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Scenery/outdoor recreation: Albuquerque
Culture: Albuquerque.
Education: San Antonio?, but neither strike me as great.
Economy: San Antonio
Food: Tie. I'd be fat and happy in both
Cost of living: tie
Crime: San Antonio
Infrastructure/transportation: Albuquerque by default for not being a part of Texas' silly frontage road madness.
Urbanity: not my thing to care about
Desirable suburbs:
Climate: Albuquerque. SA is hot as blazes.
I'd rather live in Albuquerque for the better climate and the fact they don't use frontage roads for on/off ramps and city streets all at the same time.
I'd rather live in Albuquerque for the better climate and the fact they don't use frontage roads for on/off ramps and city streets all at the same time.
I hear ya! I would actually prefer San Antonio for several reasons, but those horrible frontage roads are a major turn-off. Can't figure out why Texas thinks those roads are so great, when all 49 other states have decided not to use them.
Scenery/outdoor recreation - So, ABQ wins for outdoor rec and has more spectactual scenery for sure, but I think I prefer SA for the everyday scenery around town because of my preference for green rather than brown. (See climate below). Like, give me random click in San Antonio over random click in Albuquerque, you know?
Culture - Close but I think I'd go ABQ
Education - About the same locally I think, though SA is closer to strong universities like UT-Austin, A&M, and Rice
Economy: SA
Food: Both are good, but SA
Cost of living: About the same I'd think, but probably still SA for the moment
Crime: I think ABQ has lower lows on this front, so I'd pick SA, but I'm sure ABQ is fine in nicer areas.
Infrastructure/transportation: SA has a good highway system, don't think either has great transit
Urbanity: Neither
Desirable suburbs: ABQ I think
Climate: ABQ is more comfortable in terms of temperatures, but it's way too dry and brown for my taste. I'm not a fan of living in a desert, give me SA for the rainfall and greenery.
Other: ABQ is very isolated, SA has easier access to Austin, Houston, and the Gulf Coast which is nice. ABQ does have some great nature nearby, though.
Last edited by whereiend; 04-29-2022 at 03:17 PM..
First time I went to Albuquerque in 2008, I thought it was a fairly clean and safe city just provided the basics at a very low price.
I was even considering moving to Albuquerque in 2008. I went back in 2019 and it seemed like everything had changed the worst.
I don't understand why Albuquerque is the way it is these days. Albuquerque has actually has a good business base, it is not a poor city overall, New Mexico has one of the highest amounts of natural resources and oil per-capita on any state in the country. The purchasing power on money for the typical job is far higher in Albuquerque than the typical-city.
I went back to Albuquerque in 2019 and it was nothing like it was in 2008. The violent crime has surged, their were needles lining the streets, lots of encampments and was far, far less clean than 2008.
2008 Albuquerque was a very underrated community. The Albuquerque of today I would not recommend but that is just my opinion based on my experience.
Scenery and Outdoors: I prefer San Antonio because it is very lush and the Northside has lush, green hills.
Economy: San Antonio
Food: San Antonio
Cost of Living: San Antonio.
Albuquerque is overall a little bit less expensive, but they have alot less supply.
San Antonio is a bit more overall, but there is much, much more apartment and home inventory available.
Crime: San Antonio has a much lower violent crime rate.
Infrastructure: San Antonio.
Urbanity: San Antonio.
Desirable suburbs: San Antonio
Climate: San Antonio.
I like warmer weather and San Antonio and was in San Antonio in the winter several years ago.
San Antonio winter would be cold and maybe some rain or flurries mixed in for a day or two then it would get very, very warm for many days.
Albuquerque with it's elevation has colder winters than I think many would think.
San Antonio is a few degrees warmer in the summer and it is more humid but the strong is not nearly as strong as Albuquerque
I'd rather live in Albuquerque for the better climate and the fact they don't use frontage roads for on/off ramps and city streets all at the same time.
This post is also in response to Bus Man's questiions....
Why don't you like frontage roads? Frankly, I don't know why more states don't have them Unless maybe it's because Texas is a big state with pleanty of room to build big wide interstates and boulevards that smaller states don't.
It's a straight easy off and you don't have to go around in a circle like they do in many - if not most - of the non-frontage road states.
Also, they are very convenient to get the stores, restraunts, hotels, gas stations and other businesses located on the frontage roads, which makes it nice and convenient, especially for travelers passing through.
Another advantage, If the traffic is backed up on the interstate, it's usually an easy exit to the frontage road and find another route to take.
Frontage Roads also make excellent alternatives for drivers who are nervous about driving on a busy interstate, they can always take the frontage road to get where they're going.
Honestly, I don't know what's not to like about frontage roads.
Last edited by Ivory Lee Spurlock; 04-29-2022 at 08:29 PM..
This post is also in response to Bus Man's questiions....
Why don't you like frontage roads? Frankly, I don't know why more states don't have them Unless maybe it's because Texas is a big state with pleanty of room to build big wide interstates and boulevards that smaller states don't.
