Possible move to ABQ

Ozone

Ozone

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Ozone
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My family might be relocating to ABQ in the coming months. Anyone have some ideas on good neighborhoods where kids can run around safely?

We are currently in the upper Midwest, where it’s been safe for them to run around and visit friends without us worriyng about much.

It would be nice to have a similar type of neighborhood in ABQ.

Also, are there some nice flying clubs out there?
 
If you're moving to the airport, I hear that 12/30 is the least busy runway. Maybe something off the left side of the 30 approach would be the quietest.

If you mean moving to the Albuquerque area, the four corners are the safest parts of town. If you draw lines N/S and E/W centered on downtown, those are basically the highest crime areas...some variation, but along the major highways. I also hear the altitude will knock you out for a few months, it the mile+ high city.
 
Not exactly sure I’d go as far as saying it’s a scum hole, but it’s not a place I’d want to live. There are several nice communities, although a lot of the drive by scenery isn’t too pretty.

To OP: get ready for some of the best Mexican food you’ll find!
 
Friends lived in the Rio Rancho/Corrales area until they moved back east when they got transferred. Kirtland AFB coincides with KABQ. KAEG is on west side of town, spent time at both. A number of the civilian contractors at Kirtland live in the Santa Fe area and commute - an hour+ each way on a good day.
 
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Look around in Rio Rancho. It is northwest of the city with some nice neighborhoods. Pretty much anything north of the city itself and west of the Pat D'Arco Highway are okay.

My Sister and Nephew live there.
 
I always thought that the further out of ABQ you are, the safer it will be.

Everyone I know in ABQ that owns (owned) a Ford has had it stolen.

bflynn said:
I also hear the altitude will knock you out for a few months, it the mile+ high city.
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Still more than a 1000 feet lower than where I live, but ABQ is in a sort of a valley. And yes, the altitude kicked my butt for a few weeks. I would wake up at night out of breath. Walking the taxiway an hour each day fixed it for me.
 
I've lived at 6600 feet, so 5k is no biggie. I also did all my initial airplane training at rocky mtn metro, so the "denver inch" and High density altitude issues are not unfamiliar to me.

My job would be downtown and I have been told that the commute from various corners (NE & NW) around town is about 30 min.
 
Ahh New Mexico. A state better forgotten.

Just kidddinggggg
 
I was a place I liked to visit, but not a place where I wanted to live. A lot of bad neighborhoods, some good ones. There are some outside of town that are fine. The balloon festival is fun.
 
I was stationed at Kirtland 4 years, and of all the places we lived in my AF career, my wife and I agree it is the place we would most prefer to return to. You get all four seasons but no real extreme weather. We lived on base, with other families with kids, so our neighborhood was as you describe. We lived about as close to the flight line as you could get. For a scholarship essay, my son wrote that one of his earliest memories was riding on my shoulders to see George W. Bush get on AF 1 and depart ABQ.

Off base, the nicer neighborhoods were all to the north or up the Sandra foothills. I'm sure a good real estate agent can vector you. We were there during my 20 yr flying hiatus, so can't speak to the airports.
 
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My grand parents lived in ABQ for a few years in the 30s. I remember them saying that they thought it was a rather poor town. And there wasn't very many job opportunities....
 
I would do some serious research before you buy, on neighborhoods. I think they have filmed ‘Cops’ there a time or 3. I’d think you could find a suitable area, rent for a while if you have to.
 
Plenty of commenters about Albuquerque, and one of them actually lives in New Mexico.
There's s lot of good stuff in the metro area, and the mountains are close and offer a peaceful getaway. Also nice spots along the river. Both airports are excellent, ABQ being very GA-friendly. Cost of living is generally very reasonable. Crime is above the national average these days, and as mentioned auto theft is a big problem there, so expect high insurance costs.
I live three hours from the city but get there fairly often. I like the neighborhoods in the northeast, along the Sandia Range, probably pricey east of tramway Blvd. Maybe look at Placitas, just north of the city, or Rio Rancho to the northeast, closer to Double Eagle Airport.
Jon
 
As a burqueno, I will say this - if you can avoid ABQ, do. That means if you decide to move there, live in either Corrales, the east mountains, or certain areas of Rio Rancho.

Stay away from the Kirtland AFB area. The war zone (which gets bigger every year) exists between the North side of the base and the South side of Zuni, between approximately Wyoming and Louisiana BLVD. Avoid the area by Tramway and Central called Western Skies. Also avoid the area between I25 east to San Mateo all the way between I40 and Alameda.

Avoid any neighborhood connected to Central Ave, regardless of east or west side.

If you must live in Albuquerque and not one of the surrounding cities, look for homes east of Tramway and between Montgomery and Lomas. Also, some areas on the west side around Montano can be nice as well. But that is relatively nice (as in, you won't see that many robberies or hear that many gunshots).

For schools, last I heard all the elementary schools and middle schools had lost their accredidation, so while some schools are better than others, they're all ****. Definitely avoid West Mesa and Highland school districts, and give a hard look toward avoiding Del Norte and Sandia as well.

When looking at suburbs, avoid Belen and Los Lunas unless you're getting enough acreage to defend your home from a distance. Look east toward Edgewood or Tijeras, but not so far as Moriatry. Rio Rancho has some nice areas, but a ton of ghetto as well, and I'm not too familiar with which is what anymore.
 
