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Some of us like to be able to afford health care and food! This poverty mentality is a big part of what is wrong with ABQ and NM as a whole!
I am pretty sure Mortimer was joking, but if not, that was the view of one person, not the whole State. You like to generalize New Mexicans as dead beat, poor work mentality bums that are satisfied with below mediocrity. However, that is simply not the case. Minimum wage is going up, wages are going up. New Mexico used to be a state of the attitudes listed above, but much has been changing. Believe it or not, Business has increased, Wages are increasing, and the mentality has changed.
However, to each is their own. I really do hope Denver works out for you.
> I am pretty sure Mortimer was joking, ... Minimum wage is going up, ...
Kinda-sorta. I've just been reading post after post about how "wrong" the pay scales are here. It is what it is. One reason I've found that pay is, in general, lower is that after a plant shutdown or RIF, people, in general, won't move to someplace else to replace their income. They *want* to be here and will make concessions to live here.
Minimum wage really doesn't much apply to most people, since if you have any drive at all, you aspire to jobs that pay more than the minimum.
However, even if you are a professional, you can't earn at your maximum potential here. If this is what you need to do you can
(A) Whine about it.
(B) Move, grow up.
(C) Adjust, grow up.
I took a pay cut to move here. I'm never leaving. I drive an old car and ride my bike. I picked option C.
OK, usually I just let these kinds of posts just slide, but aw, what the heck, I am in a cranky mood this AM sitting in gray, damp (but at least 4 degrees above freezing) Milwaukee:
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
After 27 years in NM here are my views...
Pros:
beautiful mountains, sky, and sunsets.
fairly reasonable weather.
Agreed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
Cons:
not the friendliest people on the planet.
This is completely contrary to my experiences in New Mexico. However, from someone such as you, outtahere, that says this, would you be kind enough to give a list of, oh, say 5 or 8 cities where you feel are significantly more friendly than Albuquerque? I would be interested.
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
rampant crime, even in the so called safe areas.
It is funny...I lived in a non-affluent portion of ABQ for 4+ years (roughly Pennsylvania and Montgomery) and I did not see so much as a mugging or break in, not to mention "rampant crime." In fact, my job required me to travel extensively daily in the city - Northwest, Southeast, yes, even the South Valley, and never had an iota of problems. That isn't to say crime doesn't exist in ABQ - there are pockets of ABQ I surely wouldn't have been thrilled to hang around, especially after dark. However, the people that moan and groan about crime in ABQ I find likely have never lived in a bigger city, or even visited one for that matter. Folks...crime is a part of life in big cities. It isn't the greatest aspect of big city life, but it is a constant.
ABQ's crime stats are mediocre to slightly below average. It is an issue there. But I am sorry, if I am hanging out in the Starbucks on Paseo Del Norte and Wyoming or the Flying Star on Rio Grande, I am not all too worried about "rampant crime."
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
lack of education in a big group of the population.
So whose fault is this? Education is so cheap and affordable to virtually anyone and everyone who wants it in the Albuquerque metro area I cannot even describe it. I worked for CNM...the old TVI...do people realize for a comparatively quality GED, vocational, or Associate's Degree education how friggin' cheap and easy it is to attend??? CNM nearly bends over backwards to admit anyone with any income (or no income) into their doors...if people are lazy or simply non-ambitious or involve themselves in the gangs (note that crime comment above) and chose not to get an education (because in this area it is so easy to get an education it truly is a choice not be be educated) then that is no one's fault except there own.
Albuquerque has some of the most caring, motivated educators I have ever encountered. They are DYING to get as many folks in their doors as possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
health care, health care, health care.
What about it? Care to sight examples of what is wrong with it? Give me 5 to 8 places where health care is significantly better, then explain WHY it is significantly better. I utilized places in Albuquerque such as the New Mexico Heart Institute and the Lovelace Women's Hospital for medical needs and thought they did a just fine job. Had a few medical docs there too and thought they were good enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
not much to do unless you like Hispanic plays, Indian jewelry, etc...
Oh sure, except...
-Year-round golf (including very nice affordable public courses)
-Hiking in the gorgeous Sandia Mountains
-Running, biking, jogging, etc., among the incredibly many outdoor paths and areas for doing so in the adventageous year-round weather
-Going to one day (or many) of the two-weeks of Balloon Fiesta
-Going to a UNM Lobos football game or men's / women's basketball game
-Going to one of the extrodinarily many public parks (green space is very prominent all over Albuquerque) and have a picnic
-Go to the Frontier and get a breakfast burrito
-Go to a concert at the new, very nice ampitheater
-Go to a cheap, fun-filled Triple A Albuquerque Isotopes Baseball game
-Do the fun-filled Christmas tree lighting night in Old Town or the luminaria tour on Christmas Eve
-Go skiing on world class mountains within a 2 hour drive (Taos, Santa Fe) or even the ol' Sandias
-Go eat world class cuisine 45 minutes away in Santa Fe where people travel to from thousands of miles away
-Go to the Aquarium or Botanical Gardens or Zoo...
