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Review of Albuquerque, New Mexico


Armpit Of The United States
Star Rating - 1/3/2016
After reading all of the comments slamming this city/state, they are all are absolutly true. A couple points from pervious comments stood out to me the most. First is the culture. Yes, Albuquerque, and NM in general is a VERY Hispanic oriented state. That being said, if you are white you will not fit in here. Second is housing. There are some nice areas in the city, but most of the apartments and houses here appear very run down and slum like. Parts of the North East and Four Hills areas are probably the nicest areas housing wise. Third is the drivers. Albuquerque drivers are the absolute worst. Red light runners are everywhere, drunk driving is a HUGE problem and yet the punishments are laughable and these drivers are back on the road a short time later. There are not a lot of speeders however. People here seem to drive 5 to 10 mph under the speed limit and yet they still drive atrociously. Oh and very few people have car insurance so if you get hit be prepared for them to take off. Road rage is also a huge problem here and often result in shootings. Back in October, a 4 year old girl was killed as a result of road rage. This leads right into crime. Crime is rampant here. There are really no "good" areas here, it's more of how much crime are you willing to tolerate. The South East and the South Valley are probably the worst though. These areas are where most of the murders are which are basically a daily occurrence. Yes really, daily. I live in what could be considered a "nice" neighborhood in the NE Heights and there have been 5 burglaries on my street in the past year. Education is pathetic, the majority of the population is uneducated and the school district is very corrupt. The former Superintendent Luis Valintino hired his friend, a child molester from Colorado as his Deputy Superintendent. As someone else said, NM is the second worst in the country in terms of education. Last is the job market. Most of the jobs here state "bilingual preferred" meaning if you don't speak Spanish we won't consider you. There are parts of the city that are all in Spanish. Businesses, restaurants, shops, you'd swear you were in Mexico. There are no high paying jobs here. There is no true industry here unless you count meth and other drugs. All in all, Albuquerque is a low income, uneducated, dangerous, run down, slummy city that I would not recommend to anyone. I was born and raised here, been here 23 years and as soon as I graduate college I am getting out of here.
Dylan | Albuquerque, NM
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Oh, you can speak Spanish (learned "somewhere else") and STILL not get the job. If your skin is "too dark" they will ask you "so what makes you think you can speak Spanish" in the job interview, refuse to give you the Spanish TEST, and shoo you out the damn door. Misperception discrimination runs rampant here. If your skin is "too dark" you're treated like "black" even if you're NOT, and that's more the entire Mountain Time Zone because I got crapped on in KKKolorado like that too (Pueblo and "The Springs.")
Penny | Boston, MA | Report Abuse

If you are BROWN you will also not fit in there! They expect you to be white with a Spanish surname; that is what constitutes "Hispanic" here. Brown Indians, dark Latinos, will NOT fit in here. In spite of the fact that it's Indian Country. It feels like that's almost a LIE. Percentage of the population nonwithstanding, that is. Indian Country is going more towards Grants-Gallup and out there there are REALLY no jobs except government and law enforcement, both of which will turn you down for the job if you attach your college transcripts to the job application (they will say you "do not meet the minimum educational requirements" as if they really couldn't READ it, I kid you not.)
Penny | Boston, MA | Report Abuse
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