Here....I drew you a map. Red means stay away at all costs. Green means bring protection, but livable.

No color means something in between.
 

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wsuffa said:
Hmmm... San Antonio's Fiesta is in the next week or two.
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Kicked off this past Thursday evening. Kind of like a family friendly Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday, for 10-days straight.
 
Lots of red on that map above. What happens when one wants to go to Wal-Mart? Or maybe stop at the gas station at 10:00 P.M.?
 
sourdough44 said:
Lots of red on that map above. What happens when one wants to go to Wal-Mart? Or maybe stop at the gas station at 10:00 P.M.?
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Prepare to witness a robbery or a frog deal, keep your head down and press on.

True story - Wal-Mart at 2am is fun. Lots of crackhead and tweakers shopping.
 
Ozone said:
My family might be relocating to ABQ in the coming months. Anyone have some ideas on good neighborhoods where kids can run around safely?
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I would let me kids walk in (most of) Rio Rancho or maybe Corrales, Sandia airpark (a part of Edgewood). Also maybe in some of the western subdivisions that Marty Chavez' corrupt friends built, but that's a maybe and you need to know the area (e.g. it's still okay for a couple of blocks adjacent to Rio Bravo aka Dennis Chavez). Also maybe is the super-expensive north-east areas east of Eubank and north of San Antonio. All other areas of the city are between questionable and outright dangerous, even including North Valley, tony block along Washington, and all those old enclaves. They are well withing a walking distance from the warzone, and surely withing a reach someone driving a van. A friend reported an attempted kidnapping off Pensilvania and Montgomery, for example.
 
sourdough44 said:
What happens when one wants to go to Wal-Mart? Or maybe stop at the gas station at 10:00 P.M.?
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Going to Wal-Mart or getting gas is only problematic near the warzone (aka "The International District"). The OP asked about the places for kids to play unsupervised, which is quite different. Most of the city has crime rates that are about the same as any other city. For example, San Francisco is worse than Albuquerque for both property and personal crime if warzone is excluded - even if you similarly exclude Mission district from SF. And! You can carry concealed (and openly, although it's dumb) pretty much anywhere in Duke City except a school, but your options in SF are much more limited. Heck, I don't hesitate visiting Tailin Market after dark, in a jeep with no roof.
 
4CornerFlyer said:
Plenty of commenters about Albuquerque, and one of them actually lives in New Mexico.
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Some of us get around a lot. I find it a little sad that I can navigate through about 35 metro areas without a map.

I had a customer in 'querqe a few years back. The phrase that perked our ears up was "when you leave the site, turn right and get on the highway. Do not turn left or you will get shot."
 
bflynn said:
I had a customer in 'querqe a few years back. The phrase that perked our ears up was "when you leave the site, turn right and get on the highway. Do not turn left or you will get shot."
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Wimps.

Albuquerque, pop 540k 2017 homicides: 75
Baltimore, pop 605k 2017 homicides: 343
 
Stickman said:
Look around in Rio Rancho. It is northwest of the city with some nice neighborhoods. Pretty much anything north of the city itself and west of the Pat D'Arco Highway are okay.

My Sister and Nephew live there.
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My dad lives in Rio Rancho. I'm here visiting right now. He is on the extreme NW part of the city, it's a normal safe neighborhood.
 
I worked in Albuquerque for about 18 months in the early 2000's. Like most cities, it's a city and it has its problems. But it's not a...say...Houston or Atlanta by any stretch of the imagination.

Get to know it before settling down, just like with any other city.
 
timwinters said:
I worked in Albuquerque for about 18 months in the early 2000's. Like most cities, it's a city and it has its problems. But it's not a...say...Houston or Atlanta by any stretch of the imagination.

Get to know it before settling down, just like with any other city.
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I think the problem is that it has Chicago or Atlanta problems with a population of a Sandusky. That makes it worse, because as more people come, the problems get worse.
 
timwinters said:
It's all about crime RATES Nick.
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And crime rates in ABQ are still terrible. Yeah, they are better than in Baltimore, Philly, Atlanta, or basically any other black metro. They are about the same as in San Francisco. Which only seems good if you're escaping one of the big cities. Face it, ABQ is a pit when compared with any decent suburb of Seattle, Austin, or heck even Vegas.

One other thing: the city government has taken a course towards turning the city into every other cesspit. The ART project is deeply symptomatic of this "new urbanism" approach. Screw basic safety or roads, let's compete for mythical young professionals, is what is on the agenda. The crime rate may seem competitive now, but wait until bums spread into new habitats.

It used to be that the warzone was the only bad region. A year ago I found used needles in a restaurant near the Big-I. The rotten core keeps spreading, enveloping Nob Hill.

One surface observation you might like is the spread of the cages on the doors and windows. When I moved in, some time in 2008, you pretty much had to drive along Central or Zuni to see every house caged. Not so now. Every time a house is broken in, owners cage it. You 50% or more caged blocks all over the city. Even west of the river on the mesa it's a pretty common sight.
 
zaitcev said:
And crime rates in ABQ are still terrible. Yeah, they are better than in Baltimore, Philly, Atlanta, or basically any other black metro. They are about the same as in San Francisco. Which only seems good if you're escaping one of the big cities. Face it, ABQ is a pit when compared with any decent suburb of Seattle, Austin, or heck even Vegas.
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Well this is a pretty good example why I post to reddit flying and stay the hell away from this place.
 
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