Tuscon vs Boise vs Colorado Springs vs Albuquerque (better, crime, places)
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Boise and Tucson in the same poll? All four of these cities (except ABQ and Tucson are pretty similar minus climate differences and ALLERGIES) are insanely different. Why these four? There's plenty of mid sized metros in this region not included like Las Cruces, Billings, Bozeman, Bend... why aren't they included?
None of those three cities in bold above are mid sized metros, but small metros. Bend and Bozeman are small towns, Las Cruces has a small metro population that doesn't even have as many people as the city limits of Boise. Boise has nearly 220,000 in city limits with a metro population of around 677,000 and a CSA of 756,000.
I also agree comparing Boise to Tucson and ABQ is a little weird. Even though Boise is smaller compared to those two cities, it holds its own very well especially in the total package of the beauty department (as does CS) as well as other categories. I would have to say Boise stands proudly alone in the comparison of these cities.
Last edited by TohobitPeak; 10-08-2016 at 11:13 AM..
I have been reading some of these replies and honestly, I'm surprised that Albuquerque has so many positive votes. I live here with a family, and my wife and I are long time residents.
ABQ has one of the highest (per-capita) violent crime ratings. In other words, it's quite violent. The man photographing our house which is going up for sale said he used to work in law enforcement here and the gang/cartel issue here is very bad and generally ignored by the press.
There is a very wide divide in income - a lot of wealthy people - either via engineering (Sandia Labs), construction, or families that sold their ranches a few generations ago and are living off family run businesses. Most of these people are white and live in the northeast part of the city. That part of the city is overpriced for what you will get - believe me we've been looking. There is also a lot of poverty and sort of "ghetto"/violent low income scattered throughout the city (even creeping into the shrinking northeast heights). There is no "safe" neighborhood unless you are quite well off. All the middle income (that's us) are crammed over in the west side of the city where all the new development is, or out in the mesa/desert in Rio Rancho. We live in an area ranked as low-crime and generally considered the place to be for families, but have had several criminal neighbors over the last 10 years. (SWAT took refuge team in our yard once).
If you work for Sandia Labs or one of the companies that supports it, you will do pretty well. If you don't, jobs are a little hard to come by. I work in a good field and have always had a job, but typically it does not pay super well out here. Even the “government” jobs are not paying much more than private, and their benefits have been steadily downgrading, from what I hear.
The weather is nice, unless you have an issue with dry weather. It is dry... it rains during one period in the summer and that's about it. Lots of desert allergens so I'd suggest visiting if you are thinking of moving over. The area is pretty in a desert kind of way. The city is watered via the Rio Grande, which by the time it hits ABQ is relatively low in volume.
We have visited both Portland area and the Colorado Springs area recently for possible places to move. Most likely it will be Colorado Springs. In any case, it will be somewhere somewhere safer, more moisture, more family-friendly.
OH I almost forgot, APS (the schools) are widely lambasted. They have one of the largest school districts in the country (in relation to staff, leadership, student ratios) and are seriously underfunded. The schools generally rank very low, and there is a plethora of private schools popping up, as well as a large homeschooling community.
I have been reading some of these replies and honestly, I'm surprised that Albuquerque has so many positive votes. I live here with a family, and my wife and I are long time residents.
ABQ has one of the highest (per-capita) violent crime ratings. In other words, it's quite violent. The man photographing our house which is going up for sale said he used to work in law enforcement here and the gang/cartel issue here is very bad and generally ignored by the press.
There is a very wide divide in income - a lot of wealthy people - either via engineering (Sandia Labs), construction, or families that sold their ranches a few generations ago and are living off family run businesses. Most of these people are white and live in the northeast part of the city. That part of the city is overpriced for what you will get - believe me we've been looking. There is also a lot of poverty and sort of "ghetto"/violent low income scattered throughout the city (even creeping into the shrinking northeast heights). There is no "safe" neighborhood unless you are quite well off. All the middle income (that's us) are crammed over in the west side of the city where all the new development is, or out in the mesa/desert in Rio Rancho. We live in an area ranked as low-crime and generally considered the place to be for families, but have had several criminal neighbors over the last 10 years. (SWAT took refuge team in our yard once).
If you work for Sandia Labs or one of the companies that supports it, you will do pretty well. If you don't, jobs are a little hard to come by. I work in a good field and have always had a job, but typically it does not pay super well out here. Even the “government” jobs are not paying much more than private, and their benefits have been steadily downgrading, from what I hear.
