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Where would you move where these issues are not problems? I'm not being snarky -- merely curious.
We lived in Belfast, Maine, a town on the coast with a pop of about 6000. The high school was a regional one. In the 2 years we live there, I read about kids with guns at school, drug busts there (and one at the middle school), etc. This is an "idyllic" small town with no gang problems or anything.
We're planning on moving to a small community outside of Dallas, Rockwall. My best friend lives there and we also know a few other people that live in that area. That's not written in stone, but our first priority is the best schools and Las Cruces or even NM does not have the best schools.
I agree, from what I've read. DH and discussed this at length before moving here. We both decided that our kids will likely succeed anywhere because we are involved in their education and value education. So test scores per se do not scare me when looking at a school. Now, stabbings in the cafeteria would be different!
By any chance does your daughter go to Camino Real? DD has mentioned hearing of a friend's sibling being afraid there, but I have no clue why (no details.) I do wish there were nonsecular private school options here...
A lot of what you say is true, ibarrrio, but, thank God, there are many exceptions. Albuquerque is one, and a relatively recent thing. Downtown Burque used to be a shabby hole, but it's lively and getting better all the time. It's a happening place. People yearn for a place with a soul, not just the cookie cutter creation that could be Anywhere USA.
In the summer I live in my old tiny hometown in NW Michigan. The nearest "big" town, Traverse City, is 20 miles away and is smaller (40 thousand) than Las Cruces. It had a downtown that was dying on the vine..big new malls had opened, there were vacant storefronts, vagrants crawling around, all that stuff.
But, very importantly, the longtime merchants fought the urban renewal that decimated LC downtown. They said heck no...we've got something special here. Then people went to work, creating economic zones, a downtown assn. a streetscape plan, on and on. Now, this downtown is bustling year round in a huge way. The theater reopened after 12 years, and hosts a very successful film festival produced by Michigan filmmaker Michael Moore. (no, he doesn't show his own films) Take the time to look at this downtown promo video. This could be Las Cruces. It'll take time, money and hard work. But its very possible, very do-able, and it works. YouTube - Downtown Traverse City
Quite right! Another place the LC city planners should investigate is Fort Collins, CO. The downtown area is so active you can't find a parking place at midnight -- any night of the week. It is wonderful.
As for the schools, my grand-daughter moved up this year from Camino to Onate. She experienced no 'safety' issues in Camino, made lots of friends and has transitioned very well to the high school. As for pregnant kids in school, there were pregnant girls in school when I went to junior/senior high school back in the early 70s. This is hardly a new phenomenon. Still sad, but not new.
Conversely, I've met several very high-achieving young people recently graduated from or currently attending LC public high schools - one is now attending Westpoint, one is now attending George Washington University, one served as an intern for one of our U.S. senators over the summer.
It is too bad so few people note the success stories and choose only to focus on the negative.[/QUOTE
I have to disagree with you about 'safety and pregnancy'. My neighbor just moved here as an executive of one of the hospitals and has been all over the country working with hospitals and has never seen so many pregnant teens as he has here. I've heard that over and over again by people here including social workers that work in the schools. We have a very high teen pregnancy rate and a horrible graduation rate. And as for safety, my daughter just moved from Camino because of several incidents involving bullies and Camino is known as one of the worst schools in the area, along with Lynn. There are 1200 kids in that school that is meant for 800. There was a stabbing there that was never reported in the media and the reason I know about it is because one of the girls in our car pool witnessed it and knew the kid that "accidentally" stabbed the other kid. Thank god it was minor but it's unbelievable to me what people are willing to accept as far as violence in our schools. Not one kid was suspended last year because the person in charge of suspensions felt sorry for all of the kids. She's since then been moved out of Camino. Of course there are always good kids that are going to do good because of their families, but the bad definitely outweighs the good at Camino.
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Welcome to City-Data.com forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with 700,000 other registered members. User profiles and some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your free account you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 15,000 posts/day about local topics and you will see fewer ads. 
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