Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I lived in Cruces for 4 years back around 2010, and again for 6 months about 4 years ago when the huge amount of crime in Abq drove me out. It was almost impossible to find much to do in Cruces, especially w/ live music. If a band did come it was usually Country. The city really doesn't have much to offer, its trying to become a retirement place, especially w/ the new construction toward the Organs. Restaurants other than chains were severely limited. Downtown had a huge police and Border Patrol presence, and they could be overly aggressive depending on what ethnicity you appeared to be.
I stayed out past the mall and you seldom saw the police, but you seldom needed them there either. Its sad to hear El Paso mentioned as an upgrade as it looks and feels terrible over there. I hope speculators don't ruin the low cost of housing in Cruces. As one heads toward the mountains, the developers seem intent on making it anywhere USA for the retirees.
When I left Cruces I moved to Tucson, a city I knew well, and got trapped during COVID. Each time I've come to Tucson it seems to have gotten worse, and there was frequent crime and road rage after COVID calmed down. Not at an Abq level, it's hard to describe just how dangerous it is over there, but the road rage in Tucson was really bad. I left there for Little Rock a year ago and the change from NM and Az is astonishing! People are friendly, polite and outgoing. There is crime, but its specific to certain areas and mostly between people who had a falling out or something. I haven't been called Sir so much in my life.
There are still nice places in the country, but Tucson would not be high on my list if I was moving from Cruces. It's a beautiful place in many parts, but the people are not pleasant to be around. NM people can be friendly, but nothing like the people in The South.
I guess it's all in the eyes of the beholder. We left SW FL in Aug 2021 and moved to LC. We had lived in Sarasota County FL for 32 years. I found that since about 2015 SW FL became far too overcrowded, the demographic with a median age of over 70 (I am not kidding), the ever increasing threats and actual landfall of hurricanes and 6 mos + of excessive heat and humidity made living there absolutely intolerable. The friendliness factor we experienced when we moved there in 1989, is gone. Our past 2.5 years in Las Cruces have been heaven by comparison. Yes, we are retirees, so I am now speaking from that perspective. By the way, 6 other friends and families have followed us out of the south. I hope to remain west of the Mississippi for the rest of my life.
I've been traveling so I haven't been posting much at all. I was in Las Cruces 2 weeks ago (passing through). Had to get a tire stem fixed at Walmart . There are certain sections of Las Cruces that are very nice. Where I was is one of them I'm not sure where the other retiree and his wife live who moved to Tucson, but I did not find Las Cruces intolerable at all. Perhaps they bought in a place that was very cheap that turned out to not be very nice, because the area I was in (the Northeast area) is perfectly fine.
No matter where I live, I always confine myself to the nice areas of town or city. That's been true for decades.
I'm a retiree looking to move to either Reno, Tucson, Albuquerque or Las Cruces (LC) in the near future. I want to be near a real college or university (not some fundie-vangie brainwashing school) where, I hope, there will be a younger, more liberal, progressive demographic. I also want a vibrant art scene where I can both observe and participate. A concern about LC is the ~65% Hispanic population. I've always wanted to learn Spanish but don't want to be immersed in Hispanic culture.
As a vet can anyone speak to their experiences at LC VA CBOC and/or the El Paso VA Hospital? I'm reasonably healthy right now but this will prob be my last move.
Per the post above mine, where are the "nice" areas of LC?Thanks for any insight.
Last edited by NunnaUrbiz; 03-05-2024 at 07:56 AM..
Reason: formatting
I'm a retiree looking to move to either Reno, Tucson, Albuquerque or Las Cruces (LC) in the near future. I want to be near a real college or university (not some fundie-vangie brainwashing school) where, I hope, there will be a younger, more liberal, progressive demographic. I also want a vibrant art scene where I can both observe and participate. A concern about LC is the ~65% Hispanic population. I've always wanted to learn Spanish but don't want to be immersed in Hispanic culture.
As a vet can anyone speak to their experiences at LC VA CBOC and/or the El Paso VA Hospital? I'm reasonably healthy right now but this will prob be my last move.
Per the post above mine, where are the "nice" areas of LC?Thanks for any insight.
Albuquerque had the best VA hospital in the state. The one in Las Cruces is small and does not have a lot of services. The problem with the Albuquerque VA hospital and facilities is the lack of parking. Las Cruces is made up of farmers who are quite conservative and people go to NM State U for aggriculture degrees.
UNM in Albuquerque has a good engineering and physics departments. There is a good continueing ed program where you can learn a lot of different things, including Spanish. Albuquerque has pockets of any mental attitude you might find anywhere though depending on the area of the city. Artists abound in Albuquerque also. Most of my friends are artists in different mediums.
Tucson seems to be a lot like Albuquerque, with a little warmer weather. I have only visited it a couple of times and it feels very much like Albuquerque to me except for the weather. I don't know anything about Reno.
Thanks DesertRat, should have realized NM State attracts agriculture majors. I'm a computer engineer so UNM Eng & Physics is more my thing. My concern about Albq is cold winters. I'm trying to get away from months of 110f+ summers but not sure I want to spend 4-5 months below freezing, either. I've heard a lot of good about the Albq art scene.
Looks like I have a live offer on the house so may take my RV down to Tucson for a visit and swing through LC and then north to Albq.
Winter in Albuquerque is not really winter as experienced in more northern parts of the country. We will have cold nights -- this is the desert -- but days are usually sunny and around 50 degrees. Right now it is 63 and sunny.
The thing about Albuquerque winters is that you start out with a coat in the morning, maybe a jacket at midday, then a sweater, then shirtsleeves and then back to the sweater and then the jacket. All that stuff ends up in the back seat of your car or draped over furniture in your house. At this elevation the sun will warm things up. Winter starts in December and is mostly over by mid-March. Nights are still cold for another month. Spring winds are crazy some days.
Thanks DesertRat, should have realized NM State attracts agriculture majors. I'm a computer engineer so UNM Eng & Physics is more my thing. My concern about Albq is cold winters. I'm trying to get away from months of 110f+ summers but not sure I want to spend 4-5 months below freezing, either. I've heard a lot of good about the Albq art scene.
Looks like I have a live offer on the house so may take my RV down to Tucson for a visit and swing through LC and then north to Albq.
Out of those four places, Tucson is the only one that has a legit "big time" university environment. UNR takes a back seat to gambling and tourism. NMSU seems like a regional state University that doesn't impact LC near to the point that a big time school should. UNM is not as bad as NMSU on that front, but it just doesn't feel like a University in a big time conference. All three are notorious commuter schools. Because it's not. UofA feels more like a big time school as it was in the PAC-12 and is now a Big 12 school. As a result, UofA has more of the bells and whistles associated with that.
It is also interesting that in Arizona, Arizona State is considered the "commuter school" while kids tend to go to UofA (and even NAU these days) for the more residential campus feel.
TBH, my "real" reason for avoiding below freezing weather is I'm a lazy SOB and don't like winterizing my RV. The extent of my efforts run to opening all the cabinets and running the propane heater. If I can get away with that, I'll have to rethink Albq winters. Thanks.
Thanks for your insight into the four schools. I'm not big into college sports (UnivTex alum) but I hear what you're saying. Of course, UA has their own issues right now with the ~$150MM revenue "oopsie" so they might be selling profs and grades to keep their sports pgm afloat.
Thanks DesertRat, should have realized NM State attracts agriculture majors. I'm a computer engineer so UNM Eng & Physics is more my thing. My concern about Albq is cold winters. I'm trying to get away from months of 110f+ summers but not sure I want to spend 4-5 months below freezing, either. I've heard a lot of good about the Albq art scene.
Looks like I have a live offer on the house so may take my RV down to Tucson for a visit and swing through LC and then north to Albq.
It rarely gets below freezing and stays in Albuquerque. I keep track of the morning temperatures and I felt like the winter was colder (due to the higher humidity) but it only got below 20 degrees F once that I could determine. I have spring fever and the last week it has not been below 35 at 7 am, we get warm days and cold nights year round and rarely get 110 degrees in July, if at all. 105 normal for a week in July. 32 normal for most nights in winter unless we get snow. We did get more snow this year and that is true about every 4 years or so. My daughter's friend in Minnisota complained that we got more snow than they did this year, but that was 2 storms with the snow staying on the ground for a day or two depending on how close to the mountains.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
