Which Cities are alike? Tucson like El Paso? Albuquerque like El Paso? Tucson like Albuquerque? (best, state)

[TheOldPueblo]

Which cities are alike?

Is Tucson like El Paso?
Is Albuquerque like El Paso?
Is Tucson like Albuquerque?
Are all 3 cities exactly the same?
Are all 3 cities different?

[lovecrowds]

Originally Posted by TheOldPueblo

Which cities are alike?

Is Tucson like El Paso?
Is Albuquerque like El Paso?
Is Tucson like Albuquerque?
Are all 3 cities exactly the same?
Are all 3 cities different?

None of them are alike in my opinion.

El Paso despite being a relatively low per-capita income city and lots of poverty is far less gritty, less seedy and cleaner than Albuquerque and Tucson

El Paso looks far more well-off than it is, Albuquerque despite being a relatively well-off city with lots of resources available to it being the big city in a big oil state like New Mexico is just an exceptionally gritty, seedy city with a way above average number of rough areas.

Tucson is in the middle. A bit seedy, but nothing out of ordinary. It's a very no frills city with very, very nice suburbs compared to the others in my opinion.

As far as weather goes. Tucson is slightly warmer year-round than El Paso and much warmer than Albuquerque. Albuquerque is a high-elevation city with neighborhoods of the city being above 6,000 feet elevation.

Tucson's Mount Lemmon is a very scenic background. El Paso has the Franklin Mountains but they are a bit dryer looking to put it nicely.

Tucson is not like El Paso at all. Tucson overall is a far grittier city than El Paso. They both share a large number of historic neighborhoods that are underrated.

Tucson has excellent suburbs that cater to retirees and are excellent but the city proper just seems to have alot more issues than El Paso.

Albuquerque is not like El Paso either. Albuquerque despite being a much wealthier city has off the charts amounts of violent crime rate, huge percentage of the population with substance abuse issues and it is a very gritty city.

El Paso has much, much lower per-capita income and much higher poverty than Albuquerque but one would never guess it.

I will say that Albuquerque overall is a much more vibrant city than El Paso and the area of UNM has much more of a college town feel as opposed to El Paso.

The three cities are not exactly the same at all. Albuquerque has a much better economy, more vibrant than the others, far more well-off on incomes and has moderate winters and moderate summers but at the same time it has off the charts violent crime, huge percentage of the population with substance abuse issues and in general is a very gritty city.

Tucson isn't as gritty as Albuquerque but more so than El Paso. Tucson isn't as vibrant as Albuquerque but faster paced than El Paso. Tucson has a much lower violent crime rate than Albuquerque but a bit higher than El Paso.

The cities are all different in my opinion. Albuquerque just seems like much more of a higher-elevation mountain city to me whenever I am there. It doesn't have the exceptionally hot summers or warm winters that El Paso and Tucson are known for.

[DisposedData]

Albuquerque punches above its weight, while Tucson and El Paso punch below their weights. Visiting all three you would come out thinking Albuquerque was the biggest of the three when in reality it is the smallest.

None of them are very similar culturally. But El Paso does have more of a Mexican feel than the other two.

Climate wise Albuquerque is significantly colder thanks to it's high elevation. It is a mountain city through and through while the other two or more traditional southwest

Crime wise Albuquerque is far and away the worst and is one of the worst places in the nation for car thefts.

Overall Tuscon and El Paso are more similar to each other than they are to Albuquerque which is both good and bad.

[TheOldPueblo]

Tucson is my number 1 favorite out of the 3 medium sized desert cities. It's very appealing and really gorgeous. I don't like Albuquerque or El Paso much. I felt both Albuquerque and El Paso were exact duplicates. Many people say Tucson and El Paso are exactly alike and that Tucson and Albuquerque are exactly alike.

However, in my book, Tucson is the best. El Paso and Albuquerque are a tie. If you really think about it, looking west of Albuquerque looks exactly like looking west in El Paso. It has that valley. The shopping and the entertainment is about the same and both are in the absolute middle of nowhere. Santa Fe is more like the Las Cruces of Albuquerque. Tucson is also really clean, far cleaner than El Paso from what I've seen.

