Why did you move to New Mexico? (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: apartments, crimes)

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by songinthewind7

Virginia and Tennessee definately have the 4 seasons and beautiful mountains.
I miss the turning of the leaves in the fall but I love this NM weather right now and the mountains.
I would call the mountains of Tn. more hills than mountains though.

Well, true, but for the area, those ARE the mountains, LOL!

If you want to see fall color, visit McKittric Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains State Park. I haven't been yet, but the photos I've seen show brilliant reds, yellows, greens, golds, purples!

True fall color changing is something I want to see--but never have.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

I personally found the humidity in VA just stifling, but if you're used to it, that does make a difference. It is very beautiful and verdant green!

It's good thing you cook at home, because you aren't going to find spicy food in VA. HOWEVER, whatever you find will most likely be a lot better than the restaurant offerings in Alamogordo.

I meant to tell you that they have chiltepin plants at either Lowe's or Home Depot. I almost fainted when I saw them! This was last week!

Yeah we are both used to the humidity. Where I am from in Texas is not only extremely humid but horribly hot. Put the two together and you have miserable. At least in TN or VA when the sun goes down it does cool off, whereas in Texas it didn't, and I just talking about where I am from.

Speaking of cooking at home, my inlaws are from TN and just rave about the Amigos mexican resturant there, I have been and was less than impressed. However my father-in-law is quick to request my Mexican food when they come to visit or we go there.

Did the chilipetins looks healthy? We have finally just had my Dad start picking them and we freeze them when they get here. We just can't get them to grow here.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by songinthewind7

Virginia and Tennessee definately have the 4 seasons and beautiful mountains.
I miss the turning of the leaves in the fall but I love this NM weather right now and the mountains.
I would call the mountains of Tn. more hills than mountains though.

Hills or mountains they are so much prettier to me than the mountains here. To me there is no comparision between the two, of course maybe I am just so ready to leave it maybe clouding my judgement.

[BrianH]

I moved here from Ireland and love it. It is the complete opposite in regards to the weather and scenery. It is a very slow paced area vs Ireland and that suits me down to the ground right now.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by ajzjmsmom

Yeah we are both used to the humidity. Where I am from in Texas is not only extremely humid but horribly hot. Put the two together and you have miserable....

Did the chilipetins looks healthy? We have finally just had my Dad start picking them and we freeze them when they get here. We just can't get them to grow here.

Yep....South Texas does have a pretty unbearable combination of heat and humidity...and I was never able to adapt very well when I lived in the valley! Eagle Pass is proabably not quite as humid, but close.

The chiltepin plants did look a little pale, but I got a couple anyway. The one I started from seed (1 out of 5 germinated) looks a lot healthier. Since the dog chewed some from each yesterday, we'll see whether or not they make it, LOL!!

Mine are all container plants. I'm not even going to try to get a ground plant going this year! I'll let you know how they go. My mom always picks a few for me from the wild bushes that grow all over their property in West Texas.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

Yep....South Texas does have a pretty unbearable combination of heat and humidity...and I was never able to adapt very well when I lived in the valley! Eagle Pass is proabably not quite as humid, but close.

The chiltepin plants did look a little pale, but I got a couple anyway. The one I started from seed (1 out of 5 germinated) looks a lot healthier. Since the dog chewed some from each yesterday, we'll see whether or not they make it, LOL!!

Mine are all container plants. I'm not even going to try to get a ground plant going this year! I'll let you know how they go. My mom always picks a few for me from the wild bushes that grow all over their property in West Texas.

I don't know I recall hubby working shift work in those days and him telling me at 2 a.m. it was 102 at the bank with 95% humidity. I think adapting to VA will take me a bit of time but I will adapt, funny what 9 yrs in NM will do to you. At least refrigerated air is commonplace there as opposed to here. I am loving my refrigerated air this year, especially since it seems as though we may have a chance for a wet monsoon season.

[Tim Rankin]

We moved to NM because my east coast job was outsourced. Albuq was at the top of the list of places I wanted to relocate to. Eventually we moved back east, but not because we disliked Albuq or NM.

Ideally I wish I could spend Sep-Jan back east, and Feb-Aug in Albuq. That way we could spend the crisp, cool fall wx among family & friends, and also the holidays, and finally get some snowy, winter wx in Jan.

By Feb, it would be time to escape the east and revel in the amazing, southwestern spring, and also enjoy the dry & comfortable wx of Albuq's summers [as compared to a steamy DC summer].

There is no replacement for the high-desert magic & vistas of NM. There is no replacement for the incredibly diverse, deciduous forests of the east.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by ajzjmsmom

I don't know I recall hubby working shift work in those days and him telling me at 2 a.m. it was 102 at the bank with 95% humidity. I think adapting to VA will take me a bit of time but I will adapt, funny what 9 yrs in NM will do to you. At least refrigerated air is commonplace there as opposed to here. I am loving my refrigerated air this year, especially since it seems as though we may have a chance for a wet monsoon season.

