Suggestions for open-minded liberal-leaning ABQ neighborhoods? (Albuquerque: upper-class, renting, house)
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i just don't want us to experience ostracism, and i don't want my kid to be taught in school that, say, gay people are going to hell, etc.
again, i live in a liberal bubble, so this is probably just my own projection of my own fears, and probably most people in ABQ don't say things like that to kids (i hope?) and all this fear is unfounded. but that's why i'm on this board, to ask
I'm not going to say things like that don't happen in Albuquerque, but if your primary southwestern experience is in Arizona I think you'll find things very different here. We've got an openly gay city councilor, big pride events that have been going on for decades, and a relatively large, visible gay population. There are gay-straight alliances in most high schools and many middle schools. The school board has recently been discussing a district-wide trans-inclusive bathroom policy and not even the best efforts of a single right-wing councilor to drum up outrage seem to have had a lot of effect on the generally approving tenor of the debate. It's certainly not the Bay Area but I imagine it'll be a lot more tolerant than you expect.
It's true that in the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt multiculturalism and tolerance were to a certain extent enshrined in Spanish law. New Mexico also lucked out after the Mexican War when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo recognized Spanish land grants and modes of governance, essentially endorsing the pre-war multicultural reality of Spanish and Mexican New Mexico. In Texas, by contrast, Spanish land grants were not recognized and the land was patented and sold off, sometimes (literally) out from under existing Hispano or Indian communities.
Even without taking the Pueblo Revolt into consideration, though, Spanish New Mexico was a very diverse, multicultural place. In addition to the diverse Pueblo (19-21 villages in New Mexico from the 1700s onward, 5 distinct languages) and Spanish (which included people of French, Basque, Portuguese, Italian and crypto-Jewish extraction as well as peninsular Spaniards) populations, the New Mexico colony was surrounded by nomadic Native groups like the Navajos, Apaches, Utes and Comanches who regularly came in to raid or trade. And many "Hispanic" communities like Abiquiu or Belen were actually founded by Genizaros, who were Indian captives forcibly converted to Christianity and then encouraged to blend in to Spanish society.
this is amazing info, thank you cactushibs! i mean, not the forcibly converted to christianity stuff but... yeah. i have my BA in anthro and this is just making me drool... plus i'm half jewish (my dad is jewish) but we never practiced it, i'm more of a "pagan," i guess, than anything else, though not un-humorously serious about it. yet i am still fascinated by my jewish people's history, both ashkenazi and sephardic. and native american history and culture really calls to me, both intellectually and spiritually.
i've also read that rio rancho is more conservative as well.
- i'd love one of those pueblo style houses - they are so beautiful - are they only clustered in certain areas like sandia heights or... paradise hills, maybe? sorry, been on zillow too much.
I'm not going to say things like that don't happen in Albuquerque, but if your primary southwestern experience is in Arizona I think you'll find things very different here. We've got an openly gay city councilor, big pride events that have been going on for decades, and a relatively large, visible gay population. There are gay-straight alliances in most high schools and many middle schools. The school board has recently been discussing a district-wide trans-inclusive bathroom policy and not even the best efforts of a single right-wing councilor to drum up outrage seem to have had a lot of effect on the generally approving tenor of the debate. It's certainly not the Bay Area but I imagine it'll be a lot more tolerant than you expect.
that's f'ing awesome! gay-straight alliances in middle and high schools? for my daughter to experience (or maybe be in, who knows, she's only 4)? yes please!
As to your question, OP: the university/Nob Hill area, Corrales, Old Town, the areas between Old Town and Downtown, or Downtown itself seem like they'd suit you well. Also, the South Valley is very hit-or-miss, as a lot of other threads here will tell you, but if you do some searching around and find the right place I think it might be just the mix you want. Old Hispano neighborhoods/villages, meandering farm roads, lots of artists and hippies and do-it-yourself urban organic farms/modern homesteaders. Some poking around will be necessary but if you're up for it there are a lot of diamonds in the rough out there for someone looking for the things on your list.
i feel like we might want to live further out of town, but maybe not. again, obviously, i really need to visit.
my concern with nob hill and old town and the southern areas is that, according to the great Zillow and the mighty and powerful Greatschools, the schools are not that great :/ corrales is the only place that seems to fit the "near/in the country" requirement and the "good schools" requirement.
