The best thing about Albuquerque is that it’s in N
-
9/10/2010
I lived in Albuquerque a few years back to go to graduate school at UNM, and I still go back to visit often. Much of Albuquerque is a rather dismal working class kind of place with lots of razor wire and broken glass, all bare under the dazzling sun. The setting is so gorgeous that almost any kind of human construction, especially unsoftened as it is by trees, would look ugly. Most of the important streets are lined with aged strip development.
There are some nicer parts of town…the old neighborhoods around downtown are quaint, and parts of the north valley; Alameda and Corrales are actually quite beautiful. On the far eastern side of town, amongst the huge boulders at the base of the Sandia Mountains, are some especially scenic neighborhoods with very cool residential architecture. However, the areas generally called The Heights and The West Mesa are quite barren and sad, except for some neighborhoods right adjacent to the University.
The climate is very fine and optimistic: sunny and dry throughout the year, with little snowfall. I miss the weather a lot, except for the spring dust storms.
New Mexico is a fascinating state with a tremendous variety of cultural offerings, both in the form of “high” culture such as the Santa Fe opera, and low culture like ancient roadside diners serving excellent chile. The native American cultures (remember, there are several tribes in the area) and Spanish culture are very interesting if you are interested, but annoying if you want to have an exclusively white bourgeois lifestyle. So you have to be open and sometimes a little thick skinned. The land is very diverse and it’s possible to go out into a number of different types of places, from lush mountain streams to extreme desert badlands, within just a couple of hours from Albuquerque. It’s a great place if you love the outdoors.
But New Mexico is also a very poor place where a lot of people aren’t educated and have little opportunity to make anything of themselves. There is a seedy desperation under the surface, which goes along with the high crime rate. The people are terrible drivers, with a lot of drunken driving. Every year some law officer is murdered out on some road in the middle of nowhere, probably for stopping someone for speeding or drunk driving.
There are some economic engines in Albuquerque which have a stabilizing effect, though the economy tends to be relatively cyclical…when the economy is bad around the country it can be particularly rough in Albuquerque.
There is a lively bohemian scene there, as in many of the larger towns in New Mexico…lots of artists and crafts people, galleries and live music. Things can be very funky and fun, and people aren't very judgmental.
For some relief from the ordinariness of Albuquerque one can go to Santa Fe, which is just an hours’ drive to the north, or take the very convenient train that plies between the two cities.
One thing I must mention relates to an intangible: many people in New Mexico seem unhappy, even slightly angry. Sometimes it feels that there is a lot of low-grade mental illness. People there can be cold and not interested in you in the least. For a while I thought this must just be something about me, but in the past few years I’ve heard similar comments from others, so there’s independent corroboration.
James | Pittsboro, NC