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Originally Posted by TheOldPueblo

Tucson is my number 1 favorite out of the 3 medium sized desert cities. It's very appealing and really gorgeous. I don't like Albuquerque or El Paso much. I felt both Albuquerque and El Paso were exact duplicates. Many people say Tucson and El Paso are exactly alike and that Tucson and Albuquerque are exactly alike.

However, in my book, Tucson is the best. El Paso and Albuquerque are a tie. If you really think about it, looking west of Albuquerque looks exactly like looking west in El Paso. It has that valley. The shopping and the entertainment is about the same and both are in the absolute middle of nowhere. Santa Fe is more like the Las Cruces of Albuquerque. Tucson is also really clean, far cleaner than El Paso from what I've seen.

No, a border city like El Paso is definitely NOT an exact duplicate of Albuquerque. Santa Fe is a bit of a bubble and in world of its own, it's not really like Las Cruces at all. Amenities in El Paso and Albuquerque are on a similar level, yes. El Paso is very bilingual, Albuquerque not so much. Tucson has a better downtown with a more attractive college campus area than the other two and is more tourist friendly.

Originally Posted by DisposedData

Climate wise Albuquerque is significantly colder thanks to it's high elevation. It is a mountain city through and through while the other two or more traditional southwest.

I think Albuquerque is every bit as Southwestern as the other two and in very palpable ways. Even though it sits at a higher elevation, Albuquerque has a lot more in common with Tucson and El Paso than what one might call mountain cities such as Colorado Springs or Salt Lake City (and quite a bit balmier too).

[ABQalex]

In different comparisons two are somewhat alike while the other one is different:

Tucson and Albuquerque are greener than El Paso.

Tucson and El Paso don't have a verdant river valley like Albuquerque.

Tucson and El Paso are much hotter than Albuquerque.

Tucson and Albuquerque don't have nearly the historic urban fabric of El Paso.

On the flipside, Tucson and Albuquerque seem more modern than El Paso.

El Paso and Albuquerque have better freeways than Tucson.

Tucson and El Paso aren't nearly as economically productive as Albuquerque, both with similar per capita GDP figures that are about $12,000 less than Albuquerque.

Tucson and El Paso are significantly poorer than Albuquerque.

Albuquerque and Tucson don't do well for crime and El Paso is one of the better cities in the country when it comes to crime stats.

Albuquerque and Tucson have more stores and entertainment than El Paso. Contrary to what others have posted, El Paso is significantly behind in these measures. Tucson has a few more higher end stores than Albuquerque, but is behind in a couple of other ways, so overall they are about even. El Paso is significantly behind both. It is barely getting stores the other two have had for years. Entertainment is the same story. Tucson and Albuquerque have similar options that are a good bit above El Paso overall. Again, Tucson may have more things than Albuquerque in certain areas when it comes to entertainment while Albuquerque beats it in others.

Also, looking west in Albuquerque is not like El Paso at all. Albuquerque has its mountains on one side of the urban area while El Paso is built around its mountains. Looking west from a large portion of El Paso you see those mountains. Looking west from Downtown El Paso you mostly see Juarez and more mountains. Looking west from the foothills of the Sandias you see a broad, linear river valley that is quite different than the valley in El Paso. Looking west from Downtown Albuquerque you mostly see the Rio Grande bosque with the West Mesa, escarpment and volcanoes in the distance. In Tucson you see short, jagged and lumpy mountains when looking west and they loom immediately beyond when looking west from its downtown.

[ABQalex]

Originally Posted by Desert_SW_77

Tucson has a better downtown with a more attractive college campus area than the other two and is more tourist friendly.

I really don't think Tucson has a better downtown than Albuquerque.

Albuquerque's downtown has more of everything and performs better than Downtown Tucson. It has more workers, office space, retail space, convention space, hotel rooms, residential units, entertainment space, live music venues, galleries, bars and breweries, restaurants, bigger grocery store, better transit center, etc. It has more of pretty much everything and a few things Downtown Tucson doesn't have. It may be a matter of compactness, as Albuquerque's downtown proper is spread over a larger area than Tucson's, but stats don't lie, I think.

As for university areas, I'd even contend the university area in Tucson isn't better than Albuquerque's area around UNM. The U of A is of course much bigger than UNM, and also attracts much larger numbers of students who aren't local. That's why all the student housing has been built in Tucson, which Albuquerque has no answer for. Those students depend much more on walking, bikes and transit to get around. However, areas in Albuquerque opposite UNM are overall as vibrant and filled with establishments as the Main Gate area in Tucson, it's just that they are spread linearly along Central Avenue and not clustered like in Tucson. The Bricklight District along Harvard and the area along Yale south of Central is one area that could develop into a Main Gate-type of area for UNM.