Also, the South Valley is very hit-or-miss, as a lot of other threads here will tell you, but if you do some searching around and find the right place I think it might be just the mix you want. Old Hispano neighborhoods/villages, meandering farm roads, lots of artists and hippies and do-it-yourself urban organic farms/modern homesteaders. Some poking around will be necessary but if you're up for it there are a lot of diamonds in the rough out there for someone looking for the things on your list.
so, what exactly defines the "South Valley"? any streets/neighborhood names to assist me? thanks!
ok, then, which areas get the least hot in summer? seriously, that is one of my biggest criteria; i know it doesn't get over 100 that often, but the coolest area would probably work the best for us.
Go for altitude. Downtown Albuquerque is about 4700 feet, Tramway Blvd about 6000 feet, and the east mountains even higher. There is a palpable difference in climate between those points, but still pretty mild compared to the variations around the bay. While some people keep horses in the east mountains, the river is the low point in town and the river tends to be where the green space and horse properties are.
A hot day in Albuquerque is absolutely no worse than the hottest days in the bay area (at least peninsula/south bay). What we have in heat we make up for with low humidity. Cold on the other hand.. best acquaint yourself with that real quick if you want to keep on with this process.
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ok, i am a wide-eyed baby when it comes to these things, so please excuse my ignorance. i've never had a horse or been around horse people, but i want to learn because my kid does, and also because i've always wanted to, but have always lived in very urban/suburban areas. but why are SUVs and horses a disconnect? do you carry the horses *in* the SUVs?
No, but assuming your horse needs to go somewhere (or you want to buy a horse), you need a trailer. A truck or an SUV is probably what you'd need for that. Your Honda Fit is not going to do the job (though you'll have plenty of space to park it, odds are).
Also, what do you plan on feeding your horse? Hay bales, etc. tend to be one of the more common choices. They take up a lot of contiguous space. You've heard the expression "eats like a horse", right?
From fencing to water tanks to any number of other things, you need a big support vehicle to justify a horse.
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and why does everyone need SUVs? i only have the one kid so we just have a little honda fit and i love it... especially because it's a stick shift also you can park it ANYwhere (very good for downtown parking in SF or oakland).
Having hung out in those places, parking anything is downright misery compared to here. With the exception of a few areas (downtown and UNM) parking is scandalously free and available. It's the rule, not the exception, to see residential streets with no cars parked on the curb, empty driveways, and 1- and 2-car garages actually used as garages.
Everyone has their reasons for having SUV's, but a lot of it comes down to that fraction of time where you need to load a month's worth of groceries, or a piece of wood that's 16 feet long, or half a kids' soccer team. It's a luxury more than a necessity for most of us. Did I mention gas is a lot cheaper here?
Just to darken the picture a little, while Albuquerque doesn't strike me so far as a place where you are going to get many hate crimes, the amount of (male to female, if I need to say it) sexual harassment that goes on along the Central corridor might be more than you're used to in the places where you've lived. Random gropings are periodically reported on and around UNM's campus. I've read about women being verbally harassed while walking along Central (and not just in areas where there's a lot of prostitution, like my overall neighborhood). When I used to ride the buses I once witnessed a pretty unfortunate incident when a down and out man (middle aged, maybe) sat down next to a college aged female and ended up calling her a "b****" because she was not sufficiently enthusiastic about his company (even while she was being quite polite about it). I still feel bad that none of us intervened (although with him sitting next to her, there was a limit as to what could have been done, and it seemed like a situation in which intervention could have made things worse).
I'm not saying this stuff happens all the time, but it's not that unusual from what I've seen and heard. But this is behavior that is more likely to found in some areas than others. Definitely along the Central corridor.
I've posted this before, but it still seems relevant:
(I also had some young women flash me and another man I was walking with downtown once, but I can't say I was bothered. Actually, the car was moving to fast for me to see anything.)
Last edited by ApartmentNomad; 04-28-2016 at 02:54 PM..
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thanks!
