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Just for the record (in case someone considering a move did not already take the OP with a mound of salt), here has been my personal experience.
1. I have never had my house or car broken into. I have lived here for 10 years. I live in a "good" area of town though (about as far NE as you can get), have a security system, and park my cars in my garage. Over the past 10 years, I have heard stories from two of my acquaintances who have personally experienced an attempted home invasion, and I don't recall hearing any first hand accounts of car break-ins.
2. I agree that the state of the public school systems is sad. I'm not sure that unemployment is a bigger issue here than most places though.
3. My husband has been in a car accident (rear ended) and a witness to another. In both cases the police were fairly responsive. I agree that drivers tend to run red lights like it is their job and are otherwise mediocre drivers.
4. My neighbors in both of the neighborhoods I have lived in are friendly (i.e. wave and smile) but are not very close. Over the course of time we got to know our immediate neighbors in our last neighborhood and we did things for each other like close garages if they were accidentally left open, pull in trash bins while out of town, etc. Neighborly, but I wouldn't consider them my friends. In our new neighborhood, we mostly smile and wave but have had brief chats with all of our immediate neighborhoods and some others in the neighborhood who we met at the neighborhood park. We even received welcome to the neighborhood cookies from one of our neighbors. I think this is very neighborhood and person specific.
5. It is super-dry here. I don't have a huge problem with it (a bit of dry skin, my hair loves it though) but my husband's hands get really dry and my son can get bloody noses. A whole house humidifier + regular lotion application helps a lot, especially in the winter.
6. Even though I never tried green chili before coming here, I like it. I eat it occasionally and have never felt that I can't get away from it. I think you have to look really hard to find a place that sells green chili on ice cream.
I don't love Albuquerque like some people do (I wouldn't live here if my husband and I didn't have great jobs here). I don't hate it either though. There are definitely many pros to living here. Albuquerque has great year-round weather that is perfect for getting outside a lot, good cost of living, and a nice city size balance (big enough to have most of the amenities/comforts you want but small enough not to have the crazy big city traffic and prices). I am not blind to the drawbacks though. The education system is concerning, crime is high but thankfully most of it is concentrated in certain areas, and it takes 6+ hours to drive to a true big city (Denver, Phoenix, etc.) so it feels very isolated and takes 1+ stops to fly anywhere. It's not for everyone, but isn't the dump the OP makes it out to be either.
I think this is one of the most fair and objective posts that I've seen in this forum. It gives positives and negatives which is what someone moving to NM would probably want to see. There are certain aspects of the OP's post that resonated with me and some that certainly made me raise an eyebrow but those are his experiences. Not everyone is going to be enchanted by the land of enchantment. It is what it is and it's not trolling if someone says so.
nope New Mexico chili is ****ing white with corn and white beans and tastes nothing like chili.
The original post is by turns mystifying and amusing on several points, but this part stands out as by far the strangest line to me. What is the OP talking about? Doesn't "white" usually imply the presence of cream or milk? And white beans? What? I was born here, grew up here, and returned as an adult after many years living elsewhere, but have never experienced anything along the lines of this ostensible "New Mexico chili." My mother - who also grew up here - regularly cooked "chili with an 'i'", but it used pintos, beef and a tomato/red chile powder base and was nothing like what the OP is talking about. Did he just misidentify someone's personal take on green chile stew, or something?
Location: In my cat's house, until she finds a better human servant
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cactus Hibs
The original post is by turns mystifying and amusing on several points, but this part stands out as by far the strangest line to me. What is the OP talking about? Doesn't "white" usually imply the presence of cream or milk? And white beans? What? I was born here, grew up here, and returned as an adult after many years living elsewhere, but have never experienced anything along the lines of this ostensible "New Mexico chili." My mother - who also grew up here - regularly cooked "chili with an 'i'", but it used pintos, beef and a tomato/red chile powder base and was nothing like what the OP is talking about. Did he just misidentify someone's personal take on green chile stew, or something?
Maybe it was posole? Who knows.
My neighbors brought me homemade red chile posole recently. I live in a part of town considered really awful. Strangers have stopped by to drop off mis-delivered packages and mail. Have had one small, cheap, lawn ornament vanish and I’m not even sure it was stolen (maybe just swept up with the yard debris). No one messes with my car. I know people who have had things stolen. I’ve had things stolen in other states. I’ve had bad things happen in other cities.
I think the health care here leaves a lot to be desired, and some percentage of the drivers (and some pedestrians too) create a high level of danger for the other drivers/pedestrians. The weather is generally beautiful, people friendly and COL is cheap. Things tend to get done a little too slowly for my typeA tastes. Never have trouble finding food without chile in it if I want it that way (love chile). Pros outweigh the cons for me, at least for now.
I've been in NM for five years...not born or brought up on red or green Chile so to me, and some transplants, it is an acquired taste or maybe never acquired like a native. There are NM dishes I like with green chile but sometimes, and at some restaurants, chile dumped on the food is a crutch for mediocre cooking. Just ask for the chile served on the side and use what you want. I've seen native born locals complain about the chile being too hot.
On top of the usual American and NM foods, Albuquerque is blessed with a variety of international restaurants and even specialty grocery stores. If you can't find something that you like it is your own fault.
I just left ABQ after a 3 year stint and all I can say is whatever you do.. DO NOT COME TO ABQ !! Consider this a public service announcement.. If you value your safety and that of your family stay away from New Mexico..especially ABQ !! The city is completely WRETCHED !!! Crime ridden is the understatement of the century! There is an entire portion of the city known as the WAR ZONE...Every single person I met had their home broken into or car stolen at least once. I had to sleep with a loaded AR-15 next to my bed with my bedroom door locked because the threat of home invasion is so high. My girlfriend put it like this.."The crime is not so bad my house has only gotten broken into once, my neighbor has gotten broken into 6 times but its his fault he keeps replacing all his stuff"
So how many times did you have to use your AR-15?
