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I've known NO ONE who moved to LC for a J-O-B who has been satisfied.
If earnings is your need.... Properly address it. I moved to a no income tax state that was next door to a no sales tax state. Cost of living was reasonable, so this strategy helped me retire 15 yrs early. LC was also a choice that I knew would not deliver during my earning yrs.
So.... Do what you must.
In my 20+ yr association with LC I, nor my retired mom have had issues you mention. We drive LC frequently. No issues with rude, aggressive drivers, no street racing, plenty useful and polite encounters with ems and police. Very quite and friendly neighborhood. Excellent and readily available medical care.
Sounds like you're exasperated with LC.
Go find your new spot, enjoy it.
I suggest you use a much different strategy to find your next spot so you avoid surprises. We always stay with locals, interface with those who have specific details. Attend events as if living there. Volunteer with community groups BEFORE relocating. Travel the commute during regular hours. Visit your neighborhood in the middle of the night and listen for dogs and traffic.
Good luck,
We spend plenty of time in Tucson, Phoenix, Prescott and Flagstaff + rural areas nearby. None of which I would enjoy living.
Good luck, they may be perfect for you.
We understand we are going to encounter traffic and big city issues if we move to Tucson. There really is no strategy. The strategy to move to LC was to avoid big city issues and we didn’t. So the strategy now is to just move to a bigger city. Like is said earlier, if we have to deal with big city problems then we want big(ger) city options.
We understand we are going to encounter traffic and big city issues if we move to Tucson. There really is no strategy. The strategy to move to LC was to avoid big city issues and we didn’t. So the strategy now is to just move to a bigger city. Like is said earlier, if we have to deal with big city problems then we want big(ger) city options.
Redcrow,
Las Cruces is a spread-out city. There are some more rural areas outside of the city where you wouldn't encounter 'big city' problems. Have you considered North or South Valley? Even Rasaaf Hills seems ions removed from the city proper.
We understand we are going to encounter traffic and big city issues if we move to Tucson. There really is no strategy. The strategy to move to LC was to avoid big city issues and we didn’t. So the strategy now is to just move to a bigger city. Like is said earlier, if we have to deal with big city problems then we want big(ger) city options.
I love Tucson and prefer it to Las Cruces (although I like Las Cruces) but street traffic in Tucson is several levels worse than LC. Pretty much every main thoroughfare in Tucson proper is like Lohman Ave in LC. Street traffic in Tucson is the main reason I moved away from there.
Nothing like 55 mph traffic on speedway and people pulling out into the road everywhere. Especially the people who try and make a left turn out of a parking lot. And the funnest thing is going that fast and having somebody pull from the opposite direction pull into the middle turn lane at the exact same time you do.
Middle class working people don’t “drive up housing prices”. People from California and people who have priced out of their western towns drive up housing prices. I’m glad you like it here so much that you spend as much time as you defending it. You can have it. Does my take on the area affect your ability to enjoy it? My wife has a graduate degree, luck has nothing to do with it. I’m remote, I make what I make wherever I live. What she makes here is an insult. On top of everything else here we’re out. And we ain’t looking back. Enjoy.
I don't live in Las Cruces, I live in Albuquerque. I do have family in Las Cruces and have stopped there many times on my way to Juarez where my dad is from and where a lot of my family lives.
You made a bad decision based on several very naive assumptions. On top of all that you failed to realize what you were getting into despite your claims to have visited often and researched the place heavily before moving there. You are now crapping all over a place because of your own foolishness. Nobody in their right mind would think a small city of about 220,000 people in its metro area is gonna be some quaint small town with very nice people, perfect drivers and high-paying jobs. Didn't your wife check to see what she would be making in Las Cruces before you moved there?? I thought you did so much research.
I think you just wanted to trash Las Cruces before you leave and are upset that someone is challenging your ridiculous assertions and aspersions. You are just one of many disgruntled people that litter this site with their crappy threads trashing cities and making them out to be hellholes just because they didn't like them. That's my biggest issue and concern here.
Las Crucan's IQ drops 20 points when they get behind the wheel. Last night my car stalled twice, at 2 different locations. I put the hazard lights on each time, when there was nobody in back of me. And they work.
Both times the next car that came along pulled up within 2 feet of my bumper, as they always do. Then they got stuck for a couple light changes before they had the brilliant idea to go around me. Of course that isn't easy when you are riding someone's bumper.
