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ALso just watched the news last night, they finished 50/50 LOL in being PROSPEROUS IN NEW MEXICO OVERALL, when everything is figured in crime,housing,education you name it NM is LAST in the USA. Even Mississippi and Louisiana are better ROFLMFAO!
WOW !!! So your saying we should emulate those Creo Hillbillies.....
I have thus far heard more "pro Denver" sides to this question, (and I cannot necessarily dispute or disagree with the reasoning of siding with Denver in these cases), however, let me make a case for someone preferring Albuquerque.
I have lived in Albuquerque for 3 years, but my wife's family predominantly all lives in Denver Metro, and thus, have traveled to Denver Metro approximately 15 times, and have generally stayed there per trip for up to a week and gotten around quite a bit...thus, I believe while never having lived in Denver, I have a good grasp of it.
First off, I have to say I agree with those that have stated that it is really hard to compare the two in some regards. Denver Metro is a huge, huge population of 2-to-3 million (including all suburbs, which are many and very large). As such, Denver is more of the conventional, urban, US big city with the contemporary big city ammenities such as clubs, restaurants, retail, major league sports, etc.
Albuquerque is more of a big city that still feels like a smaller city. ABQ Metro clocks in currently at about 750,000 for the Metro area...in my opinion, that is fairly sizable (in comparison to say Amarillo, TX, Springfield, MO, or even Las Cruces, NM, etc.)...however, it surely is no where near the size - yet - of huge Metro areas such as Denver. For example, I believe ABQ's TV market size is in the 40s for American cities.
For me though, Albuquerque is far preferrable an area to live in. It isn't even really close. I could certainly see why many folks may prefer Denver. It really depends on what you are looking for. Here are, off the top of my head, some major strengths I feel that Albuquerque holds over Denver:
a) The weather: Some people feel as though Denver has good weather, and while it isn't horrible by any means and is sunny, dry, and mild compared to the Midwest, in my opinion, Denver's weather is a bit overstated. I FAR prefer Albuquerque's climate. Denver gets an average of 30+ inches of snow per year (and much, much more in the surrounding foothills), while Albuquerque gets an average of 7 inches of snow per year (again, more in the foothills). Denver can have great winter days weather-wise, but they can also get very frigid, nasty winter days. Albuquerque's more southern location and being in a valley protects it much more - generally (outside of our recent freak blizzard) - from harsh winter extremes. In Albuquerque, golf is generally truly a year-round sport, where in Denver, I would probably put my clubs away November through March.
Not to beat a dead horse, but Denver's weather is just more zany and unpredictable. It can be 70 degrees on Christmas Day, and then 25 with a blizzard a day later. I have been in Denver when it has just been outstanding weather, but I have also been in a colossol blizzard there - at the very end of April! It is just kind of up-and-down.
Albuquerque as a general rule is more consistently warm than Denver, and if you like the outdoors, gets less rain / precipitation than Denver (Albuquerque is a desert that averages 8 inches of rain per year).
b) Cost of housing: Housing is much more expensive as a general rule in most of Denver Metro than it is in Albuquerque; you get much. much more for your dollar in ABQ in terms of a home.
c) Size: I can see why some would prefer living in a huge area like Denver. Surely due to the logistics of size, ABQ does not have an NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL franchise like Denver does, doesn't have nearly the high-end retail Denver does, not as much in terms of "big city luxuries". However, in my opinion, it is worth the trade off, as commutes across the Metro area in rush hour in Denver can take 1+ hours, whereas most locations across ABQ - even in rush hour - take no more than 1/2 hour or 45 minutes generally. With no traffic, ABQ is known to be a "20 minute city" still...you can get anywhere in the city with little traffic in approximately 20 minutes. And, Albuquerque still offers tremendous restaurants, improving retail options, sports (Triple A Isotopes baseball - a cheaper, more fan-friendly sports option than MLB games, UNM Lobo collegiate basketball and football, a college football bowl game, and minor leage basketball and hockey), the International Balloon Fiesta, etc. As such, I still feel entertainment is available in ABQ.
d) Growing job market: It is true, wages are higher in Denver and there are more jobs available due to its sheer size. However, Albuquerque's metro is booming, and with it, jobs are growing a plenty. And I do somewhat feel - especially in terms of "white collar" or "professional" jobs...at least depending upon the profession...Albuquerque's "low wages" are somewhat overstated. I have just a Bachelor's Degree in Business, and am making a higher wage here in Albuquerque than I ever earned living in another sizable Metro area - Milwaukee, WI. If you see many areas in the Far NE Heights of ABQ, the North Valley, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, new parts of the NW side etc., you will see PLENTY of $300-$500+ K homes...obviously many people are making a decent enough living here in ABQ.
e) The airport: While Denver has the 5th biggest airport in the nation and DIA is very nice for its size (and admittedly as a major hub you have many flight options), it has also the accompanying hassles that any major airport have...parking, delays, etc., can be tough there. It isn't DIA's "fault" per se...it is just inevitable with the size of the airport. Meanwhile, in my opinion, as a pretty frequent flier, ABQ's Sunport is nearly a perfect U.S. airport. Big enough to get a ready quantity of flights in/out, however, small enough that delays are very minimal, driving to/fro is relatively simple, and parking is easy. I have flown on three extremely major travel Holidays out of the ABQ Sunport and still have never had to get there more than 1.5 hours before my flight. Transversely, I would never on a major travel Holiday get to DIA any later than 2+ hours before my flight because of potential delays.
f) Traffic: Just much, much easier in ABQ to contend with.
I guess all-in-all, it just depends upon what you are looking for. If you are looking for an extremely "hip", urban, fast-paced lifestyle [a Chicago or L.A. type lifestyle], Denver is more your style. But if you are looking for great weather, a relaxed pace of friendly life, a newer home with a decent size, and a less stressful pace of life, in my opinion, year-round outdoors, Albuquerque wins hands down.