The weather is nice, unless you have an issue with dry weather. It is dry... it rains during one period in the summer and that's about it. Lots of desert allergens so I'd suggest visiting if you are thinking of moving over. The area is pretty in a desert kind of way. The city is watered via the Rio Grande, which by the time it hits ABQ is relatively low in volume.
We have visited both Portland area and the Colorado Springs area recently for possible places to move. Most likely it will be Colorado Springs. In any case, it will be somewhere somewhere safer, more moisture, more family-friendly.
OH I almost forgot, APS (the schools) are widely lambasted. They have one of the largest school districts in the country (in relation to staff, leadership, student ratios) and are seriously underfunded. The schools generally rank very low, and there is a plethora of private schools popping up, as well as a large homeschooling community.
I agree with most of what you said.
I do notice that Albuquerque has a high violent crime but the robbery and homicides rates are quite low for a city of it's size.
I have noticed that Albuquerque is basically only high on violent crime rates because of a high rate of aggrevated assault. It is a relatively low robbery and homicide rates for such a large city.
It looks homicides have rates have ranged quite a bit over the years. They are currently at 46 homicides.
I know for a long time, Albuquerque has had a rumors of high crime, but it seems to have certain years where the homicides plunge to very low levels.
The city did have a low of 28 homicides in 2014 which is extremely low for a city of it's size.
Albuquerque is only about 100,000 people less then Baltimore and Detroit, it is one of the larger cities in the nation.
I have noticed that many eastern cities like Baltimore and Cleveland have quadruple the robbery rate of Albuquerque.
If rock bottom crime is important then Boise in a landslide. Colorado Springs, Tucson and Albuquerque while being fairly low violent crime rates for their size, will never be able to compete with Boise in that regard anand Boise is basically known for rock-bottom crime.
Albuquerque has a wider income disparity then Colorado Springs but the rents are so low that people can live in much nicer apartments and neighborhoods then most other big cities.
Tucson on the other hand is an extremely poverty-ridden city with wealthy retiree suburbs. Tucson also has pricey suburbs compared to Colorado Springs and Albuquerque as many wealthy retirees live in the suburbs of Tucson for half of the year.
Tucson despite being one of the most poverty-ridden cities in the country also has relatively low homicides rates.
33 homicides in 2015 for a population well over half a million people.
The thing about Tucson is inside the city limits it's like the third-world but cross-over on the other side of the city limits into Catalina Foothills and Oro Valley and it is a like a desert resort.
Colorado Springs is one of the most equal cities in the country for it's size. Colorado Springs is a very, very married city which is one of the reasons for the low poverty rate. Colorado Springs does have a huge lower-middle income area and then a relatively large population of affluent retirees who live in the city limits.
I really think Colorado Springs reason for low-poverty is that it is such a married city. It is a very lonely city to be single.
Last edited by lovecrowds; 10-09-2016 at 06:21 PM..
Boise, Colorado Springs, and Spokane all have similar sized metro populations of several hundred thousand. ABQ and Tucson are larger at the million person level.
I would agree that comparing these places is a bit of a mismatch but to place Boise and Springs with places that are less then a few hundred thousand is delving into hyperbole.
Both of these are in the inner West but we are looking at two true SW cities and two Intermountain West cities. That alone is a HUGE cultural difference. Not too mention the other obvious factors like demographics (Tucson and ABQ are minority-majority), weather, etc.
IMO Boise and Colorado Springs makes a fair comparison. Tucson and ABQ are a fair comparison. All four in one thread not so much. Two of these are major cities for their state, the other two are secondary cities that are only a couple hours or so from the main city. One can get insane summers, another one gets insane winters (I heard Boise does get rough winters on the occasion), one gets a very windy season (ABQ)...
OP needs to mention more preferences. Anyone leading towards Boise will not be for Tucson or ABQ, just too many differences.
"Albuquerque is only about 100,000 people less then Baltimore and Detroit, it is one of the larger cities in the nation."
What? Alb is a metro of roughly 1 million people! It is by no means in the same size category as Baltimore or Detroit! Not even close!
Gotta remember that lovecrowds extrapolates basic information into almost disjointed, stretched relevance using obtuse government data sources that are open to interpretation.
Like Cos is populated with primarily struggling young couples and retirees, ignoring the largest and entire middle population segments of the area.
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