If you are military and living in the so-called war zone near Kirtland AFB, this is not surprising. Some military neighborhoods around the country are known as the highest-crime neighborhoods and extremely high in property crimes. Seems that with all those young men living in close quarters, some of them end up getting in trouble. Who knew? And a lot of them are small-town innocents who don't know about living in a city and locking up their stuff so are easy targets.
Topping the list of America's ten worst military neighborhoods is Hawaii's Schofield Barracks. The area has an estimated 759 property crimes per 1,000 people -- more than 20 times the national average of 34 per 1,000 residents and fifteen times Hawaii's average. As a result, NeighborhoodScout ranks it as one of the worst neighborhoods in the country. Yet, Schofield Barracks's crime wave is largely comprised of property crimes, not violent crimes. While its property crime rate is more than twenty times the national average, its violent crime rate is (a comparatively minor) 49% higher than the median. This suggests that the large crime jumps in the area are more likely to involve robbery, theft, and motor vehicle theft.
Similarly, the second-ranked neighborhood, the Patton Road area near Alabama's Redstone Arsenal, has an estimated property crime rate of 691 per 1,000 residents. The remaining eight military neighborhoods -- Indiana's Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base, an area near Texas' Lackland AFB, Mississippi's Meridian Naval Air Station, California's Presidio of Monterey, Washington's Ault Field, and Hawaii's Kaneohe Station -- range between 410 and 155 property crimes per 1,000 residents.
I just left ABQ after a 3 year stint and all I can say is whatever you do.. DO NOT COME TO ABQ !! Consider this a public service announcement.. If you value your safety and that of your family stay away from New Mexico..especially ABQ !! The city is completely WRETCHED !!! Crime ridden is the understatement of the century! There is an entire portion of the city known as the WAR ZONE...Every single person I met had their home broken into or car stolen at least once. I had to sleep with a loaded AR-15 next to my bed with my bedroom door locked because the threat of home invasion is so high. My girlfriend put it like this.."The crime is not so bad my house has only gotten broken into once, my neighbor has gotten broken into 6 times but its his fault he keeps replacing all his stuff"
And that is the problem with ABQ they blame the victim.. when your car windows get bashed in they say "oh its your fault because you left something on your seat" I'm sorry that does not give you the right to violate someone's property. In Albuquerque they literally steal everything.. every year during Christmas our mail boxes were broken into and the mail stolen because people are looking for gift cards and personal ID. Forget about having packages delivered to your home the neighbors will steal them off your front porch. I met an uber driver who told me that just last year someone stole his mail and wrote themselves a $5000 cash advance on his credit card. The bank did not ask for ID and the thief cashed it personally..
Why is the crime so bad well lets see.. ABQ has some of the worst schools in the country. The majority of the population is uneducated and there are no jobs. The city has imposed a gross receipts tax on businesses making it unfriendly to small business. ABQ police are so overworked and undermanned that they can't possibly keep up. If you have a traffic accident the police are not coming.. they are to busy chasing drug dealers, gang members and murders. My girlfriend worked for the local news and she told me that they stopped reporting all the murders and violent crime because there were just too many.
The people of Albuquerque are extremely unfriendly..Being from the south, when I first moved into my neighborhood I knocked on my neighbors doors and introduced myself.. everyone of them looked at me like I was crazy. In 3 years living in that neighborhood I had one person wave hello.. most of the time they just stare at you.
ABQ drivers are the worst ever.. Don't even think about putting you blinker on to make a lane change.. that is a challenge to the next guys machismo and they will speed up to block you. They would rather put you in a ditch then allow you to get over or change lanes. Then comes the yellow/red light nonsense.. A yellow light is like dropping the checkered flag at the indy 500.. don't even think about slowing down. Running Red lights is a local pastime in ABQ and its so bad that when I went to my first day of work they had to show us a video and tell us that its not uncommon to have 5-7 cars run the red light after it changes.. they were not exaggerating. This leads to the next problem.. nobody has insurance and therefore your insurance rates are sky high. ABQ is a sanctuary city meaning people flow into the city illegally and then are given drivers licenses and allowed to vote.. How do they vote you may ask well it is illegal to show an ID to vote.. All you have to do is give a name and an address and that is good enough.
The climate is hostile to your existence. ABQ is roughly 5000-6000 ft elevation and extremely dry which leads to dry sinuses, bloody noses and dry stinging red eyes. The New Mexico eye as I affectionately call it usually sets in overnight so you wake up the next morning with one eye swollen and red and stinging which causes you to have to live on visine. IF you come from sea level expect to feel light headed and dizzy for a few weeks to a few months. The sun has a brightness 10x everything you could possibly be used to and will burn your retinas out on your daily commute and at sun set.
Last but not least the unholy obsession with red or green chile..they pollute EVERYTHING with it. It DOES NOT go in Ice Cream people !! Its so bad that you can't go to a potluck or get invited over to someone's house and eat normal food.. green chile in mack and cheese.. green chili in every ****ing thing!! I went to a chili cook off at work and expected to see a tomato base chili and beef and beans.. nope New Mexico chili is ****ing white with corn and white beans and tastes nothing like chili.
So to summarize, CRIME, Drugs, unfriendly people, terrible food, hostile climate. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!!!
I Just feel bad for the military guys who are forced to come here.. you will just have to keep your head down and enjoy the suck..try not to become a victim.
Consider this a public service announcement. When you join a message board just to slam an area you're going to get run.
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