Um....OK, I take that back, LOL!! I've never been to Eagle Pass in the summer, and it's been a long time since I've been in that area at all.

[mike0421]

This is a tough post to write, because I've been thinking about something that happened five days ago, and it's sticking with me. And because what I am going to articulate is bound to offend some here. That's not my intent, but rather to be as honest as I can. The reason my wife and I chose to move to New Mexico is one that is common to many: namely, to put our family in the best possible position financially. We have two small children, ages 6 and 5. When we moved here, they were 2 and 1. On June 8th, 3 days from now, I will have been a New Mexico property owner for 4 years. I moved here ahead of my family in January 2005, so I have been here a little longer than that. We moved here after I accepted a position at Holloman AFB. (I no longer work at Holloman, however) I come from New Jersey. One of our regular posters here, Tigerlily24, is also from New Jersey. She might be able to relate to what I am about to articulate here, and perhaps some others will as well.

When I first arrived here, in advance of being offered a position at Holloman, we drove up to Alamogordo from the El Paso airport. It was December of 2004. I've said in other posts and will say it again: I am a summer person. Love the warm weather as opposed to my New Jersey home, where the weather is, to me, horrible. The initial feeling of arriving at El Paso in December with the temp 65 degrees and no humidity was euphoric. We were excited to see Alamogordo, had never seen any pictures. (Back in 04, no Google Street View either!) Upon approaching Alamogordo, my wife and I recoiled. Coming from suburban NJ, we both lived lives that up until that point, I hadn't realized how relatively fortunate we were. In suburban New Jersey, outside of New York City especially, there are neighborhoods of affluence that abut each other. Towns where median 6 figure household income is the norm. Driving into Alamogordo, after 80 miles of nothing, was quite an eye opener. There were dilapidated trailers lining Rt 54, scattered, no real sense of order. Pressing on towards the center of Alamo, we encountered White Sands Blvd, and the commerical district. This too, was unlike anything we were used to in New Jersey. My wife actually started to cry. When you work at Holloman AFB, Alamogordo is the anchor town for the base. My wife immediately dismissed Alamogordo, which was really unfortunate, because from a practical standpoint, living in another town was going to involve a lot more of a commute. We drove on through High Rolls and Cloudcroft, and identified more with these areas. Cloudcroft especially felt like a cousin to many rural towns in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, something we'd had prior experience with. However, after meeting with a realtor, we discovered that the prospect of living in Cloudcroft was impractical, because the cost per square foot of household there was appreciably more than we were willing to spend. Our intent upon moving was to lower our mortgage, our living costs. Cloudcroft wasn't going to fit the bill from that standpoint. There was also continuing education to consider. I had already started pursuit of my Master's degree. So, the following day, we drove through WSMR and onto Las Cruces, where another realtor was awaiting our arrival. The same feeling, driving down through Tortilla Flats and Butterfield on Rt 70 as the one we felt driving through Rt 54 in Boles Acres was one we experienced: another conglomeration of poverty on the outskirts of a New Mexico city. However, unlike Alamogordo, the realtor was able to take us to some very desirable neighborhoods in LC. Without exception, all these neighborhoods had homeowners associations. I knew when we toured the areas around Roadrunner Drive that we were going to be ok, because these neighborhoods somewhat resembled what we were used to in NJ. I enthusiastically accepted the position at Holloman, and we were ready to turn the page, new chapter to our lives, etc.

In the four years we have lived here, my wife has made some lifelong friends. People here are very approachable at first encounter, which is something we did not experience in NJ. (I will say however, that in NJ, once you break down that initial wall of suspicion, you are going to meet some extrodinarily fine individuals.) The one overwhelming negative, that I have been occasionally been able to shake, since I've lived here, remains the poverty. Many times, I've been to the point where I think I've finally been able to shake it. There have been times, however, when I've gotten quite upset, primarily last winter when my wife and I had our cars broken into, in our own driveway, and when our neighborhood was vandalized with graffiti. I thought to myself then, that living in what is considered to be a middle to upper-middle class neighborhood, if this were in New Jersey (or for that matter, most of New England, the northeast) this would never, ever happen. I've similarly stated that in NJ, I could leave my doors unlocked during the day while at work, and I'd have no fear of burglary. That is not possible here, and I've learned that the hard way.

