El Paso vs. Albuquerque (Houston, Dallas: rent, job, college)

[abqsunport]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

The thread is about the two cities.. I was posting data on both of them.

there was also debate about the size of the two areas.. and the stats above prove there are far more people in the El Paso/Juarez metro.

Where we have you beat on City populations, you have beat on metros if we don't include Juarez.. but I don't know how we cant include them they are a major factor of El Paso.

Both seem to be on a path of increases, both in population, and in business. But I will say ABQ. does have a better track record on pay rates than El Paso does.

Ok, i see what you were presenting.

[observe]

Originally Posted by abqsunport

Ok, i see what you were presenting.

Then the thread should be changed to Albuquerque vs Juarez......since El Paso is just a suburb of Juarez.

[Muhnay]

Well considering Juarez has 2 million people compared to our 600K people.. that is sorta true. Only problem is were in two different countries.. I know it may not seem like it.. but we are. I think they should go back to having the same name PASO DEL NORTE for both.

[Chuco]

Originally Posted by observe

Then the thread should be changed to Albuquerque vs Juarez......since El Paso is just a suburb of Juarez.

How about we call it Juarez/El Paso vs Albuquerque?

2.5 million for CJ/EP vs 800,000 for ABQ.

[holmes]

The irony of the names between these two cities is interesting. Juarez was originally called "El Paso del Norte". Present day El Paso in the 1870's was originally called "Magoffinsville" (just east of downtown). When Magoffinsville changed its name to El Paso, you had two cities named El Paso. The irony being that the southern city referred to its northern orientation. Obviously this led to much confusion. El Paso del Norte then changed it's name to Ciudad Juarez.

In many ways the northern city (El Paso) was a suburb of the southern city (Juarez) back in the 1870s. With the coming of the railroads the size of El Paso ballooned and dwarfed its southern neighbor for several decades. The trend has reversed though. So El Paso is once again the smaller northern city. I would say they both act more like one city than two separate cities, their economies are so intertwined. I do cringe at your calling this a suburb of juarez though..

[Muhnay]

Why cringe.. embrace it as a good thing.

I understand why you may.. but we are very much the same city. Many of the people living here traverse a bridge to work over there, and many traverse it over here to shop. Even though were are two different countries.. we are one large metro area.

Thanks holmes for the history lesson.. good info. I would think it would be cool to have the two as El Paso again.. would show our solidarity with our neighbor.

[finmqa1]

Wow, this has gotten out of hand. The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex is called by both cities, as is Minneapolis St. Paul, so why not the El Paso Juarez Metropolitan Area. They are both significant cities and split only by the stream we all know as the Rio Grande. ABQ doesn't not have that many people even if you were to stretch the MSA to include Grants, Gallup, Socorro, Santa Fe, and Espanola. That being said many of the people in NM, Southern Colorado, Eastern Arizona, and West Texas do travel to shop and play in the nearest "Good Sized" city of ABQ. Likewise many in Southern NM, West Texas, and Mexico rely on El Paso for the same goods and services. So I don't understand what the argument is all about. Both cities pluses and minuses and each of us chose our city of residence because it had more pluses than the other cities.

[Muhnay]

Originally Posted by finmqa1

Wow, this has gotten out of hand. The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex is called by both cities, as is Minneapolis St. Paul, so why not the El Paso Juarez Metropolitan Area. They are both significant cities and split only by the stream we all know as the Rio Grande. ABQ doesn't not have that many people even if you were to stretch the MSA to include Grants, Gallup, Socorro, Santa Fe, and Espanola. That being said many of the people in NM, Southern Colorado, Eastern Arizona, and West Texas do travel to shop and play in the nearest "Good Sized" city of ABQ. Likewise many in Southern NM, West Texas, and Mexico rely on El Paso for the same goods and services. So I don't understand what the argument is all about. Both cities pluses and minuses and each of us chose our city of residence because it had more pluses than the other cities.

FIN, look at the stats I posted.. ABQ. does in fact have that many. Also I lived here not because of the Pluses.. but because of family obligation.

El Paso, and ALBQ. have been at this since forever.. Well as long as I can remember we have both been like High Schools competing against one another.. nothing wrong with a little healthy competition. Makes both cities better in the long run.. and makes it citizens proud.

[finmqa1]

I'm only speaking to the population debate. El Paso wins hands down, and I don't feel they should be overshadowed or considered Juarez suburb because EP is smaller. EP probably contributes more, or at the very least makes up more of the local economy and for that they can not be considered Juarez's suburb. Think of this too, in the next 5-10, EP will stretch all the way to Las Cruces, are we not going to count that into the metro population because it lies in NM............no. Kansas City is not two seperate MSA because the state line between Kansas and Missouri runs through. And when the EP MSA includes Las Cruces and such, you'll be looking at a metro area that contains somewhere between 2.75 to 3 million residents. That will make for one very large city!

[Muhnay]

Well considering there are 2 million in Juarez alone now.. and 600 thousand in El Paso.. and if we include all the places between us and Las Cruces as well as Las Cruces, then I expect more near 4 million.

But That Kansas point is a well made, and is a great example.

I am not gonna say one contributes more than the other, because both rely on the other in many ways.

With builders loosing money and not selling many homes, I doubt we will see Las Cruces and El Paso merging anytime soon. They have it all over the major news stations about how home builders are being foreclosed on. scary.