And I would add to that if you are an older single, Albuquerque can be a bit of tough town. Just my take. I think it is great for married people and families.
As to salaries, have to tell you in IT they are significantly below the national average. Yes there are some people with good salaries here -- mostly working at Sandia and some in a few sectors like doctors and lawyers etc. I can't complain at all, I negotiated a great salary before coming here - equal to what I would get in most major cities on the East Coast. I have a master's in computer science and I work in research at the university.
But my son and soon to be daughter-in-law are in the DC area -- one in IT and one with a master's in criminal justice and they looked for a year here and the salaries were 30-50% less than what they are making in the DC area -- that just doesn't offset the difference in cost of living.
Everything is a trade-off. As to salaries -- I see a big split. High salaries at places like Sandia labs (lots of PhD's and military work) and some at the university and relatively lower salaries in many other areas. I also have a girlfriend in IT in customer support, implementation and account management etc and she is Austin and she was shocked at how much lower the salaries were here for the kind of work she does.
I think the salaries are getting better here in some areas but still a long way to go IMNSHO to equal a city of this size.
I cannot really dispute anything that LLD says...I think it is completely fair.
In fact, I would agree probably - if I were single - I would probably want to live in a bigger city if I wanted more options and opportunities to meet people. I am indeed one of those "family folks" - a 30 year old male with a wife and a daughter, so indeed, I cannot speak from the "single perspective"...
I also have heard the IT-field notion from quite a few folks - that IT pays less here than other bigger cities. I certainly believe it, because I have heard it so much. I am just ignorant on that subject, being very far removed from the IT field. However, I guess that is all a tradeoff. I have a good friend who is an engineer in the Midwest, and I tell him all the time he should move here, as he would make a killing. Folks in the engineering/science/development fields, etc., can make out quite well here. And even plain old business folks such as myself I think can do well - I am not even firmly middle class, so by no means rich, but I was surprised at the salaries and opportunities I could garner here with just a plain' ol B.A.
So indeed, there are definite pros to living in a big city. But boy...I am so glad I don't have the 3-hours-in-a-car-daily that many folks in huge cities contend with in commuting for work, etc.
I should add, too, that one other appealing aspect of Albuquerque that I forgot to mention - at least appealing to me/others - is the unique, distinctive, special culture that Albuquerque has onto itself. When in ABQ, you can truly tell you are in unique, special city with its own culture, food, etc. That is often lost now in most huge US big cities, where everything kind of blends to be the same cookie-cutter(ness) from city to city.
Backwards people? Farmington is in an area with a large native population, and I hope that isn't a comment on their lifestyle, because it might possibly be construed as a bit racist...
Why on Earth does whenever you SLAM an area or people it is racist?
THis area is backazzbackwords.
The ONLY thing it has going for it is the mountains @ Durango are 50 minutes away.
If you are driving 60 in a 55 you'll have people almost trying to kill themselves to get around you.
BTW Shiprock is the MUCH LARGER NATIVE pop.
We've been to ABQ and Santa Fe when we got to SF this summer what a let down.
ABQ zoo is nice. and they have REI and now a hockey team
We moved from MPLS which is 60% white. moving to DC would say 10% white, not quite. ALso had NATIVE friends back in MN and they are NOTHING like Navajo's.
ABQ's re-elect a garbage congressperson like Heather Wilson she is one of the dirty dozen has voted like 99% w/ BUSHIE is anti-environment 100%
Thanks GOD the state has Bill Richardson and Tom Udall in the north.
Wildfan, I think if you look at the stats you'll see NM is pretty much divided between Reps and Dems and a majority of the time in the last 10 years they have voted for the Dem presidential nominee. But you'll also see that in general in lots of states in the country that smaller towns tend to be a bit more conservative while larger towns are generally more liberal. Santa Fe is very liberal which I'm going to tease Towanda about moving to from her conservative Kansas! (Just teasing Towanda!)
If you expected a place like Farmington to be anywhere close to Minneapolis then that was frankly an unrealistic expectation.
My mom has a colleague from MN and she really likes Albuquerque and mainly just misses her grandkids and family in MN.
As I said I love DC and part of the reason is it's very liberal and very progressive but it has its drawbacks too. If the liberal East Coast atmosphere is your top priority, I think you will like it there.
Why on Earth does whenever you SLAM an area or people it is racist?
Notice that I said "might possibly be construed as ..."
Also, "backazzbackwords" is a strange way of describing it, and makes you sound like a kid. If I were you, I'd probably use different rhetoric in order to give myself some shred of credibility.
Hey, if you don't like it here, that's fine. Heck, it's perfectly fine if you post on this board about how much you don't like it. I'm just saying there's a better way of going about it than ranting like an adolescent.
I consider it my destiny to end up in Santa Fe where I can bring a bit of right wing support to the small number of people in the conservative outpost there.
I have lived in both kinds of places: New York (liberal), Texas (conservative), Kansas (conservative) .... and soon good old liberal Santa Fe. I generally love it where-ever I am.
I bet you do, too, LLD ~which is why I think you and I have more in common than we do differences.
{Sorry to get this thread off track.....back to the topic at hand....which is Farmington and about which I know very little but I am getting anxious to go there and check it out for myself someday.}
WOW !!! So your saying we should emulate those Creo Hillbillies.....
I shouldn't had said that above quote so i appologize to mississippi and louisiana.
As far as New Mexico being 50/50 in the economy well the U.S.governments ''Gross State Product'' listing has New Mexico 37th in the nation and not 50th. Forbes magazine lists Albuquerque #1 in the nation for ''Best Places for Business and Careers'' out of the 200 largest metros in the United States.
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