El Paso vs. Albuquerque (state, better, crime rate, compare)
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I have been tentatively planning on moving to Albuquerque within the next year, but I'm still considering other locations, particularly in the Southwest. The one overwhelming motivation for my move is that I need to escape from the current humid climate in which I live, due to a mold allergy which has made it hard to live a normal life over the past few years.
I've now visited Albuquerque and find that I like it, but I'm a little concerned with the fact that it so often appears high on lists of "worst cities for allergies." Even though my main concern is mold (which would not be a problem there), I do have other allergies, and a place with a lower pollen count would be preferable, all things being equal (but they never are).
My biggest worry about El Paso is simply that I am a non-Spanish-speaking non-Hispanic, and I am wondering how difficult that would make finding a job and dating/forming friendships there there. I'm certainly interested in learning Spanish, but I'm not anywhere close to understanding it now. Even if I don't need Spanish to get by on a day to day basis, I assume that not knowing it will limit my potential to find work in El Paso. (I do not have any really high-demand skills. I am a librarian, with an MLS, but I'd actually like to get out of that kind of work--or at least get out of working as a reference librarian--which complicates matters.)
Last edited by Bo; 01-14-2009 at 03:50 PM..
Reason: Moved from El Paso forum
I have been tentatively planning on moving to Albuquerque within the next year, but I'm still considering other locations, particularly in the Southwest. The one overwhelming motivation for my move is that I need to escape from the current humid climate in which I live, due to a mold allergy which has made it hard to live a normal life over the past few years.
I've now visited Albuquerque and find that I like it, but I'm a little concerned with the fact that it so often appears high on lists of "worst cities for allergies." Even though my main concern is mold (which would not be a problem there), I do have other allergies, and a place with a lower pollen count would be preferable, all things being equal (but they never are).
My biggest worry about El Paso is simply that I am a non-Spanish-speaking non-Hispanic, and I am wondering how difficult that would make finding a job and dating/forming friendships there there. I'm certainly interested in learning Spanish, but I'm not anywhere close to understanding it now. Even if I don't need Spanish to get by on a day to day basis, I assume that not knowing it will limit my potential to find work in El Paso. (I do not have any really high-demand skills. I am a librarian, with an MLS, but I'd actually like to get out of that kind of work--or at least get out of working as a reference librarian--which complicates matters.)
Allergies- I do not have any allergies in any other city but living in El Paso I developed a very severe allergy to the Mulberry trees here- when they are blooming I literally can not go outside without sneezing uncontrollable. I currently take claritan everyday and started taking benedryl every day as well. So, be aware of that. I am very, very miserable in the spring here.
The difficulty in finding jobs here has been well documented here and elsewhere, so that is always a problem here in El Paso. The dating situation is something that I have not seen talked about, but I have found it to be a problem. When I have lived elsewhere in Texas I have found it very easy to find people to date but I have found it extremely difficult to find people whom I am interested in here in El Paso. When I was in law school, I actually knew a large number of people from El Paso (most of whom said at the time that they were not returning here and they didn't) and all of the women told me the number 2 reason behind the job situation was the lack of people to date. There is a very small population of educated professionals here and there are not a lot of single ones, so that really cuts down on the dating pool. I was just in Dallas this week and I was getting phone numbers within a few hours of being there and that was my experience in other Texas cities as well.
I would suggest looking at other Texas cities (although allergies are a problem in Austin)- there are many more job and social opportunities elsewhere.
You might try Amarillo, although it's smaller than Albuquerque and much smaller than El Paso. Amarillo has a rather dry climate, but jobs won't be as plentiful there.
They are two totally unique and special cities and if you go with an open mind and the right attitude I believe you would enjoy either city. The climate is quite different between the two, EP is somewhat warmer while ABQ being a mile high experiences a cooler winter than EP. The good news is, neither ABQ's nor EP's weather is extreme, which is a definite draw for either city. Again, if you want a somewhat warmer climate EP is the way to go.
As for jobs, I would have to give the edge to ABQ. There seems to be a steady influx of new (high wage) jobs which is really driving the growth in our city. I work in Finance for Gap here at the Corporate Shared Service Center here in ABQ, jobs like these were non-existent 5-10 years ago. The manufacturing and high tech fields are growing by leaps and bounds and it appears there is no end in sight. We are rapidly working on building an aviation cluster here, which is why Eclipse Aviation chose ABQ over Scottsdale to launch their headquarters and manufacturing site. In fact Piper Aircraft from Vero Beach, FL is looking at ABQ and Oklahoma City to move their headquarters, and build a new manufacturing facility for the very light jet plane as well.
