Los Alamos (Santa Fe: relocating, military, budget)

[carolmora]

Hello everyone. Can anyone tell me about Los Alamos? I am looking for a place with low crime, good schools, nice weather, beautiful scenery and activities for my children ages 13 and 17. Job market does not matter. Thank you.

[carolmora]

Hello again. I was wondering how clean the air, water and ground is in that area. Just wondering if its free from any contaminants since the first atomic bomb was produced there.

[MMAllen]

There are lots of rumors and differing opinions. There are areas of land near the labs that are absolutely off limits and apparently not safe to go into anyway.

Personally I always found it rather depressing in LA...I figured unless one was working at the Labs or some service related to the Labs, there would be no reason to live there.

It seems very neat, clean, probably pretty safe (they have security cameras everywhere). I would suspect the schools would be good, high standards. In fact, I know some people personally who did move there specifically so that their offspring could attend the high school. And it does have a UNM campus, that's a plus.

I'm just not sure what the social life would be unless one were somehow affiliated to the Labs.

Now probably someone will come on this thread and lambast me and prove me totally wrong. I'm only giving impressions and rumors, all I can say is there are other places in NM that have a lot of creative life and laid-back lifestyle...I am just not sure LA is one of them.

Ok, give me hell all you LA folks, I deserve it!

I have to say, in all honesty, part of my prejudice is that my husband worked there and then died of cancer at age 49. Which may or may not be related but...it got so I couldn't even drive there anymore without having an emotional breakdown by the roadside.

So...I am the wrong person to talk about this stuff, I'm sure.

It's a very serious place, very solemn atmosphere there.

But very clean, very organized-looking, etc. Kinda like a military base, in the areas where the officers live.

There are not a lot of stores, shopping, etc. but what there are seem to have high quality merchandise, including the groceries.

One up side might be a certain degree of international community among the physicists, if you like meeting people from other cultures - which I personally do!

There was a big fire back in...was it 2000? I think that was the year...which burned a lot of homes and some of the forests are still recovering from that so there are some burned-out areas. But generally it is a beautiful area. And you would get the range of NM weather including snow.

A2

[GregW]

I interviewed for a position at the Lab some 20 years ago. I was offered the job but the alternate energy project (thank you, Ronnie Ray-gun) was canceled before the deal was done. Too bad, we would have liked living among a collection of academics. Alas, I cannot afford to retire there because the really decent federal wages have kept the housing costs way above my budget.

[MMAllen]

I guess that would be a good benefit, the academic community.

I heard from someone recently that there were a lot of job cuts at the Labs recently? Or are going to be? I wonder how that will impact the housing market in Los Alamos?

[Dancingearth]

I have heard excellent things about the schools--computers for every kid (might be a rumor.) I have known people to move from Santa Fe to LA because of the schools. I think there is a community center with a pool. I loved going to the outdoor ice skating rink in the winter. I have single friends that live there and for the most part, they'd have to drive to Santa Fe and ABQ for a social life but they like living there.

It doesn't have the charm of the rest of New Mexico towns--feels like a town that has been dropped on top of the mesa from the east coast. When I moved to NM in 1995 my twelve year old son wanted to live there because it felt familiar and more like home (PA) but I didn't want to commute to Santa Fe for a job. National Parks are very accessible from there. Bandelier is one of my favorite places.

[Dancingearth]

Originally Posted by carolmora

Hello again. I was wondering how clean the air, water and ground is in that area. Just wondering if its free from any contaminants since the first atomic bomb was produced there.

Lots of controversy on this one--depends who you talk to. I think it is an unknown. My friend who works at the labs and has lived in LA over 20 years claims it is not contaminated. I don't trust the government to tell the truth if it was. Are there websites comparing cancer rates with other areas? And then you'd have to figure out how trustworthy they are. There must be all kinds of studies you could look at.

[ThatTNGuy]

Hello everybody! This is my first post on the forum. I stumbled across this website because I was searching for crime data about my current place of residence - I certainly didn't expect to find such lively discussion going on! That's the internet for you, right?

Anyway, I'll try my best to answer some of the questions you, carolmora, have asked about Los Alamos. For a little bit of background, I lived in Los Alamos for 18 years before relocating to Knoxville in February of 2006. My dad worked at LANL for about 20 years, but he decided to take a position at ORNL, which is obviously the reason for the move (lab hopping, as others call it). I'm 19 and a freshman in college at the moment (I realize you probably weren't looking for a young whippersnapper's advice when you posted here - my apologies), but I feel like I know the town of Los Alamos very, very well. I grew up there and made tons of great friends along the way, and I still miss the place after two years, even though I love my new home.

