what can you tell me about albuquerque?

[fizzgig]

outside the climate, i don't know anything about it

[Kali]

1. abq e streeter lives there - he will have the scoop - especially the music scene

PM him if he doesn't see this

I have some family there and have been a few times but don't really know it. (going for a wedding in June, though - heh)

[fizzgig]

2. good call, kali

thanks

[Suich]

3. I'm suppsed to go to a family reunion there in August.

Ugh. I don't know anything about the place.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. When ya get there, make that left turn.

[ironflange]

35. Right

If you don't you'll never get to the Coachella Valley.

[some guy]

5. it's about 7 or 8

hours south by car. :)

[HopeHoops]

6. Simple: Nobody knows how to spell it.

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. If it had a snappy jingle... it could be as well-spelled as M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. n/t

[MiddleFingerMom]

8. My GF and I considered moving there from Atlanta.

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EVERYBODY we talked with (resident or not) agreed that it was beautiful.
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It actually has different temperate zones in different parts of the city.
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Don't know about now, but 10-15 years ago it had a reputation for some pretty horrendous gang problems.
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[LearnedHand]

11. Yeah, that's still part of it as well

in some parts of the city. But it's a well-behaved place in general.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

28. It had and has gang problems.

But I would never say they were "horrendous". The murder rate there has never even remotely approached that of places like Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles (at the time), Cleveland, etc. The big problem there is mostly property crime, not violent crime.

[zen_bohemian]

9. Old Town is kinda cool

shops, a square, a pretty good restaurant (can't remember the name, but it's in the SE corner of the square, Tex Mex food)....if I remember there is a zoo..this is from memory, I haven't been there in a few years, I had relatives there several years ago.

[LearnedHand]

10. AWESOME hiking and biking trails, among many other good qualities

Both city byways and in the Foothills open spaces. Nob Hill is a blast to wander through, if you like weird, eclectic shops and pubs. Music scene is okay. Food scene is okay but tends toward the national or regional chains. Wonderful for outdoorsy types. Art galleries out the wazoo. Also a fairly quiet, manana type of place to live, if you're thinking along those lines. New governor is a totally "WTF?" kind of governor (a complete idiot who's also loud about it). The Rail Runner commuter train between Belen and Santa Fe is AMAZING and should be a model for the rest of the nation. Gas isn't too expensive, relatively speaking -- a little toward the lower rather than the upper end of the scale. Much of the surrounding land is BLM- or Pueblo-owned, so there's not a lot of developement that smothers the amazing vistas. GREAT trout fishing within an hour's drive.

[fizzgig]

13. excellent info, thanks

seems kinda similar to where i live now

[LearnedHand]

33. Welcome :-)

I love it here.

[datasuspect]

12. don't hang out in the bathroom at the greyhound bus station

[Quixote1818]

14. Have lived in Abq for 15 years

Albuquerque was established on the El Camino Real trail that went from Mexico City to Santa Fe from 1598 until the railroads came through. It was the railroads that caused Albuquerque to take off in population and not Santa Fe because it was too expensive to cut a direct line to Santa Fe even thought the railroad was called "Atkinson Topeka and Santa Fe". Europeans were traveling through the area long before Plymouth rock and Coronado wintered in the Albuquerque area with the native Indian tribes along the Rio Grande. New Mexico has perhaps the most interesting history of any state from beginning to end with famous icons as Billy the Kid, Geronimo, Kit Carson, Poncho Villa, Coronado, Onate, the Santa Fe Trail, El Camino Real, Pueblo Revolt, Roswell, Route 66 (which went right through Albuquerque), the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos and Trinity Site about an hour south of Albuquerque. Next to Albuquerque are the Sandia Mountains that absolutely tower above the city with stunning rock formations. They rise over a mile above the city and have the longest tramway in the world. You can laterally take the tram from the city with your ski's, reach the top and sky down the other side which is over 10,000 feet high and covered in dense, green forests of Spruce, Fir and Aspen. To the north about 40 miles are the Jemez Mountains which are the remains of a dormant super volcano now called Valles Caldera. The are is completely forested. Santa Fe is less than an hour away and Taos is about two hours away. Places like Durango and Pagosa Springs, CO as well as the towering San Juan Mountains are about three hours away. There are Native American tribes all around the area as well as ruin sites and abandoned Spanish Missions that are several hundred years old. As for the city it's self, the above poster mentioned Knob Hill which is next to the University. Traffic is generally light and you can get to any place in the city in around 30 minutes unless there is a car crash on the freeway.


