Albuquerque to Salt Lake transplants? How do you like it? (Salt Lake City: for rent, living in)

[mommy505]

We are considering a move from Albuquerque for Salt Lake City, where it seems my husband and I might be able to both find professional jobs. I love New Mexico, though, and worry about the culture and environment of Salt Lake. It is beautiful but has pollution problems, I hear. Albuquerque is pretty open, so I'm also concerned Salt Lake might be too white or not diverse enough.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by mommy505

We are considering a move from Albuquerque for Salt Lake City, where it seems my husband and I might be able to both find professional jobs. I love New Mexico, though, and worry about the culture and environment of Salt Lake. It is beautiful but has pollution problems, I hear. Albuquerque is pretty open, so I'm also concerned Salt Lake might be too white or not diverse enough.

I'm not sure if you're referring primarily to religious diversity or ethnic diversity, but there are a LOT of Hispanics here in Salt Lake.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

And a number of Catholic churches and a cathedral.

[SWFL_Native]

Originally Posted by mommy505

We are considering a move from Albuquerque for Salt Lake City, where it seems my husband and I might be able to both find professional jobs. I love New Mexico, though, and worry about the culture and environment of Salt Lake. It is beautiful but has pollution problems, I hear. Albuquerque is pretty open, so I'm also concerned Salt Lake might be too white or not diverse enough.

It's very white here but the people are generally pleasant and nice compared to where we're from in FL. I hear alot of complaining about the air quality but it hasn't been something that has impacted us thus far. If you can both get decent jobs then this is a great place to live.

[lemon&lime]

Originally Posted by mommy505

We are considering a move from Albuquerque for Salt Lake City, where it seems my husband and I might be able to both find professional jobs. I love New Mexico, though, and worry about the culture and environment of Salt Lake. It is beautiful but has pollution problems, I hear. Albuquerque is pretty open, so I'm also concerned Salt Lake might be too white or not diverse enough.

I moved from Albuquerque to Salt Lake in 2005, moved back to Albuquerque in 2008 and totally regret it. I was much happier in Salt Lake and generally felt safer than I do here. But, I am white and enjoyed living in a predominantly white area. The area is mildly diverse with many Hispanic people and a fair number of foreigners. The area believe it or not is actually less racist than Albuquerque and more like a metropolitan big city.

Leaving Salt Lake for Albuquerque was definitely a mistake. However the area does have much worse pollution and inversions in the winter which can be hard to get used to. The Mormons do control the area so you have to learn to live with that too. I lived downtown around a strong liberal vibe and was fine. However, I would have considered living just about anywhere in the whole valley except Magna (I think I heard it is the crystal meth area). I was on Craigslist last night looking at rooms for rent for fun and was amazed at how many really clean, nice, affordable places there are to live. At least fly up and look at the area before deciding. I think you could be really happy there. I hope this doesn't sound offensive but there is no way I would raise kids in Albuquerque.

[michelleleigh]

Born and raised in New Mexico, Albuquerque actually and I really, really miss it. Utah is a nice place its just not home, people are nice here. Honestly the first year was a bit of culture shock for me, then again we are in Utah county (not a bad place just not as deverse as Albuquerque) My DH works in Salt Lake and he says it is very deverse. The inversion (Utahs version of the Brown cloud) can get pretty bad in the winter, however SLC has to be one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen.