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Interesting article in the Journal this morning about "Mountain Mega Metro Areas" Which consist of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Denver & Albuquerque/Santa Fe. It talks about these areas being the new population booming centers of the West. The Albuquerque/Santa Fe area alone has grown by over 100,000 people since 2000.
I can't access the article in the link, but I don't in any way consider Albuquerque and Santa Fe a "metro area." There is practically nothing in between ABQ and Santa Fe to link it all together.
Yes Towanda, the Brookings Institution study, says "five rapidly growing metro areas in the West are poised to be become important urban centers" I think they are thinking towards the future as much, and the study refers to these areas as metro corridors as well.
They include Denver-Colorado Springs-Fort Collins; Phoenix-Tucson; Las Vegas, Salt Lake City. The ABQ/Santa Fe corridor is the smallest of the five.
I can't access the article in the link, but I don't in any way consider Albuquerque and Santa Fe a "metro area." There is practically nothing in between ABQ and Santa Fe to link it all together.
Do they link Denver and Boulder?
Salt Lake City and Provo?
Etc.?
There is a lot of open space between Santa Fe and ABQ, but this openness reminds me of another metro area - San Antonio - Austin TX about 20-30 years ago. I'm new to ABQ, but I 've sure run across a lot of people who live/work/play between ABQ and Santa Fe, and vice-versa. Looks like a small metro area to me!
I spent nine years in San Antonio, and I don't consider San Antonio and Austin a metro area either ... but at least there are TOWNS in between the two cities loosely connecting them together. I see ABQ and Santa Fe as two seperate entities.
I grew up in Rochester NY and Buffalo and Syracuse were about as far from Rochester at the distance between ABQ and Santa Fe .... and NO ONE (at least back then) would have considered cities 50 or 60 miles apart to be "metro areas" - even though many people liked to live/work/play in all of those cities.
Maybe the term "metro area" has evolved in some way that I am not aware of.
I believe ABQ and Santa Fe have two seperate identities; I love both cities, but I don't want to see us dilute the uniqueness of EACH of them by blending them into one homogenous "metro area."
The article is very interesting, the point it makes is that, yes, there is space between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but their fates are linked. This is based on the notion of many folks who live in Santa Fe work in Albuquerque, and vise versa. It also mentions mass transit and the information age, meaning traditional metro areas of the past in the east do not really apply to the areas in the west. It says that in 2007, the Albuquerque/Sante Fe area had a population of 1,097,000.
It DOES make sense if you consider the synergy between places like Santa Fe and Albuquerque, Phoenix and Tucson, Denver and Colorado Springs. Though not REAL close, the activities of one tend to effect the other.
Today, the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor is rapidly turning into one of the nation's major "megapolitan" areas, adding more than 100,000 people since 2000. And it needs to begin thinking and acting the part, according to a Brookings Institution study, "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper."
I think they are talking about them being linked by mass transit....Rail Runner.
The report's bottom line is that the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area and the other four growing giants of the Intermountain West are the new frontier of population and economic growth in the United States — a transition from "desert outposts and small cities" to "massive and booming urban regions" that are transforming the region into a "new American heartland."
The Albuquerque/Santa Fe area has a current population on 1,097,000 and growing fast.
There is a web site that has been promoting this Metro NM concept linking ABQ and Santa Fe, and Rio Rancho etc. and the web site predates the Brooking study. Corporate Relocation for Site Selection Professionals : Metro New Mexico (http://www.nmsitesearch.com/content/content_home.htm - broken link)
It looks to me like a marketing technique -- you combine the virtues of ABQ and SF in one package.
But there has been a great deal of talk recently about SF workers living in the ABQ metro area, especially Rio Rancho. I drove down to ABQ the other morning and was surprised to see more people going the other way. Does anybody know the numbers on this?
I have seen a few Santa Fe police cars at homes in Rio Rancho.
and someone mentioned the cities need to start acting the part, Abq is growing and some need to get out of the small town mentaility,were a growing city and we need to accomodate that while keeping our unique appeal.
I spent all these years waiting to move out here because I love the uniqueness of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and now that I am finally here, I find we have people trying to lump the two cities and Rio Rancho as well, into one metro area. Man I hate that and it is depressing to me.
Why mess with something so special?
Especially when this state is SO DIFFERENT from all the other states.
What's next? The state is divided up in these mega-metro areas:
Might as well be back in the Northeast corridor where one city flows into another and they all look just the same.
Do New Mexicans really want that?
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RE: Albuquerque and Santa Fe a "metro area"?
