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** the War Zone area along Central around Lousiana Blvd (approximately one square mile)
** There's also a town south of Albuquerque, near Los Lunas, called meadowlands or something like that which should be avoided. Someone else hear can chime in with the name, I don't remember.
The double-asterisk places are ones that everyone in their sane mind would avoid.
Maybe just the above would be reasonable advice. Meadow Lake is the place near Las Lunas...don't know anything about it.
Just about everything else is simply an unsupported opinion. There are places where a prudent person would choose not to live or even spend much time...like any large city. There are a bunch of places that offer a good compromise of price, convenience, safety, value and entertainment...depending on individual needs and tastes. Maybe some good advice would be to pick the school that seems the best (even if you don't have kids) and then consider that area.
Meadow Lake is indeed a place to avoid. It's something of a wildcat subdivision with a lot of problems: isolated, rural, crime-ridden. Apparently has a lot of junked-out trailers as well.
Yeah. I like how he says to avoid the North Valley. Well that's where the most expensive houses in the entire metro are located.
You know what I'm talking about when I say the North Valley. I'm talking about the places that are north of Central, along Broadway, north 4th street, all those areas. I'm not talking about the plush areas that are much farther up than that.
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Originally Posted by NMHacker
His whole post needs a strike-through.
To say this is as incorrect as to say all of Albuquerque is bad. My point is not that all of abq is bad. My point is that in general large parts of it are rough and for someone coming from a "typical American" neighborhood in a typical American city, it likely has more problems, more crime than what they are used to.
And if you don't agree with that, well, then you can go live in the areas that I have mentioned. Go spend a few years in Meadow Lake, or Five Points, or Los Padillas or wherever you feel like you want to live.
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Originally Posted by Cactus Hibs
Meadow Lake is indeed a place to avoid. It's something of a wildcat subdivision with a lot of problems: isolated, rural, crime-ridden.
Meadow Lake is the "East New York" of Albuquerque. When crime was pushed out of Manhattan in the 90s it ended up in East New York and the Bronx. Not that crime has been pushed out of Albuquerque, but certain elements made their way to Meadow Lake and that's why it is the way it is today. It's a cess-pool.
I'm not saying it's all a bleak picture in Albuquerque. There are certainly some pleasant areas.
But I'm going to tell you my personal feeling about it. If I go driving through the ghetto in Oakland tomorrow (about 50 miles from where I live), I'm going to have the same feeling I do when I drive through large parts of Albuquerque. And I'll say something else: I feel safer walking around on the street in Cali (Colombia, where my wife is from) then I do in those said neighborhoods in Albuquerque. That's my personal experience, my personal feeling on the matter.
You know what I'm talking about when I say the North Valley. I'm talking about the places that are north of Central, along Broadway, north 4th street, all those areas. I'm not talking about the plush areas that are much farther up than that.
Then you're not really talking about the north valley but downtown, Martineztown, etc. Broadway doesn't effectively go north past Candelaria and to most people the North Valley doesn't extend much south of Candelaria. (And the near north valley is mostly quite nice).
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To say this is as incorrect as to say all of Albuquerque is bad. My point is not that all of abq is bad. My point is that in general large parts of it are rough and for someone coming from a "typical American" neighborhood in a typical American city, it likely has more problems, more crime than what they are used to.
::cough:: Sunnyvale is your basis for comparison. 'nuff said. At least people can afford to live 1-to-a-bedroom in nice houses with yards here.
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And if you don't agree with that, well, then you can go live in the areas that I have mentioned. Go spend a few years in Meadow Lake, or Five Points, or Los Padillas or wherever you feel like you want to live.
None of those places are in Albuquerque. All of them show solid green on Trulia's crime heat map. And I'd take any of those over Richmond, West Oakland, or East Palo Alto, or even far-more-dangerous Sunnyvale (got plenty of red spots throughout).
Maybe your information is simply out of date. Have you spent any amount of time here in the past 5 years?