Let's say you're taking a road trip along a rural interstate. It's lunch time and you're getting hungry, and you see a sign that says there's a Chick-fil-A at the next exit. Yay! In a normal state, you exit onto the ramp, and on your way down, there will be a sign saying which way to turn to find the CFA. At the bottom of the ramp is the crossroad that was advertised on the exit sign. You'll turn either left or right, and soon you'll see the CFA on one side or another. You get your food, then head back to the interchange. At the point where the off-ramp let you off, on the other side of the street, you'll find the on-ramp to take you back to the interstate in the direction you were traveling. Easy peasy.
But in Texas, you'll take the ramp, and suddenly realize that you're flung onto a frontage road without a chance to slow down. Better hope no one's coming! You'll look for the Chick-fil-A. Maybe, if you're lucky, it'll be on the frontage road in the direction you're going. But maybe it'll actually be on the frontage road on the other side, meaning that you'll have to figure out where to turn around. Or, it might be on the crossroad that was advertised on the exit sign, so you'd better hope you'll see the CFA before you shoot past that crossroad, and good luck figuring out how to turn around if you do. Oh, and if you do find the place to take a left turn to cross over or under the mainline interstate, you'd better watch and make sure you get in the correct lane, or else you might accidentally find yourself in the U-turn lane and get shot back onto the interstate, going the wrong way. (Ask me how I know!) And finally, after all that and you manage to get your CFA food, then you gotta get back on the frontage road going the right way and keep going (sometimes for a surprisingly long distance) before you find the little mini-ramp that will take you back onto the interstate.
Maybe Texans are used to these frontage roads and find them to be no big deal. But I find them to be confusing and difficult and stressful and I hate them.
This post is also in response to Bus Man's questiions....
Why don't you like frontage roads? Frankly, I don't know why more states don't have them Unless maybe it's because Texas is a big state with pleanty of room to build big wide interstates and boulevards that smaller states don't.
It's a straight easy off and you don't have to go around in a circle like they do in many - if not most - of the non-frontage road states.
Also, they are very convenient to get the stores, restraunts, hotels, gas stations and other businesses located on the frontage roads, which makes it nice and convenient, especially for travelers passing through.
Another advantage, If the traffic is backed up on the interstate, it's usually an easy exit to the frontage road and find another route to take.
Frontage Roads also make excellent alternatives for drivers who are nervous about driving on a busy interstate, they can always take the frontage road to get where they're going.
Honestly, I don't know what's not to like about frontage roads.
Frontage roads (when also used as on/off ramps) are incredibly unnecessary for the sake of convenience. They're very much the opposite.
Confusing, chaotic, comically complex at times, and kinda dangerous.
Also, they turn high-speed interstate highways into... city streets, basically. The visual smorgasbord along the roads are distracting as all get-out.
Yeah, let's check out all this crap built next the road while we're doing 75. That seems safe enough. Larger cities will inevitably have a lot to distract anyway, but stuff built on frontage roads in Texas is often geared towards travelers which adds a lot of potential for taking eyes off the road.
Exiting onto one in a busy area can be a nightmare, especially if what you want to access is close to where the ramp ends.
A lot of places have frontage roads that aren't used as merging lanes. First, you exit onto a street that's at a 90° angle from the freeway, then you turn right or left onto a frontage road. They're still available for when the traffic is backed up on the main road. Not a problem, and vastly safer.
At any rate, Texas isn't the only state that does it the way they do to some extent, I've seen short stretches of this in a few other places, TX is just the most obsessive with it by far.
It might be a top 3-4 reason for me to personally avoid living in Texas. Besides, New Mexico even with all it's problems, appeals to me a little more at this point in life. Drier air helps. I also like the architecture often found in New Mexico.
Scenery/outdoor recreation: Albuquerque
Culture: Albuquerque.
Education: San Antonio?, but neither strike me as great.
Economy: San Antonio
Food: Tie. I'd be fat and happy in both
Cost of living: tie
Crime: San Antonio
Infrastructure/transportation: Albuquerque by default for not being a part of Texas' silly frontage road madness.
Urbanity: not my thing to care about
Desirable suburbs:
Climate: Albuquerque. SA is hot as blazes.
I'd rather live in Albuquerque for the better climate and the fact they don't use frontage roads for on/off ramps and city streets all at the same time.
Albuquerque has frontage roads on I-25 and parts of I-40 and Paseo del Norte. I'm not an expert on San Antonio's frontage roads, so perhaps there is a distinction you see that I don't, but Albuquerque's frontage roads are lined with businesses and it is often times the only way to access those businesses.
This is the North I-25 corridor, where the frontage roads are most prominent in Albuquerque.
The section of I-25 between Comanche Road and Montaño Road/Montgomery Boulevard is going to be rebuilt beginning next year. Part of that will be introducing braided ramps in this section and building "Texas u-turns" for the frontage roads at the interchanges. These will be the first in New Mexico. All of this is being done because the frontage roads play such a key role in the North I-25 corridor.
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