Crime in Los Alamos is essentially a nonissue. The worst you're likely to read about in the newspaper is a break-in, although there have been some other more serious crimes in the past (meth labs, etc.). Taken as a whole, it's an exceedingly safe place to live and raise a family. Of the 200 crimes that were reported for last year (or maybe it was the year before), I think I remember seeing that all but two or three of them were burglary or similarly "minor" incidents. There's really no reason to fear violent crimes of any kind. Heck, we regularly left our doors unlocked at night, and we never once got robbed/had anything stolen. I don't advocate leaving your house open, obviously, but it's an indication of how safe my family felt in Los Alamos.

Los Alamos is known throughout New Mexico for its great school system. I went to elementary, middle, and high school there, although my high school period was cut short (I left during the second semester of my junior year). Los Alamos schools, and the high school in particular, are recognized in lots of prominent studies ranking the best schools in the nation. I was always surrounded by great teachers and brilliant students, and now that I'm in college I definitely appreciate the value of a solid pre-undergraduate education. There's also a wide variety of sports teams and clubs to choose from, so the schools strike a good balance between academics and extracurricular activities. Soccer and cross country tend to be Los Alamos' strong points - I believe the boys cross country team finished 2nd at nationals this year. My biggest complaint about the schools is that most of them were constructed shortly after the town was established in the 1940s, and they tend to look a little bit dated. They're not junky or unsafe by any means, but a redesign or update of some sort would help. In the end, though, it's a small price to pay for getting a good education.

The scenery is one of Los Alamos' most attractive qualities. The Cerro Grande Fire in 2000 had a significant effect on the mountain scenery, but it doesn't take away from the town's presence as a whole. You're basically nestled in the mountains, and depending on your tastes, you can do just about every outdoor activity imaginable - hiking, skiing, running along trails, biking, ice skating at the outdoor rink beneath the Omega Bridge, etc. The Valle Caldera preserve makes for a really cool outing, and with the Jemez Mountains being such a short drive away you've got a prime location for camping or just taking in the mountain scenery. If you're an outdoors kind of person, you'll love Los Alamos - it's a beautiful place. Your mileage may vary, but I think you'd like it.

As far as weather is concerned, Los Alamos has a little bit of everything. It can get downright cold during the winter, but it's not nearly as bad as, say, somewhere in the Great Lakes region. Subzero temperatures aren't normal, but the locals wouldn't be surprised or alarmed by such conditions. Expect lots and lots of snow due to the elevation (a friend told me it snowed 7 inches just a week ago). Winter doesn't usually "thaw" until late March or April - I remember having two snow days in March of 2005. On the flip side, summers are pretty hot, but not extreme like other desert areas. I'd say the average temperature during the summer is 75 degrees or so, but 90 and up is not unusual. It's definitely a very dry kind of heat, though, so spending an entire day outside isn't advisable. It cools down pretty quickly once fall hits, but the colors and scenery should more than make up for any grief you have about the chilly weather. Los Alamos doesn't get a lot of rain, but during the summer you'll usually see quite a few good thunderstorms (lots of lightning). The skies are almost always blue, the sunsets are beautiful, and the air quality certainly beats the crap out of where I am now - lots of people with breathing problems relocate to Los Alamos for the clean air.

I apologize for the lengthy post, but I really do look back on my time in Los Alamos fondly. It's not the world's most exciting town, but my parents probably couldn't have chosen a better place to raise a family. It has its downfalls, but overall the combination of great schools, awesome weather, a high standard of living, nice people, safety, and unique scenery is hard to beat.

Please feel free to ask about anything else. I'll be happy to help.

[ThatTNGuy]

Originally Posted by Dancingearth

Lots of controversy on this one--depends who you talk to. I think it is an unknown. My friend who works at the labs and has lived in LA over 20 years claims it is not contaminated. I don't trust the government to tell the truth if it was. Are there websites comparing cancer rates with other areas? And then you'd have to figure out how trustworthy they are. There must be all kinds of studies you could look at.

In all my time there, I never witnessed any of the strange phenomena that people outside of Los Alamos seem to be afraid of. Honestly, when you live there, it's just not something that ever comes up. My water was always fine and I'm fairly certain I don't glow in the dark.

If there had been any serious or noteworthy issues, I likely would've heard about it in some form or fashion.

[_yb]

ThatTNGuy,
Great first post. Thanks