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Meadow Lake is the "East New York" of Albuquerque. When crime was pushed out of Manhattan in the 90s it ended up in East New York and the Bronx. Not that crime has been pushed out of Albuquerque, but certain elements made their way to Meadow Lake and that's why it is the way it is today. It's a cess-pool.
You're talking about a tiny, very-out-of-the-way bedroom community of under 6000 people. While its crime rate (what limited data there is) is higher than the area average, it's still substantially safer than the worst-of-the-worst in most metro areas, in particular yours.
In addition, most of the crimes there aren't random. I might get mugged in East New York minding my own business but I won't in Meadow Lake- those crimes tend to be drug-deal-gone-bad, meth lab, domestic violence type.
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I'm not saying it's all a bleak picture in Albuquerque. There are certainly some pleasant areas.
But I'm going to tell you my personal feeling about it. If I go driving through the ghetto in Oakland tomorrow (about 50 miles from where I live), I'm going to have the same feeling I do when I drive through large parts of Albuquerque. And I'll say something else: I feel safer walking around on the street in Cali (Colombia, where my wife is from) then I do in those said neighborhoods in Albuquerque. That's my personal experience, my personal feeling on the matter.
Amazing how brave some people feel when they're in their car.
Having been a crime victim walking (not driving) through the ghetto in Oakland, and an almost-resident of the bay area (I travel there at least monthly), I can say your experience is pretty removed from the facts on the ground. Albuquerque's bad neighborhoods are few, avoidable, and still not that bad. Its suburbs tend to be as nice or nicer.
You know what I'm talking about when I say the North Valley. I'm talking about the places that are north of Central, along Broadway, north 4th street, all those areas. I'm not talking about the plush areas that are much farther up than that.
By the same logic one might say, 'Don't live in the Northeast Heights.' 'You know what I mean, the places that are north of Central, along Louisiana, Wyonming NE, Montgomery near I-25, all those areas.'
You know what I'm talking about when I say the North Valley. I'm talking about the places that are north of Central, along Broadway, north 4th street, all those areas. I'm not talking about the plush areas that are much farther up than that.
The North Valley is huge. If you had meant to have people avoid the area between 4th and Broadway, you certainly didn't say that.
Meadow Lake is in Los Lunas, not Albuquerque, it's about 30 miles away...
Agreed. It's a collection of trailers out on the mesa, well east of Los Lunas and separated from Albuquerque by an Air Force base and an Indian reservation. I wouldn't want to live there, but it's a really strange place to fixate on in a discussion about where to live in Albuquerque - someone picking neighborhoods from abroad would be only slightly more likely to live there than in an off-the-grid compound out on Pajarito Mesa.
You refer to Meadow Lakes as a "bedroom community"? This would imply that it is a sleepy, peaceful, quiet area. You say Los Padillas isn't part of Albuquerque?
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Originally Posted by Zoidberg
And I'd take any of those over Richmond, West Oakland, or East Palo Alto.
In my experience those areas are on par with the neighborhoods that I've been talking about in Albuquerque. There are a lot of rough neighborhoods in Albuquerque. A lot of rough people. In my opinion they are all about the same level of dangerousness / day-to-day crime / daily experiences.
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Originally Posted by Poncho_NM
Places NOT to live in Albuquerque?
Meadow Lake is in Los Lunas, not Albuquerque, it's about 30 miles away...
the OP was asking about places in or around Albuquerque within commuting distance.
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Originally Posted by threecats407
Meadow Lake. Yikes
Sarcasm? really? Ok, go ahead and spend some time there. Have fun.
Guys, I've lived in a bunch of different places, have a lot of experience. I'm not just making comments for the sake of it.
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Having been a crime victim walking (not driving) through the ghetto in Oakland
1. what do mean by crime victim, what exactly happened?
2. what are doing walking there if you don't belong there?
3. Are you Hispanic? Have you ever lived in a Chicano neighborhood or a ghetto? Do you know what these environments are like as someone who was born and raised in such a place?
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