Things to do in Las Cruces? (Santa Fe, Alamogordo: relocate, university, resort)

[Trump]

Las Cruces seems to be a good prospect for a retirement destination but the wife is asking what is there to do in the city. I'm easily amused with golf and tennis but she is looking for more social activities. Anything that I might mention to her?

[tito]

Originally Posted by beeser

Las Cruces seems to be a good prospect for a retirement destination but the wife is asking what is there to do in the city. I'm easily amused with golf and tennis but she is looking for more social activities. Anything that I might mention to her?

The New Mexico State University has a number of cultural activities that one expects to find in cities larger than Las Cruces, such as symphonic concerts, ballet and even opera. There are also many art galleries and numerous senior activities. Things will get much better when SPACEPORT USA begins to operate nearby, because there will be an influx of money and industry that will allow the city to build more enjoyable activities for its residents. Right now you fly into Las Cruces via El Paso, TX, but I believe that in the very near future and because of Spaceport, LC will have its own international airport where rich people from around the world will come to experience the civilian outer space trips. Las Cruces also has interesting towns nearby, such as Alamogordo, Ruidoso, Cloudcroft, Silver City and the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez. I have lived in Chicago for many years enjoying its many cultural activities and I don't regret retiring to Las Cruces.

[Trump]

Thanks for the info. tito. Appears as if there are plenty of activities to keep one busy in Las Cruces. Are there any gambling casinos in the area?

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by beeser

Are there any gambling casinos in the area?

Yes....in Sunland Park about 30 minutes south of Las Cruces or you can drive about 1 1/2 hour drive east to the Mescalero Apache reservation at the ''Inn of the Mountain Gods'' resort in the Sacramento Mts.

Also about 75 miles north is Elephant Butte Resevoir the largest lake in New Mexico and before that about 60 miles north is Caballo Resevoir the third largest lake.. Also there's Aguirre Springs recreation area just on the other side of the Organ Mts there in Las Cruces.

[Mark S.]

Talked to my dad in Las Cruces yesterday. Apparently, Las Cruces made the list of Top 15 Fastest-Growing Cities in the US.

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Talked to my dad in Las Cruces yesterday. Apparently, Las Cruces made the list of Top 15 Fastest-Growing Cities in the US.

I can vouch for this. It's not even the city I moved to 2 years ago. It's rather sad, in a way. The planning department recently approved development of an area on the East Mesa (to be annexed by Las Cruces) that will increase the population of the city over 25,000 residents.

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Apparently, Las Cruces made the list of Top 15 Fastest-Growing Cities in the US.

Number 15 out of 393 in INC magazine Boomtowns 2007.
Number 13 out of 168 in Forbes magazine Best Places For Business 2007.
(Small Metro's)

[pinusconus]

Here in Massachusetts, not many people have heard about Las Cruces, my favority place in New Mexico. However, everyone knows Tucson and Phoenix.

I'm wondering if Las Cruces will achieve the status of those Arizona cities within the next 20 years or so?

[AndyJ]

Originally Posted by pinusconus

Here in Massachusetts, not many people have heard about Las Cruces, my favority place in New Mexico. However, everyone knows Tucson and Phoenix.

I'm wondering if Las Cruces will achieve the status of those Arizona cities within the next 20 years or so?

Las Cruces will never catch up to Phoenix (which IMO is a GOOD thing). I have a hard time seeing how it would catch up to Tucson in that amount of time, regardless of the growth. The spaceport, which everyone touts as an economic catalyst of epic proportions in southern NM, will bring even more growth to Sierra and Doña Ana counties, and probably a few other places as well. I do think that the overall demographics of LC, which has a substanial retired population as well as college students, is going to change with a lot more families moving in.

At any rate, I don't think Las Cruces will ever become like the aforementioned cities in Arizona. I lived in Tucson for two years, and while Las Cruces reminds me of it in some ways, it simply doesn't have the sprawl, traffic, and other urban problems that Tucson and Phoenix have. If anything, it will be a very long time before LC is like those places. But then again, who knows, maybe in 20 years time Las Cruces will have merged with El Paso.

[mike0421]

Originally Posted by pinusconus

Here in Massachusetts, not many people have heard about Las Cruces, my favority place in New Mexico. However, everyone knows Tucson and Phoenix.

I'm wondering if Las Cruces will achieve the status of those Arizona cities within the next 20 years or so?

I would say there is a good chance of that happening, and I'll tell you why. Several people that moved to Phoenix and Tucson 15-20 years ago from the northeast, in an attempt to change their culture, are now experiencing the pain of the society they tried to rid themselves of. They are looking to escape once again. Las Cruces affords those who think this way of such an escape. My friend's mom relocated to Scottsdale 20 years ago from New Jersey, and is now looking to relocate here, because she says Scottsdale is now basically "New Jersey with palm trees". I guess what she means by that is traffic, and the associated rudeness that goes along with higher population densities. Plus, an infrastructure that increasingly caters to the retirement/upper classes, who long for the amenities they experienced back on the coasts. The problem with many of these people is they can not reconcile their wants and desires without simultaneously comprising the landscape they are moving to. So, unless real proactive land use planning measures are enacted (much like Santa Fe) you can count on Las Cruces, too, eventually succumbing to many other sunbelt areas that seem hell bent on transforming themselves into one big mall.