In my first sentence in this post, I alluded to something that happened to me this past Monday, and I will share it with you now. I took the day off from work because I had to babysit my kids. I had to go into downtown LC on El Paseo Drive because one of my kids had a dentist appointment. Afterwards, I took them to Sonic for lunch. As I mentioned previously, my kids are now 6 and 5. The six year old is particularly approaching the age of reason, and now, fluid conversations are the norm. I was waiting at Sonic for the carhop to deliver us our meal. As I was doing so, I noticed a teenager, perhaps early 20 something, stalking back and forth between the drive in aisles on either side of the Sonic parking lot. Having spent nearly every day of my life working in urban New Jersey, in some horrible neighborhoods, has really spun me up on when knowing something very bad is about to happen, in advance of it happening. I was saying to myself, out loud: "Something's up. There's something wrong here." My son, listening to my every word, suddenly says, "Daddy, what's wrong?" No sooner was he saying this, than right there in front of my eyes (AND MY KIDS EYES) , emerge two Las Cruces police cars on either side of Sonic, proceed to rush this kid, detain and handcuff him, instanteously. There is instant commotion, the kid is dragged off to the side of the restaurant, a waitress is attempting to approach the area where the scuffle is occurring, and the police are frantically telling her to go back to the area where she was at previously. My kids are both watching all this happen, as the kid is being shoved into the police cruiser. The inevitable questions from my kids follow: what happened? Why was he bad? Then my daughter asked me a question that just floored me: "Daddy, did you see this happen when you were a boy?" That question was my 'breaking the fourth wall' moment, an epiphany of sorts. My answer to her was the truth: "No". In fact, growing up in New Jersey, I had never seen anything the likes of what I saw until I was about 19 or 20, when I began working in downtown East Orange. I had been in New York City previously, and had seen some illicit activity, but nothing approaching a restraint, arrest, and multiple police convening on a suspect in the middle of a fast food restaurant. As I answered her sincere question, the rest of the day was occupied with thoughts of my childhood, and the state I grew up in. Either I really, and truthfully led a very charmed and privileged childhood, or, perhaps the spatial dynamic in New Mexico is such that such exposure to these incidents is unavoidable. For instance, it is very VERY unlikely we would have seen anything approaching this had we decided to move to Cloudcroft. But then again, there are no Sonic restaurants in Cloudcroft either. There are in Alamogordo, but could the incident my kids witnessed in LC happened also in Alamogordo? You bet it could. However, I grew up in a town that had plenty of restaurants, plenty of stores of every conceivable variety, where as a 9, 10, 11 year old kid, I remember vividly being able to walk to and never, ever see what happened this past Monday. What I think I am trying to formulate here is that what I've observed in New Mexico is that there is a substantial risk of encountering illicit, criminal activity any time you decide to foray into the center of a substantial population center, and by that I mean anything over about 5,000 people. That number is intangible, but it is the one I come up with offhand. In addition to transparent poverty, there are drifters almost everywhere, once you leave residential communities. And with that, especially as the father of two small (but rapidly growing) children, there is that undercurrent of unsettling feeling. As I've said, there is definitely a spatial component to this. Once you leave population centers in NM (with the exception of ABQ) there are no really built up neighborhoods that reflect any degree of affluence. There is, instead, nothingness, for the most part. Perhaps in this sense, New Jersey is more a national exception to the rule. As I've said, you can literally drive 40, 50 miles away from New York City, or 20, 30 miles outside of Philadelphia, and drive through one prosperous town after the next. And I think I took that for granted when I lived there. I assumed that's the way a good deal of the U.S. was laid out. But it really isn't. I think the best comparison, at least with Las Cruces, is to look at each zip code as a separate town. I've thought of many different ways to look at the situation at hand. But since this past Monday, I've really thought of what happened, what my kids saw, and contrasted that with what I was brought up with. And I have been wondering to myself ever since: is this really a place where I want to raise my children? Is this place conducive to an American run of the mill middle aged family of four? I have my doubts, and that is sad, because this place is beautiful indeed. The natural beauty here unparalleled, certainly more than most places east of the Mississippi River. The weather, the climate, that too is sublime. But this can become wallpaper after a while. The real brick and mortar in one's life is people and community. You have to feel comfortable in that skin. Perhaps this sentiment won't linger, and try to look past it. I am hopeful it will.

[TigerLily24]

Originally Posted by ajzjmsmom

I guess Albuquerque has the four seasons but Alamo sure doesn't. The lack of good educational choices is a big one for me. It will be nice to be in area where the schools are some of the best in the nation and even those that are not at the top of the list are still better than the ones here.

I'm kind of surprised to hear that. The seasons are definitely shorter here, but Las Cruces certainly has four - the trees change color and it goes from coolish to cold in late November/early December. Then in late February/early March, it gets warm again and the trees bloom like crazy.

A couple of pics that I took to prove this very thing to family/friends back East
The first picture is from Thanksgiving time last year, the second is from this March.