I could go on and on...it is funny though, I could always find a bit more to do there than just "Hispanic plays, Indian jewelry, etc."...
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
corrupt government.
I can't believe it, but I actually semi-agree with you. But then again, let's think...this is a democracy form of government...for all of the whining about "corrupt government" that occurs in the ABQ area, I don't see a whole lotta change in the way people vote the same folks into office. Bill Richardson garnered nearly 70% of the state's vote in his reelection bid. So while it is the corrupt govt. members faults, isn't it more the fault too of the voters who keep putting the same people into office over and over again?
Quote:
Originally Posted by outtaheresoon
enough said.
flame on flamers!
HUH?? "Enough said"??? "Flame on flamers!" What are you even talking about???
Seriously, if you don't like Albuquerque, that is great, but I would really like to hear some actual specifics and examples of these allegations, and here of the places that you feel - and why - are significantly superior to the place you are complaining about.
You ever notice when someone comes on here and says that New Mexico is so unfriendly and yet they RANT and RAVE and carry on like some A-HOLE themselves.....
...not much to do unless you like Hispanic plays, Indian jewelry, etc...
Quote:
Originally Posted by EnjoyEP
(What about) ...going to one of the extrodinarily many public parks (green space is very prominent all over Albuquerque) and have a picnic
Very true about all the Albuq. green space. The following quote is from the 2006 fitness rankings that put Albuq. at #1:
"Albuquerque lays claim to having one of the fewest bars per capita, meaning the city's residents consume far less calorie-laden alcohol each day than the national average. Combine that with the U.S.'s highest ratio of park space to people anywhere in our survey (almost two and a half times the average amount of green space for every man, woman, and child in Albuquerque to frolic in) and it's easy to see why Albuquerque is such a fitness Shangri-la."
Maybe outtaheresoon doesn't like green space, and is upset that there aren't more bars for drinking away sorrows.
I wouldn't say that Albuquerque is any UN-friendlier than equivalent cities but I think that people are quicker with a smile and a friendly greeting. That doesn't mean they are friendly so much as conditioned to express behaviours perceived as friendly.
I mean, people in NYC don't just go around slapping backs and asking (ingenuously) 'how nice a day you may or may not be having', and that doesn't mean they are un-friendly either.
I am looking forward to the health care in New Mexico. IN WA I am a number and can't tell you how frustrating it has been to get someone to pay any attention when I have a problem. I have to diagnose it for the doctor--took two years to get a referral for an achilles problem that wouldn't go away. Group Health is called group death around here. Unlike the Women's Health Center in Santa Fe where I was a person and they listened and were open to alternative methods of healing.
And the schools are cheap. What a shock to go from $25/credit hour (now $29-43) at SFCC to $75 at the community college here. And the professors were great, having taken classes at SFCC really helped when I started a four year college here.
I lived in NM eight years and could always find something to do and I found the people friendly but then I'm a very friendly person and don't take it personally if someone doesn't respond to a hi or a smile. We all have those days.
I think it is a good thing to move and experience other places in order to appreciate where you've been especially if you think it is the place that is causing unhappiness--sometimes a change does help and sometimes you find the same thing because it comes from within. Good luck Outtaheresoon on your new adventure. May you find what you seek.
EnjoyEP, some might call your post a rant, and I would call it utter brilliance and magnificence.
You flatter me my friend! Seriously, I think you are a bit too kind, but I do think that if you are going to throw out silly allegations against ANY area like "people are unfriendly" or "health care, health care, health care"...I think you should at least ATTEMPT to cite an example or two to note why you feel that way!
As for those that would call it a rant...they likely are right. Usually I really try to refrain to do so, but on a gloomy, cloudy, wet 35 degree morning in Milwaukee where I came off of a week working doubly hard because my property taxes are so much higher here than they were in sunny, temperate NM, I was admittedly a little cranky!
I think it is a good thing to move and experience other places in order to appreciate where you've been especially if you think it is the place that is causing unhappiness--sometimes a change does help and sometimes you find the same thing because it comes from within. Good luck Outtaheresoon on your new adventure. May you find what you seek.
Kudos Dancingearth
I totally agree with this statement - I couldn't of said it better myself!
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Seriously, I think you are a bit too kind, but I do think that if you are going to throw out silly allegations against ANY area like "people are unfriendly" or "health care, health care, health care"...I think you should at least ATTEMPT to cite an example or two to note why you feel that way!
I totally agree with this statement - I couldn't of said it better myself!
