Should my Dog and I move to Albuquerque or Santa Fe from Oregon

[JulianH]

Originally Posted by spyrye

Here's the deal:
Santa Fe is expensive. Santa Fe has awesome art galleries, lots of great venues for good music, lots of opportunities from there for photography especially up through Tesuque, Chimayo, Truchas, Angel Fire, Taos.
Great food,too. Dogs are welcome in all these areas.
Downside: obviously expensive to rent. Dealing with the locals and traffic on daily basis (if you had to)

I would not even consider ABQ if you are coming from a progressive city like Oregon or Washington.

What are you talking about?! "Lots of great venues for good music" in Santa Fe? Where are they? There's several in Albuquerque and spread out all over the city that are open to many genres and styles, and there's always some kind of live music event happening somewhere every night of the week at one of the local venues here in Albuquerque so you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Also there's a number of artists and galleries with much more variety than I've seen in Santa Fe. There's also plenty of opportunities for photography in ABQ (See the ABQ metro photo thread here on c-d)as well. For the record, the things that Santa Fe gets a lot recognition for, like it's scenery, food and art scene can be found in many places all over the state of New Mexico, and cheaper too.

Also, Oregon and Washington are states, not cities, but I'll assume you meant Portland, Eugene and Seattle. As far as "progressive" goes, I would say Albuquerque's a fairly progressive city, it's a bit economically stagnant if that's what you mean but the it's a pretty open minded city as far as the people who live in it. I definitely wouldn't describe it as a conservative though

If you don't like Albuquerque, that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, to each his own, but there's no reason to unfairly bash it and mislead and withhold information to someone who's simply just wanting some basic info.

To the OP, come check them both out, they're only an hour apart, spend some time in both and see what feels right for YOU

[foggnm]

It would be nice to know how old you are and what city in Oregon you're moving from to help write a reply. Santa Fe will probably seem a lot 'nicer' to you in terms of the vibrant art community, scenic beauty, and smaller city (town) appeal with a few less urban problems than Albuquerque. It is typically more expensive, though not by much. Santa Fe has too many great places to eat. Santa Fe is also closer to many of the northern NM treasures (skiing, rivers, Taos, etc.). Albuquerque is bigger and has a younger vibe. When I go to Santa Fe, I feel there's a large population of 50 year old plus hippie/artsy/wealthy people (not that there's anything wrong with that). Albuquerque is much more reflective of NM in general, population wise. I think people are a little more down to earth in Albuquerque as SF attracts a lot of artsy/spiritual people that are unique. To me Albuquerque is a typical mid-size city (with a large state university) that has some pluses and minuses. SF is a tourist-artist-hippie-state government small-medium city that also has its positives and negatives. Really, I think it comes down to hold old you are and what type of 'vibe' you like. Neither of these cities are going to compare to a big city like San Diego. Just know that SF too does have quite a bit of tourist-traffic which may be a turn off to some.