Both times, the next car came along and did the exact same thing. Idiot drivers abound here.
That sounds like Santa Fe, as well. Not only that, but many times I had people who were a safe distance away when I changed lanes keep coming at me from behind, as if they didn't know someone was in front of them. When they were just a few feet away, they'd suddenly realize there was someone there, and would start honking, as if I'd cut in front of them, which I hadn't done.
One instance was so extreme, that the car behind was about to hit me before he woke up and noticed I was there. He must have scared himself half to death, because he started dropping back, and continued to drop back farther and farther. I haven't run into this driving behavior in any other state.
You've been all over the place in your complaints about Las Cruces.
The reality is that it's a small city with limited offerings and options for various things, like pretty much every other small city in the country. It has issues with street racing, etc., like pretty much every other city in the country. Its housing costs have rapidly increased, like pretty much every other place in the country.
This is the kind of argument defensive people always make. I see this in the California forums too, even when tactful criticisms are brought up. When people don't want to admit maybe there's some truth to the criticism it's always "Go somewhere else" or "It's this bad everywhere else, too". No, not always. There are small towns that have low crime and don't have thuggish people racing cars and blasting music at 3AM.
Oh, and it’s not people like me driving up the cost of living in the SW. It’s Californians. The mass exodus from CA is killing the west.
It's not Californians. It's lack of housing supply. Many people in the West want cheap housing when they move into town. Then they all of a sudden pull up the drawbridge and stop all future development. That's what happened in California. And Californians (and other newcomers) move to new places only to re-create the same kind of problems as the places they left, compltely blind to how their own thinking and voting patterns created the mess the same that they left behind.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 01-12-2022 at 12:27 AM..
This is the kind of argument defensive people always make. I see this in the California forums too, even when tactful criticisms are brought up. When people don't want to admit maybe there's some truth to the criticism it's always "Go somewhere else" or "It's this bad everywhere else, too". No, not always. There are small towns that have low crime and don't have thuggish people racing cars and blasting music at 3AM.
Obviously there will be some small cities that have better pay, better amenities, better behavior among citizens, etc. But I'm talking about most here, the average small city.
Also, there is a difference between a small town and a small city. A small town is somewhere with less than 10,000 or so residents. A small city is somewhere like Las Cruces, more than 100,000 people yet not nearly close to half a million people, which is the beginning of a mid-size city. I might expect small town features in a place with just a few thousand residents, not in a place with many thousands of residents.
Even then, these problems are indeed everywhere, small towns don't completely escape the issues and problems. Look at the Rust Belt, Appalachia, the rural South, inland California, etc. The areas are usually impoverished and declining, have high minority or migrant populations, are dealing with loss of industry, etc. In New Mexico it is poverty and high rates of already disadvantaged minority populations like American Indians that cause these sorts of issues in the actual small towns here.
I can't believe people act like the decline of rural and small-town America isn't happening and that it's all still Mayberry out there.
I agree with your last point that the decline of rural and small town America is probably happening everywhere. I'm grateful to live in a small town/semi-rural area in Alabama that isn't falling to pieces with thuggish behavior, etc. However, 15 miles away closer to the big city there is an area that has gone downhill and is known as a "meth" area. My town is in kind of a decline in terms of main street needing revival (like many small towns) but it's nothing alarming.
Last year when I drove from Southern California to Alabama, I stayed in Las Cruces in the same motel I stayed in, in 2017. I accidentally got off on the wrong exit and drove miles through the back end of Las Cruces. It didn't seem that bad to me, just a little bit run down but no more than any other similar small city/town. There did seem to be a fair amount of lower income and poverty.
That sounds like Santa Fe, as well. Not only that, but many times I had people who were a safe distance away when I changed lanes keep coming at me from behind, as if they didn't know someone was in front of them. When they were just a few feet away, they'd suddenly realize there was someone there, and would start honking, as if I'd cut in front of them, which I hadn't done.
One instance was so extreme, that the car behind was about to hit me before he woke up and noticed I was there. He must have scared himself half to death, because he started dropping back, and continued to drop back farther and farther. I haven't run into this driving behavior in any other state.
Its the same in all of the big 3-Cruces, ABQ and Santa Fe. I see incredibly dangerous driving almost every time I drive in Las Cruces, which is every day.
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