Austin TX writer seeking a setting for a novel (Albuquerque: middle-class, real estate)

[bradwhitt]

I'm looking for the right neighborhood for the following situation:

3 BR 2 BA middle-class neighborhood that's been around since the 70s or 80s. The neighborhood has experienced some level of gentrification in the last two decades.

Thoughts?

[Little rook]

I am a writer, but I am having trouble understanding just what you are looking for. You plan a novel set in Albuquerque, and need a neighborhood upon which to base the setting?

Like any city, perhaps more than most, Albuquerque offers a very wide range of environments. In the Northeast Heights you will find neighborhoods built in the 70s, but I am not sure that they have "gentrified" -- they have been pretty consistently what they are. One possibility would be around the fairgrounds, and area that has seen its ups and downs.

In the Southeast Heights it's pretty much the same.

Around the University of New Mexico campus are neighborhoods that are on the border between student housing and professor/professional housing. Those neighborhoods swing back and forth. Along Silver SE is an area now gentrified, but those houses are older than the 70s. Ditto the downtown area -- Fruit, other streets. The houses, now upmarket, were built in the early 1900s.

The South Valley has some gentrified areas, but many of them date back to that same period. Rio Rancho was largely built in the 1970s and 80s, but I am not sure it could be considered to have been gentrified -- it is pretty much what it has always been.

Perhaps you could be more specific? Tell me what picture you have in your mind and I will try to suggest an area.

dale

[bradwhitt]

Yo, Dale,

Hail, fellow writer! ;-) Thanks for the quick response!

I'm actually looking for a neighborhood in Santa Fe, not Albuquerque, for a few scenes in a novel.

Not sure this detail will help, but the story is that a middle-class family buys a 3 BR, 2 BA house in some Santa Fe neighborhood in the 70s. In the mid-90s, a single mother inherits it.

It's a nice house in a neighborhood that has become somewhat gentrified, other houses having been upgraded through the years with pools or extra bedrooms or great rooms, etc. that raise the property values beyond what she could afford if she had to get a loan to buy it.

I've looked around Santa Fe with street view, and I plan to make a trip out there later this year, but looking at an existing neighborhood isn't going to tell me what it was like 40 years ago.

Thanks!

[joqua]

Originally Posted by bradwhitt

I've looked around Santa Fe with street view, and I plan to make a trip out there later this year, but looking at an existing neighborhood isn't going to tell me what it was like 40 years ago.

Thanks!

I'm puzzled. Since this is a novel, why does it have to be a specific neighborhood? Why can't you use the description you gave and "invent" a typical neighborhood that fits the plot? Most cities I can think of are going to have residential developments dating from ca. 1970 that are still very desirable but likely have a few homes that have not been as well maintained as the majority.

Property values in MOST of the Santa Fe area have risen dramatically since the 70s, even without "gentrification."

[Little rook]

Joqua, the axiom of writers is "write what you know." Also, if he's naming Santa Fe as his locale, people who know the city will pick on him for making something up. (I am hell on writers who make stuff up about a topic, locale or event about which I am knowledgeable.)

sorry, OP, I thought this was in the Albuquerque forum and responded accordingly (dazzled by the "writer" tag, maybe). I am afraid I am not as familiar with Santa Fe.

You would have a broader range of choices if the neighborhood could date from an earlier time. Also, there are some stunning free real estate magazines that often give some neighborhood history as well as current information -- maybe they could help get you started? Online Magazines | Santa Fe Properties Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Good luck and have fun!

[bradwhitt]

Yo, Joqua

Little Rook has nailed it. I'm looking for verisimilitude. I did make stuff up for Cancun in the first in this series and readers called me on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Endless-Vacati...dp/B00C42TU3U/

Dale,

Thanks for the tips. I'll see what I can find.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by Little rook

Joqua, the axiom of writers is "write what you know."

Oooookay. So why choose a place you DON'T know instead of making the setting a neighborhood in Austin, where the OP is apparently now living? Austin has plenty of neighborhoods filling the bill and in a similar way to Santa Fe, Austin has seen a tremendous boom in "gentrification" of old neighborhoods in the central city area.

[bradwhitt]

Joqua,

I'd be more than happy to discuss all the considerations that go into making the creative decisions involved in writing a novel . . . on the appropriate forum.

However, on city-data.com I must limit my responses to topics appropriate to the forum, specifically topics relating to cities, not discussions of creative writing.

[beezle1]

I bet GreatSantaFe will have some suggestions for you - he is a real estate agent in Santa Fe so he will know the neighborhoods well.

[GreatSantaFe]

bradwhitt - Check out the area that is east of Hwy 285/84, west of Bishops Lodge Road and north of Paseo de Peralta. Homes there will be in the $500K and up range, are on dirt roads and many have nice views and are within walking distance of the historic plaza. Some are adobe, some are gorgeous.
Another area to check is just west of Hwy 285, in the same general north/south latitude. That neighborhood is called Casa Solana. A Japanese internment camp was there for a short time during WW2. The homes there are much more modest than those found east of Hwy 285/84, smaller lots than above and paved streets. Figure home prices in the $300K - 400s. Definitely a "development" vibe unlike the area above, but still pretty close to the central plaza.
Sol y Lomas is a neighborhood south of the city west of Old Pecos Trail - pretty large lots with homes that may or may not have been remodeled. Near the hospital. Dirt roads.

Both neighborhoods have homes that are original or that have been remodeled. I wouldn't call any of them "gentrified." For those you have to go in neighborhoods that have homes built before the 70s.

Hope this helps.