El Paso is a beautiful and growing city, however (and again just my opinion) ABQ seems to be adding better jobs to its local economy.
I've been running various comparisons between cities, and I have to say, El Paso is looking better and better on paper (or on, uh, the PC monitors I've been looking at). The air and water quality is at least better than Albuquerque's (and better than the rather unpleasant climate of Philadelphia, that I am looking to leave behind). The crime rate is better than Albuquerque's. To me the biggest issues are still: fitting in as a non-Spanish speaker (who is more than interested in learning to speak that language) and finding an okay job.
I do like Albuquerque though. The economic growth sounds good, but I don't have the high-tech skills to benefit in an immediate way from it. (Of course, that growth can create related jobs that might be more appropriate.) I suspect that Albuquerque might have more varied musical programing (which is more important to me than other areas of the arts) than El Paso. For instance, I really like the look of the concert schedule at the Outpost. Chamber Music Albuquerque looks interesting (though I only have a modest interest in this sort of thing). It seems that there are a lot of annual music festivals (there was a flamenco festival while I was visiting, but I didn't get to catch any of it, though I had hoped to). On the other hand, I don't necessarily need all that culture. I listen to recorded music way more than I go out to live music anyway. As far as entertainment goes, I need places to go salsa dancing, and not a whole lot more than that. (I am assuming there will be at least some of that in El Paso, but I know it's not really a big thing with Mexicans.)
How does El Paso compare in terms of walkability? Is it easier to get around as a pedestrian than it is in Albuquerque? That would be another plus.
Last edited by ApartmentNomad; 06-26-2007 at 10:01 PM..
How does El Paso compare in terms of walkability? Is it easier to get around as a pedestrian than it is in Albuquerque? That would be another plus.
I don't know how they would compare, but I would find it quite difficult without a car -- but then I would find that difficult anywhere except in a very big city. You see people walking or riding bikes around -- so it's possible and since the weather here is almost always pleasant, I'd probably rather even be a pedestrian here than anywhere else. Albuquerque gets too cold in my opinion -- although I think I could live there if I had to. I just prefer being warm to being cold.
As for allergies, I don't have any -- but I think with the winds and certain pollens, and pollution in some parts of town, that could be a problem -- but then it would depend on your particular allergies. Mold isn't much of a problem here because it's fairly arid but that could depend on the particular buildings you would be in.
There is no getting around the problem of jobs though -- people in some fields would have no problem. And even the service industry jobs in some parts of this city don't require English - in fact I think that's becoming less a problem. Still -- many people end up leaving, or college kids don't return because of the jobs and language limitations of this city.
The difficulty in finding jobs here has been well documented here and elsewhere, so that is always a problem here in El Paso. The dating situation is something that I have not seen talked about, but I have found it to be a problem. When I have lived elsewhere in Texas I have found it very easy to find people to date but I have found it extremely difficult to find people whom I am interested in here in El Paso. When I was in law school, I actually knew a large number of people from El Paso (most of whom said at the time that they were not returning here and they didn't) and all of the women told me the number 2 reason behind the job situation was the lack of people to date. There is a very small population of educated professionals here and there are not a lot of single ones, so that really cuts down on the dating pool. I was just in Dallas this week and I was getting phone numbers within a few hours of being there and that was my experience in other Texas cities as well.
That's a pretty widely talked about problem in El Paso and not just with non-hispanics. A number of hispanic friends have told me that is the same situation for them. It's always ironic how many people relocate from El Paso, then meet someone else from El Paso to date and then marry, but they didn't find dating at all convenient here.
It likely is what the above poster suggested -- a small pool of professional types here who are single and the fact that so many younger people raised here leave town. If dating and singles life is important -- it really would be better to look elsewhere.
That doesn't sound too good. Taking my situation specifically, to what extent would you say Hispanic women in the area are open to dating (white, in this case) non-Hispanic males? (I'm not exclusively interested in dating Hispanic women, incidentally. I just assume that's mostly who I will be meeting.) I realize there will always be indiviual differences, but what is the overall culture like?
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