Las Cruces vs Albuquerque

[norm]

You guys are terrific. Thanks for the quick replies. It looks like we will fly to Reno and then to Alb and drive to LC from there. We'll probably make the trip in June or July.

[tecpatl]

Originally Posted by norm

I'm going to bother you with two more questions about Las Cruces.

1. What is the long term outlook water availability from the aquifer and other water sources on a long term basis.

2. What is the political atmosphere i.e. moderate, liberal or conservative.

Water is a huge issue, of course, everywhere in the desert SW. Las Cruces gets it's water from wells drawing on the local aquifer, which is resupplied over time by the Rio Grande.
Any surface water ( the Rio Grande) in this area is devoted to farming and is strictly regulated by EBID, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, a Federal agency.
The city of Las Cruces and town of Mesilla have had water conservation regs. in place for quite a while, in the interest of good public policy and not because there is any current shortage. I'm told the long range outlook for water supplies is good, even with the rapid growth of population here in the Mesilla Valley. Outside of older residential areas you will rarely see a lawn, as such, except for a small green patch in some back yards.
I think the general political climate here is moderate to a degree I'm very comfortable with. Local political officeholders are more likely Democratic, but Republicans are well represented.
Big issues are growth and development, with a "go slow(er)" slate of candidates recently taking office after the last election. This is a reaction to very rapid growth and not really a shut the gate movement and I'm comfortable with that as well. There still will be plenty of healthy development in this area.
As far as your earlier question about racial issues goes, I think the only problem you'll have is that some folks may be surprised that you don't speak Spanish if your wife does. For the most part this area is pretty well adjusted to racial diversity, though I know there are some Anglos here (mostly more recent arrivals) who are uncomfortable with the large cultural presence of the Hispanic community. (Apparently they didn't do any homework before moving here) This also means there is a similar group among long time residents who feel like Anglos are trying to "take over" or change things.
The LC city manager is black, the mayor is Japanese/Hispanic and so on....plenty of diversity here, I think, despite the ranting of the fringe on both sides of this non-issue.

[norm]

tecpatl,

Thanks, it looks like you answered all of my questions in great detail.

[Liz_E]

Originally Posted by norm

You guys are terrific. Thanks for the quick replies. It looks like we will fly to Reno and then to Alb and drive to LC from there. We'll probably make the trip in June or July.

I see this post was from January, but i was looking up information on Las Cruces and saw this..

I was wondering is you went on your trip?

[norm]

We fell in love with ABQ. Las Cruces had very nice reasonably priced homes but there was a lack of good shopping and I was very disappointed that there is only one library for a city of 80,000. We didn't like that you had to drive to El Paso to make any major purchases or to buy nice clothing.