Here is a list of just a few cool places and things to see with links:

1. Old Town: http://www.albuquerqueoldtown.com/

2. Valles Caldera: http://www.vallescaldera.gov/

3. http://www.sandiapeak.com/ (This is 10 miles by the crow from the East side of Albuquerque)

and Sandia Crest byway: http://www.byways.org/stories/67827

4. El Camino Real Trail: http://www.caminorealheritage.org/

5. Knob Hill: http://rt66central.com/

6. Albuquerque Museum: http://www.cabq.gov/museum/

7. Albuquerque balloon fiesta: http://www.balloonfiesta.com/

8. Natural History Museum: http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/

9. Bosque Del Apache Nat. Wildlife refute (one hour south): http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/newmex/bosque/

10: Acoma Sky City (hour west): http://sccc.acomaskycity.org/

11. Jemez Springs (hour north): http://www.jemezsprings.org/

12. Rio Grande Nature Center: http://innonthealameda.com/the-authentic-guide-to-santa-fe/2010/02/natural-albuquerque-the-rio-grande-nature-center/

[denbot]

23. Turquoise Museum..

Very cool if you like that kind of thing.

[MrScorpio]

15. The cops there love to shoot people

Or so I've heard

[triguy46]

16. It's only 63 miles to Santa Fe.

The area around UNM has bars/food that is worthwhile. Old town is old town, but Santa Fe is off the charts better.

[hunter]

17. A couple of weeks after I visited the National Atomic Museum...

... taking multiple photographs of their "Fat Man" atomic bomb casing...

they removed it for reasons of "National Security."

Not to worry. Wikipedia covers my ass, going to greater depth than I ever would.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man.

I always enjoy my stays in Albuquerque.

[mattvermont]

21. I was just there in Los Alamos and Santa fe and Appleturkey

two weeks ago. Fat Man is there, as is the rest of the jingoistic reasons we "had to drop the bombs"

[Bluzmann57]

18. That no good pos alford lives there

Former Iowa Hawkeye basketball coach and certified rw asshole. Other than that, it's probably a fine city. SOLIDARITY!

[Moondog]

19. I have an uncle, who turned 92 last week,

who lived there for years. For various reasons related to the family dynamics of his offspring, he moved to Seattle about 15 years ago. Having finally had enough of overcast skies and drizzle, he moved back to Albuquerque about 5 years ago and says he should never have left. He felt so strongly about this that he financed moving his grown offspring, and their various families back to Albuquerque with him. Sounds like a pretty special place to me . . . .

[underpants]

20. Don't forget to make a left turn there

[krispos42]

22. Anybody on the street will shave your back for a nickel.

"That's when I swore that someday, someday I would get out of that basement and travel to a magical, far-away place where the sun is always shining and the air smells like warm root beer and the towels are oh-so-fluffy... where the shriners and the lepers play their ukuleles all day long and anyone on the street will gladly shave your back for a nickel. Wocka wocka doo doo yeah. Well, let me tell you, people, it wasn't long at all before my dream came true, because the very next day a local radio station had this contest to see who could correctly guess the number of molecules in Leonard Nimoy's butt. I was off by three, but I still won the grand prize... That's right, a first-class one-way ticket... to Albuquerque! "

:woohoo:

[solara]

24. In Albuquerque, when there are no clouds in the sky, the sun is like a laser

Albuquerque is a mile high city, Santa Fe and Taos are even higher, so don't forget your sunscreen or sunglasses


:hi:

[SCantiGOP]

25. there's a Confederate flag in Old Town

As I remember the story from a visit years ago, the South sent a small detachment to take over a smaller detachment of Union soldiers so the South could claim everything west of Texas after they won the war. They all sat around playing cards until someone showed up one day and told them the war was over, so the rebels all went home. They have a display of the 6 or 8 flags that have flown over New Mexico, and I was surprised to see the Stars and Bars.
Another story: the friend I was visiting is married to a woman of Mexican descent. I asked her when her family came to the US. She said they never did: they were given a large land grant near Albuquerque by the King of Spain in the 1600's, and one day the United States came to them.

[SPKrazy]

26. Never drive to Farmington from there at night

Scary!!!
Other than that it seems like an ok place- close to Sandia mtns- skiing- spiritual centers- desert-
Lots of wind

Thought about moving there many years ago!

;)

[likesmountains 52]

36. I know exactly what you mean...avoid driving in a snowstorm too.

:)

[blueamy66]

27. it's a shithole

NT

[SCantiGOP]

32. this comment from Arizona?

Go figure.

[begin_within]

29. Good chilis!

[JonLP24]

30. I hear

Los Pollos Hermanos makes very good chicken.

[LearnedHand]

34. BRRRRRRR!!!!!

That ice man CHILLS MY BONES! When I see him come on screen, I start shaking.

[musiclawyer]

31. Food is unique, really spicey and incredibly delicious

Get local recommendations on dining out, and for sure do a side trip to Santa Fe. It's not far---only place not on the west coast I would retire if I could afford to.