Region Council of Governments provides a 10-year snapshot of metro-area mass transit use, which has gone from about 6.4 million passenger boardings in fiscal 1999-2000 to about 12.2 million for the year that ended in June, according to the statistics."
What this says is that ABQ's annual number of bus passengers is the same as two week's worth in NYC.
I am willing to bet that NYC buses cover more driving miles, by a huge margin, then those in ABQ.
Don't forget that the NYC stats doesn't include the subways which have a bigger ridership then the buses.
In ABQ I have waited for a half hour after walking a long distance to wait at a bus stop in the 95-degree heat with no shelter from the sun (the city is adding more bus shelters but before that you were usually SOL).
I'm not sure NYC buses do cover more miles, they probably go a lot slower in the city traffic than ours do, otherwise each bus probably is driven all day long. But NYC buses are collecting a lot more passenger fares, by a huge margin. Apparently public transport is not a moneymaker in either city.
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