Small, Big City
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3/26/2008
I spent 4 years in Albuquerque prior to living in the Seattle, WA area and I can't wait to get back. I heard everything bad about ABQ before I moved there and factually most of it was dead wrong. Supposedly 49th in the country in education, we tried and pick one of the best school districts in the area - La Cueva and were very happy with our choice. As a comparison, our oldest child went from a GPA of 3.5 at middle school in ABQ to a 3.5 GPA at Interlake High School in the Bellevue, WA school district without a hiccup. Bellevue School District is consistently once of the highest rated school districts in the country.
As for weather, there is no comparison. If you like wet and rainy, Seattle's your place. They have a local term called "sunbreaks" which means there's a chance the sun might peak through the clouds on any given day. I missed the 330 days of sun I was used to in ABQ. Instead of putting on a hat or carrying an umbrella, you put on sunscreen. Cost of living in Albuquerque is cheaper than one might think. As an example, my health insurance coverage is the same for both places. However, Albuquerque doctors tended to accept my insurance(PPO) disbursement along with my co-pay. In Washington however, they bill you for any amount the insurance company terms excessive. In our case, with a family of five, that amounts to thousands of dollars a year. In general, the cost of living is very high compared to ABQ.
On transportation, ABQ is a gem. Two main interstates cross near downtown and while rush hour can be frustrating to the unknowing, it is nowhere near the rush hours that envelop LA, DC, or Seattle. There are actually main north-south, east-west routes that have timed lights which actually work so a lot of traffic never makes it to the freeway.
One last great nuance about Albuquerque is the fact that it can only grow so big. Hemmed in by Indian Pueblo land on three sides and Sandia mountain on the other, it will never be another Tucson or Phoenix or for that matter Sante Fe, which used to be a very nice quaint city before everybody wanted to move there and the city and county didn't have a development plan.
I wish the weather was warmer in winter but at a 5500 foot elevation, I understand you can't always get what you want. But all in all, ABQ is a great, little city and has the potential to stay way for years to come.
david | Bellevue, WA