Portales, Clovis, Elida...anyone? (Roswell: neighborhoods, safest, prettiest)

[LRUA]

Of those 3 places I like Clovis best ....with a population of 33,000+ it has the most amenities ....and you can go to either Amarillo or Lubbock for anything you can't get in Clovis ....Portales is nice too ....college town ..and has a Peanut Festival in October .....Elida is tiny ...population less than 200 ...weather for all 3 is generally nice and sunny but more variable than other areas of New Mexico ....(more prone to tornados too...like the one that hit a few months ago) ...here's NOAA 1971-2000 averages for Portales....

PORTALES,NM

MON HI LO

JAN 54 / 23
FEB 60 / 27
MAR 68 / 33
APR 75 / 41
MAY 83 / 51
JUN 91 / 60
JUL 92 / 64
AUG 89 / 63
SEP 84 / 55
OCT 75 / 44
NOV 62 / 32
DEC 54 / 24

Keep in mind these are averages ...some days in winter do not make it above freezing ....and in summer temps can soar well over 100 ...typical variable weather of the high plains .... similiar to west Texas ...anyway gotta love Clovis ...Buddy Holly recorded most of his big hits at Norman Petty studio in Clovis

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by clairz

When we lived in Las Cruces, I was very homesick for trees--there are lots of them here, and there are some very nice parks. I have posted some pictures of Ned Houk Park, a few miles north of town, on my blog. You can see them here, and read other impressions of Clovis: Zees Go West

Hope this is a help.

~clairz

Nice pics Clairz....We mostly talk about the mountains in NM but the Eastern Prairies are very Serene.....

Again friendly people out there. Just down to earth good people who i met......

[clairz]

Originally Posted by harry o

Nice pics Clairz....We mostly talk about the mountains in NM but the Eastern Prairies are very Serene.....

Again friendly people out there. Just down to earth good people who i met......

Harry 0 and others who have replied to this thread--thanks for saying nice things about Clovis! We've been smiling ever since we got here.

~clairz

[New West 2020]

This is the final frontier, folks. Both Clovis and Portales are still relatively affordable and crime-free by urban standards, and full of growth opportunities in the face of a mean global economy. Clovis is a sprawling western city with every chain store imaginable, and the good, bad, and ugly sights and sounds of every boom town in the Wild West. Portales, 15 minutes south is fairly compact and non-commercial, yet bustling. Portales takes the beauty prize with a knockout university campus and antique town square. Elida is like an old west movie set, with a giant abandoned feed store, a busy Allsups and a cowboy cafe. In a lot of the smaller towns around the Clovis and Portales area, you can still buy old west ranch land for mere pesos on the dollar, and the antelope indeed still play. How about a thousand acres in Pep, New Mexico for a good time? Most city people just drive between Portales and Clovis and Cannon Air Force base, and take daytrips to Roswell, Lubbock and Amarillo and weekenders to Santa Fe, Ruidoso, or Taos. Dallas or Albuquerque are less than an hour by plane from Roswell and Lubbock, and fares can be cheap.

[desert sun]

Clovis is not a sprawling western city and does not have every chain store imaginable,the city has barely grown in decades and just recently started getting bigger name chain stores but still lacks alot compared to places like Farmington.Clovis does have its fair amount of crime also.

and Portales bustling,that is the last town I would put in the same sentence with bustling,Portales is a dead little town, but I do like it very much,I used to live there.

But most people in Clovis and Portales usually dont associate too much with Albq.but moreso with Lubbock and Amarillo,I also only knew a couple lobo fans,most were Texas,Texas Tech and Oklahoma fans,The eastern part of the state is unique to NM and I love the plains and the thunderstorms, and the thick green grass.

[New West 2020]

OK not every chain store exists in Clovis compared to Albuquerque, but the place is certainly growing! Neither Clovis nor Portales are "dead" like a lot of small towns, business is good and the university and college add a lot of life. Agreed that Lubbock and Amarillo are "urban" in comparison, but Eastern NM does have a buzz that some parts just don't have, with food and dairies and oil and all doing so well these days.

[Pintada Kid]

One Thing no one mentioned about Clovis is The Smell from all the Dairies and Slaughter houses it is Bad.When i went though one night years ago the kids were Parked all over on the Brick Road and no one could get through i guess they still do that. I was amazed by all the Cops out in the Early Morning hours. My guess is the Center of N.M. has the Best Air in the World plus you have Access to the Whole State within a Days Drive and we rarely get to 100 degrees in the Summer but winters can get Bad at times but i love all the Seasons. el pintada kid

[KalinRoswell]

I grew up in Portales and didn't know how much more of a world view I received from going to school with kids of professors at ENMU until much later. While the schools are okay, I would say that this interaction is a definitel plus. I had a good education and feel that this little town is far more cosmopolitan than Clovis---and certainly Elida.

[New West 2020]

ENMU is indeed a nice asset. One other interestingthing is the school system. While Clovis has a couple of top-rated schools, they also have the worst-rated schools. A resident told me that Clovis has a "rich" and "poor" side of town, and that when the kids mix it up in Junior High it is total chaos. Portales seems to have a range of average to above-average ratings, but the system there is totally integrated (with grade level schools serving everyone from all parts of town) which includes rich, poor, English and non-English speakers. Then, the local saying goes, the students get along fine and stay with the same group all the way through. Someone also told me that the Village of Dora south of Portales has one of the top-rated High Schools in the state. Is this true? I'm intersted in the differences between schools in the Portales and Clovis areas.

[tripleplay54]

Originally Posted by catherine777

Hi any one have any thing to say regarding this area? Cost of living, quality of life, churches, schools, diversity? please w/b/ thank you

Eastern New Mexico in Portales NM is a great university. It is small, but allows for the one on one communication between students and faculity.
I went there and now my son is there. It is a great environment where they can't get in alot of trouble, study and get out. The cost of living is less there than Abq. or Las Cruces. The weather is windy in the spring, but tolerable for 4 years of schooling I think.