Again, Tucson's urban heart is much more compact than Albuquerque and its hip areas are closer together. If Downtown Albuquerque had the Nob Hill area and UNM just to the northeast of it, instead of two and more miles down the road, then I'm sure people would see just how active and nice these urban areas are in Albuquerque.

Albuquerque's entire urban heart is bigger and better than Tucson's, it's just that it's mostly spread linearly along two axes and has more gaps between the most active areas. North 4th, Wells Park, 12th and Mountain, the Sawmill Area, Old Town, Bio Park, Country Club, West Downtown, Raynolds Addition, Barelas, 4th Ward, Downtown, East Downtown, Martineztown, Huning Highland, South Broadway, Spruce Park/Silver Hill, UNM area, Nob Hill, East Nob Hill/Highland, International District and Uptown Albuquerque all form a more impressive whole than Tucson's urban heart and neighborhoods, IMO.

[Champ le monstre du lac]

Originally Posted by ABQalex

Again, Tucson's urban heart is much more compact than Albuquerque and its hip areas are closer together. If Downtown Albuquerque had the Nob Hill area and UNM just to the northeast of it, instead of two and more miles down the road, then I'm sure people would see just how active and nice these urban areas are in Albuquerque.

Albuquerque's entire urban heart is bigger and better than Tucson's, it's just that it's mostly spread linearly along two axes and has more gaps between the most active areas. North 4th, Wells Park, 12th and Mountain, the Sawmill Area, Old Town, Bio Park, Country Club, West Downtown, Raynolds Addition, Barelas, 4th Ward, Downtown, East Downtown, Martineztown, Huning Highland, South Broadway, Spruce Park/Silver Hill, UNM area, Nob Hill, East Nob Hill/Highland, International District and Uptown Albuquerque all form a more impressive whole than Tucson's urban heart and neighborhoods, IMO.

Yes, ABQ's urban core is bigger than Tucson's and more spread out along the life line that is Central. To me that does not equate as better in terms of quality. Walking along Central just really isn't that nice. I mean, who is honestly going to walk around the Louisiana Blvd and the International District? Uptown? Not walkable and quite a bit of stretch and far removed to include with neighborhoods like downtown. It's just a commercial/retail area nothing that special with a lot of the same ordinary chain venues as found in many other cities its size. Although there has been development more recently on the western edge of downtown ABQ to fill in some gaps, there are currently several gaps and it's still a bit dicey.

Tucson's 4th Ave, college area, nearby historic neighborhood, and downtown along with the new streetcar line all have have a much more inviting area for walking and exploring and a better atmosphere, particularly for tourists/visitors.

Downtown El Paso has a very interesting historic core with a lot of great bones and potential and feels the most urban out of the three. It's just not that vibrant or inviting and nearby UTEP does not have much of a college neighborhood or vibrancy to speak of.

[TheOldPueblo]

El Paso is starting to becoming a regular city with more business coming, but yeah, it is really behind and is barely catching up. I would say Tucson has the best entertainment and shopping out of the 3. I also noticed more people voted that Tucson is like Albuquerque, but most people voted that all the cities are different.

I can't speak for Albuquerque, as I have only spent 1 night there, but from what I saw, I felt like I was in El Paso in some areas, and at night, the lights looked like El Paso lights. El Paso is probably the lowest end city out of the 3 and Tucson is the higher end city out of the 3. Albuquerque may be in the middle. I really want to visit Albuquerque in the future and spend longer time there. I only saw the 2 malls and that was about it. Cottonwood Mall was a lot like Cielo Vista Mall.

But for someone wanting to choose either of these 3 cities to live in, I'd go for Tucson. Entertainment is awesome there and it's only 90 minutes from Phoenix, a huge mega metropolis with a lot to do and Tucson is only 6 hours from Las Vegas and 7 hours from San Diego. You can go anywhere from Tucson in a short drive. With the other 2 cities, you have to take really long drives to get to other mega metropolis cities.

[TheOldPueblo]

As for cleanliness, Tucson takes 1st place. For scenery, Tucson takes 1st place too.